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Develop it, please.
“We want to know what you feel,” said the polite fellows in custody of Infiniti’s lately completed—and only—Q50 Eau Rouge prototype. This is very flattering to a writer, the implication that my opinion might be relevant to some essential decisions in, say, the final suspension tune or even whether or not to construct the automobile in the 1st place. I told them I’m the wrong guy to ask about that, as I’m firmly in favor of sticking GT-R engines in almost everything that Nissan tends to make, such as its forklifts. So a 4-door Nissan GT-R? Yes, please. Build that.
Infusing a Q50 sedan with GT-R guts is not fairly as easy as fabbing up some new motor mounts, as I discovered at the Millbrook Proving Ground in England. The twin-turbocharged 3.8-liter V-6 itself fits fairly nicely, but every thing else is sort of an engineering nightmare. The GT-R, it seems, has a considerably longer nose than the Q50, so the Eau Rouge required all new front bodywork to accommodate the cooling apparatus for the 560-hp furnace pushed against the firewall. When I very first saw the vehicle, I believed it had some sort of police-style strobe lights behind the grille. It turned out I was searching at the intercoolers, which are tucked appropriate up front.
The drivetrain presents a lot more challenges. In its existing guise, the Eau Rouge is running the 6-speed torque-converter automatic from the V-8–powered Q70, along with the Q70’s all-wheel-drive technique. Infiniti asked that we use the paddle shifters to manually adjust gears, in the interest of transmission preservation. And gearchanges were programmed to take a while—again, with the hopes that this transmission would final extended adequate to survive the attentions of a few writers turned loose on Millbrook’s alpine loops.
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Until recently, the prototype was operating Infiniti’s steer-by-wire method, which was swapped for a conventional electric-assist helm to see how that would function. Therefore the steering-method warning light on the dash. It wouldn’t be a prototype without a couple of constantly illuminated warning lights.
The car has been fitted with a specially created restricted-slip rear differential—the only factor on the Eau Rouge not from the corporate components counter—since Infiniti rapidly concluded that open diffs weren’t going to cut it with 560 horsepower, all-wheel drive or not. Strangely, I kept lighting up the inside rear tire coming out of 1 specific corner, which could have been due to the track’s undulating pavement. Or it could have just been that the diff didn’t perform. Infiniti, for its element, says that it hasn’t replicated the behavior.
But you can not judge a vehicle like this the way you would a production auto or even a development mule. This is not intended to be the final word on Eau Rouge setup, despite the fact that its makers would do nicely to preserve the suspension—with new adjustable coil-overs up front—right exactly where it is. It strikes a excellent balance in between compliance and poise, which is acceptable for the 4-door audience. No matter how unholy quickly this point is in a straight line, sedan purchasers almost certainly don’t want their innards vibrated on the GT-R frequency.
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So, the track: The loop covers about 3 miles, and it is created not for enjoyment but to torment cars into revealing their weaknesses. There are a few sections exactly where a brake-tap is mandatory to stop severe air, as on the “Jaguar corner,” so named because it sent a Jaguar airborne into some trees. And the section named “ski jump” is self-explanatory. As for runoff, there are a generous few inches of it right here and there, correct before the guardrail. Now let’s go drive that priceless prototype!
Searching out over the hood, with its GT-R–style vents, you can fool yourself into pondering you are in Nissan’s supercar rather than Infiniti’s feasible flagship sedan. Ditto when you roll on the throttle and get a true taste of the 3.8’s talents that signature intake whoosh paired with brutal acceleration tells your brain this is a GT-R. It didn’t constantly look to release full power—either due to traction handle or perhaps torque modulation in the name of transmission survival—but when it did, it scrolled the scenery as challenging as you’d expect.
So the energy was there. Putting it down is still a operate in progress, I consider. The Q70’s all-wheel-drive technique is not exactly functionality-oriented, so the Eau Rouge sends about 50 % of its energy to the front finish. A rear torque bias seems like a must for a car such as this.
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The tires are an additional area that may require some tinkering. They’re 255s all the way around. A square setup is great for snubbing understeer—see: “Z28, Camaro”—but a 4000-pound auto with 560 horsepower probably requirements wider rubber than this, at least at the back. The Eau Rouge displayed fantastic agility with immediate turn-in, but I believe that may be an artifact of the rear-diff behavior along with the relative lack of grip at the back end. But that is the sort of point they’d sort out more than the subsequent 18 months or so, ought to this auto go to production. My takeaway: Please retain that agility but add some ultimate grip. Plus—big, wide tires appear cool.
I picture that in its production kind, the Eau Rouge will have a a lot more sophisticated AWD method, maybe a various restricted-slip rear end, wider tires, and possibly some sort of brake-primarily based torque vectoring, which can function wonders on all-wheel-drive vehicles. They should preserve the wonderful Recaros, hold the GT-R brakes, hold the suspension tune, and definitely preserve the GT-R V-6 (each the Q70 V-8 and a supercharged 3.7-liter V-6 were considered).
And that, Infiniti, is my valuable, beneficial input. Here’s to hoping that, come the 2016 model year, Infiniti’s initial real superstar is more than just a prototype.
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Infiniti Q50 Eau Rouge Idea Driven: Develop It, Please
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