Developer STARD unveils Kia Cee´d TCR video preview

The previously announced Kia programme in the TCR series is going forward under the development of Manfred Stohl’s STARD. The Austrian research & development company revealed a video teaser of the new Cee’d TCR on social media, releasing further details on the progress made with the project.

Michael Sakowicz, STARD’s CEO, says he is surprised with the speed of the progress being made: “We have worked intensively with full focus on the technical solutions. We are extremely pleased with the progress over the last few months and are very confident that the car will be highly competitive in all the various TCR series. The testing programme is going very well and the results have even exceeded our expectations. We are perfectly on schedule with our project plan up until now.”

The official presentation of the Kia is scheduled for October, although customers will be able to place orders as early as next month. Chief Technical Officer Philipp Thonet explained that the car is undergoing several different tests in order to decide the suppliers for some of the parts: “To ensure that we pick the best suppliers, we are testing a number of different components, also bearing in mind the new tasks for TCR like endurance and 24-hour races. We are currently testing four different damper suppliers. The same approach applies to the gearbox, brakes and so on. This process is time consuming, but ensures that only the best package will find its way into the car.”

It is unclear when the car will make its debut, but given the official presentation date it is very unlikely the car could make it to the track in the TCR International Series before Sepang (October, 2nd), leaving the Macau season finale as the sole possible alternative.

Below is the video published by STARD as a teaser for the new Cee’d TCR.