Hyundai i30N Performance - long-term review

The i30N’s most mindboggling figure: 1,944. That’s how many combinations of engine and chassis settings lie within the Drive Modes’ custom menu. I’d have to change set-up 11 times a day to try them all during the i30N’s time here.

It’s nonsense, of course, as you’re never going to combine the soft diff setting with the hard suspension, and so on. And once you’ve got a favourite set-up (mine’s Normal steering, Sport+ engine, Sport for everything else, including the midway ESP mode), the car sends it all to the steering wheel’s chequeredflag button. Surely an influence of N boss Albert Biermann, who was at M Division when the function debuted. All told, the i30N’s modes are much simpler to get your head around than their headline stat suggests.