At the Paris Motor Show at the end of September 2016, the South Korean company Kia held its debut show of the "charged" modification of the compact crossover Soul with the "GT" in the name, which received sporty touches in the design and was "equipped" with a powerful turbo engine.
Car sales in the countries of the Old World began almost immediately after the international premiere, and on the Russian market it "starts" already in the early half of 2017.
Outside, the Kia Soul GT gives out its "hot temper" with modified bumpers, whose design publicly declares the sporting ambitions of a SUV, a "double-barrel" exhaust system, 18-inch "rollers" of the original design, a decorative red stripe around the perimeter of the body and a Soul nameplate of the same colors on the trunk lid.
The "charged" crossover repeats in size the standard "brother": its length, height and width fit in 4140 mm, 1605 mm and 1800 mm, respectively. The five-door wheelsets accommodate 2570 mm between each other, and its gap under the "belly" is 150 mm.
The sporty spirit is also present in the interior of the Kia Soul GT - it is expressed in the steering wheel with a truncated rim in the lower section, a combination of leather and fabric with contrasting orange stitching and a more "elegant" instrument cluster.
In terms of other parameters, the decoration of the crossover is identical to the usual model - modern design, high-quality performance and a five-seat layout.
The trunk, in terms of "geometry and capacity", has not changed either - with a volume of 354 liters (1367 liters with the rear sofa folded down).
The "heart" of the GT-version of "Soul" is a 1.6 T-GDI gasoline engine belonging to the Gamma family, with an aluminum head and a cylinder block, a turbocharger combined with an exhaust manifold, distributed injection and phase shifters at the outlet and outlet. Its potential is 204 "horses" at 6000 rpm and 265 Nm of torque at 1750-4500 rpm.
The entire power reserve is directed to the front wheels through a 7-band 7DCT preselective "robot" with two clutches.
On a hard surface, the Kia Soul GT feels more than confident: the SUV accelerates as much as possible up to 200 km / h (due to the "electronic collar"), "firing" to the first "hundred" after 7.8 seconds. In mixed driving conditions, the car "eats" 7.4 liters of fuel per 100 kilometers.
From a constructive point of view, the GT-modification of the Soul practically does not differ from the basic "brother" - it is based on a front-wheel drive "bogie" with an independent MacPherson-type suspension at the front and a semi-independent architecture with an elastic beam at the rear.
The car is equipped with disc brakes on the front and rear wheels (ventilated in the first case) with modern "assistants" and electric power steering. Among the improvements - more durable and large brake "pancakes" in front.
In Russia, sales of the Kia Soul GT were launched in the second half of 2016, in 2017 it acquired the ERA-GLONASS system, and in 2018 its cost in the Russian market is from 1 million 441 thousand 900 rubles.
By default, the car has: six airbags, high-quality "music", multimedia complex, ESP, dual-zone "climate", 18-inch wheels, combined trim, navigation, ABS, bi-xenon headlights, heated front and rear seats, assistance system when starting up a hill, a rear view camera and other equipment.
