Glad the callout to the forum provided a viable result. That’s a very hot, stock car for the “grocery-getter” class under 35K.
Will watch for future articles as the mods progress and data is reported.
Photograph by Chris Tropea
For the past four years, Tom Suddard and Andy Hollis have represented GRM in the Tire Rack One Lap of America competition, a week-long road trip comprised of daily time trials at various tracks around the country. What makes it grueling is the transits between them–you drive your competition vehicle with no outside support, a total of about 3500 highway miles. This year’s route includes three between-track jaunts of 10 hours.
In the past, we’ve alternated which driver supplies the car. Andy first brought his personal McLaren 720S to Tom’s first event, where he only drove transits. Tom’s GRM project GTI was next, followed by Andy’s long-in-the-tooth, built-for-the-event, One Lap CRX–a stripped out race car with a license plate. Last year, Tom convinced Hyundai to supply an Ioniq 5 N, so we could experience life on the road and track with a high-performance EV. Over to you for 2026, Andy.
Long known as a Honda guy, with many championships in SCCA autocross and time trials in the brand, something like a Type R seemed like a natural fit. But the price tag of these is quite high, even on the used market. And you know the saying “never take anything on the track you can’t afford to ball up and walk away from”.
Recently, our own J.A. Ackley wrote a piece on Hyundai’s similar vision–the Elantra N. Checking out prices for used versions seemed too good to be true. And they were trackable right out of the box.
So a nationwide search began. Every day for weeks, trying to find the right car–color being critical for quality magazine photos–but also warranty and price. We even put out a plea on our GRM forum when dealerships kept playing games on pricing tactics.
Eventually, the car came to us via that plea. A friend of a friend wasn’t actively selling but was willing to move on for the right money–a sum which matched our budget. Best of all, the 2023-model-year car was near GRM HQ in Florida, so logistics were streamlined.
The plan will be to run the car essentially stock for this year’s One Lap trip–brake pads, wheels, tires and alignment are all we’ll need to be competitive in the Economy class for under $35K grocery getters.
Over the course of the next year, we’ll then do a project car build-up with the goal of it being a lot faster for next year’s event.
We’ll do track evals on each modification package to assess performance gains much as we did for the Triple Threat ND Miata. And we’ll compete with it at other events along the way. After next year’s OLOA, the car will move on to a new owner–assuming one of us doesn’t fall completely in love with it.
Glad the callout to the forum provided a viable result. That’s a very hot, stock car for the “grocery-getter” class under 35K.
Will watch for future articles as the mods progress and data is reported.
This will be interesting to follow. I’m not familiar with the class rules but (as anyone reading this knows) they’re really competitive in street class autocross with nothing but a tire change.
So, the Lucid fell through? Or was that a classic ‘OneLap Rego Headfake’?
Floating Doc (Forum Supporter) said:This will be interesting to follow. I’m not familiar with the class rules but (as anyone reading this knows) they’re really competitive in street class autocross with nothing but a tire change.
Eric Orr
Looks like there’s a ~2006 Turbo or Supecharger Corolla (Dadbod), a 2025 Civic Si (HART), and a 2016 Fiesta ST in class… currently.
but, I see a number of entries that “look” misclassed to me (although, none that would be Econo)… which have slipped through in the past couple years, on top of “last minute changes” that can tend to happen. So, there’s still a hefty element of TBD.
Class rules are… very open.
Admittedly I am biased, but this is a wonderful car for the event and the class! Alignment is a must (I just took the camber bolts off my car to go back to GS if you want them) and I'll be interested if you run a rear bar. I like the extra rotation, but some folks say it's too much. The big question is, will you run a tune? A stage 0 will remove octane learning and smooth a few things out without adding power. A Stage 1 or 2 will really wake the car up and help it pull on the hills.
Two pieces of advice for One Lap. First, be cautious with the front wheel studs. You CANNOT replace them; the whole IDA (Integrated Drive Axle) has to be swapped out. Using anti-seize and some basic caution will prevent any issues, but if one snaps you are out of the race. Maybe the GRM wizards can rebuild them before the race with stronger studs, but it's not something you can do trackside. The rears pop out in seconds.
Second, do something about the front undertray. If you catch some road debris or a cone the wrong way, the leading edge will drop down, catch the wind, and rip off violently. Yes, you can just remove it, but you will loose a few MPH on a big track like VIR. My advice is to cover the leading edge seam with Gorilla Tape before the event; it will prevent any issues. I have replaced mine a few times, last weekend I replaced the lower lip and the horns. (Horns fail at about 30K miles)
Oh, and I installed the little wind deflectors that I read about on GRM and they really work.
I'm very excited about this acquisition and mission profile! I've been eyeing Elantra-Ns for some time as I have had good luck with Hyundai reliability and the Elantra-N is one of the very few performance-oriented family sedans available with a manual transmission. I'd like my next car to be a manual. So I will be avidly following along!
sleepyhead the buffalo said:So, the Lucid fell through? Or was that a classic ‘OneLap Rego Headfake’?
Both?
We did speak with Lucid, but failed to acquire. But Randy Pobst then took up the mantle and succeeded! Have a look at the entry list.
DWNSHFT said:I'm very excited about this acquisition and mission profile! I've been eyeing Elantra-Ns for some time as I have had good luck with Hyundai reliability and the Elantra-N is one of the very few performance-oriented family sedans available with a manual transmission. I'd like my next car to be a manual. So I will be avidly following along!
Ours is a DCT, done on purpose since it's a fairly unique party-trick for the class of vehicle. And I'm a dyed-in-the-wool LFB'r, so it works better for me.
Of course, I haven't even driven one of these yet -- is that a bad thing? 
Andy Hollis said:DWNSHFT said:I'm very excited about this acquisition and mission profile! I've been eyeing Elantra-Ns for some time as I have had good luck with Hyundai reliability and the Elantra-N is one of the very few performance-oriented family sedans available with a manual transmission. I'd like my next car to be a manual. So I will be avidly following along!
Ours is a DCT, done on purpose since it's a fairly unique party-trick for the class of vehicle. And I'm a dyed-in-the-wool LFB'r, so it works better for me.
Of course, I haven't even driven one of these yet -- is that a bad thing?
I mean, y’all have four times the amount of prep time compared to the Ioniq5 N or GTR, right?
Congrats!!! I noticed you guys were looking for one so my interest was peaked. Glad you were able to score one & hopefully it was in that price range you were after. I'll definitely be following along even if my 24 will just be for GS & nice day driving. I know how you guys like to find reasonable solutions to unreasonable problems so I'll be interested in the work around for replacing those wheel studs (front).
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