Hyundai N Festival: Could this be the world's cheapest track day (with your warranty intact)?

Car companies talk a lot about creating an emotional connection with customers these days. While it’s easy to think that’s just a marketing gimmick, Hyundai demonstrates what it really means with the 2021 N Festival. 

More than 120 owners of a Hyundai N Performance model recently descended on Winton Raceway in Victoria to celebrate the connection they now have with the South Korean brand. 

The following day 60 of these owners spent more time together on a road drive through the Victorian high country.

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This big turn out is thanks not only to the flood of new N models in 2021 - with the arrival of the updated i30 N and all-new i20 N, Kona N and i30 Sedan N - but because Hyundai has put in the time and effort to engage with this growing community of so-called ‘N-thusists.’ 

Hyundai Australia has fostered this relationship with customers by engaging in social media under the ‘N Australia’ banner and it all culminates with the now annual N Festival.

The i20 N is Hyundai's answer to the Ford Fiesta ST.

“Our N Australia platform, which includes social media as well as events like N Festival, has been a key driver in the success of the N brand locally,” explains Hyundai Australia spokesman Guido Schenken.

“Hyundai had no history of engineering high-performance cars before N, so we only had modest sales expectations when we launched in 2018. We certainly did not expect the community of N-thusiasts to grow so quickly, they have embraced the cars and everything N, they are the reason why N has been such a success in Australia.”

The i30 Sedan N is the latest model to join the N ranks.

The recent event at Winton was the third running of the N Festival, following the 2019 event at Wakefield Park and the 2020 edition at Queensland Raceway (which was actually run in January 2021 due to pandemic restrictions).

So what exactly is the N Festival? In simple terms it’s a track day, with customers encouraged to explore the performance potential of their N model in a safe environment. But it’s actually a lot more than that.

More than 120 N owners descended onto Winton Raceway in Victoria.

For new customers or those thinking about an upgrade there were test drives of the newer models. Hyundai puts on a series of ‘Tech Talks’ with its experts to answer any questions owners might have. 

There are also external companies like Pirelli and Revolution Racegear at the track to provide assistance to those looking to take their track day performance to the next level.

Customers are only charged for the track day.

There’s also kid-friendly events, like radio-controlled cars and a sausage sizzle, to make it a family-friendly affair.

Hyundai also brought out some star power, with HMO Customer Racing TCR drivers Josh Buchan and Nathan Morcom taking customers for hot laps in their i30 N TCR racing cars. 

Josh Buchan and Nathan Morcom cutting laps in their i30 N TCR racing cars. 

Australia rally star Brendan Reeves and rising star Holly Espray were also enlisted for hot laps in the i30 Fastback N Hyundai built for the World Time Attack.

It’s not a money-spinner for Hyundai either, with customers charged only $25 for the day, which covers not only the track time but also includes a free hat and long-sleeve shirt to remember the day.

The Kona is the first SUV in Hyundai's lineup to get the N treatment.

But make no mistake, this isn’t a charity or something Hyundai does out of the kindness of its corporate heart. N Festival and all of the other N Australia events and social media programs are designed to sell more cars.

Creating an emotional connection via an experience like the festival is designed to turn customers into brand acolytes, who then go out and convince others to choose an N model over the likes of a Volkswagen Golf GTI, Ford Focus ST or Renault Megane RS.

The i30 Fastback N Hyundai built for the World Time Attack was steered by Holly Espray.

The plan is working too, because Hyundai just enjoyed its best month of N model sales in November, delivering more than 300 units split across the four models. 

That brings the total tally of N models in Australia to 4000 since the first i30 N hatch found a buyer in March 2018; which also makes Australia one of the biggest N markets in the world.

Australia is one of the biggest N markets in the world.

Schenken credits the success of the N Festival and the engagement with the ownership community with helping to rapidly expand the sales of both the N models and the similar ‘N Line’ variants Hyundai Australia offers. 

Since 2018 the combination of N/N Line sales has risen from just one per cent of total Australian sales to 17 per cent in 2021. Hyundai is now targeting for a quarter of all local sales to be its N/N Line models in 2022.

N/N Line sales represent 17 per cent of all Hyundai sales in Australia.

To achieve that there will be more events including the 2022 N Festival, scheduled to be held at South Australia’s The Bend Motorsport Park.

“We have been planning to expand the number of N activities for a while now, but the last two years have really limited what we have been able to do,” Schenken says.

There are more N events coming.

“The annual N Festival is here to stay, but in addition we are planning to hold more local N events in each state next year, these will include Tech Talks, road drives and track activities.”

Given the impact it is having on its sales bottom line, expect to see Hyundai continue to host more events like N Festival to deepen its emotional connection with its growing audience of N buyers.