Watch the Kia Stinger race Nürburgring

It was unveiled at the 2017 North American International Auto Show and made a pretty bold impression. The Kia Stinger is now entering the final stages of its rigorous test and development regime before going on sale later this year.

The test program, which is carried out worldwide on road and track, ensures that he car has the performance, reliability and dynamic sophistication to match it’s bold design.

Gregory Guillaume, Kia Motors Europe’s Chief Designer. “It’s not about outright power, hard-edged dynamics and brutal styling all at the expense of luxury, comfort and grace. The new GT has nothing to do with being the first to arrive at the destination – this car is all about the journey. It’s about passion.”

The Stinger’s dynamics presented Kia engineers with a new challenge. As a car without a predecessor, KIA’s chassis engineers were given a blank canvas for the car’s suspension and steering characteristics. Their brief: to create a true gran turismo, with driving dynamics to match the car’s fastback design. To meet this brief, KIA’s engineers developed two different types of suspension. Every Stinger is suspended by MacPherson struts at the front, and fully-independent multi-link suspension at the rear. A new adaptive system – Dynamic Stability Damping Control (DSDC). DSDC adapts the stroke length of the shock absorbers on the move, and is controlled by acceleration, braking and steering sensors. The Kia Stinger enters production in the second half of 2017, and goes on sale globally during the fourth quarter of the year. Pricing and final specifications are market-dependent.

Beyond the Nürburgring, testing for the Stinger was carried out globally, with over 1.1 million km of durability testing carried out around the world – equivalent to approximately 27 circulations of the Earth around the Equator.