Kia banks on Motown with its 170 mph Sting er
DETROIT’S a tough old motor industry city and it takes a brave car-maker to muscle in on Motown’s finest. But that’s exactly what Kia has done by launching its own sports coupe in the backyard of all-American Ford with its racy rival, the Mustang.
The wraps came off Kia’s powerful new 170 mph sports coupe, called the Stinger, to steal the spotlight from American carmakers on their home turf.
Arriving in Britain from September and priced from about £43,000, it will provide a rival to upmarket German cars such as Audi’s A5, BMW’s 4 Series Gran Coupe, Mercedes-Benz’s CLS and Jaguar’s XF.
The fast-back four-door grand tourer coupe is the highest performance production vehicle in Kia’s history, and made its debut at this month’s North American International Auto Show in Detroit.
The new Korean auto-bahn-buster was tested on the Nurburgring racetrack. Design of the new Stinger was overseen by Kia’s Bavarian born chief design officer Peter Schreyer, who at Audi was responsible for the creation of the original Audi TT. Ride and handling engineering was the work of former BMW executive Albert Biermann.
It is powered by a mighty 3.3litre twin-turbo engine developing 365 hp and linked to an eightspeed automatic gearbox with manual paddle-shift. The Stinger will accelerate from rest to 62 mph in 5.1 seconds with a top speed expected to exceed 167 mph.
As a less gas-guzzling alternative, there will also be a two-litre turbo- charged, four- cylinder version from 2018.
And a raft of safety systems aim to keep occupants well-protected — including a warning chime and dashboard graphic alert to drivers who appear to be drowsy and nodding off behind the wheel.