2007 Infiniti M35x / 19k Miles / 1 Owner / Fully Loaded / The Right One! on 2040-cars

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Race Recap: Abu Dhabi GP is reversals, luck, leanness and last dances

We weren't sure if Alter Ego Nico Rosberg, the one who flew into Brazil and showed Mercedes AMG Petronas teammate Lewis Hamilton that he knew also knew how to grab an entire race weekend by the scruff of the neck, arrived in Abu Dhabi. In both Friday practice sessions Hamilton showed Rosberg the way. Then on Saturday, Alter Ego Rosberg took over, taking the last Free Practice session and then pole position by a whopping four-tenths of a second over Hamilton. Thanks to the gimmicky and soon-to-be-obliterated spectre of double points, if Rosberg won the race and Hamilton finished lower than second, the World Championship would remain in German hands. Behind Hamilton came the Williams duo, again, with Valtteri Bottas ahead of Felipe Massa. Daniil Kvyat did swell to put his Toro Rosso in fifth, Jenson Button was just as swell getting his McLaren into sixth. Kimi Raikkonen outqualified his Ferrari teammate Fernando Alonso for the third time this year, the pair taking seventh and eighth on the grid. Kevin Magnussen lined the second McLaren up in ninth, Jean-Eric Vergne making the top ten for Toro Rosso in his last race for the team. To be clear, that was the final grid for race: Daniel Ricciardo and Sebastian Vettel had both qualified in the top ten but were sent to the back of the grid when their Infiniti Red Bull Racing front wings were deemed illegal. They'd start from the pit lane, which was still ahead of Romain Grosjean in the Lotus, who took so many penalties for new engine components that he started the race in Turkey. At lights-out on Sunday, well, it was pretty much lights out. That's when Hamilton got the start of the year, bolting off the line so quickly it didn't take him 100 meters to get in front of Rosberg. The Brit took Turn 1 in the lead, then laid more than a second into the German on the first lap. Rosberg kept close, about 2.5 seconds back, but it was Hamilton's race to lose and everyone knew it; barring a reliability issue or the kind of driving mistake Hamilton hasn't made all year, Britain would have its fourth double world champion. Rosberg was left asking his engineer what kind of strategy they might use to claim first place. That reliability issue did come, but it struck Rosberg on Lap 26 when his entire Energy Recovery System failed, robbing him of 160 horsepower and taxing his brakes.

Infiniti's Palmer announces QX30 small crossover production

The name of the game these days in the luxury marketplace is premium compacts. BMW has the 1 Series and 2 Series, Mercedes the A-Class, B-Class, CLA and GLA, Audi has the A1 and A3, even Lexus has the CT 200h. Among the last to get in on the action is Infiniti, but that's all about to change.
Nissan's luxury brand has been working towards a premium compact for some time, revealing the Q30 concept at the Frankfurt Motor Show last year and signing a new deal with Daimler to help develop and produce it. Now it seems that both it and a crossover version have been approved for production.
The news comes from Andy Palmer, Nissan's UK-based COO, chairman of Infiniti and one of the company's top executives under CEO Carlos Ghosn. Late last week Palmer tweeted the following:

Infiniti Q Inspiration Concept shows its face

Update: Infiniti released a second image of its Q Inspiration Concept with a press release about sales. We're not sure why, but we're not complaining and have added it above. The original rear three-quarter image is below in the text. Following a teaser image and some cryptic hints from designers, Infiniti has mostly revealed its concept for the Detroit Auto Show. It's called the Q Inspiration Concept, which for having "inspiration" in the name, is actually a rather uninspired name. But that's OK, because what it lacks in clever naming it makes up for in a beautiful fastback body. When the teaser was released, one of the designers mentioned the car would have a "long cabin," and that's no exaggeration, as the greenhouse reaches nearly to the tail edge of the car. It's a roofline that is highly reminiscent of the Audi A7. And as such, it would make a lot of sense for this Infiniti to be a hatchback, too, especially if it reaches production. We can't say for sure if this concept has a hatch, though, since there are some panel gaps at the base of the D-pillar and the Tesla Model 3-style rear pane of glass suggests this concept is technically a sedan. Unlike the Audi A7, the rest of the Infiniti is as curvy as the roof. There's hardly a crease anywhere, and it looks muscular with the big bulging front and rear fenders that flow effortlessly into each other. The clean exterior is accented by a lack of exterior door handles and what look to be cameras for side mirrors. The contrast to the organic curves comes from the nose and the wheels. The area where the grille would be is more chiselled and aggressive than the rest of the body. The wheels also have hard edges and lots of complicated elements that don't quite fit the organic theme of the rest of the car. Still the car overall is very striking and graceful. The press release continues to emphasize new powertrains, proportions, and the future design direction of Infiniti. As such, we suspect that this car uses, at minimum, a version of Infiniti's variable-compression engine, and more likely features extensive electrification, if not a pure EV powertrain. The lack of a large opening at the front would seem like further evidence the car utilizes electricity at some level. The car will make its full debut on Jan. 15. Related Video: Image Credit: Infiniti Green Detroit Auto Show Infiniti Hatchback Luxury Sedan 2018 detroit auto show