Kia Stinger Experience Tour

[phxgt]

Bit of an addendum....I asked the driver if he owned the car what mods he would make/suggest. He said for better handling he would buy another set of wheels and have the same tires on the front as are in the back. I asked about the Eibach springs and he felt they would help a bit and the car would look much better. He added that an ecu adjustment would get you over 400 hp and that the car could easily handle it. He added that he would probably change the exhaust as well.

All in all he seemed to honestly like the car which he actually said surprised him. I was surprised at the tire suggestion as I have not seen that mentioned here on the forum and it was the one change he sounded like should definitely be made for better handling.

 

[Bigserver1]

What, did we all drive the BMW? I was at the 2:30 session here in Phoenix and drove the 640i as well. Felt like a heavy boat compared to the Stinger. And yeah, I felt like I crawled compared to the pro driver even though he coached me all the way around.

I had my pick of the BMW or the A5, so I took the BMW. I wanted to drive the panamera, but it was gone when I was ready to drive the competitor. And yeah, I thought I did “OK” on the course, and then the pro made me look like a grandpa hahahahaha. All in all a really fun experience, and I think the stinger is back on my list...the lack of features in the US model drives me crazy, but it’s a seriously impressive car from a fit and finish perspective, and easily one of the best performing cars on the road.

 

[old cajun]

I had my pick of the BMW or the A5, so I took the BMW. I wanted to drive the panamera, but it was gone when I was ready to drive the competitor. And yeah, I thought I did “OK” on the course, and then the pro made me look like a grandpa hahahahaha. All in all a really fun experience, and I think the stinger is back on my list...the lack of features in the US model drives me crazy, but it’s a seriously impressive car from a fit and finish perspective, and easily one of the best performing cars on the road.

I was in the 10 AM group and drove the Porsche. Really nice and smooth but a bit cramped. It was not great in the slalom, but really nailed the high speed turns. According the the pro driver the list was $108,000. My Stinger was RWD and it was great. Faster in the accel than the Porsche and better in brakng. The Stinger was much faster thru the slalom but not quite as fast thru the high speed turns. Like many others, I thought my lap in the Stinger was pretty good, but the pro's time was probably half mine. I asked him during the lap about reports that the rear of the Stinger got light in fast corners so he showed me what it takes to get loose. Much faster than anything you would do on the street. One of the other guys in our group had a Stinger on order. They asked why he was at the Experience, and his answer was great: "So I can drive it like I can't on the street". The people who drew the A5 were disappointed, but the explanation made sense. The A5 Sportback is about the same price as a GT2 AWD Stinger and they wanted to show the value of the Stinger. The Stinger will be my next car.