[Dazzler]

Thanks for the Vids Razy.. Hope you come to Targa Tas  

[bdennis]

Well done guys..

It looks like Continental Silver is the go fast colour!

[kinesiologykid]

Razy you have made my day - my humble SX is even better than I thought!
Now I don't need the SLX (maybe just Fog Lights).
I bet the Porsche 911 didn't get 4.7 l/100km!

[Razy]

For what we needed the SX was definitely better: no need to disable the ESP and it is lighter. For your everyday drive I guess the SLX gives you some more creature confort and safety, but that was not on the agenda when we picked the car. I think that the i30 is a really nice car and for a small diesel hatch you just can't beat the price! It is one of those cars that ticks all the boxes and it can really grow on you if you own it!

Both me and my wife drive cars that are three or four times more expensive than the i30, but after using it for the past 3 weeks we really miss it now! It is quite clear that Hyundai has taken a different path when they designed the i30 compared to the previous generations of small hatchbacks: it looks really good, it has a lot of small things that make your life easier on board, the interior doesn't look or feel cheap, it is up there with the safest cars in its class and it is still a very, very affordable car to run. Hopefully we will get the chance to drive it again next year!

We averaged 6.9l/100km during the rally, which is impressive when you consider that 1/4 of the time the throttle was floored! Most probably the 4.7l/100km figure that Hyundai advertises is easily achievable in everyday traffic!

[eye30]

Any mechanical issues during the rally?

(sorry if you've already posted for this. If so can you post link. Thanks)

[Razy]

No mechanical issues at all, we just rotated the tyres and patched up the accident damage on Saturday evening. We kept checking the fluids through the weekend but didn't need to top them up. I thought that running a diesel engine at constant high RPMs and at full load might consume some oil, but that was not the case. Even having the brakes on fire at the end of one stage didn't affect the brake fluid, which was the standard Hyundai one.

I was actually surprised by how good the brakes are. We tested the car with the original brake pads and managed to set them on fire after 5 laps at Barbagallo raceway, so we decided to get some Ferodo DS3000 pads manufactured for the i30 (nobody had them in stock, I guess the i30 is quite new to the rally world). We kept the original rotors and calipers (which are double piston as standard on the diesel i30) and the combination was absolutely fail proof during the event. The DS3000s are noisy in everyday use, but they can lock RR-compound tyres at 120kph!

[kinesiologykid]

Hi Razy,
Could I ask a really simple question, I don't know anything about rallying.

HOW did you beat a Porsche 911 which is obviously faster to 100km and costs 8 times as much?

a) You are a more experienced driver than the Porsche driver?
b) The i30 diesel has better mid range acceleration?
c) The i30 corners better?
d) The Porsche crashed a few times?
e) Some other reason?

My guess is a and d.

It does sound good on a bumper sticker:
Faster than a Porsche 911 - More economical than a Prius!

Sorry the SLX CRDi models will not be able to claim this, as it was an SX (like the one which I just happen to own)!

[Dazzler]

Sorry the SLX CRDi models will not be able to claim this, as it was an SX (like the one which I just happen to own)!

 

[Razy]

Hi Razy,
Could I ask a really simple question, I don't know anything about rallying.

HOW did you beat a Porsche 911 which is obviously faster to 100km and costs 8 times as much?

a) You are a more experienced driver than the Porsche driver?
b) The i30 diesel has better mid range acceleration?
c) The i30 corners better?
d) The Porsche crashed a few times?
e) Some other reason?

My guess is a and d.

It does sound good on a bumper sticker:
Faster than a Porsche 911 - More economical than a Prius!

Sorry the SLX CRDi models will not be able to claim this, as it was an SX (like the one which I just happen to own)!

Hi!

I think the reasons are more likely a) and c). I didn't drive the Porsche, but it was obviously a quicker car in a straight line (which is probably true with most of the other cars behind us). However on a rally like this straight line acceleration can only help up to a point, it is very important to be able to break late and carry as much speed as possible through the corners. The cars in our category were all limited to 130kph, so top speed was not much help either. The i30's torque curve is very consistent, so I didn't have to change gears that often which in turn helps with the car balance through the corners.

I was really confident in the i30's brakes and I could push it to the limit of tyre grip on nearly every brake point. The trouble with tarmac rallying is that you need to get the brake point and corner speed just right because going in too quickly can lead to disaster. Most drivers take the safe route, brake early and go in slower to be able to accelerate as soon as possible. The i30's handling is very predictable, so if you go into the corner too quickly it will just understeer and all it takes is liftoff or maybe a tap on the brakes to bring it back in line, which means that you can corner as hard as the tyres can most of the times. This was quite obvious if you looked at our tyres at the end of the rally, they were almost completely worn out and we used quite a bit of the sidewalls also :-)

Raz

[Dazzler]

Hi Razy...

We appreciate the fact that you have been checking back after the event to answer our questions.. you are a trooper...

[kinesiologykid]

Thanks Razy,
I will drive mine well within its limits, but its nice to know it has stuff there in an emergency, and I will not be switching off ESP!

[LuciferDarklord]

I just watched the youtube videos, nice driving Razy!  I drive on the Bindoon Country 2 roads quite a bit, and those crests get my heart racing at the speed limits, let alone at the speed you took them at.  Well done!

[Razy]

I just watched the youtube videos, nice driving Razy!  I drive on the Bindoon Country 2 roads quite a bit, and those crests get my heart racing at the speed limits, let alone at the speed you took them at.  Well done!

Bindoon Country is actually one of my favorite stages, my navigator was speechless after we finished the first run! I was looking forward to running the stage again on Sunday, but it was canceled for the Challenge cars due to a local resident requiring medical assistance. One of the Competition cars rolled badly on the last corner also, the navigator ended up in hospital with some fractured bones.

That was the only spot where we managed to get some air, you can see the car lifting up and then landing a few centimeters to the left. I can imagine that if you have a bad note for that corner you would land straight into the ditch! You are quite lucky to drive those roads every day, it is the sort of thing that would definitely help me get out of bed in the morning!

[LuciferDarklord]

Yeah I noticed in the vid it looked like you got air..  I wasn't sure if you got air or if it was just the suspension unloading.  I would imagine knowing the road is closed makes the drive a whole lot more enjoyable!  Not knowing if another car is just on the other side of the crest is not much fun.  Also the Tucson is not exactly a sporting drive, but there is a nice view from a few points on that road.

[Razy]

You do have a point, in normal conditions you only have half of the road and you definitely don't want to launch a 4WD off the crest!

I don't think I've noticed the views, I'll have a look around next year during recce I must have been paying too much attention to the road!

The Tucson is not too bad at all, I once had a hire car in Karratha and it does some nice power slides on gravel! It's much nicer to drive than the Mitsubishi Outlander, which got me stuck in a small muddy puddle that posed not problems at all for the Tucson!

[LuciferDarklord]

Yeah the Tucson does get tail happy on gravel when you lift off quickly, and the AWD system seems to work well. I haven't driven a Outlander to compare tho.  I worked in Karratha for 2 years, we had Camry's as company cars..  Funny how company cars can always go further offroad than private ones!  I hope to drive in the Targa West one day, I just need to win the lottery so I can restore my 240Z to rally specs, and do a whole lot of learning - especially after watching your vids I have a long way to go!

[donc]

This has been a great read and well done! - got me all fired-up for the Kidney Car Rally next year

[Razy]

This has been a great read and well done! - got me all fired-up for the Kidney Car Rally next year

Are you driving the i30 in the Kidney Rally??