In many ways, the Kia Stinger is a rival for the BMW 4 Series Gran Coupe, while the Genesis G70 is expected to go mainstream and target the 3 Series. But it's not like the Germans are standing idly by and letting Korean automakers do their thing.
The G70 sounds like a pretty cool car, on paper at least, but we belive that Genesis should be looking for profits, not bragging rights - SUVs, not a rival for the famous BMW executive car.
Anyway, we have a pretty rare sighting of the G70 test prototype on the Nurburgring track. Since Hyundai has a test facility near the track, we expected to see much more.
Despite the readiness of the sedan, it doesn't handle the famous banked carousel that well. The suspension is bottomed out by some of the bumps in the concrete. But we have to accept that this is the regular version, not a performance G70 that will undoubtedly arrive.
BMW, being the sales powerhouse that it is, can afford to develop several suspension systems for the same car - adaptive, adaptive M Sport, regular, fixed but lowered and so on. Also, Genesis might have a hard time competing in the engine department.
There's a wide variety of powertrains with different outputs on most premium cars of this size, usually ranging from around 120 to over 300 horsepower. But Genesis probably only has access to one diesel, the 2.2-liter with 200 hp you see on the Stinger.
The mainstay engine should be a 2-liter turbo that burns gasoline and returns 245 HP for the rear or all four wheels to enjoy. Eventually, there will also a G70 Sport or G70 N with the 3.3-liter twin-turbocharged V6 good for about 365 HP. Hopefully, ex-BMW M engineering boss Albert Biermann can work his magic in that department.
As far as the styling is concerned, the G70 has already been previewed by a design study at the 2016 New York Auto Show. It was pretty awesome-looking and could be the deciding factor in the competition with BMW.
Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida. Full profile
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