Fresh after news Thursday that Hyundai wouldn’t be making a new sportscar and Kia would be, the latter Korean automaker said it has put on hold its plans to make a four-door coupe until 2017, AutoExpress is reporting.
The first sportscar from the Kia brand would likely be on the Genesis platform and could offer a range of engines all the way up to a V-8.
The GT4 is still a half-decade away, apparently.
The Kia GT, dubbed “baby Panamera” by some, was slated to arrive next year, but plans for that have been scrapped, AutoExpress reported.
“We have very high intentions to put these models into production — we’re working on it,” Spencer Cho, Kia’s general manager of overseas marketing, told the publication.
Any reports of the GT4 should met with healthy skepticism, the B&B pointed out yesterday. Engineering for that car may not have started — that only takes 3 to 4 years — and the business case sounds shaky.
Nonetheless, it looks like the GT may actually see the light of day, albeit a year later than we thought.
“The first sportscar from the Kia brand would likely be on the Genesis platform and could offer a range of engines all the way up to a V-8”
But all the enthusiasts told me that V8 aren’t necessary…
I only see one thing in that photo, and it’s not the car or some jacket guy.
That wall does look pretty interesting, It’s so…round.
I agree it’s a great font.
I would love to see Kia emulate Datsun of the 60s and early 70s.
That is to deliver very affordable great sports cars.
I wonder how successful this program will be. Korea doesn’t have much of a racing heritage, or at least any auto racing they can boast about. Compared to the Americans, Japanese and Europeans with a rich enthusiasm for car racing, Korea still hasn’t shown the world successful wins inspired by their own racing development. I guess there’s a beginning for everything.
What about that KIA badged fwd lotus? That was somewhat sporty…
Excuse me–
http://www.kia.com/us/en/content/why-kia/kia-racing/intro
Well, putting aside that the Kia Optima and Forte won their respective classes in the Pirelli World Challenge last year, most auto buyers don’t follow or care about auto racing.
The fact that the Optima beat the likes of Aston and Porsche in the GTS class had little to no effect on sales – doubt most Americans even know that the PWC Racing Series exists.
Renault has won 6 of the last 10 F1 Championships, but that hasn’t made Renault the choice for the average buyer, much less auto enthusiasts.
Mercedes-powered F1 race cars have won the Championship many more times than one BMW-powered and yet, it is BMW that has long been the chosen German brand for enthusiasts.
Ford has won the F1 Championship and 24 Hours of LeMans a good but more times than BMW.
Even buyers of exotics and super/hyper cars don’t care much – see Koenigsegg and Pagani, much less Lamborghini.
Anyway, if Kia keeps the production version striking (change the front end and lose the suicide doors, but keep the basic shape/design) of the greenhouse and rear intact, put in a higher grade interior (and more interesting dash design) than the Genesis, and give it better handling (doesn’t have to be a class leader) than the Genesis (in part due to lighter weight) – can see this do about as well as the Genesis sedan in sales.
Hopefully the car will not be as apparently ill equipped and outdated as the model – he forgot his belt, hasn’t shaved or gotten a haircut for quite a while, and thinks it’s 1977 with the unbuttoned shirt.
Or maybe it’s just a cultural misunderstanding – like the Daewoo Lanos, that’s what passes for handsome in Korea?
Bro, do you even fashion? Fitted trousers without belts (even with belt loops) has been in for a while now.
This. If a boy has a slinky midriff, he should work it!
So are you saying that “fitted” is the new euphemism for “too small and high water” pants?
Not buyin’ it.
Oh and by the way, “four door” and “coupe” don’t go together. A coupe has two doors. When all of us old farts are done with the language, we’ll let you know and then you can let the marketeers redefine it for you. Till then, a coupe has two doors.
“Till then, a coupe has two doors.”
And the best of them have an 8′ bed behind those doors!
Yeah nah m8, he’ll claim the tail gate as a “door”.
I dig the looks and the apparent functionality, but for the love of all that’s holy, ditch those mutha-fugly wheels. They’re almost as bad as that hideous dress the girl is wearing.
Well, the dress would look a lot better with more girl inside it. She may as well be East Asian.
Amen to that. The dress looks straight off the back of a Price Is Right model, circa 1975.
Now you’re spookin’ me…
That is EXACTLY what I’m seeing in her every detail… that washed-out, willowy immediate post-flower child look that hit the fashion and commercial mainstream of that era.
All the psychedelic fonts and paisley overlays were still warm on the ad agencies’ mainframes.