Kia has yesterday unveiled its new rear-wheel drive concept car, which points out the brand’s design direction for future models. The Kia GT concept is the brand’s first four-door sports sedan with a rear-wheel drive layout and marries sleek and muscular proportions with a sophisticated and elegant four-seater cockpit.

According to Peter Schreyer, Kia’s Chief Design Officer, “This concept allows us to explore exciting new design directions, as using a rear-drive layout creates very different proportions compared to a front-wheel drive car.”

Kia first got the inspiration for this new car on the 1970’s GT cars: “sumptuous and elegant vehicles capable of whisking passengers from Paris to the South of France in effortless style and at high speed”, in the words of Gregory Guillaume, Kia’s European Design Chief.

The Kia GT has a designed around the aeronautical theme, featuring the multi-piece propeller-style alloy and carbon-fibre wheels, the jet-themed rear-view cameras, the low-slung front air intake, the aerodynamically efficient rear diffuser and the winglets that curve in from the front flanks and flow into the headlamps.

The concept car is equipped with a Lamda V6, 3.3-litre T-GDI engine, combined with a 8-speed automatic transmission. It produces a total power of 395 PS and torque of 534 Nm.