Facelift Kia Stinger starts taking leave of its wrapping as engine details emerge

The updated Kia Stinger has made yet another spy shot appearance ahead of its rumoured debut this month, albeit this time with less camouflage and output of its engines revealed.

Pictured by The Korean Car Blog, the already seen new headlights with integrated daytime running LEDs represents the sole visual hint of the updates as the rest of the uncovered red paint finish doesn’t betray much of the revisions still hidden underneath the black covers.

According to the online publication though, the Stinger will be the recipient of redesigned front and rear bumpers, a slightly revised rear light bar and new alloy wheels, however, making out any changes to the interior through the glare and somewhat dirty driver’s side windows is more of a challenge.

Up front resides the biggest change and while it was reported earlier this month that the Korean-spec Stinger would continue with the existing 2.0-litre turbo and 3.3-litre twin-turbocharged engines, information obtained from the South Korean Ministry of Environment has suggested the retention of the latter but that the former would give way to the Smartstream 2.5 T-GDI engine.

Set to once again be paired to an eight-speed automatic gearbox, the 2.5 will have its output increased from 210 kW in the K5 to 224 kW, but continue to produce 422 Nm. An uptake of 36kW/69Nm over the current 2.0-litre, the Stinger will be heavier by a reported 40 kg with a claimed weight of 1 690 kg for the rear-wheel-drive and 1 755 kg for the all-wheel-drive.

At the range’s sharp-end, the twin-turbo V6, which speculation has alleged could be replaced by the 3.5-litre unit from the Genesis G80, will get a new variable sports exhaust system and a remapped ECU for a power bump of two kilowatts, meaning an output of 274 kW with torque set to stay put at 510 Nm. Like the 2.5, only the eight-speed automatic ‘box will be offered, with no mentioning being made of the 2.2-litre turbodiesel engine offered in some markets.

When the wraps officially come off, don’t expect the Stinger to return to South Africa after a production run of only 28 units from July to September 2018.

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