Find Reviews by Make:
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...”
Read all comments
Latest Car Reviews view all
Latest Product Reviews view all
Recent Comments
- redapple: Flying fan> “but the quickest way to get into a war on a car site is to be mean towards...
- Daniel J: I’m really interested in one of these but dealerships can’t keep one on the lot long enough to...
- theflyersfan: @pmirp1 – 100% agree. I’ve been saying that for a while as well, but the quickest way to...
- redapple: Does the 4Runner ride as hard as the Tacoma? I Rented a Tacoma in DTW last month. That thing rode so bad...
- theflyersfan: I remember hearing those stories as well. They had so many problems at that plant and the cars were so...
Car Reviews By Make view all
New Car Research
Who We Are
- Tim Healey
Managing Editor - Matt Posky
News and Social Media Contributor - Timothy Cain
Sales Analyst - Murilee Martin
Junkyard Finds Author - Matthew Guy
Contributor - Chris Tonn
Contributor
- Adam Tonge
- Bozi Tatarevic
- Corey Lewis
- Jo Borras
- Mark Baruth
- Ronnie Schreiber
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.