Kia was born in 1944, but all it did back then was steel tubing and bicycle parts. In the 1960s and 1970s, the South Korean manufacturer started to focus on commercial vehicles and passengers cars. Since then, however, Kia didn’t have any ambitions at making fast, fun cars to drive, except for the Cee’d GT and Pro_cee’d GT. But in 2017, Kia will up the ante with an even faster, more fun to drive car. Ladies and gentlemen, here’s the GT!
Well, a part of it. For the second video teaser announcing the advent of the quickest and sportiest Kia ever made, the manufacturer took a pre-production mule to the race track to find out how quickly it hits the 100 km/h (62 mph) mark from a standstill. The answer is 5.1 seconds, which isn’t all that wow.
For me, however, 5.1 seconds to 62 mph in a five-seater sedan with the looks of a coupe is quick enough. For comparison’s sake, the Golf R is two-tenths quicker. The 2005 Aston Martin V8 Vantage is 0.1 seconds zippier. The most hardcore Clio RS, meanwhile, is slower at 6.6 clicks from 0 to 100 km/h.
I’m not too sure about the manufacturer’s promise for “a new paradigm of performance, its heart-pounding power encouraging you to grip the wheel a little more tightly.” Compared to what? A cart pulled by oxen? PR talk aside, Kia is heading in the right direction with the GT, a model capable of hitting more than 244 km/h (151 mph) when propelled by a 3.3-liter twin-turbo V6.
Slated to be revealed on January 8, 2017, in Detroit, the 2018 Kia GT will make the trip to Europe as well. In the Old Continent, the rear-wheel-drive sedan is expected to gain a turbo diesel engine because there’s a market for that sort of vehicle as well. Otherwise, BMW wouldn’t have made the effort to develop diesel-powered grand tourers such as the 640d xDrive Convertible.
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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