January’s Detroit Motor Show looks set to provide a real kick-start to 2013, with a host of new model premieres from the world’s largest car makers. One of those car makers is Hyundai – the fourth largest car maker and the fastest-growing automotive company by brand.

If you’re prone to dismissing Hyundai as a maker of cheap funny-looking cars, now might be a good time to re-think that ideology. The Hyundai Motor Company, which owns 51% of Kia, is now the second largest car maker in Asia behind Toyota. It runs the world’s largest single automobile plant employing 34,000 workers and was the second highest growing brand by value in 2012, just behind Nissan.

Hyundai are also the car maker that Volkswagen’s CEO, Martin Winterkorn, famously vented his frustrations at on camera while exploring the interior of the i30 hatchback remarking “Nothing rattles here!”. (add your favourite expletives, preferably in German if you know any)

So if you’re a buyer they’re probably worth keeping in mind, but if you’re an enthusiast looking for freebies and other auto-related opportunities then to put it bluntly – they’re likely to be one of the most eligible on the market. They’re growing fast, are highly profitable and need to raise brand awareness to prepare for an onslaught of new front and rear-drive sports models over the next 3-4 years.

Wonhong Cho, Hyundai’s Chief Marketing Officer recently declared his mission as “..to offer our ‘modern premium’ values to customers through innovative marketing activities, to provide experiences above and beyond expectations.”

Play the Game

Which brings us neatly on to the popular iOS game, Asphalt 7: Heat, which includes a special ‘Hyundai Asphalt 7 Contest’ offering winners a fully-paid trip worth $20,000 to Hyundai’s main facilities in Korea, as well as to the North American International Auto Show in Detroit in January 2013.

The competition has been running since Monday and ends next Monday, 26th November at 9:59 GMT.

Hyundai has put together a neat promo video (above) which features a Veloster Turbo racing in a Lego-version of Asphalt 7 – it’s a fun promotion that bodes well for the future experiences the company plans to offer.

The game can be downloaded free from the the Apple App Store and played on any iOS smartphone or tablet device. The Asphalt game series has been downloaded more than 50 million times since its launch in 2004, with the latest version ‘Asphalt 7: Heat’ launched in June this year. Hyundai’s Veloster Turbo and Genesis Coupe joined the game in August, which now includes 60 high-performance and sporting cars.

We played the game this afternoon (not particularly well mind you) and initially choose the Fiat Abarth 500 Esseesse – because it was free. Other cars require ‘stars’ to buy, which you win by competing in races. The game doesn’t quite match GranTurismo in its graphics or physics engine, but it’s easy enough to learn by tilting the device to turn and touching the screen to brake. You can even initiate a drift by tilting and touching at the same time.

Unfortunately I wasn’t able to master the game, so I stand very little chance of winning the grand prize, but you might prove more adept – especially if you’ve honed your skills on more challenging driving games.

If you do win, remember who tipped you off about the opportunity – I hear Korea can be lovely at Christmas – or at least send us some photos to show what you get up to.

You can download the game from iTunes and take a look at Hyundai’s Asphalt 7 Training Camp on Facebook where you’ll find tips on how to tune your cars and maximise your score.

The game has an overall customer rating of 4.5 out of 5, so beware, it can be addictive. Good luck.

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Disclosure: This article is sponsored in part by Hyundai, however all views expressed within are entirely our own. Sponsored articles are accepted at our own discretion and only where we believe such focus will benefit our readers. If you have any questions or would like to discuss this article further, then please get in touch via email or using the contact tab on this page.

competition hyundai motor show Veloster Turbo