Welcome to the Hooniverse News! As always, this is a weekly recap of some of the biggest stories in the automotive industry without the fluff or bull. I just throw in a little opinion of mine because I can. This week:

• Hyundai to launch N performance brand with insane concepts

• Meet the Oshkosh JLTV, the military’s Humvee replacement

• Kia shows off all-new Sportage early with… interesting styling

• Honda previews awesome new concept and confirms debut for new Civic

• Fiat Chrysler dealer meeting was allegedly awe inspiring, new Barracuda and others shown

• What’s your automotive news?

Hyundai N 2025 Vision Gran Turismo

Hyundai will be at next month’s Frankfurt International Motor Show with a performance-driven display to help build momentum for a new sub-brand. It’s simply called N and it’s all about performance, apparently. It’s the same N sub-brand that they first hinted at in a press release back in 2013. Yep, I knew it sounded familiar.
Back then they wouldn’t talk about what all N would be doing and when, but I guess we know now. The Hyundai N spectacular will kick off at Frankfurt with a new i20 World Rally Championship car and two concepts. One of those concepts is going to be unfiltered insanity and it happens to be the same one going into Gran Turismo 6.
As part of GT6’s Vision Gran Turismo program (which is still going on), Hyundai will be revealing a one-off concept car built as a preview for the kind of madness N engineers are capable of. It’s called the Hyundai N 2025 Vision Gran Turismo and it highlights sustainable technology with a performance-minded design, the two big things N wants to accomplish with future products.

Hyundai N wants to get to a point where building something like this in the real world is possible, but that’s a long way out – the name even says so. To bring us back to 2015, the other concept is the RM15, a car that aims to show the brand’s passion for performance and suggesting how their ideas could be brought into production soon. It looks like it’s based on the Veloster, so that’s a good start. The only detail they’ve provided so far about the RM15 is that it has a mid-mounted 2.0-liter engine with 296 horsepower. It has more tricks that are currently being developed with the goal of eventually debuting in production cars, but we’ll have to wait and see what exactly those are.
In any event, Hyundai is finally doing something with that performance sub-brand of theirs sounds likes BMW M on a budget.
[Source: Hyundai]

Oshkosh JLTV to replace military Humvees

As I write this, I’m blasting the Team America theme song because reasons.
The Department of Defense has decided on what’s going to replace the AM General HMMVW/Humvee. After a defense contractor showdown for the contract to produce a new Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV) for the American military, Oshkosh Corporation has been chosen for the $6.75 billion contract. The terms call for Oshkosh to deliver 17,000 JLTVs to the Army and Marine Corps, which with a little bit of math turns out to be about $397,000 per unit.
It comes with great standard features for the money though, such as the ballistic protection of a light tank, MRAP-class levels of underbody protection, and supposedly off-road mobility and speed to rival a Baja racer. Optional luxury features include a panoramic roof for the tube launched missile system, a driver assist package including IED Defeat and Situational Awareness systems, and safety features like an automatic fire suppression system.
Comfort is provided by their advanced, combat-proven TAK-4i suspension system which enhances ride quality while promoting excellent maneuverability on any terrain and is height-adjustable through interior controls. The interior is luxuriously appointed with blast protected seats, headrests, and storage solutions. Buyers will get to chose from a two-seat utility version and a four-seat personnel carrier and each can be personalized with a huge variety of equipment to make it their own.
Deliveries are expected to begin within the next ten months. Check your local military for availability.
I can’t wait for these things to show up in surplus auctions…
[Source: Oshkosh Defense via Autoweek]

New Kia Sportage revealed early

And now for something that can’t take part in an invasion, the new Kia Sportage. This is scheduled to debut next month at the Frankfurt motor show but Kia has revealed its most noticeable update with some initial images. It can be seen here wearing the face of someone who just ran out of the lake because something touched their feet.
Kia pins the blame on their European Design Centre who led the new exterior styling project. The goal was to create a “bold, progressive design… with a sense of power and agility from every angle”. Whether or not they’ve succeeded is up to you. The single biggest change is right up front with headlamps sweeping back along the more sharply detailed bonnet. It’s meant to portray a more imposing and stable stance, but eh, see my earlier comment.
We’ll see and learn more about the all-new Sportage next month; and who knows, maybe they’ll have put more lights on it by then.
[Source: Kia]

Honda’s Frankfurt motor show plans

Honda, like that other Asian brand that starts with an H, will also bring an all-new showcase of power to the Frankfurt motor show next month. This includes a variety of new and updated models for the European market, some of which were already shown in America like the HR-V and CR-V, but also an interesting concept.
That interesting concept is the Honda Project 2&4 and it’s in that teaser shot above. This came to existence after Honda held a design competition between all of its global design studios. This winning design comes from their motorcycle design center in Asaka and their automobile design center in Wako, Japan. You can probably guess what’s coming next…
Project 2&4 is described as having a cabin-less structure for an immersive driving environment and power from the RC213V bike, which means a 1,000cc V4.
That all goes down on September 15th. On the 16th, however, Honda is finally going to show the all-new Civic in sedan form at least at events in LA and Detroit. It’ll be an interesting time.
[Source: Honda]

Fiat Chrysler shows the future to dealers

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles held a meeting with dealers in Las Vegas (where else) to talk about all the wonderful new vehicles they’d get to see pass through their showrooms in the near future. There’s no word on if they released updated markup guidelines, but they did allegedly show some of the upcoming vehicles we’ve been anticipating the most. If the reports Automotive News received from anonymous dealers are true, FCA will be cranking out some awesome product in the not too distant future.
Among the list of cars that were allegedly shown, a Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT Track Hawk complete with the supercharged 6.2-liter Hellcat V8, a premium Jeep Grand Wagoneer, a next-generation Dodge Charger, and something called a Barracuda. That last legendary name will finally return as a Dodge convertible sharing a platform with the Alfa Romeo Giulia and the next Charger. They didn’t talk engines besides the Hellcat motor in the Jeep, but it would be neat if we were deemed worthy of a Barraduca Hellcat.
Some Italian metal was shown as well, that being in the form of some new Alfa Romeo and Maserati content and even the upcoming Fiat 124 Spider.
So that *allegedly* confirms varying levels of awesome headed our way. That doesn’t include the Alfa Romeo SUV they showed though, because nobody cares about that. If some reports are to be believed, we can expect as many as 30 new or updated FCA models within the next two years.
[Source: Automotive News via Autoweek]

What’s your automotive news?

Because my automotive news this week didn’t have any pictures, have one of the thousand or so photos I’ve got left over from my time in Monterey a few weeks ago. I was at Laguna Seca on turn 6 snapping photos of anything that went by when suddenly a car spun around just after it made the corner. I couldn’t see where he spun but I could hear it. There was no impact, at least. As I’m looking through my photos I discovered that I captured the early stages of that spin. That’s a pretty fast corner and I can’t even imagine the pant-wetting terror of swapping ends there.
So how about you? If you saw anything, drove something, broke everything, or otherwise did anything newsworthy that you want to share with your fellow hoon, sound off in the comments.
Have a good weekend.
[Image © 2015 Hooniverse/Greg Kachadurian]