First Drive: Suzuki Kizashi Turbo Concept [Review]

When we first drove the Suzuki Kizashi, we fell in love with the mid-sizer's neutral handling, but we wished for a little more oomph in the power department. While there are no current plans for a V6-powered version of the Kizashi, Suzuki let us behind the wheel of the Kizashi Turbo Concept, giving us hope that more power is in the four-door's future.

For the automotive enthusiasts out there, the Kizashi Turbo probably looks familiar. The hopped-up Kizashi recently appeared on SpeedTV's Test Drive, piloted by none other than racing pro Tommy Kendall. Following that TV spot, Suzuki brought the Kizashi Turbo to Road America, and was kind enough to let Leftlane get some quality drive time.

Wolf in sheep's clothing
From the outside, the Kizashi Turbo prototype doesn't look all that different from the 2011 Kizashi Sport. The Turbo car was originally fitted with 19-inch wheels for its TV debut, but the bigger hoops proved to be ill fitted for track life. In order to make the car more drivable, the Kizashi Turbo now wears the same wheels and tires that are fitted to the 2011 Sport model.

The only other noticeable exterior change on the Kizashi Turbo is a larger rear spoiler. The Sport model also wears a larger-than-stock rear spoiler, but the Turbo's is slightly larger for added down force.

Overall, we quite like the look of the Kizashi Turbo. It would have been easy to go over-the-top with hundreds of air inlets and a body kit straight from the set of The Fast and the Furious, but Suzuki took the subtle route and it really paid off.

Tuning by Road Race Motorsports
Although the Kizashi Turbo's exterior may look tame, the same can't be said for the car's underpinnings. Road Race gave the Kizashi's engine bay a complete makeover, hooking the four-door up with a 16G turbocharger, a high-flow intercooler, blow-off valve, Velocity air intake and an Extreme spray injector. The result is right around 290 horsepower, a hefty 105 horsepower increase over stock.

The Kizashi was already a strong performer in the corners, but Road Race upped the ante with a set of its own sport springs. Braking hardware remains stock, although the Kizashi Turbo was upgraded with better brake pads.

Behind the wheel
If discovering the standard Kizashi's excellent performance was like finding a five-dollar bill wedged between the couch cushions, experiencing what the Kizashi Turbo had to offer was like finding a Picasso in the attic. Road Race was able to give the Kizashi everything it was missing, and then some.

The Kizashi Turbo's added power is instantly felt off the line, but it never feels like it is too much for the car. Suzuki wasn't handing out any performance figures, but we suspect the Kizashi Turbo is capable of mid-5 second 0-60 times, with a high 13-second ¼ mile time not out of the question.

But perhaps more important than the actual power was how the Kizashi Turbo delivered it. Like all six-speed equipped Kizashi models, the Turbo sends its power through the front wheels, but we didn't sense any torque steer whatsoever. We're not sure how Suzuki and Road Race were able to pull off this trick, but they should probably have a talk with the folks at Mazda about the automaker's "hold on to the tiller" Mazdaspeed3.

Navigating through the first turn of Road America we were pleasantly surprised to find that Road Race's sport springs had only improved the Kizashi's handling prowess. Despite the few extra pounds up front from the turbocharging system, the Kizashi Turbo's handling remained extremely balanced, with the car feeling more like a rear-drive sports sedan than a front-wheel drive mid-sizer. As brake modifications were limited, we didn't perceive any marked improvements over the standard car, although performance was good and there was no sign of fade, even after a few hot laps.

Adding a cherry to the top of the Kizashi Turbo was Road Race's performance exhaust. While the system would probably grow annoying during everyday use, it sounded great on the track. On more than one occasion we heard the Kizashi Turbo screaming down the back straight, only to be shocked when we saw the bright red sedan roll into the paddock.

But will they build it?
Although the recent launch of the Hyundai Sonata turbo gave us hope that Suzuki would green light the Kizashi Turbo, an inside source told us that a factory production run of the turbocharged car is probably out of the question. It all comes down to funding and there just isn't enough Kizashi volume - Suzuki is selling just 400 Kizashis per month - to make a business case for an added turbocharged line.

However, the idea of a factory-backed turbo Kizashi isn't completely off the table. Using Toyot's TRD unit as a model, Suzuki could offer a dealer-installed turbo option that wouldn't void the car's warranty. The package wouldn't be cheap, though, adding about $6,000 to the price of a Kizashi, or about $3,500 if you did the work yourself.

Leftlane's bottom line
But even with a price of about $6,000, the Kizashi Turbo package would still be one heck of a performance bargain. The standard Kizashi lists from about $19,000, meaning you could get behind the wheel of a near-300 horsepower performance sedan for $25,000. T

hat's a pretty nifty package if you ask us, and one we hope Suzuki decides to produce. And we sure hope that the buying public picks up on the standard Kizashi soon; it's truly an underappreciated gem right out of the box.

Words and photos by Drew Johnson.