By Paul Rachwal
Tuesday, Jul 31st, 2012 @ 10:53 am
 
Hyundai's turbocharged, 201-horsepower Veloster Turbo is widely regarded as a little soft around the edges, at least compared to other hot hatches such as VW's GTI and Mazda's Mazdaspeed 3. It gets a significant horsepower bump from the base version, but the suspension is carried over from the naturally-aspirated car, with the only handling enhancement coming from larger, 18-inch wheels and tires.

But there is a good reason for this, according to a close by anonymous source who spoke with Motor Authority. There is room for a higher-performance version of the car, the source said, though they didn't elaborate. This leaves room for guesswork, with inspiration available from the Genesis Coupe range. There, an R-Spec variant has previously included a stripped-out car that instead featured more aggressive seats, a mechanically adjustable, stiffer, and lower suspension, and some other tweaks meant to enhance on-track performance.

Whether even more power would be part of such a package is less likely, however, as even the R-Spec Genesis Coupes use the standard-tune engines.

It's likely Hyundai is taking a wait-and-see approach to the Veloster Turbo and is keeping an eye on consumer feedback in order to see if green-lighting a harder-edged version is feasible.