It's our first proper look at the Hyundai Kona N

We already know a fair bit about the Hyundai Kona N: same 276bhp and front-wheel drive as the i30N hot hatch, and similarly mischievous behaviour too. We just haven’t, until now, known what it looks like.

Here’s our first glimpse. Shouty, huh? But then both of its siblings are, too. Hyundai’s either used up all its baby blue paint, or gone for something a little more subtle to launch its first performance SUV, but it’s hardly demure as a result. Big grilles, big ‘zorsts, that now trademark triangular third braking light… it all screams FAST.

Which this car ought to be. Nice and light, without the bother of 4WD, but with a standard eight-speed DCT gearbox to extract the best out of its engine. Expect 0-62mph in sub six seconds and a 155mph top speed, alongside a price to pull the rug from under the Audi SQ2 et al.

Also, is it just us who thinks they haven’t quite spaced out ‘Kona’ and ‘N’ enough on the front plate, making it look like KONAN? And that maybe it was intentional, to spark some kind of Barbarian-based punnery?

There have been wilder conspiracy theories floating around of late. And any link to Arnie, no matter how flagrant, is fine by us…