Report: Has Infiniti canned the Q50 Eau Rouge project?
Remember the Infiniti Q50 Eau Rouge project? Pepperidge Farm remembers, and we do too. It was Infiniti’s conceptual pitch at a direct competitor to the BMW M3, the Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG, and the Lexus IS F.
Based off of a rather normal Q50 (formerly G37 sedan), the Eau Rouge version featured a 3.8L hand-built Nissan GT-R twin-turbo V6 shoehorned under the hood, transmission and all, to make a 560hp monster.
But now, according to Jalopnik, the project is being scrapped, after Infiniti’s former CEO, Johan de Nysschen, who recently moved to Cadillac, said in a private Facebook post that rumors surfaced about Noboru Tateishi, the brand’s senior engineer to Nissan, backing down from the project. The shots fired by de Nysschen are in regards to Tateishi’s apparent interest in “driver’s aids” rather than “driver’s cars.”
The Infiniti Q50 Eau Rouge first surfaced at the Detroit Auto Show earlier this year and then popped up in Geneva to show off its 3.8L twin-turbo mill. Since then, rumors have been floating a back and forth about troubles in regards to finalizing the project. Now, it seems like the project might not happen at all.
Stay tuned for any updates.
– By: Chris Chin
