The Detroit show featured the unveiling of many cars, few of which were as interesting in the luxury segment as Infiniti’s showcase of their next-generation sports concept, the Infiniti Q50 Eau Rouge.
The Infiniti Q50 is the current nameplate for the G37, which is still being made as the low-end offering for the sport sedan today (I talked about this with Nissan’s Pierre Loing). The product is due for a facelift re-design, so what we’re seeing here in the new Eau Rouge concept may be the Formula One-inspired look for the next-generation Infiniti Q50.
Many elements in the new Q50 Eau Rouge design come from the company’s partnership as Infiniti Red Bull Racing in F1. This would likely be the extreme sport edition of the Q50, of course, given that the current Infiniti Q50 features a powerful six-cylinder and Johan de Nysschen, President of Infiniti Motor says:
“If we built this car I would expect it to feature over 500hp and 600lb/ft of torque. Through our various alliance partners we have access to a range of engines featuring this performance capability which, with a fair amount of engineering effort, can be developed to exhibit Infiniti character and accommodated within the Q50 engine bay. The engine we are evaluating for the Q50 Eau Rouge is a big personality, V-cylinder engine with forced induction. I think our engineers have been waiting for a project like this.”
This Infiniti Q50 Eau Rouge concept is all-new with the exception of the front doors and roof pillars taken from the current edition of the Q50. The stance is wider by about 20mm, the deck lid and spoiler are larger to create more down force (ala F1), and detailing is in dark chrome both inside and out, making for a more sinister, powerful look.
Inside the concept, though, the Infiniti Q50 Eau Rouge is still all about luxury with only hints at racing – paddle shifters, a high-grip sports wheel, and a few carbon fiber infusions inside and out.
Infiniti hasn’t said whether they will be producing this sports sedan, but it at least hints at what they will likely be doing, design-wise, with the new Infiniti Q50 when it is released, probably as a model year 2015 sometime later this year.
No matter how you look at it, though, the new Infiniti Q50 Eau Rouge is beautiful:
