A homage to a Kiwi hero’s most famous rallying ride finally hits the street.

THE hot hatch Hyundai here hankered to have during Hayden Paddon’s time with the works World Rally Championship rally team has easily enough sales grunt left in it to set a cracking pace.

That’s the local distributor’s view having finally secured the pugnacious pint-sized i20 N to join a performance line-up that started two years ago with a larger sibling, the i30, and recently added in the Kona.

“The i20 N is not expected to be a volume driver - it’s in a niche segment, but we’re optimistic it will perform well with an audience looking for a combination of sportiness and sophistication,” says public relations manager Kimberley Waters.

“Each N will have a different appeal for customers, so we’re excited to be in a position to provide performance car enthusiasts with choices.”

Inspired by the Korean’s fabulous WRC monster, the baby hatch has taken a very long route to reach the showroom start line.

The derivative was a dead cert hot tip for realisation when five-time national champion Paddon achieved his one WRC win – Argentina, 2016 – yet somehow still wasn’t ready when he was cruelly dumped from the squad at the end of 2018. Production finally got under way last year.

Arrival in New Zealand ironically coincides with world rallying starting out, with a new electric-assisted era that sets it all the more apart from the car enthusiasts can buy - such a shame that debut event, the weekend’s Monte Carlo Rally, hasn’t been a good one for Hyundai.

Though it steers clear of flappy paddles, hasn’t a super-techy Green-tinged electric assist drivetrain and misses out on four-wheel-drive - meted an obvious, all but like-priced rival, the Toyota GR Yaris - there’s nonetheless enough special stage spirit to the make’s new road tearaway.

It comes with a wild body kit comprising a deeper front bumper with enlarged air intakes, unique side skirts that wrap around into a reshaped rear bumper with new diffuser. A roof-mounted spoiler, inspired by Paddon’s WRC ride, has also been added.

The tech spec is decent, too. As has been known since the covers came off internationally, the model has a 1.6-litre four-cylinder turbo petrol outputting 150kW of power and 275Nm of torque to its front wheels. Go to a GR Yaris and you’re tussling with 200kW/370Nm. The Fiesta ST, meantime, pumps 147kW/290Nm.

Power to weight is still decent as the Korean concoct is a reasonably featherweight firecracker, tipping the scales at 1235kg thanks to kilo-culling during the body’s development.

A mechanical limited-slip differential and grippy Pirelli tyres – developed especially for this car – help provide cornering grip and it achieves big brakes. Those are 320mm discs up front and 262mm at the rear. Sports-tuned suspension, launch control and rev-matching complete the key ingredients.

The cabin’s fitout includes N trim and detailing, including bucket seats and a sportier steering wheel, plus street-wise ingredients including a 10.25-inch touchscreen with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, satnav and Bose audio.

Is there a limit to supply? Says Waters: “We expect to maintain adequate supply to meet the demand in the hot hatch segment here in New Zealand.”

“As a general rule there will be stock in country to meet the immediate demands of customers, however should a customer desire a colour that is not in New Zealand at the time, we will indent order a vehicle for them.”

In case you’re wondering, Hyundai NZ has no plan to introduce everyday editions of the i20 at this time. So if you see one of these in the street, it’s the real deal, not a mock-up.

As for a Paddon pack? It’s hard to see how that kind of exercise couldn’t pay off.

He and co-driver John Kennard are still very much in the game; they continue to seek a way back to the world stage and certainly are kicking up local gravel on a regular basis and their N-allegiances are deep.

In addition to his home-developed, world-beating and headline-grabbing electric Kona rally car, Paddon still has run a i30 N TCR car in circuit racing and has an i20 N rally car, in AP4 trim that will be run in competition again this season.

At the very least, you’d imagine it’d be the duty of every road car buyer to do the right thing and buy some team wear.

After all, if it weren’t for competition effort, this ballistic baby would not exist.