Hyundai recently expanded its collaboration with star racecar driver Rhys Millen to launch the all-new 2012 Veloster sport coupe at the 2011 U.S. RallyCross Championship Series.
Millen has been behind the wheel of the Genesis coupe around racetracks, drift courses and up Pikes Peak with great success since 2009, and now takes his family’s high-performance heritage to RallyCross. The Rhys Millen Racing (RMR) crew in Huntington Beach, California transformed three Veloster coupes into rally machines similar to the cars used in the World Rally Championship – but with even more power.
The RMR crew extracted a massive 500 hp and 600 lb/ft of torque from the turbocharged four-cylinder engine. First, however, the early-build coupes were stripped down to bare metal and soaked in an alkali bath to remove all the rubber and adhesives. The Veloster structure was then reinforced with an eight-point safety cage to withstand the rigors of the jumps and bumps that make up a RallyCross course. The seams in the steel structure were all stitch welded to maximize the overall rigidity.
The Veloster hood, doors, quarter panels, front fascia and rear fascia were made from a carbon-fiber/kevlar composite that replicated the shape of the production coupe while cutting the weight by three-quarters. At the corners, a custom suspension system was designed to provide adequate absorption for jump landings. The first two Veloster rally cars used all-wheel drive while the third car was created for the two-wheel drive class.
RallyCross is a high-energy, audience-friendly blend of motocross and rallying that takes place on a closed course filled with bumps and jumps, as well as a mix of pavement, gravel and dirt. Five cars battle in three-lap sprint races and are required to take a “joker” lap (a small detour, normally over a jump) that puts their skills to the test. The 2011 U.S. RallyCross Championship started in March at Irwindale Speedway (Irwindale, California) and continued at Old Mill Rally Park (Snoqualmie, Washington) and Pikes Peak (Colorado Springs, Colorado). The first two events were part of the Global RallyCross Championship. In addition to the championship series races, Millen and Robbie Madison also took the all-wheel drive Veloster rally machines to the 17th X-Games in downtown Los Angeles in July.
Millen enjoyed great success with the 2012 Veloster, finishing third overall in the Global RallyCross Championship and fifth in the X-Games competition. It’s a promising start to the Veloster’s competitive career and a continuation of Rhys Millen’s accomplishments behind the wheel.
For the third consecutive year, Rhys attacked one of the world’s toughest and most dangerous competitions, the annual Pikes Peak International Hill Climb (PPIHC), using Hyundai power. In 2009, Millen powered up the 12.4 mile course to the 14,110 foot summit in just 12 minutes and 9.397 seconds, setting a new record in the 2WD Time Attack Class with a production-based Genesis coupe.
In 2010, Millen and Hyundai decided to try for overall glory at the Peak by building an all-new racecar for the Unlimited Class. The result was the incredible PM580 that looked more like a Le Mans prototype than a traditional hill climber. The swoopy, bewinged coupe boasted a 650-hp version of the V8 engine that propels the Genesis and Equus luxury sedans. Despite some mechanical glitches in its debut outing at Pikes Peak, the PM580 still managed to finish third overall.
For the 2011 PPIHC, Rhys Millen Racing and Hyundai waged a two-pronged attack with Rhys again driving the PM580 and his former rally-champion father Rod bringing back the Genesis coupe in the Time Attack Class. The elder Millen crossed the finish line in just 11 minutes, four seconds, more than three seconds faster than his friend Jeff Zwart in a Porsche factory prepped 911 GT2 RS.
Meanwhile, Rhys Millen had a much better run in the PM580’s sophomore outing. This time, the car ran almost flawlessly. Despite having to back off just a bit, Millen set a new personal best time of 10:09, good enough for second place overall.
Rhys Millen has been instrumental in establishing the performance credentials of the latest models from Hyundai. This partnership between racer and automaker has so far proved successful with plenty of new challenges lined up for the future. In the meantime, get yourself behind the wheel of the Veloster at your local Hyundai
