Amid the scattered bales of hay you see above is a very expensive car. That's the Hyundai RN22e concept, which debuted last year as a rolling testbed for Hyundai's high-performance EV development. It's one of many vehicles Hyundai took to the 2023 Goodwood Festival of Speed, and well, the concept has seen better days.
Fortunately, there were no reports of injuries in this off-track excursion. The RN22e was making a pass up the hill, one of the earlier runs on the first day of the event. There's no fancy way to say it – the driver overcooked the infamous hard left-hander midway through the run and sailed straight into the bales of hay. And by that, we mean sailed straight through them. If there was a camera operator on the corner, we suspect this was a major code brown moment as the car finally comes to rest at the bottom of the frame. At least it's neatly centered in the middle. Another camera view better captures the moment of impact.
It appears there were two people in the car, though the dark windows made it tough to confirm while the run was taking place. We see the driver out and about shortly after the crash, looking none the worse for wear. A second person wearing a helmet and a Hyundai racing suit appears a bit later. As of yet, we haven't seen the extent of damage to the car, but there are all sorts of bits clearly visible on the ground. If there's any good news regarding the concept, it that's the damage appears to be cosmetic.
We have a message out to Hyundai, asking about the condition of the occupants and the car. With several vehicles participating at Goodwood – including the new Hyundai Ioniq 5 N – they're obviously quite busy but we'll jump in with an update as soon as we hear back.
Any race car crash is expensive, but as far as we know, this is the only RN22e in Hyundai's wheelhouse. During its debut, Hyundai described the car as a high-performance testbed for its E-GMP platform. It's a dual-motor, all-wheel-drive concept making 577 horsepower, the same as you'll find in a Kia EV6 GT. Ironically, Hyundai said the RN22e would explore torque vectoring and new forms of power distribution. It would appear things are still being dialed in.
