Infiniti Eau Rouge thoughts and updates

Infiniti has made it clear that the Eau Rouge concept that took the auto show circuit by storm early this year will definitely become a reality; and soon. Bit by bit, details are emerging and we know more about the car now than we did before. Here's the skinny.

When the Infiniti Eau Rouge unveiled back in January (read it here), it was an instant hit. The beautiful design and powerful presence of the car were an immediate draw. Over the weeks since its unveil, details about the car have begun to emerge and now we know enough to have a good idea of what the Infiniti Eau Rouge will be like in its production form.

To start with most of our information is from various press interviews and hints given by Infiniti President Johan de Nysschen as well as engineers and others in the Infiniti brand. To nutshell all of that information, the Eau Rouge will be an Infinity Q50 sedan with the large 3.8L V6 of the famous Nissan GT-R, which will produce 560 horsepower in this Q50 Eau Rouge. It will be all-wheel drive and have the bodywork tuning elements from NISMO as seen in the concept.

What's interesting, though, is that although the GT-R engine was specifically named and shown in the car, the drivetrain was not. Instead of the GT-R's drive train, Infiniti is opting to use the Q50's AWD, though tuned specifically for the power and performance this car will feature. That means the Q50 Eau Rouge will have a 7-speed gearbox packed in with that big growler.

Nysschen says that the company expects to produce about 250-500 units of the Eau Rouge annually. The life-cycle for the car will be two or three years as well, similar to the GT-R's expected cycle, and he priced the Eau Rouge at roughly $100,000 off the showroom floor - also similar to the GT-R.

The point of the Q50 Eau Rouge, however, will not be performance as a supercar. It will be a luxury sports sedan, albeit an extremely powerful (and beautiful) one. In fact, Nissan's chief creative guy, Shiro Nakamura, recently said that the Eau Rouge idea won't be limited to the Q50. This tells us that you can expect to see a Q60, at the very least, and perhaps others in the premium brand's lineup over time. That would reduce costs and add to the Eau Rouge idea as a performance sub-brand. I predict that you'll see it used in reference to Infiniti's Formula One vehicles shorlty as well.

So, what we'll have in the new Infiniti Q50 Eau Rouge will be a beautiful new luxury sports sedan in an exclusive offering of less than 500 available per year. It will feature the powerful NISMO-type styling shown as well as aerodynamics from Infinit's F1 research plus the under-hood muscle of the GT-R supercar in an all-wheel drive platform. It will be priced at around the $100k mark and will be the first of several Eau Rouge vehicles in Infiniti's stable.

Awesome.