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(Video Show Version) This Hyundai Elantra N Will Blow Your Mind! (Daily Driver Review)
(Video Show Version) This Hyundai Elantra N Will Blow Your Mind! (Daily Driver Review)
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About this episode
Chris chats with Courage about his Hyundai Elantra N, a sporty yet practical daily driver perfect for family life. They discuss its impressive stock performance, including a lively turbocharged engine with a JB4 tune, active exhaust, and smooth handling. Courage shares his experience with mods, fuel blends, and compares it to competitors like the Acura Integra Type S. The conversation highlights the car’s balance of fun and functionality, reliability, and how it reignited his passion for cars while fitting his lifestyle as a dad.
Topics:
hyundai elantra n
daily driver
turbocharged engine
jb4 tune
active exhaust
fuel blends
car mods
family car
handling and performance
car comparisons
Cars:
Acura Integra
Acura MDX
BMW 3 Series
Hyundai Elantra
Infiniti M35
Nissan 300 ZX
Toyota GR Corolla
Welcome back to Cool Cars with Chris! 🚗🔥In this episode, Chris meets up with Courage, a passionate car enthusiast and dad of two, to check out his Hyundai Elantra N — a practical yet performance-packed daily driver. From the mods he's added (including a sneaky JB4 piggyback tune) to how this car handles daily duties and weekend backroad blasts, you'll get a full tour, honest impressions, and an exciting ride-along!📍 Topics include:✅Why Courage chose the Elantra N over other sporty 4-doors✅The surprising performance and tuning potential✅Road trip stories (like packing for Monterey Car Week!)✅Real talk on reliability and ownership✅A live driving experience with Chris's real-time reactions!💬 Drop a comment — Would you pick the Elantra N over the Civic Type R or GR Corolla?👉 Don't forget to like, subscribe, and turn on the 🔔 for more episodes of Cool Cars with Chris!🔧 Car Specs & Mods Mentioned:Hyundai Elantra N (DCT)JB4 Piggyback TuneCustom Wheels, Intake ModsE30 Fuel Blends + Octane LearningActive Exhaust Setup00:00 Welcome & First Impressions00:28 Meet Courage & the Hyundai Elantra N01:06 Why He Chose the Elantra N (Turo Story)02:15 Family Life & Road Trip Ready02:41 Real-World Reliability of the Elantra N03:19 Courage's Mods: Intake & JB4 Tune04:07 Power Gains & Dyno Results05:14 Active Exhaust & Sound Tricks06:00 Fuel Options: E30, E85, and 95 Octane06:56 Octane Learning & Boost Issues07:28 Turbo Lag? Power Band Talk08:45 What Other Cars Did He Consider?09:22 Civic Type R vs. Integra Type S11:05 V8 Dreams: CT5-V Blackwing11:49 What the Car Means to Courage13:12 Community Reactions & Drive-By Moments14:02 Ride-Along Begins14:42 Chris Reacts to the Acceleration15:30 Cornering & Road Feel16:07 Turbo Feel & Throttle Response17:05 Why He Doesn’t Want More Power17:54 Fuel Mixing Hacks & Knock Protection18:52 Wrap-Up: Final Thoughts19:12 Cool Car Thumbs Up 👍#ElantraN #CoolCarsWithChris #HyundaiElantraN #CarReview #POVDrive #SportSedan #TunedCars #DailyDriverGoals #DadCar #CarMods #CivicTypeR #GRCorolla #IntegraTypeS #CarEnthusiast #DrivingExperience
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Hyundai Elantra
"...uy this car in the first place. This is a Hyundai Elantra N-Series. And you first rented a Turo, you first ..."
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BMW 328I
"..., do you have anything else? And told me he had a 328i. And I was like, well, you know,"
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Acura Integra
"...answer. What I would actually choose is the Acura Integra Type S. The new Integra, huh?"
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Acura Mdx
"...f car, definitely the Type-S. I actually love the Acura MDX Type-S too. You've seen it, it's actually a three..."
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Nissan 300Zx
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M35 Infiniti M35
"I had one car that I bought right after that, an Infiniti M35. They had the V6 actually similar to the Zs."
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It's very planted to the ground, I notice.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, my God.
I love it.
You can move a little bit.
It's a little straighter spot.
Well, it pops, too.
Wow, is that for the two?
That is no.
That's completely stock.
It does that.
No way.
This is why I feel like I don't need an exhaust.
Wow.
OK, welcome, everybody, to another edition
of Cool Cars with Chris.
I am Chris.
And we are with a cool car.
And its owner, Courage, is literally here in physically
in person.
We have Courage.
How you doing today, buddy?
I'm doing great, Chris.
Thanks for having me, man.
And this is fantastic, lovely Saturday.
And you came all the way down here from Temecula.
Yep, yep.
Wow.
What is the drive like, by the way, these days?
Is it a lot of traffic?
Not on Saturdays, luckily.
It's a pretty straight shoot.
And I actually stopped off at Retro Santa Fe Cars
and Coffee locally out here, too.
So nice little morning there.
But no, no complaints, traffic-wise.
Nice.
So take me back to what you made
you want to buy this car in the first place.
This is a Hyundai Elantra N-Series.
And you first rented a Turo, you first rented a car.
What kind of car did you rent?
And what made you want to buy this car?
Yeah, no.
So I started, you know, every time I rent a Turo,
I try to find something interesting.
And I was actually going to rent a Golf R before.
It was, that was the first choice.
And the guy two days beforehand told me
that he sold the car.
And so I was like, oh, well, do you have anything else?
And told me he had a 328i.
And I was like, well, you know,
I've driven those before.
I wanted to try something else.
So Skylar and Turo ended up finding a black DCT transmission.
They had the sunroof.
They're the only real different sunroof
and automatic transmission.
And absolutely loved that car.
I drove it up through Lake Tahoe,
through some curvy back roads.
Obviously on the highway, I was impressed by the power.
And I just, I fell in love with it.
It was just a total package.
I have two little ones, so I needed something
that was practical.
And this was super practical, yet still fun.
And so I pulled the trigger probably two or three
months after and said, like, this is the car
that I want to be the fun car slash, you know,
still do the dad duties at the end of the day.
Right. That's the thing too, is like a lot of these sports
cars, because I own sports cars.
And a lot of them don't have, like, back seats.
Well, some do, but so you have to have
you taken this on many road trips this car?
Oh, yeah.
So the most recent one was actually Monterey Car Week.
Went there in August and literally stuffed
four people's worth of stuff in the back trunk.
Some of my kids are young enough where I can still
put stuff in the footwells and things like that.
Oh, OK, OK.
We did utilize that.
I used the rear kind of shelf in the back too.
It did it.
No issues at all.
We fit everything we needed.
Everybody was comfortable.
And I would do it again.
We're actually planning to do it again next year too.
I mean, how reliable are Hyundai's?
I mean, have you had any issues with yours at all?
Probably a new car, but.
It's a great question.
I mean, I get it a lot because of kind of the rep
that Kia and Hyundai have had over the last couple decades.
I haven't had any issues that weren't self-imposed.
I'll just put it that way.
What am I self-imposed?
So there were a couple of things in modding this car,
which I told myself I wasn't going to mod the car
when I first bought it, that it was exactly how I needed it.
And I wasn't going to do anything.
Two years into that, I ended up modding the car.
The first few things I did were the intake.
And then I ultimately ended up going with the JB4 tune,
which is basically a piggyback tune.
And so.
You got this car tuned in California.
How can you pull that off?
Let's just say that it flies under the radar enough
that I haven't had an issue with it yet.
Well, it's fairly new, so I don't think you have to worry
about getting it smogged anytime soon.
But when you do come up to smog, what are you going to do?
So the big thing about the piggyback tune,
it gets a lot of kind of back and forth.
You know, should you do it?
Should you not?
It's actually plug and play.
So it's a box inside the under the hood
that literally is kind of feeding information in through the ECU.
And I can literally unplug it and there's no trace of it at all.
So do you notice if you do we do unplug the...
Well, first, did you notice the tune at all in the first place?
Do you notice the difference in power?
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
So what does this come with stock at the door?
If you're going to buy a car today, what do you get?
Like horsepower wise?
Horsepower wise.
So this is interesting with this car.
There's kind of two modes base, like with with non-octane
learn is what they kind of call it.
You're putting out about 240 to the wheels.
It's rated at 260 stock.
76 horsepower.
Wow, stocks a lot.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And so without octane learning, you're about 240 horsepower with it.
Octane learn.
And I've actually had some videos where I posted results on this.
I put down 271 to the wheel.
You've actually dino this.
And I've actually had a dino.
Correct. Wow.
And so with the tune, I would definitely say in
because I have different maps on that.
So a bud runs on ethanol.
Does your show ethanol?
So it can.
I had actually I've been toying around with kind of E30 mixes.
You can't go full E85, though.
You'll you'll have to read you kind of over all the fuel system,
getting new injectors.
So yeah, it can do a full blend of it.
Can do a full 85, but you can do blends.
And they get you some extra power.
If you do like an E20 or E30 blend, you can definitely get,
you know, three 20, three 30.
Sometimes I see folks with.
So yeah, it's possible.
Just not like a full E85 run.
That takes a lot of work.
How this works, because this actually has an active exhaust.
You can change it by mode or you can really.
Yeah, or you can just see, you can actually make a custom mode.
And if you want to have, say, the engine fully in,
like its performance mode, but the exhaust closed,
you can actually set that as a setting in the car.
But actually, in a sense, it's sort of a little cheating
because it's dual exhaust, but the valve is on one side.
So it's so in quiet mode, essentially,
you're only running out of one side.
And that's how they quiet it down.
But then once you open the flap is going out of both.
And that's when you get the full, the full show,
I guess you can say.
Nice.
But yeah, poor cylinder, of course.
And of course, they got, I'm sure it's direct injection,
double over cam and all that stuff.
That's kind of what these days now.
I mean, my truck is still is a direct injection
with a fuel injection.
Yeah, I actually didn't know that was possible to have both.
Yeah, this engine, I have the, I have the Coyote V8
with the third gen and it has, yeah, it has a dual.
But I think the fourth gen's got the auto shut off,
cylinder shut off.
Mine doesn't have that.
Mine's before that.
But yeah, so mine runs on ethanol.
Does yours run on ethanol?
So it can.
I had actually, I've been toying around with kind of E30 mixes.
You can't go full E85 though.
You'll have to re, you can kind of overall the fuel system,
get new injectors.
So yeah, it can do a full blend of,
it can do a full E85, but you can do blends.
And they get you some extra power.
If you do like an E20 or E30 blend,
you can definitely get, you know, 320, 320.
Sometimes I see folks with.
So yeah, it's, it's possible.
You know, every car kind of has like,
it's little quirks or things like that.
You're kind of like, oh, I wish it didn't do that.
So is there anything on this car?
Yeah.
That you're like, I wish, I don't know.
Yeah, I, there's two just right out of the gate.
One is actually the octane learn situation
because it's, I call it kind of a rain dance
to get it to work because you have to,
there's actually an owner's manual
or a section in the owner's manual
where you have to drive kind of freeway highway driving
above 70 for like a period of like 10 minutes
or something like that.
And it allows the car to learn what fuel is in the car.
And then it'll unlock that extra boost
because stock, stock, it'll boost at about 15 PSI.
But once it's octane learned,
it'll actually bump it up to 20 PSI.
Oh, nice.
And so that's where you get that extra power.
Do you have a boost gauge in the car?
You do, yes.
Is it stock or have you bought it in there?
Gauge cluster has like a little, it has a boost gauge
which isn't like, you know,
it might not be hugely accurate,
but the JV4 actually has an app
that I kind of put off to the side
that actually does have a pretty accurate
kind of boost cow cough of it.
But yeah, that's my biggest annoyance
because you can do all of the process of octane learning
and it won't, it won't do it.
And so, and there's no indicator
of when it actually happens.
And so the only way you know is just, you know,
randomly you put your foot down on the freeway
and you see, does it go to 20 PSI
or does it stay at 15?
That's the only way you know.
Now, now being that it's a turbo,
is it twin turbo or single turbo?
Single turbo.
Single turbo.
Does it, do you feel, is there a turbo lag to the car?
This is actually, I'm surprised that they've,
the power band is really linear in the, in this car.
And, you know, torque comes on full torque
is actually 22 or 2300 RPMs.
So it comes on pretty quick.
Like it's not really like some of the bigger
turbo applications where you,
you do feel that noticeable lag.
I can, I can pass people pretty quickly in six gear.
If I'm at about.
It is a six speed, right?
It is a six speed.
Okay, yeah.
So I'm not even really needing the down shift
unless like you really need to move somewhere.
But that's just how well the turbo acclimates to just like,
once you put your foot down, it spools up pretty quick.
This car, and you're looking for a sporty four door.
Yeah.
What else would you have bought other than this?
Ooh, that's a good question.
Are we, is it, is budget an issue?
Well, I'm not saying like, like the Lamborghini, Hurac.
You know, it's like a crazier.
What would you, what would you get?
I'll give you two.
I'll give you one that would be a stretch
and one that would, you know, be basically,
I could do it tomorrow, maybe.
The one that I would do tomorrow,
I mean, it would probably have to be,
I mean, as stereotypical as it kind of is,
actually, no, that was the wrong answer.
What I would actually choose is the Acura Integra Type S.
The new Integra, huh?
Yeah.
Yeah, it's got a stick shift
and it's probably its closest competitor to this, right?
Pretty close, yeah.
The Type S, that's the one I saw.
I think it's 70 grand, isn't it?
Well, yeah, with everything all in,
like you're probably looking at that,
probably like 60 or so.
The Type R, the Civic Type R,
yeah, that one's about like out the door,
probably 55 or so.
Is that all-wheel drive?
They aren't, no, neither one.
Both front-wheel drive.
Is this all-wheel drive?
Front-wheel drive as well.
So not all-wheel drive?
Nope.
Which one had the all-wheel drive?
That's the GR, the GR Corolla.
Okay.
That's always kind of a question too.
That just, I mean, and I do kind of like
that it's a three-cylinder
because I have this weird thing.
I'm a musician, you know, and I play piano
and I actually like, I nerd out to like engine cylinders
and how they sound.
I'm telling you that.
I was, I hit the exhaust, man.
I wish I was gonna, I try doing some video later
after I got the exhaust done on my car
and I did some stuff and a few things,
but yeah, that thing sounded great when you got up on it.
And I wasn't too loud
because I think if some people get their cars done
and they just chop off the mufflers
and go straight to the pipe or whatever.
I've heard a lot of Zs that do that.
I've heard a lot of Zs, a Tome exhaust
and things like that.
Yeah.
They just sound super loud.
It just kind of takes away the character.
Like I do feel like cars do have a certain character
about them and when you just change that too much
it just feels like a different car, you know,
but yeah, definitely the Type-S that would,
like if I was going like in the same ballpark
of type of car, definitely the Type-S.
I actually love the Acura MDX Type-S too.
You've seen it, it's actually a three-row SUV
but it's the S version
and it has like 355 horsepower, all wheel drive.
You're talking like V6s and things like that.
Have you ever thought about going in like V8 direction?
Man, yeah.
Well, no, you like my second one though.
Okay.
So my second one would be a CT5V Blackwing.
Okay, nice.
That would be my stretch car.
Nice.
Those are, I think, what, now like 80?
Oh, I think it's got to be over 100 maybe.
I mean, what does this car represent to you right now?
It's a good question, Chris.
They give me a think.
But no, I mean, to me, it represents
that you can still be interested in cars
and have something that kind of fits your life.
But yeah, for me, it represents just,
this season in my life, having kids, doing family stuff.
Still, I feel like a lot of people think
you can't really still have a passion for cars.
You can't have a fun car.
You can't go out and be proud of your car.
But this kind of represents that for me
is that regardless, I mean, my youngest loves this car.
How old is he?
He's three.
He's going to be three into seven.
Oh, nice.
Nice.
Does he have a little kid steering wheel
like he sets up in the back seat?
Well, we don't bring it with us,
but we have it in the house.
But he loves it.
My oldest, all he likes is video games now.
But yeah, no, I mean, that's what it is for me,
is just like, you can still have that passion.
Like I'll have my time with some
of the crazy two seats, Ford's cars and all that.
But this is kind of reinvigorated for me
because I sold my 300ZX right when my oldest was born,
just because I, you know, I just knew that car.
That car needed a lot of work.
Right, it becomes a garage car really.
For sure.
And I was in, I loved my, I still have two,
I had one car that I bought right after that,
an Infiniti M35.
They had the V6 actually similar to the Zs.
And then I had a FX45.
They had the V8 in those.
They were still on the same Z chassis.
I love those cars to death,
but they weren't really performance cars.
Yeah, I want like sedans, I guess.
Sedans and SUVs and you know that kind of thing.
Those are fast and everything.
It's like, and she said like,
oh, I want a car like that when I grow up
or something like that, whatever, to my car.
I was like, that's pretty cool
because it's a cool feeling to have.
Have you had feelings,
have anything happened like that for you?
We had this car?
It started having more recently.
I think the car stock is a little too understated
for people that don't know.
It's still kind of that if you know you know,
but if you don't, like you,
some people think that I did a lot of the mods
that basically made the car look like it looked stock.
They thought that like the wheels were aftermarket,
the body kit was,
they thought for sure the exhaust was aftermarket.
So stock, I didn't really get that as much
unless people really knew about it.
Now with like the wheels,
with the front splitter and things like that,
I am starting to get that a little bit more.
Actually, I was driving through my neighborhood
the other day with a buddy of mine.
He has an S15 Sylvia, if you know about the,
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, I was driving through there
and all the kids were playing out at the park
and you hear the kids in the background,
hey, rabbit, hey, rabbit.
And I'm like, well, I'm not gonna do it
in the neighborhood, guys.
Oh yeah.
I gave a little baby, baby one here and there,
but yeah, it's starting to happen a little bit more now,
for sure.
That's great, man.
That's great.
So we've talked a lot about the car,
but I cannot wait to go for a ride in this car, man.
And I want to do this thing and do,
and I can't wait, ready to go for a ride?
I'm excited, man.
Let's do it.
Let's do this.
Okay, here we go.
It feels very planted to the ground, I notice.
Oh yeah.
Oh my God.
I love it.
She can move a little bit.
It's a little straighter spot.
Oh, it pops too?
Wow, is that for the tune?
No, that's completely stock, it does that.
No way.
This is why I feel like I don't need an exhaust.
Wow.
There we go, a little bit here.
I get all right together.
All right.
Oh my God.
Holy shit.
Wow.
She moves a little bit.
Man, I was watching the game,
what are people you had to get to?
That was probably five, about 5,000 RPMs.
Wow.
And the cornering is what I really love about it.
It's just so planted.
I am thoroughly impressed.
This is not just a fabrication like,
you know, aftermarket Pep-Boy special.
Yeah.
Which is what I thought it was that,
when I first saw these in-cars,
like I thought, okay, it's just a,
you know, an appearance package,
maybe a boost in power.
It was totally different.
It was totally different when I actually had a chance
to get behind the wheel.
I'll probably flip up here and now we can maybe.
Okay.
Yeah.
This is great.
You're watching dips of these things.
Oh yeah.
Yeah.
Oh my God.
I love it.
Man, this is thoroughly impressive.
It feels, is it different kind of speed than my Z felt?
I mean, what's weird is though, like,
I know that it feels much faster on this side of the car
than that side of the car.
It's a weird thing because I've driven cars
like it doesn't feel that fast to me,
but people sitting on this side,
it feels way faster.
Well, I'm glad that it does feel that way.
Because to me, I get used to it,
but in this mode though,
I do actually start to feel it a little bit more
on my end too.
Because it is front wheel drive,
so you've got to hold on.
Oh, right, right, right, right.
Yeah, it's entertaining for sure.
But definitely like the thrust feeling,
like I think you get used to it after a while,
but I think when you're,
I love it.
Yeah, and I really honestly, there's, like I said,
the custom map is definitely an option for me,
but it's not like, I don't feel like I really need it.
Like this map too is, you know,
you can say it's conservative.
It's only pushing about like three PSI over stock,
three or four.
And I mean, it moves the way it does.
I don't really need any more power.
Oh!
Wow.
Man, that's great.
Man, some poles, I love it.
Man.
I wish there were some more curves around here
because I feel like that's also where this really shines.
The suspension is just so tight.
I literally anywhere I can find a back row,
like I'm taking that over a highway any day.
Oh, wow.
Now does this have rev match on this?
It does, yeah.
So this, that's this.
Oh, nice.
Yeah, so the one thing I love about my ZA,
I had that, I threw that all.
I threw it, but I was driving it hardest.
I always threw it in rev match.
I think I threw it in rev match most of the time
that I think about it.
The only problem is that one time in rev match,
I was coming around a corner,
I couldn't get the neutral.
And the rev match, I thought I was going to first.
Oh, and it revbed it all.
It was like $8,000 every time.
I was like, oh my God, what'd I do, what'd I do?
Yeah.
And because there's a sensor in the notch
that kind of figures out where you're going.
In Rancho Santa Fe, there's actually a gas station
that sells, there's a partner with Sunoco
and they actually have 95.
And so usually if I'm running anything more aggressive
than the tune I have now, I'll run 95 in it.
Can you tell the difference?
Well, the 95 is more just to work with knock,
just to make sure that when you're pushing that much PSI
that you're not knocking or anything.
Oh, okay.
It's still, the power still feels like it increases,
but not drastically.
It's just more like an assurance
that you know that you're not getting knocked basically.
Wow.
But I have done E30 mixes in it too, so I'll mix.
Yeah, it's like a whole calculator
you can use to mix E30.
So it's E85 with 95.
I wanna do E85 with 95,
but I have to plan it out where I'm going there
and then I gotta go to an E85 place,
so it's just a headache.
Well, is there any places close by?
I mean, that's kind of far away for you though.
Yeah, no, outside of E85 places,
like there's no other place I know
that sells like 95 or anything above 91.
So that's mostly what I'm running for the most part.
Oh, yeah, no, I hope you enjoyed it.
I hope it was a little bit of a surprise.
Definitely, man.
I love fast cars, I love cool cars.
It's definitely a cool car.
I have to give it a cool car thumbs up.
Definitely.
Thank you.
All right, until next time, we'll catch you guys later.
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