Ferocious Sports Car Is a Kia

There’s not a Kia to be found that stokes the flames of enthusiasts’ hearts. The Korean brand is more known for econoboxes driven by hip-hop hamsters than driver’s cars. That could change with the GT4 Stinger, a proper sports car that hits all the right pleasure receptors.

First things first, just look at it. The Stinger screams speed. From the wrap-around windshield to the flared fenders and sloping hatch, this thing has presence. And stance. That oh-so-low ride height is accentuated by 20-inch wheels hiding oversized Brembo brakes, with gobs of sticky rubber pushed to the very outer edges of the bodywork. There’s a blending of show-car frippery with real-world functionality, with brake cooling ducts aft of the front door and honest-to-God mirrors joined by transparent A-pillars and those vertical headlamps that would never make it past the safety obsessives at the Department of Transportation.

If you’re curious about size, the Stinger comes in at just under 170 inches long, putting it closer to a Miata than a Mustang. Kia claims it tips the scales at just 2,874 pounds, and the fact Kia even mentions that is promising because automakers never mention weight if a car is purely a flight of fancy.

That could mean the Stinger is destined for production. The engine, which sends 312 horsepower to the rear wheels through a six-speed manual gearbox, is the same turbocharged 2.0-liter under the hood of Kia’s Pirelli World Challenge Kia Optima GTS racer. But underneath that aggressive exterior is a custom chassis, and there’s no way Kia could justify the expense of putting that into production. What it could do, however, is tap its corporate parents at Hyundai for the rear-wheel-drive Genesis platform, cut a few inches from the middle, stuff it with a more emissions-friendly engine, and make the first serious competitor to the Scion FRS.

That would be a massive win for anyone looking for a wallet-friendly speed machine.