What's all this about?
If anyone remembers that bit in The Simpsons episode Krusty Gets Kancelled, where there's a tantalising viral campaign that teases the arrival of Gabbo the puppet... then this is a lot like that. Here we have a Kia that looks like it might be about to punch into the big performance league - and no more real details to speak of. For the moment.
What, you can't even tell me what sort of car it is?
Nope. But Kia is hinting at various things. For a start, you need to go to www.thecurveahead.net and you'll find a massive countdown clock, overlaid on a background that shows a coupe-like vehicle taking on a racetrack. Scroll down the page and two of the company's concept cars are visible in a showroom (the one on the left is the pertinent model here...). And in the pictures released with this teaser, there's a shot of the instrument cluster of the new car in question clocking up a healthy 232km/h - or around 144mph in real money, with some revs in reserve. It's clear to see, then, that this won't be just another range-topping GT-badged model to join the fastest versions of the cee'd, pro_cee'd, Optima and Optima Sportswagon that already exist.
So... you sort of have an idea what it will be?
Yes, we're just having you on. This is almost certainly the big coupe-cross-saloon 'halo' model that Albert Biermann - currently head of Hyundai-Kia vehicle testing but once the boss of BMW M - has been promising, taking its styling inspiration from the GT concept car. Kia says it has a 'new paradigm of performance on the horizon', so this machine could feature a powerful engine that eclipses the 245hp of the Optima GT; for example, there's a Kia in the US called the K900 that uses a 5.0-litre V8 developing 420hp. Anyway, enough conjecture - we'll know more as details are drip-fed to us in the coming weeks, ahead of the car's full debut at the Detroit Auto Show early in 2017.
Matt Robinson - 12 Dec 2016