Mystery surrounds photos of an Alpine A110 sports coupe with Hyundai factory licence plates. Is it a remnant of a past mid-engined sports-car project, or a sign of something to come?
New photos may be another clue to suggest South Korean car giant Hyundai is – or at some point, was – planning a return to the sports-car market.
Images posted to Facebook and Instagram by Misha Charoudin – driving instructor and YouTube video creator on and around Germany’s Nurburgring race track – shows an A110 wearing the ‘GG HY’ licence plates typically affixed to Hyundai test vehicles.
It is unclear why Hyundai is testing an Alpine A110 – or how long the car has been in the company’s possession.
It is common for car makers to purchase competitors’ vehicles for ‘benchmarking’ – used either at the start of a new model’s development to understand the strengths and weaknesses of rivals, or during development to compare a prototype of the company’s new car against a competitor on the same roads.
Specific vehicles for benchmarking are typically purchased and registered for road use when the car company is developing a new car in the same market segment.
For example, Hyundai acquired a Volkswagen T-Roc R to help develop the Kona N small performance SUV, while a Honda Civic Type R hot hatch has been seen on Hyundai ‘GG HY’ plates to assist development of the i30 N.
However, there are believed to be no current plans for a sports car from the Hyundai group – across its Hyundai, Kia and Genesis brands – that would be a rival for the Alpine A110, which itself was intended to take on the Porsche 718 Cayman and defunct Alfa Romeo 4C.
One credible theory is it was purchased to compare against a much-anticipated mid-engined sports car Hyundai was believed to be developing, described as “very crazy” to Drive in 2019.
The car would have followed a line of four mid-engined petrol Hyundai ‘RM’ concept cars based on the Veloster hatchback, and would have served as the company’s flagship model. However, this car is believed to have been scrapped.
Former Hyundai N boss turned company technical advisor Albert Biermann revealed last year the company was planning a flagship mid-engined supercar to launch its N performance division in 2017, with petrol, hybrid or hydrogen fuel-cell power.
But the project – dubbed “The Chairman’s Car” – was scrapped due to its $US150,000 potential price, due in part to its exotic carbon-fibre chassis and low-volume nature.
MORE: Hyundai N was developing a mid-engined supercar but scrapped it
It’s not clear if these two mid-engined cars are different references to the same thing, however they are likely to have been related in some form.
The ‘GG HY 9009’ registration of Hyundai’s Alpine A110 has never been seen before on any other prototype from one of the company’s brands.
However, ‘GG HY’ licence plates with similar numbers – such as 9008 and 9010 – were first photographed on Hyundai prototypes testing on the Nürburgring in 2018 and 2019.
This suggests this Alpine was registered for the road at a similar time – aligning with the timing of the mid-engined car plans.
Reports have claimed Hyundai’s Genesis luxury division is developing a production version of last year’s X Convertible concept – but this will be a flagship electric convertible expected to weigh more than two tonnes, or double the Alpine’s featherweight 1060kg.
Hyundai executives have expressed interest in putting the N Vision 74 hydrogen-powered supercar concept into production, but this is also a 2.0 to 2.5-tonne exotic car that is also unlikely to be capable of the same agile handling as the light A110.
The Alpine A110 pictured appears to be a standard, pre-2022 model, with a 185kW/320Nm 1.8-litre turbocharged four-cylinder petrol engine and rear-wheel drive.
The Hyundai brand’s last sports car to be offered in Australia was the (second-generation) Tiburon coupe, discontinued in the late 2000s – which was known as the Coupe in Australia in its first generation (1996-2002).
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