Canada's forgotten 'luke-warm' hatch...the Hyundai Accent SR

"RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars" (rallydarkstrike) 07/01/2020 at 10:15 • Filed to: Hyundai Accent, Hyundai Accent SR

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When the ‘MC’ generation Hyundai Accent lunched in 2006 in Canada, it was touted by auto journalists as being a decently driving, comfortable little run-around that was pretty decent on fuel and sold at a very appealing price.

You could get it in two forms and a few trim levels. For those folks inclined to the more practical, a 4-door Accent sedan form may have been your best bet. For those looking for a slightly more youthful and sporty variant, the 2-door hatchback was your lot.

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All variants of the Accent in Canada came with Hyundai’s durable 1.6L G4ED Alpha II engine...an inline-4 putting out 110hp and 108ft-lbs of torque.

In 2006, Hyundai/Kia had already done a pretty decent job of starting the ball rolling to up their quality and their image to the levels we are used to today. UNLIKE today, however, when we have the hot hatch i30N, fizzy Veloster N, Kia Stinger and other performance-oriented models, Hyundai really didn’t have anything to appeal to drivers wanting a little more out of their rides. Sure, there was the Hyundai Tiburon/Coupe/Tuscani, their decent little coupe...

...but it wasn’t the most practical car, despite having a surprising amount of room in that rear liftback. What then, could drivers looking for a little more pep get from Hyundai to fill that ‘hot hatch’ void? Well, for that you have to go back in time to the 2005 Frankfurt Auto Show...

At that show, a special car from Hyundai debuted...the Hyundai Accent SR concept. In terms of performance, the Accent SR concept certainly lived up to the hype of a hot hatch in most regards. A turbocharged 2.0L 4-cylinder lived under the hood (though mated to an automatic...), and sporty side-skirts, a sizable rear hatch spoiler, huge fender flares, and large racy rims ticked all the mid-2000s ‘boy-racer’ boxes and gave it surprising performance.

The production version of the 2006-2011 ‘MC’ generation Accent was based on the Accent SR concept that debuted at that 2005 Frankfurt show, but, despite following a surprising amount of the SR concept’s styling touches very similarly (the rear hatch spoiler, for example), the production model lost some of the sportier edge the concept held:

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Sadly, no SR-based hot-hatch Accent ever came to production...until Hyundai Canada stepped in for 2007.

They decided to pay homage to the Accent SR concept with a limited production run of racy Accent models in 2007. Not unsurprisingly, this trim was called the Accent SR and was as close to a ‘hot hatch’ as you were going to find from Hyundai/Kia at the time. The special-edition SR only existed for 2007 in a short production run of only 500 cars, making it rarer than some supercars! In honoring the SR concept, the limited edition SR trim was only available in hatch form...no SR sedan was ever developed for production (though I believe an !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , but was mostly just a styling package).

In honesty, the SR wasn’t too much of a hot hatch, more of a luke-warm hatch, really! The drivetrain stayed the same as other production ‘MC’ Accents...none of the concept’s 2.0L turboness here! Instead, the SR trim soldiered on with that same 1.6L Alpha II 4-pot...but, hey, 5-speed manual. Performance wasn’t completely untouched though, as we’ll see later...

The SR trim received styling elements akin to the SR concept as well - the side skirts, front lip, rear diffuser, enlarged chrome exhaust tips and beefy fender flairs were back! An optional ‘racing’ style gas door was an addon. An ‘SR’ badge adorned the rear hatch, with two more cleverly-placed ‘SR’ badges flowing from the side repeaters into the doors.

16" aluminum rims with Falken Azenis performance tires adorned the wheel hubs, rather than the 14" rims with eco-rubber the car usually rode on.

On the inside, a high-end Clarion sound system with 6 speakers and a 10" sub brought enviable quality to your tunes. Carbon fiber trim adorned the dash and a custom performance shift knob topped the shifter.

The SR trim wasn’t ALL show and no go though! Hyundai Canada brought performance changes underneath and under the hood to help live up to the name. It may not have been the fastest, but a factory tuned intake helped the engine eke out a little more power and breathe a little better, giving the car a more aggressive noise and a small power bump from stock. An under-hood strut bar, sport suspension and a lower ride height meant the SR was surprisingly capable of holding its own on twisty autocross circuits!

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Canada’s Accent SR may not have been a world-competing powerhouse like the i30N and Veloster N we get from Hyundai today, but it was an interesting, rare and unique blip on the automotive radar. I own a base-model Accent hatch, as many of you know, so I have a big soft-spot for these cars. :)

They gave the world a taste of what a then-rising Hyundai could do if they put their mind to it and a glimpse of what was to come...

MKULTRA1982(ConCrustyBrick) > RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars 07/01/2020 at 10:25

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Fascinating. I saw a few (Maybe 1 or 2 who knows if they were real, almost 0 photos in the ads) of these SR Accents when I was shopping recently. Seemed like a very interesting bit of kit and I’m all for a nicer suspension package on cheap cars, but there was almost no information about them. Neat to find out it was spearheaded by and exclusive to Hyundai Canada. That  generation of Accent is what changed my opinion about Hyundai being unadulterated junk (they’re not) 

Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available > RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars 07/01/2020 at 10:28

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Wait, you get the i30 and the i30 N up there?

Great writeup. I never knew those  existed. Even a lukewarm hatch is better than a sad cold soggy hatch (no offense to Humdrum), though I really see no reasons either from a demand or production standpoint why these were not distributed more widely.

RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars > Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available 07/01/2020 at 10:38

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Haha, no offense taken! :P

You guys get the i30 as well! The i30 is known as the Elantra GT on Canadian and American shores. Sadly, you Americans, nor us Canadians get the i30N, but we do both get the Veloster N, I believe!

Not sure why they didn’t sell more of them....they were neat little cars. You could get some of the parts developed from dealers to have fit to your car, I believe (Hyundai sold a strut bar, short-shift kit and intake at dealers for the Accent at this time I believe, so I imagine they are similar to the ones fitted to the SR).

Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available > RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars 07/01/2020 at 10:41

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That makes so much more sense now! The GT N couldn’t take on the GTI and the Veloster N is suitably whimsical, so I get why they don’t sell both.

So it was like one of those delayed installed upgrade cars where they threw everything at it, except factory. Makes sense.

I usually dislike the dealer modded bro trucks and Jeeps but sometimes they do good work.

SBA Thanks You For All The Fish > RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars 07/01/2020 at 10:59

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“Tepid” at best...

RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars > SBA Thanks You For All The Fish 07/01/2020 at 11:09

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Likely, but at least they tried! :P

SBA Thanks You For All The Fish > RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars 07/01/2020 at 11:13

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Yeah.  I’ll buy a used Stinger someday... because I’m glad they tried.

ST80MND > RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars 07/01/2020 at 11:27

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I’pretty sur e we do have the I30 N here. One of my neighbors has had one sporadically plopped in his/ her driveway for at least 3 or 4 months now. I keep wanting to get a pic, but the stars just haven’t lined up. Granted it’s the only one I’ve seen. Also have seen a 996 carerra 4s, a new Lincoln Continental, and a new Volvo v90. I should really try to meet these folks!

Hooker > RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars 07/01/2020 at 12:45

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This is good Oppo! Thank you for sharing! I had no idea! And now, I kind of want one? I’ll see myself out. 

RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars > MKULTRA1982(ConCrustyBrick) 07/01/2020 at 17:03

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They’re very rare here in Nova Scotia....I see one or two every so often, but I think Ontario and Quebec got the bulk of them!

RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars > ST80MND 07/01/2020 at 17:04

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Pretty sure we don’t get the fully-fledged i30N here in Canada....there is an ‘N’ package (some badging and light performance upgrades) for the Elantra GT (which is the North American name for the i30 here) , I believe, but no full-blown hot-hatch ‘N’ variant.

RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars > Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available 07/01/2020 at 17:08

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I’m not a huge fan of bro-trucks and bro-Jeeps in general as most of them are really thrown together to LOOK capable, more than actually being BUILT to be capable...

Who is the Leader - 404 / Blog No Longer Available > RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars 07/01/2020 at 17:25

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Exactly. I meant sometimes dealers don't modify trucks with massive wheels but tune muscle cars etc.

RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars > Hooker 07/01/2020 at 19:15

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You don’t need to see yourself out in my books, I have a thing for cheap, basic cars and quirky cars, so it’s right up my alley! An not just because I own an Accent, either (though mine’s not an SR, sadly)! :P

ST80MND > RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars 07/01/2020 at 20:12

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You are correct sir! I saw it today and for the first time saw the veloster badge. Had me fooled though.

RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars > ST80MND 07/01/2020 at 21:40

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Well, they are painted in the exact same color with similar stripes and body kit and whatnot, so from a distance, I can understand!

Hooker > RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars 07/02/2020 at 10:25

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So, what you’re saying is that we need to find you an SR and import it? That’s what I am gathering! :) I tend to like the quirky. But I feel like that’s well known. Hell, I would daily drive my old fire truck if it were acceptable. And not stupid expensive. 

RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars > Hooker 07/02/2020 at 21:49

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Well, I live in Canada, so I don’t need to import one, I can just find one here....problem is they are rare to begin with, and therefore, especially rare in my part of the country (Nova Scotia) :P

Hooker > RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars 07/06/2020 at 10:34

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All I read was that there  is hope! Haha. But I tend to be overly optimistic in times like these.