August 15: Hyundai Rising (Racing?)

Be still my heart. Who doesn't experience a fit of longing, when seeing a years old Hyundai Excel and realizing the road warrior potential under its sleek hood? Who said, "Nobody"? Come on now, any car person worth the name knows the history of Hyundai and their ability to make cars, that can carve corners with the best of them. Of course this is all crap. No Hyundai has ever been able to corner much better than a Freightliner with a full load and be about as quick.

Those road warrior comments would better be directed towards the much beloved VW GTI, the leader of the hot hatch segment, since its introduction way back when Fido was a pup.........

Bring out a new hot hatch and every single, solitary car magazine throws down the gauntlet and does a comparison test of the newbie against the tried and true GTI. 

So now back to Hyundai. Great A to B cars. Competent. Good looking. Great quality. Exciting? Who are you kidding. Take the current 2017 Elantra GT........

One of the best looking cars on the road, but show it a corner and you can show it the door, folks, as this one will fight with that Freightliner for bragging rights. Never count Hyundai out? You should know that this company has accomplished just about everything they have set out to do. Quality, design, you name it. Now they are setting out to make their cars handle. GTI beware? I can see those comparison tests being set up as I write this.

Competition? Yeah, there is some and it ain't just from that hero worshipped Vdub. Check out the competitors, that we have here in Canada, from Honda, Nissan, Subaru and even Ford......

And of course, if you throw in the competition Hyundai is up against in Europe......well, let's just say it's lots. But give this company a challenge and wait for the results. In this case, the result is the new for 2018 Elantra GT Sport.......

Dual exhausts? Hey, if you think you've got a cookin' car, tell the world about it (optional at extra cost). But just look at this car. Not a line wrong and just a small touch over 200 HP to back up those hot hatch claims. Hyundai makes classy looking cars to get our attention, whereas Toyota gets our attention by folding metal into unsual, overstyled shapes. Which would you prefer?

So for 2018, this new Elantra GT Sport promises to be as exciting as a Donald Trump presidency and probably much more reliable.

Until next time.......