Infiniti Q50 Eau Rouge concept (2014) first official pictures

By Ollie Kew

First Official Pictures

13 January 2014 17:41

Infiniti wants to be taken seriously as a performance car maker – and drizzle some of its championship-winning Red Bull F1 sponsorship garnish over its road car programme. It’s led to this: the Infiniti Q50 Eau Rouge concept.

It’s a supersaloon version of the Q50, named of after the ballsiest corner at the Spa-Francorchamps F1 circuit, and pointing to a new AMG and BMW M-car rival from Nissan’s luxury arm.

This is more a shot across the bows of AMG, Quattro GmbH and BMW Division than a nuke dropped right on the new M3’s head. The Q50 Eau Rouge certainly looks the part – only the front doors and A-pillars are shared with the showroom-spec Q50 saloon.

Carbonfibre (what else) is used for the snouty front splitter, and the wheelarches are blistered outwards by 20mm front and rear. A pert bootlid spoiler and aggressive rear diffuser complete the body’s makeover (complete with F1-style central foglight), while the car rolls on 21in forged wheels. All in all, it’s certainly worthy of drawing glances next to the equally butch BMW M3 and Lexus RC-F.

Infiniti says it’s still evaluating what could power the Q50 Eau Rouge, but wants no less than 500bhp and 600lb ft from the car, which should use a ‘big personality, forced-induction engine’.

There’s only one motor in the Nissan stable which fits that high-profile bill and is capable of producing the required figures: the 3.8-litre twin-turbo V6 in the nose of the Nissan GT-R and Nismo GT-R. If the Q50 were to keep the clever all-wheel drive system and bullet-quick twin-clutch gearbox, a four-door GT-R could be one of the ultimate super-saloon recipes.

Infiniti boss Johan de Nysschen teased the idea of a new performance sub-brand further, saying ‘Q50 Eau Rouge provides not only a glimpse of the design language, but also the performance capability of a future special series’.

By Ollie Kew