Like gravy, SUVs can be very appealing and are loved by many, but combine them with a delicate suspension set-up and their SUV-ness can dominate and make for a heavy-handed recipe. How does the Hyundai Kona N stack up against the Curpa Formentor?
sounds. It only does it in Cupra mode, but the alternatives aren’t that much better: Sport mode sounds more like a large-capacity diesel four-banger, while Normal mode is pure mechanical thrash.
The difference in character shows just as clearly in the way two cars go down the road. The fast Formentor is the epitome of the fast-hatchback trick of being able to get from A to B across country roads as fast and fuss-free as possible. That’s no wonder, because underneath is essentially a previous-generationdrivetrain, with a seven-speed DSG and Haldex all-wheel drive. The latest Golf R adds some clever torque vectoring, which the Formentor does without.
The same can’t be said for the Kona N. True to its recipe of a big engine in a small car, it’s exciting and raucous at all times. Maybe a bit too much. Even when you’re pootling around, it’s screaming: “I am a touring car! I am HARDCORE!”The first thing you notice is the ride. If you make a car higher, its centre of gravity becomes higher, resulting in more body roll. To counteract that, the suspension needs to be stiffer.
You need to be on your toes when driving the Kona N remotely quickly, not just because of the torque steer and sensitivity to the road surface but also because it’s much more playful on a trailing throttle than we’ve come to expect from an N car. Aside from that, sitting in the Formentor, you feel that something strange is going on. This is a hot SUV test, but it’s actually debatable whether the Formentor is even an SUV. It just about looks like one from the outside, but when you get in it, you sink down much farther than you expect. You look out over a big, tall bonnet, but your hip point is the same as it would be in a Cupra Leon.
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