The Sportage is a Champ Over and Over Again!

     

At Kia we like to repeat ourselves. Especially when it comes to desert racing. A Kia Sportage, prepared by Baja Automotive Adventures, has captured the Class 3 championship of the Laughlin SCORE Desert Series not once but twice. And we're talking back-to-back titles in 1997 and 1998, no less! (We'd have won more but we didn't join the series until 1997.)

Kia's rugged racer is revved up for the 1999 season, a demanding six-race series featuring races in Nevada, California and Mexico (including the infamous Baja 1000). We're looking to claim our third straight Class 3 championship (for short wheelbase four-wheel-drive sport-utility vehicles). Guess that means our competitors like Chevy Blazer, Ford Bronco II, Isuzu Amigo, Jeep CJ-7 and Nissan Pathfinder better plan on eating lots of Sportage dust!

Kia got its feet wet in motorsports back in 1993 by competing in one of the most grueling endurance races in the world, the 6,000-mile Paris-Dakar Rally. Then we took the very same vehicle (yep, you read it correctly, the exact same Sportage) and won the 1995 Baja 1000. This hard-racing Sportage earned the distinction of being the first vehicle to successfully complete both courses.

The Racing Sportage

With its state-of-the-art suspension and shock absorber technologies, Sportage is a strong competitor in offroad racing. The engine is race-prepared with an enhanced version of the electronically fuel injected, 2.0-liter, 16-valve, DOHC found in the production Sportage. It delivers 185 horsepower, 55 more than a standard engine.