Detroit, Jan. 9 — South Korean automobile manufacturer Kia announced on the weekend the official debut of its new Stinger sports sedan, to be revealed at the North American International Auto Show, which kicked off on Monday in Detroit.

Kia said that it is planning to sell the Stinger, which is based on the same-named prototype that the firm presented at the 2011 Frankfurt Motor Show, in the United States starting late in 2017.

The automaker called the Stinger “a true gran turismo, a car for spirited long-distance driving, (which) is not about outright power, hard-edged dynamics and brutal styling, all at the expense of luxury, comfort and grace,” according to a statement released by Gregory Guillaume, chief designer for Kia Motors Europe.

The vehicle was designed in Frankfurt and developed at Nurburgring, Germany’s legendary motorsports complex.

“Unlike any Kia that has come before it, the Stinger really is a dream car for us, and here today in Detroit, that dream is now a reality after years of commitment and hard work from a passionate group of designers, engineers and executives around the world,” Kia Motors America vice president for product planning Orth Hedrick said in a statement.

Attending the presentation in Detroit were Guillaume, along with Kia design chief Peter Schreyer of Germany and testing and high performance director Alberto Biermann.

The front part of the new vehicle has a “tiger nose” that has been the defining characteristic of Kia vehicles designed by Schreyer.

Kia said that the Stinger is equipped with a chassis with 55 percent high-resistance steel to provide rigidity, MacPherson rear-wheel drive suspension and multi-link.

Other features include forward collision alert with autonomous emergency braking, pedestrian protection, adaptive cruise control, lane-keeping assist, color heads-up display and 720-watt Harman/Kardon audio.

The Stinger will come in two versions with the standard model sporting a 2.0L 255-hp turbocharged four-cylinder engine and the more powerful model featuring a 365-hp 3.3L twin-turbo V6.

The vehicle’s transmission is a second-generation eight-speed automatic.

Pricing for the Stinger has not yet been announced but it has been designed to compete with the Audi A4, Infiniti Q50, Lexus IS, BMW 4 Gran Coupe and even the Lexus GS and Mercedes CLS1, according to Kia. EFE