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Subtract two doors and a back seat from the Kia Soul and add a 250 horsepower and all-wheel drive and you have the Kia Track’ster concept. The initial sketches of the Track’ster were pretty underwhelming, but this car looks much better in photographs. A one inch longer wheelbase and a Brembo brake system with 14 inch rotors up front, 13.6 inches in the back and a combination of 6 and 4 piston brake calipers (front and rear) add to the Track’ster’s spec sheet. Instead of the rear seats, there’s a compartment for spare tires and safety gear like helmets.
25 Comments on “Kia Track’ster Gets 250 Horsepower, AWD: 2012 Chicago Auto Show...”
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If you had asked me as recently as last month if there would ever be a Kia that I’d lust after, I’d have died of laughter. Today I am drooling, not laughing. Cool/odd looking car, 250 hp, AND all wheel drive? Yes please.
Ditto. This one could excise my Nippolegiance.
Wow. So, like, if the Big H is now Huyndai, then Kia is the big A(cura) now? At the same show that produced that silly Civicacura?
W-A-I-T a minute…is this Kia pretending to be Dodge and Chevy, teasing me again with a make-believe pillarless hardtop? I’ll believe this when I see it, especially if those back windows roll down, but something tells me there will be a B pillar with fixed-glass like the Camaro and Challenger.
Well, it had my interest for awhile…
Fiat Abarth/Mini killer! Nice!
I love it! I’m quickly becoming an H/K booster, can’t call myself a fan of anything (not after reading Misery), and this is goofy enough for me to like. I make no bones about my inability to pilot anything around a track – I haven’t the interest nor the coordination, but this looks fun.
Of course I like the normal Soul as well.
Very nice! What a cool and non-dumpy looking little car with decent HP. Chances are the production version would never look like this and the Korean origin means I would never drive it. But MINI take note though – this is how you do up a small car.
This is real? Like they might sell it?
If this comes to fruition under 30k, my FR-S dreams just got thrown out the window.
Edit: Ok, just read the *other* article which is half-about this car. Totally not a confusing way to present this information at all.
IF they build it now I’m just waiting for a price announcement because the right price might make people say… “Scion/Subaru BRZ? Never heard of it.”
Although I predict vestigial back seats to try to beat the insurance regulators.
I’ve posted this to Nissan Cube and Nissan Juke Facebook pages, but I’ll say it again here: This is all the reason Nissan should need to go ahead and drop a massaged 1.6-liter Juke turbo and six-speed transmission into a Cube and call it the Cube NISMO edition or whatever they want to call it. Give the Cube the Juke-R treatment, basically.
This, along with the Nissan Juke have potential to become serious contenders on the WRC circuit. I would love to see some more manufacturers to mix things up!
Dang! AWD and boy-racer looks to boot? Sign me up.
I stand by my statement that the Korean brands are now what the Japanese brands were in the late-’80s. (And the Japanese brands now represent late-’80s GM)
I actually kind of like this one. I wouldn’t buy it because I need 4 doors, but it looks much more aggressive.
The return of the mutant minisport? Woo/yay/houpla!
Renault 5 Turbo, 1980:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Renault_5_Turbo.jpg
I like it.
Awww man, you beat me by like five seconds. I had the exact same thought – Renault R5 Rocket, minus the engine in the cockpit behind the driver.
Holy crap, some Renault R5 in the looks there…
http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/autopia/2010/04/renault-r5-turbo.jpg
I’ve always been curious about the Soul, but THIS. This I LOVE.
A track oriented car out of the box, AWD, 250 HP (translation manageable) and it looks like THAT.
Sign me up!
Where’s the hamsters?
Gotta have the hamsters.
Ask Mr. Slave. ; )
Jesus Christ, run Lemiwinks, run!
Can anyone say “Hey! I’m its ugly Mini Cooper knock off!”?
If they’re making a 250hp AWD car I’d like some decent aerodynamics with it.
While the Mini is cool, what’s ugly are some of the spin-offs of the Mini.
And I’d hardly say it’s a “knockoff” of the Mini considering the front, rear and greenhouse looks nothing like a Mini.
Now, maybe the Suzuki Swift, Dodge Hornet or a no. of others – unless you’d like to claim them all as being a Mini knockoff as well.
Agreed, the initial Cooper was fine, but the knock-offs were a bit ugly and frankly pointless.
The barn-door wagon Mini was sorta neat, but I never cared for 4wd wagon spin-offs of recent FWDs.
This reminds me of an AMC prototype from the late 60’s of an AMX with a Gremlin rear.
[www.shorey.net]
This is what Mini could have been if they weren’t making chick cars.