This morning I drove to Phoenix to take part in KIA's Stinger Experience Tour. It was held at Phoenix International Raceway. This was the last of 9 events that took place across the country. Their previous stop was at Chicago where the temperature was 19, it was 89 in Phoenix today.

The set-up was simple but pretty neat. First a short video presentation, then a few minutes with a "product specialist" covering all aspects of the car. This was followed by 3 in-car experiences. They had set up a 1 mile long auto cross course in the main parking lot of the race track. It had a short "drag strip", a tight slalom course, and several high speed turns.

The first was a drive was in one of the 3 competitor cars they had on site. There was a Porsche Panamera V-6 Turbo, a BMW 640 M Sport, and an Audi A5 Sportback. Which of these we were to drive was just luck of the draw. Mine was the Porsche. A Pro Driver was assigned to ride along. I had a young guy whose day job is as an instructor at the Corvette high speed driving school. The drive started with a full throttle acceleration from a stop up to the "Brake" marker (about 60 mph) then max braking to a full stop. The slalom course was next, then a straight to gain speed for the fast turns.

The next experience was to drive a Stinger over the same course. All the Stingers were GT2's, but there was a mix of RWD and AWD. Mine was RWD.

The final drive was to ride along in the same Stinger while the pro driver showed what it could really do. Wow!

The drive in the Panamera was great. Really plush interior but not much room. Acceleration was good but the brakes were not as effective as I expected. It was not particularly good in the slalom, but was fantastic through the high speed turns. Sticker on this particular car was $108,000!

Over the same course, the Stinger felt much lighter and more agile. Acceleration was faster than the Porsche and the brakes seemed more effective. It was also much easier to drive through the slalom. It was not as comfortable on the high speed turns, but I was probably going much faster since I had been through the course once before.

I thought I had pushed the Stinger a bit while driving, but the pro changed my perception. His lap time was likely half mine. I asked about the reports about the rear getting light when pushed hard so he demonstrated how hard you had to push to get loose. It may be an issue on the track, but I don't know of any roads where you could drive that hard.

I really liked the Stinger before, but I'm more convinced than ever that I want one.

I talked with a guy who drew the A5 for his drive. He thought it was very nice but grossly underpowered compared to the Stinger GT. He was told that the reason the A5 was included instead of an S5 was to demonstrate value. This was the kind of performance you could get for the Stinger price.