Stings So Good

From 10-year warranties and hamster commercials to the nürburgring, kia has come a long way. 

- Chris Chilton

THE LAST TIME ANYONE GOT EXCITED ABOUT A 9.5-minute lap of the Nürburgring Nordschleife, Hermann Lang was popping corks, having grabbed pole at the 1939 German Grand Prix.

But such a pace in a Kia Stinger felt plenty exciting. That’s partly because the so-called sighting lap of this fearsome track turned out to require, oh, about 100 percent of this writer’s capabilities. But it’s also because the Stinger is great.

You can’t accuse Kia of lacking ambition. Not content with making life difficult for established automakers in the affordable end of the market, Kia now wants to wage war on premium brands. And the 167-mph Stinger is its weapon of choice.

Kia’s other weapon is engineer Albert Biermann, a 32-year  veteran of BMW, the last seven of which he spent at BMW’s M division. He was lured to Hyundai, Kia’s parent company, by what we assume to be a sizable paycheck as well as a new challenge: make a Korean car drive well enough to persuade you out of your BMW 4-series Gran Coupe.

“This has been a great opportunity for us to do something really different, to really surprise people,” Biermann says.