Infiniti Q50 Eau Rouge to use Nissan GT-R-style V6 engine (2014) first details

By Ollie Kew

First Official Pictures

04 March 2014 11:30

Infiniti’s BMW 3-series rival is the new Q50 saloon. For the upcoming flagship model, Infiniti has decided to bless it with power from the class above.

Yup, the Infiniti Q50 Eau Rouge musters a healthy 560bhp and 442lb ft. And the car the Q50 Eau Rouge has to thank is: the Nissan GT-R.

Infiniti won’t appreciate the pigeonholing, but essentially, yes. Infiniti is after all Nissan’s premium arm, and the Q50 Ea Rouge has a twin-turbo 3.8-litre V6 under the bonnet. It’s also all-wheel drive. It doesn’t take the wildest imagination to work out where that powertrain blueprint has been borrowed from.

Nope. Whereas the Nissan GT-R uses a six-speed twin-clutch gearbox, Infiniti has employed a seven-speed automatic transmission in the Q50 Eau Rouge. Seems in keeping with the Q50’s less hardcore brief than Nissan’s ‘Godzilla’.

Infiniti says this is only a ‘potential powertrain’ for its first proper super-saloon, but went as far as predicting a sub-4.0sec 0-60mph time, and a top speed of around 180mph.

By Ollie Kew