Fiery Crash in Hyundai's Elantra N Spec Race Points To Bad Brakes. It's the Drivers

The Drive

03-06-2025

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The Hyundai N Festival is a one-make, spec racing series in which several Hyundai N models compete for bragging rights. The 2025 season started in May at Yongin Everland Speedway in South Korea and will hold five more rounds before coming to an end in November. However, the season debut was marred by a heavy crash involving four cars and what appears to be minor injuries to the drivers.
The series is divided into three classes, which more or less groups competitors by car model, performance, and modifications. The crash we're discussing here happened in the lowest, entry-level N2 class. That category features the spicy Hyundai Elantra N that we've all grown to love, though with some light modifications. Emphasis on light.
The clip below is an archived live stream from the race, so it's seven freaking hours long. I've time-stamped the link to start right before the crash, but if that doesn't work, fast-forward to 4:40:35.
Everything is going well until seven laps into the race. The enthusiastic camera drone pilot is closely following the battle for fourth place when the feed abruptly cuts to the No. 17 Hyundai, which appears to have run wide at a corner and crashed head-on into a tire barrier. Suddenly, however, the 17 is rammed by a black Elantra wearing the No. 42. Almost immediately, the blue-and-pink No. 76 joins the party and t-bones the 42. The 76 catches on fire for a few seconds, but the flames appear to fizzle out quickly, though it's unclear if they're fully extinguished because the camera pans right and we lose track of those two cars.
By the time we get a second look at the car that first crashed, the 17, it looks like another one's gone off next to it, the No. 10. That car appears to have gone off at an angle, wedging itself between the 17 and the tire barrier.
While the video doesn't show the initial crash, the subsequent collisions between the 42 and 76 are fairly heavy. It looks like they were coming into or out of a corner when they encountered those stationary vehicles. Even the commentators react with shock.
I've watched this video many times, and I'm still not positive what actually triggered this multi-car crash. If you pay attention to the 17 car before it gets rammed by 42, you can tell that it already has some serious rear-end damage. So, this leads me to believe that another, unknown car triggered this crash, and not the 17. Why is that car not shown? I don't know. I'd guess that the 17 was rear-ended heavily by another competitor, and that's what sent it into the tire barrier before it got sent to hell by a couple more cars.
This is where it gets tricky. To me—and the naked eye—this is another run-of-the-mill racing crash. It's a spec series with very lightly modified cars, and rookie drivers racing wheel-to-wheel on a high-speed track. Stuff like this is going to happen, and we should just be glad that no one was seriously hurt. However, if you peek at the YouTube comments—as well as this in-depth thread on Reddit—many people are pointing the finger at the N2's brakes. Specifically, the lack of upgraded brakes. Some commenters go as far as saying that insufficient braking power has been an issue at previous races, and they speculate this crash could be another instance.
The official N Festival website describes the N2 category like this: 'This class boasts the highest number of participants in races, segregated into Masters and Challenges based on qualifying performance. The Avante [what the Elantra is called in Korea] N2 Cup car is equipped with safety-oriented tuning parts, offers a regular road driving experience.'
Scroll down a little more, and you'll see the N2 Cup Car's specs, which lists 'N Performance 4P Front/1P Rear braking system' under the Brake category, and 'Floating type Front N performance hybrid disc / Rear 314mm disc' under Brake Disc.
In the U.S., the Elantra N comes straight from the factory with ventilated rotors measuring 13.6 inches in the front and 12.4 inches in the rear, and single-piston calipers in the front and rear. That appears to be the same case in Korea, though four-piston calipers are reportedly available as an option. I emailed Hyundai to find out if these specs are the same in the Korean market Avante for current model-year cars, and if, in fact, those are the same in the N2 cup cars.
A Hyundai U.S. spokesperson reached out to their counterparts in Korea, who replied to my inquiry and clarified that the American and Korean Elantra N come equipped with the same brakes, including the single-piston calipers. However, they also explained that all cars racing in the N2 class feature upgraded, race-prepped brakes.
'The Elantra N sold in the U.S. and the Elantra N sold in Korea use the same braking set, featuring single piston calipers,' a Hyundai Korea spokesperson told The Drive . 'The N2 class race car is equipped with a different motorsport-specific braking setup that features four-piston calipers, floating-type brake disc, racing brake pads, and an additional cooling system.'
Hyundai's explanation clears up various claims made on the internet that N2 cars do not feature upgraded brakes. Of course, this does not absolve the automaker or brake manufacturer from any possible mechanical malfunctions or manufacturing defects, but that seems highly unlikely. After all, these are not custom applications where limited testing has been performed on the parts.
Several videos are cited as examples of brake failure, such as this one, but in my opinion, as someone with above-average track and racing experience, it's nearly impossible to judge catastrophic brake failure without looking at data coming off the brakes. This video reportedly shows that, but from where I'm standing, it appears the driver was coming into the corner extremely hot. In fact, despite the driver claiming zero bars of brake pressure via the telemetry, you can hear the tires chirping from the ABS trying to mitigate the situation. Furthermore, you can see the speedo reading 168 km/h before losing control of the car, and 92 km/h before impact. I don't know about you, but slowing down from 104 mph to 57 without brakes sounds extremely unlikely. And if you look at the original video of the No. 17 crash, there aren't any skid marks on the track leading to the tire wall. This leads me to believe that my theory about the driver being rear-ended by an unknown car is likely true.
Are the brakes to blame here? In this specific crash, I don't believe so. Upgraded hardware is crucial for safety, but there isn't a smoking gun here pointing directly at them. If anything, I'd ask Hyundai and the event organizers to consider running shorter races (five to seven laps instead of 12) and perhaps shorter tracks with lower top speeds. This would put less stress on the drivers and their cars. Racing wheel to wheel for upwards of 30 minutes is no easy feat . And once you factor in that these are mostly rookie drivers, it's easy to understand that unusual crashes like these, where one car ended up upside down for no apparent reason, are going to happen rather frequently.
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