Imagine you find yourself behind the wheel of a Holden Commodore SS, the Aussie incarnation of the Chevrolet SS and a Kia shows its intentions of battling you in the quarter mile. A push of the pedal should be enough to put the South Korean automobile in its place with the V8 powaaah under the hood of your GM animal, but can this do the job?
Well, as far as the aural part of the battle is concerned, the slab of America/Australia obviously takes the cake. But what about the actual fight, the one involving the sprinting?
The answer might surprise you - the two go-fast sedans have recently been put through the paces by the Down Under aficionados over at CarAdvice and we have to throw a heavy spoiler at you: the Stinger left the Commodore SS-V trailing in its wake. And with the Aussie machine being the last of its kind (2017 is the final year of production for Holden altogether), this defeat has a specifically bitter taste.
The two weren't involved in a drag race per se, with the editors deciding to put the machines to straight-line work one by one. The 0 to 60 mph, along with the quarter-mile numbers were monitored and the V8 Holden simply couldn't keep up with the twin-turbo V6 Kia.
The conclusion of the acceleration test came as a bit of a surprise and there are at least two reasons for that. First of all, the said Holden has been recorded pulling 1,320-feet sprints in as little as 12.9 seconds, while the timed run we have here is considerably weaker.
Then there are the specs of the two heroes. You see, the 420 hp Chevrolet SS outguns the 375 hp Kia Stinger in both the power-to-weight ratio and the torque departments. We must, however, keep in mind that the auto tranny of the Commodore SS-V is nowhere near as quick as that of the Kia, while the latter also comes in AWD form.
Nevertheless, it's obvious that Kia's new halo car can deliver V8 levels of performance. And if we factor in the rumor about the South Korean automaker considering a V8 incarnation of the Stinger, things only get spicier.
In his quest to bring you the most impressive automotive creations, Andrei relies on learning as a superpower. There's quite a bit of room in the garage that is this aficionado's heart, so factory-condition classics and widebody contraptions with turbos poking through the hood can peacefully coexist. Full profile
Would you like AUTOEVOLUTION to send you notifications?
Google News