Hyundai 'MR23T' mid-engined halo car spotted on flatbed in South Korea

Abraham Lincoln is reported to have said, "If I had six hours to chop down a tree, I'd spend the first four hours sharpening the axe." Although academic investigation suspects an anonymous woodsman from 1956 is actually responsible for something like those words, provenance doesn't matter because the moral is on-the-nose when it comes to Hyundai's potential mid-engined halo car for the go-fast N division. The automaker is going on nine years of development work for its ess-road superstar that might or might not see production, ever since the Racing Midship project kicked off in 2012 and delivered the Veloster Midship concept in 2014. Proof of more axe sharpening comes from Korean site Bobaedream, via The Korean Car Blog, which picked up on a photo of a mid-engined mule with Veloster bodywork parked on the back of a flatbed truck. The paint job included the alphanumeric "MR23T," which TKCB's sources said stood for mid-engined, rear-wheel drive, 2.3-liter turbo.

Before this newest snapshot, the last line in the story was the RM19 concept — standing for rear midship 2019. We drove the hardcore concept in December, it being a test bed and showcase for the N department. That car was powered by a 2.0-liter four-cylinder boosted with the turbocharger from a Mercedes-AMG A 45, the motor making 390 horsepower and set directly atop the rear axle.

Per TKCB, the MR23T mule goes with a larger, less-stressed engine that puts out about 310 horsepower on its own, aided by an 80-hp electric motor to make up the same 390 hp as the RM19 concept. The electric components and their tuning are said to spring from Hyundai's investment in and collaboration with the Croatian EV superstars at Rimac.

That information lines up with a report from February 2018, when spy shooters caught the RM 16 N testing at the Nürburgring. Korean outlet Motorgraph wrote that Hyundai was working on a Theta III engine to suit front-wheel drive, rear-wheel drive, and mid-engine applications. Bored out to 2.5 liters for front- and rear-wheel-drive products, turbocharged versions would be rated at 280 hp when turning the front wheels, 300 hp when turning the rears. For a mid-engined car, however, Motorgraph said displacement would be 2.3 liters and top out at 350 with turbocharging.

The coupe on the flatbed gets the mule designation because sources told TKCB that the mid-engined halo car's final design — should the car make production — will look nothing like the Veloster Turbo it still mimics. Although claimed to be "closer to production than ever," at nine. The reward, though, could be an exceedingly sharp entry ready to chop down a lot of competition. Head to The Korean Car Blog to check it out.