No Stinger GTR… yet

Technically, the hotly-anticipated Kia Stinger GT can be developed into an even higher state of tune.

But unfortunately, despite persistent industry rumours to the contrary, Albert Biermann, the former BMW M boss who has been Hyundai-Kia’s performance chief since early 2015, insisted there was no current plan for a “stronger Stinger” or a “GTR” version.

Biermann was speaking at the global launch drive of the 272kW/510Nm 3.3-litre V6 twin-turbo Stinger flagship at the Nurburgring in Germany where motoring.com.au sampled both the rear-wheel drive version which is coming to Australia and the all-wheel drive which has been ruled out.

The Stinger goes on-sale in Australia in September and is seen by many people as the spiritual successor to the locally-developed Holden Commodore SS, which goes out of production in October. Internationally, the smaller BMW 4 Series has been listed as its most obvious competitor.

“The car technically has more potential no doubt, but at this point there is no plan to do more,” Biermann told motoring.com.au.

“We have to launch this car and see how it does in the market place. What kind of customers do we get? What would be their next requirement from Kia?

“I think first we need to establish some sort of customer base of these kinds of cars and then maybe next steps can happen. But we need to do this carefully. Step by step.

“Right now there is no plan to make a stronger Stinger or something like that, there is nothing like that out there.”

Biermann also acknowledged the ability to expand the GT range, currently the Kia performance peak model, and then go beyond it.

In Australia, only the Kia Optima currently gets the GT badge, but a Picanto GT is expected before the end of the year and the next Cerato – due in 2018 - is likely to have a GT flagship.

“I like the more sporty cars with the more sport character and I see the potential of more Kia cars than now can have the GT driving character in the future,” Biermann said.

“I would obviously support market requests for more GT in Kia cars because I think they would strengthen the brand a lot.

“At a later stage, when the GT is more established into a stronger sub-label within Kia, then maybe at some point we need a GTR or something,” he added. “But for now there is nothing going on.”

Kia also used the Nurburgring event to reveal further technical detail about the Stinger, including the testing conducted at the legendary 20.8km circuit.

The Korean giant says each development car has been put through a minimum 10,000km, or 480 laps, of the race track. It claims the stresses produced are equivalent to over 160,000km of on-road testing.

Testing at the German circuit played a key role in developing the Stinger’s passive and active suspension systems. While all cars ride on the same MacPherson strut front and multi-link rear fundamentals, the GT is offered with Dynamic Stability Damping Control (DSDC) for its shock absorbers.

These dampers can be set to either ‘standard’ or ‘sport’ modes, as can the rack-mounted motor-driven power steering system.

Australia gets its own suspension and steering tune, developed under the guidance of consultant engineer Graeme Gambold. It’s the first time the local program has worked with active dampers.

The Nurburgring also revealed a need for a larger oil cooler for the Stinger’s eight-speed automatic transmission.

Beyond the Nurburgring, over 1.1 million km of durability testing was carried out around the world, including Europe, the Middle East and North and South America.

Kia’s development team went to the Großglockner High Alpine Road in the Austrian Alps for constant downhill brake testing of the Stinger, which features Brembo brakes in the V6 models. Four-piston calipers up-front, working on holed and grooved 350mm disc rotors were designed to retain stopping power and feel at temperatures above 800-deg C.

The liftback body’s development also required close co-operation between designers and engineers to achieve aerodynamic optimisation.

Tweaks introduced to the car included tapering the bodywork slightly toward the rear and the introduction of new gills behind the front wheel arches to reduce wake turbulence across the car’s flanks.

A partially-flat underfloor cover reduces drag, while a slight ducktail for the rear spoiler was designed to reduce lift and increase high-speed stability. Larger horizontal cooling ducts up-front improve brake cooling and air inlets were shaped to reduce front-end lift. Reducing the height of the rear of the roof improved aerodynamic efficiency.

Despite all that work, Kia hasn’t revealed a coefficient of drag figure for the Stinger. Nor has it announced fuel consumption numbers or kerb weights (thought to spread between about 1650kg and 1800kg).

Kia is also spruiking Stinger’s synthesised sound system which changes note as the engine’s character changes through different modes. Sadly, the result is disappointing enough that a bi-model exhaust is being developed locally as an option.

Biermann said he joined the Hyundai-Kia group early enough to have an influence on the Stinger, which is based on the same architecture as the forthcoming Genesis G70.

“When I joined we just got the first make-up prototype cars that were based on the Genesis coupe and the new platform was underneath,” Biermann recalled.

“I worked together with my engineers on that first set of hardware and then we made some changes to the rear axle kinematics and changed some control arm positions

“Later we changed the whole philosophy of elasto-kinematics more into precision and less for isolation.

“I am happy with what we got. The substance of the platform, the stiffness. Although this car is bigger and it has a longer wheelbase, the torsional stiffness of this car is on the same level as smaller competitors.

“It’s all there. We added some reinforcing struts to the rear axle area, but with the substance of our cars I can say, like the rear wheel drive platform … those are really strong very robust structures.”