Infiniti offers a glimpse of the Q50 Eau Rouge concept coming to Detroit next month.
Hoping to burnish its performance image – and emphasize its return to Formula One racing – Infiniti plans to reveal a high-performance concept based on its new Q50 sedan at the upcoming Detroit Auto Show.
The show car will be dubbed the Q50 Eau Rouge, its name a reference to the world-famous turn on the F1 track in Spa-Francochamps – one known for its ability to trip up even the most skilled veteran race driver.
The maker isn’t saying much about the specifics of the Eau Rouge, though in a release, Infiniti suggests the “concept blends road car technology and a thoroughbred motorsport vision.”
The Q50 introduced earlier this year is the latest version of the old Infiniti G sedan – but it’s more than just a simple product update, and coincides with some major changes at the Nissan luxury brand.
The 2014 Infiniti Q50 introduced the maker’s new hybrid system which shifts from the traditional trade-off of performance for maximum mileage. The Q50 also became the world’s first production vehicle to adopt Nissan’s newly developed steer-by-wire system.
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As for Infiniti itself, the maker is pushing out from its traditional focus on the American market, underscored by its decision to relocate its headquarters to Hong Kong. Nissan has also given its subsidiary both more autonomy and more resources, including independent design and engineering operations.
Meanwhile, Infiniti has been rebuilding Nissan’s presence in the challenging and high-profile F1 series, first as a junior participant in the Red Bull Racing program, now as a full title partner. That has offered the maker the added advantage of access to Red Bull’s four-time World Champion driver, Sebastian Vettel. Vettel recently signed on as Infiniti’s Director of Performance, a job that is expected to influence a number of the maker’s future products.
“Performance is a key pillar of Infiniti’s DNA and this car expresses a deepened design interpretation of that. The Q50, with an abundance of technologies, provides a great basis for an extreme performance version, embodied in the design of Q50 Eau Rouge,” said Alfonso Albaisa, Infiniti’s Executive Design Director.
Exactly what that might translate into with the Q50 Eau Rouge – and whether the concept coming to the North American International Auto Show will translate into a subsequent production model – remains to be seen.
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