The Hyundai Elantra N is a highly under-appreciated package.
No matter what the stopwatch said during the track portion of our 2023 Performance Car of the Year test, on the street, the Elantra N is fundamentally just as quick as the much more expensive, and much more hyped, Honda Civic Type R (which used Cup 2 tires for our timed laps, good for at least half a second on their own).
It’s got great seats, great inputs, and ways to tailor each aspect of the drive to your particular taste. The steering, sound, suspension, brake feel, and differential are all individually adjustable. It even has an exhaust mode so loud you could be pulled over and falsely accused of circumventing California’s vehicle code.
While not as narrowly focused as the Type R, the Elantra N is incredibly well-rounded for daily use, canyon blasts, road trips, or track work, and at this kind of price point, it’s hard to find a better performance-to-dollar ratio in cars today.
Matt Farah is a lifelong car enthusiast who began his automotive career at dealerships, rental agencies, and detail shops before discovering the power of YouTube in 2006, with his channel The Smoking Tire. Farah has a Bachelors of Fine Arts from the University of Pennsylvania, with a concentration in Photography, helping not only create YouTube content but also providing his own photography for his Editor-at-Large position at Road & Track.
He has hosted and produced television series on NBC Sports, G4 Network, SPEED, and Esquire. The Smoking Tire Podcast is #1 in the category every week of the year. Now at 800+ episodes, The Smoking Tire podcast is the definitive guest stop for who’s who in the auto industry. Farah’s Westside Collector Car Storage is a game-changer in luxury, concierge parking that expanded to a second location in 2023.
