2017 Kia Optima GT first drive

The Kia Optima GT, slated for introduction in UK showrooms in autumn 2017, is the most powerful production model that Kia has sold in Europe.

Part of the gradual process of moving the perception of the Kia brand upmarket and giving its cars more of a ‘developed in Europe’ handling feel, the Optima GT will become the second official performance derivative from Kia after the Ceed/Proceed GT of 2013. But it’s also the first such model to benefit from the influence of recently installed Hyundai-Kia performance car supremo Albert Biermann. And Biermann’s last job, in case you’d missed the rather eye-grabbing appointment, was engineering boss of BMW’s M division.

The story goes that Biermann asked to drive the latest prototype of the Optima GT when informed about its existence by his team of engineers in 2015 – only to be told he was actually driving it at the time of asking. “This is not a GT” is reportedly how he responded, promptly sending the car back through the development process and ordering a more transformative job to be done on the car, including suspension, braking, steering, engine, transmission and interior.

The Optima GT just launched in European markets is what has resulted: a car available as either a saloon or estate, with a 242bhp 2.0-litre turbocharged petrol engine, front-wheel drive, a near-150mph top speed and the potential for sub-7.5sec 0-62mph acceleration.

All of which may not quite sound like the stuff of boyhood dreams, but for Kia, it’s a bold effort to take on the brand equity and development expertise of some of Europe’s biggest industry powers in a market niche that it wouldn’t have contemplated entering 10 years ago.

The Optima GT breaks ground for Kia by adopting a new proprietary adaptive damping system, whose re-engineering for right-hand drive is the reason for the car’s relatively late arrival in the UK. The suspension springs have also been shortened and stiffened relative to that of a normal Optima, its front anti-roll bar stiffened in line, its electromechanical power steering set-up retuned for greater responsiveness and feedback, and its brake discs enlarged and uprated.

Kia’s go-faster upgrade for the cabin is apparently less wide-ranging, though – and it does little for an interior that looks plain in as many places as it plays up to the senses. The ‘GT’-stitched leather seats seem somewhat hard and flat in the cushion and lack width in the squab, failing quite to grip you like a sports seat really should. The instruments are rather dowdy by performance design standards, too. In other respects, the Optima GT’s cabin is roomy, comfortable and well equipped, but it could just as easily belong to a high-output diesel.