{"id":72375,"date":"2014-03-04T05:20:05","date_gmt":"2014-03-04T10:20:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thedetroitbureau.com\/?p=72375"},"modified":"2014-03-03T07:27:39","modified_gmt":"2014-03-03T12:27:39","slug":"infiniti-muscles-up-with-q50-eau-rouge-concept-v2-0","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/2014\/03\/infiniti-muscles-up-with-q50-eau-rouge-concept-v2-0\/","title":{"rendered":"Infiniti Muscles Up with Q50 Eau Rouge Concept v2.0"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Infiniti CEO Johan de Nysschen with the Q50 Eau Rouge at its original roll-out in Detroit.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When Infiniti rolled out its Q50 Eau Rouge concept car at the Detroit Auto Show earlier this year it suggested a bold and audacious new strategy by a brand that was long little more than an afterthought in the global luxury car market.\u00a0 But the prototype left plenty of questions unanswered \u2013 notably including what might power a production version of the high-line muscle car?<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve gotten our answer with the debut of the Infiniti Q50 Eau Rouge 2.0 at the Geneva Motor Show.\u00a0 Under that deep red sheet metal, the beating heart of the concept vehicle is a twin-turbo 3.8-liter V-6 punching out 560 horsepower and 443 pound-feet of wheel-spinning torque.<\/p>\n

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Breaking News!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cBuilding on the extremely positive feedback on the Q50 Eau Rouge at its recent Detroit Auto Show launch, we decided to further whet the appetite of performance sports sedan fans by engineering this powerful heart into our blood-red beast,\u201d said Johan de Nysschen, the president and CEO of Nissan\u2019s luxury brand.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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Infiniti offers another take on the Q50 Eau Rouge.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The debut of the updated Eau Rouge suggests that Infiniti is quite serious about launching a performance sub-brand designed to go head-to-head with the likes of BMW\u2019s vaunted M, the notorious Mercedes-Benz AMG and the growing V-Series line from Cadillac.<\/p>\n

(Infiniti nixes EV, puts emphasis on performance. <\/em>Click Here<\/span><\/a> for the story.)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

While it\u2019s not clear whether the Eau Rouge name will survive, de Nysschen told TheDetroitBureau.com during a Detroit interview in January that it is critical for Infiniti to add a line of performance models if it wants to be taken seriously by luxury buyers.<\/p>\n

The twin-turbo V-6 in the updated Q50 concept is paired with a 7-speed gearbox and sends power to all four wheels with a normal 50\/50 torque split.\u00a0 The maker claims it can launch the show car from 0 to 60 in \u201cless than four seconds,\u201d with a rated top speed \u201cclose to 170 mph.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the Infiniti CEO also cautions that the powertrain package is \u201can example of what a potential powertrain for the Q50 Eau Rouge may look and sound like.\u201d In other words, it\u2019s far from certain not only if a Q50 Eau Rouge will come to market, but also what the final choice for a drivetrain would be.<\/p>\n

(Infiniti Q50 named a finalist for World Car of the Year. <\/em>Click Here<\/span><\/a> for more.)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

As TheDetroitBureau.com earlier reported, the good news for Infiniti is that it has a lot of options.\u00a0 There are plenty of engines in the Nissan family, perhaps even the V-6 used in the GT-R supercar, though de Nysschen cautioned that it would require a lot of engineering effort to stuff it under the Q50\u2019s hood.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also the possibility of tapping Daimler AG — the parent of Mercedes and its high-performance AMG arm \u2013 which now has formed an extensive alliance with Nissan.\u00a0 In fact, several future Infiniti models will use the small luxury car platform developed for the new Mercedes CLA and GLA models.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe discuss all sorts of technology cooperation projects with Daimler,\u201d de Nysschen noted in January. But whatever powertrain the Japanese maker ultimately settles on \u2013 and wherever it\u2019s sourced \u2013 he promised it will make \u201can avalanche of eyeball distorting torque.\u201d<\/p>\n

While some show cars undergo significant revisions from event to event, the Infiniti Q50 Eau Rouge Concept 2.0 retains the luscious paint job that made it an eye-grabber in Detroit.\u00a0 Among other things, it also maintains the carbon-fiber aero enhancements \u2013 including the front splitter, rear diffuser and side sill skirts, as well as the roof and door mirror casings \u2013 along with the 21-inch lightweight forged alloy wheels and a dual-exit exhaust sports system mounted below the show car\u2019s integrated rear spoiler.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t be surprised to hear still more about Infiniti\u2019s performance plans later in the year.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, the maker also brings to Geneva a new version of the Q50 featuring a turbocharged 2.0-liter inline four. Making 211 horsepower, the rear-drive sedan will debut in China this coming spring, with Europe to follow by autumn. Other markets, including the U.S., will get the new version next year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Infiniti rolled out its Q50 Eau Rouge concept car at the Detroit Auto Show earlier this year, it left some key questions unanswered – notably what engine would power the high-performance model? It’s offering an answer at the Geneva Motor Show. Find out what’s under the hood in this report from TheDetroitBureau.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":70295,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"make":[],"post-state":[],"category_old":[151],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72375"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72375"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72375\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72375"},{"taxonomy":"make","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/make?post=72375"},{"taxonomy":"post-state","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post-state?post=72375"},{"taxonomy":"category_old","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/category_old?post=72375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}