Without a doubt, the best place on earth to see and breathe motorsport is the Goodwood Festival of Speed held in the UK. An extraordinary automotive event held continuously since 1993 on a track south of London, about three hours’ drive actually.
Rare classic cars you would expect to be preserved wrapped in cotton and bubble wrap, are racing—sorry—flying flat-out on the track aiming to set the best time in the hill climb. Some of the cars are so unique that damage to them cannot be measured in terms of a monthly salary but rather the cost of a house.
And after the cars return to their designated parking, not only can you touch them, you can sit next to the mechanics who care for them and listen like a deaf watchmaker to how the carburetor is tuned before the car takes off again for another stage burning tires. And these guys are very serious. Both the mechanics and the drivers. They compete as if it’s a real race with a trophy at the end. But in the end, there is no trophy, and the competitors only face an end.
This is not a cheap event. The ticket price for an adult is £32 on Thursday (setup day), £55 on Friday, £65 on Saturday, and £65 on Sunday. There is a discounted weekend ticket (Friday-Sunday), youth pay half price, and children under 13 are free. For a family, it’s still a significant expense, but it’s important to note that prices have not changed for over a decade. Food prices are slightly higher than outside, not by much, but the portions are relatively small, and the taste—well, it’s England. Luckily, the beer is excellent.
But we didn’t come to complain about British food; we came to hear the unique sounds emanating from thousands of cylinders here, to smell the tires burning on the asphalt, and to revel in all this alongside another 300,000 enthusiastic visitors eager to get more from this wild show. Car manufacturers are aware of this, and every year there is at least one new car reveal. This time it’s the Hyundai Ioniq 6.
Hyundai’s N division was established in 2014 and is the sporty arm of Hyundai. Over the last decade, the division presented several sporty models, and two years ago, it introduced a crazy version of the Ioniq 5. That was the first time an electric product received treatment from the N division, and now the second product arrives.
The regular electric Ioniq 5 and 6 share platform, motors, and batteries. The same applies to the N version. The platform is the same electric E-GMP, the motors are the same two producing all-wheel drive, generating together 609 HP in normal mode and up to 650 HP in "boost" mode for 10 seconds each time. Due to aerodynamic differences, there is a difference in performance. The 0-100 km/h sprint is done in 3.2 seconds and the top speed is 257 km/h compared to 3.4 seconds in the hatchback version. That’s a difference, but not a big one, yet Hyundai promises a completely different machine due to the different target audience.
According to Hyundai, since the N6 has a sedan configuration, it will appeal more to those who want to drive—drive as much as possible—and preferably as fast as possible. Therefore, the cooling system here is slightly different and designed to withstand two laps of the Nürburgring track with the right foot digging into the carpet. The suspension geometry is also different, and there are different sounds from outside and inside designed to put the driver into the right mode. And if all this isn’t enough, there is also an ‘N Performance’ focused version with different tuning, larger wheels which increase the wheelbase by 15 mm, and slightly different styling.
Beyond that, the rest is similar, and like the 5N, the 6N also has an electronic limited-slip rear differential. It also features the N Drift Optimize — a mechanism that allows the driver to put the car into a controlled drift using the accelerator pedal. Huge brakes sized 400 mm in the front and 360 mm in the rear, and the same gearbox that simulates gears even though there are no actual gears, it’s just software.
Also, the Ioniq N6 tips the scales at 2.2 tons. That’s a lot for a car trying to be a track machine, but we’ve already tested the identical 5N and we know this car knows how to behave. Oh, how well it knows. Hyundai promises a completely different driving machine. Not just significantly better, but one that rewrites the dynamic chapter on electric cars. We’re already dying to get our hands on it. Marketing in Korea will start in the last quarter of this year. Here, during 2026. There’s no price yet, but it’s expected to be similar to the N5 which is sold in Israel for NIS 444,000.
Guest writer Hyundai UK