Kia Shows Its Idea of a Hot Hatch with Track'ster Concept at Chicago

Kia has finally shown its weirdly named Track'Ster hot hatch at the Chicago Motor Show. The all-wheel drive, Soul-based hatchback uses a 250ps turbocharged engine. 

"We wanted to base the car in reality so people instantly knew it was a Soul, but with a lot of attitude. It had to be a bold interpretation that would change people's conceptions of what a sporty Kia could be," said Tom Kearns, chief designer for Kia Motors America. 

Kia painted the car white with an orange roof. While the Soul is a four-door, the Track'Ster is a two-door hot hatch, but the actual car is on a stretched Soul chassis with 1in of extra length. The front air intake is made from carbon fiber, and it has two huge low-mounted fog lights. The headlights are trimmed in LEDs. The Track'Ster has 19in wheels with 14in front Brembo brakes and 13.6in rear brakes. Inside, Kia wrapped the car with gray leather. 

That 250hp comes from a turbocharged, 2.0 liter with a six-speed manual transmission and all-wheel drive. It has 66% more power than the standard Soul. 

Kia has no plans to produce the Track'Ster for now. Although, there are many parts about it there are realistic for production. The turbo 2.0 liter is already in Kia's stable. It would be great to see this idea applied to Kia's Forte Koup, which could use the big boost in power.