Compared with its boxier sibling, the Fastback grows by 120mm, drops 21mm lower, slips through the air 7% more easily, and the 12kg extra it carries is positioned over the rear wheels. There’s still a hatchback tailgate, if a much more rakish one, and luggage space increases from 395 to 450 litres. Hyundai says owners are less likely to track these cars, and it does look a more mature body style.
A 2.0-litre turbo four cylinder continues to drive the front wheels via a six-speed manual gearbox, but spring rates are softened 5 per cent at the front, plus there’s a 0.8mm thinner front anti-roll bar, new rear camber control bar, and the bump stops are both 6mm longer and 10% softer compared with today’s i30N hatch. This doesn’t damn the Fastback as a less focussed kind of proposition, though, because soon this tinkering will transfer to the hatch.
Unlike the hatchback, however, the Fastback N comes only in 271bhp tune, with the lower-spec 247bhp model off the menu because the cheaper hatch accounts for so few sales. Like-for-like, the price increases by £500 to £29,995. It’s a small increase, but a five-door Golf GTI is £900 cheaper. Yikes.