No factory-backed Kia Stinger Supercar

Kia is confident its new Stinger GT will go Supercars racing, but the brand’s local distributor won’t be stumping up multi-million-dollar funding to race teams to make it happen.

Kia Motors Australia has been approached by two Supercars teams to set up a factory team but has declined their invitation to spend something like $4-5 million to bring it to fruition.

However, KMA has made it clear a more cost-effective solution would have its support.

"I am sure at some stage there will be [Kia] vehicles involved one way or other [in Supercars] but we won’t be running a factory team," KMA communications boss Kevin Hepworth told motoring.com.au at last week’s Stinger GT international media launch at the Nurburgring in Germany.

Asked if that meant KMA would give permission for the car to be homologated if it wasn’t required to shell out funding, Hepworth said:

"That sort of thing is always possible."

The Stinger GT fits Supercars’ latest Gen2 technical regulations perfectly as a large rear-wheel drive five-door powered by a twin-turbo 3.3-litre V6.

The Stinger has been on the radar of Supercars teams ever since it was first announced.

Garry Rogers Motorsport, the Melbourne-based squad that ran Volvo’s factory program for three years, is definitely one team that has met with Kia.

The other is understood to be Walkinshaw Racing, which lost its backing to campaign as the Holden Racing Team this year.

"I think Damian Meredith [KMA chief operating officer] has had meetings with two race teams, neither of which we will be engaging with," confirmed Hepworth.

"They were given the courtesy of presenting. The money is too much, it’s just too big to run a supported team."

The Supercars version of the Stinger isn’t simply a hotted-up version of the road car. All cars in the category are based on a control spaceframe chassis with an identical wheelbase.

That means a Stinger GT Supercar would require extensive body panel massaging to fit on to the chassis. Designing and testing an aerodynamic package would also cost significant dollars, as would the development of a racing version of the Lambda II engine.

Traditionally, that process has been handled by Supercars racing teams, spending a heap of the manufacturer’s cash.

The teams have been the ones who have gone out and pitched to manufacturers for the multi-million-dollar funding to race their cars.

But with Holden and Nissan now the only factories directly represented in the category, Supercars is considering a radically different way of approaching manufacturers.

The first step would be Supercars itself – rather than teams -- gaining permission from a brand to use a bodyshape, then the category and teams paying for the development.

Manufacturers would be offered sponsorship packages to get involved with teams and the championship, but in theory they might not have to spend a cent to get a car on the Supercars grid.

This radical strategy, which is being strongly backed by DJR Team Penske team principal Ryan Story, would ease the way for Kia onto the grid, might also sway Ford to allow the Mustang to race, potentially draw in Alfa Romeo with the new Giulia and Toyota with the Camry.

In an interview in the current issue of Supercars magazine V8X, category CEO James Warburton admitted he was aware of this radical proposal, but was cautious in his response to it.

"There are many options in discussion, but there is nothing concrete," he said.

"Maybe going forward we need to think about how the series itself can be seated on the other side of the table when it comes to pitches to other manufacturers."