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New Generation i20 R5 set for public debut at Ypres Rally

The New Generation i20 R5 will run as a course car during the Ypres Rally, the fifth round of the European Rally Championship, next month
Hyundai Motorsport's Customer Racing department will attend the rally in the final stages of development for the New Generation i20 R5
The car that will be seen on the stages and in the Service Park will be very close to the final specification that will be delivered to customers.

The New Generation i20 R5 will make its first public appearance at a rally next month at the 2016 Ypres Rally (June 23-25). Hyundai Motorsport's first entry into the competitive R5 class will run as a course car during the event, as the Customer Racing department continues with their testing schedule.

The team will take advantage of the famous Belgian event, the fifth round of the European Rally Championship (ERC), to add to their mileage on tarmac. The New Generation i20 R5 has already completed tests on the sealed surface elsewhere in Europe. However, the high speed stages of West Flanders will be a new setting for the car.

The car itself will also be new, with the mechanics at the team's Alzenau headquarters having prepared a new chassis for the event. The Customer Racing department's engineers and designers have used the knowledge that they have gained from the previous tests in the building of the car to go to Ypres. As a result, the chassis that will run the stages in front of the fans will be very close in specification to that they will see in the hands of customers when deliveries begin before the end of the year.

The New Generation i20 R5 will carry a fresh livery for the event. The car will swap the camouflage scheme seen on previous tests for a design by a Hyundai Motorsport fan from New Zealand, which was chosen from the entries submitted for the competition earlier in May.

Hyundai Motorsport's main test and development driver Kevin Abbring will continue to work with the team at Ypres, returning to an event that he has competed in four times, twice behind the wheel of an R5 car.

Fans will be able to see Abbring, and co-driver Seb Marshall, on the stages throughout the event. There will also be the opportunity to get a closer look at the car in the Service Park in the centre of Ypres.

Customer Racing department manager Andrea Adamo said: "The Ypres Rally is a pivotal weekend in the New Generation i20 R5 project. The rally is the perfect place for the car to make its public debut. The ERC is a key championship for R5 teams, where we obviously hope our customers will be competing in future. It's a big event in the championship, it's a famous one with some great history in an area where people are very knowledgeable about rally. Our time in Ypres, though, remains as much about continuing with our test schedule as it is showing the car at an event. The flat, high speed roads of the rally are quite different from the tarmac tests we have done in recent months. This continues our work to have run the car on various types of stage in order to thoroughly prepare the car. However, we cannot ignore how important this event will be as we will be proudly running in front of fans, the media and our future customers for the first time."

Further testing is planned following the appearance at the Ypres Rally, as the Customer Racing department seek to hand over the best possible car to customers once the car is homologated in the summer.