Those with a limited appetite for Stateside marketing hyperbole best look away now, but Kia’s single-minded dedication to the art of apostrophe abuse has reached new heights with a new Soul-based concept.
Widebody look kinda works
Teased earlier in the week
and now revealed at the Chicago motor show, the Track’ster is apparently enough to make, quote, “car enthusiasts begin to salivate.”
We’ll gloss over that, and boasts that “the idea was to make the Track’ster tough looking, like a bulldog” (thank you Kia’s American design boss Tom Kearns, now go back to your easel) and instead try and draw some clues about where Kia is going with this concept. Like Toyota’s Scion brand, Kia is relentless with its assault on the youthful end of the Stateside car market, which means lots of ‘street’ attitude, flirtations with the modding scene and many and varied ways to carry, connect and interact with the Apple touchscreen device of your choosing.
Cabin not for the faint of heart
It’s not entirely clear why the Inferno Orange highlights on the paintscheme are, as promised, ‘perfectly suited for racing’ but the Track’ster is, whisper it, rather cool looking.
OK, it’s showfloor eye candy but as a statement of intent it does test the water for Kia to offer something a little more PH-worthy in its line up.
The Track’ster gets a 250hp turbocharged 2.0-litre engine – a fair step up from the 138hp of the most potent (relative) car currently in the range.
Inside there’s a suitably fancy interior including a quick release strut brace for accessing the spare wheel and storage bins for helmets and other track paraphernalia.
Rio B-Spec racer the genuine track Kia
While all very impressive we’re perhaps more interested in Kia doing something along the lines of the
B-Spec Rio racecar
we saw at LA last year. Now that looks like a proper track car…