Zipping around town in a tiny B-segment car is often very pleasurable. Descriptors like “go-kart” or “darty” are often used to express the size and spirited nature of the cars, so it would only seem fitting to set a bunch of them loose on a race track, right? Well, that’s just what several manufacturers like Mazda, Honda, Ford, and possibly even Fiat and Toyota, are looking to do with those little hatchbacks. Kia, not to be left out, has just announced its plans to join the fun with its Rio5 B-Spec kit.
The formula is simple. Buy a Mazda 2, Honda Fit, Ford Fiesta, or Kia Rio5 in this case, and transform the little guy into a full-blown race car with a roll cage, race seat, suspension upgrades, and so on. Then, take it to the track and go wheel-to-wheel racing against those other little Bs under sanctioning bodies like World Challenge, Grand-Am, Sports Car Club of America, and National Auto Sport Association, in the Showroom Stock B-Spec class.
Kia, in conjunction with its racing partner Kinetic Motorsports which runs Kia’s Forte Koup Grand-Am effort, has announced a B-Spec kit that’ll include everything you need to transform your Rio5 into a race car. Available for $14,000—that’s in addition to the $14,350 cost of a 2012 Rio5—the kit includes a roll cage kit, a race seat and harness, quick-release steering wheel, race shocks, lighter wheels and spec tires, oil pump pan expansion kit, and build instructions. The price does not include prep or installation, so if you aren’t handy with a welder or wrench, Kinetic will assemble your B-Spec Rio5 for another $6000 at its shop in Buford, Georgia.
While building a B-Spec racer isn’t exactly cheap—nothing associated with auto racing is—it’s considerably less than the money required to build most other race cars. We sampled Mazda 2 and Honda Fit B-Spec cars at the 25 Hours of Thunderhill and came away impressed by both cars’ capabilities. The series looks to be a hoot with so many manufacturers poised to get in, and we can’t wait to see what sort of rivalries ensue.
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