Kia GT4 Stinger Concept Rides on ‘Custom’ Chassis into Detroit

There isn’t much about Kia’s latest concept car that doesn’t suggest that the company is about to get serious about offering a sports car.

Kia doesn’t currently offer a sports car, but the concept on display seems like an obvious sign that the South Korean brand is planning on changing that soon. The concept car uses a 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder to send 315 hp to the rear wheels through a close-ratio six-speed manual and weighs 2,874 lbs, which is almost 490 lighter than the 2.0T Hyundai Genesis Coupe.

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It may share an engine with the Hyundai sports coupe, but the similarities stop there. At just under 170 inches long, it’s roughly a foot shorter than the Hyundai product. The wheelbase is also 74.4 inches wide, which makes it wider than the brand’s full-size Cadenza sedan.

Kia put 20-inch wheels with staggered widths on the car measuring 235 millimeters in the front and 275 in the rear. Brembo brakes grip 15-inch rotors for stopping power.

But the most important aspect of the car is what you can’t see. The car is built on a custom chassis that uses an independent double wishbone suspension. That’s a difference setup than Hyundai uses with the Genesis Coupe, further emphasizing that Kia’s future performance plans could include more than a re-badged sports car borrowed from their Hyundai counterparts across the hall.

The company says there aren’t currently any plans to build the car, but that it “has a history of delivering production vehicles that bear a strong resemblance to the concept that preceded them, and the GT4 Stinger provides a possible and highly provocative glimpse into Kia’s future. ”