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Infiniti Q50 to enter British Touring Car Championship

Infiniti doesn't have much in the way of motorsports heritage. Sure, its logo is currently plastered all over the open-wheelers of the Red Bull Racing Formula One team, but that's little more than a series of stickers - the turbocharged V6 hybrid still comes from corporate cousin Renault.
Perhaps realizing that, the company is dipping its toe into the motorsports pool in a much bigger way (albeit in a far smaller series). The Nissan-owned luxury brand will campaign its Q50 sedan in the notoriously rowdy British Touring Car Championship with a new factory team, called Infiniti Support Our Paras Racing.
The team works with British veterans' charity Support Our Paras, and actually will employ a number of injured vets as part of the team, according to the report on Motor Authority.

The yin and yang of the 2017 Infiniti Q50 Red Sport 400

When we first drove the Q50 Red Sport 400, Infiniti had the car out at a prepared slalom-and-cone course in a large, open parking lot. The car was stacked up against another Q50 without the Direct Adaptive Steer steer-by-wire system, and the course was designed to show that the DAS-equipped Red Sport 400 (it's a $1,000 option) required less steering input to master the same course. With all due respect to Infiniti, which is invested in this unfortunate system and has been working hard to revise it, the comparison doesn't make a lot of sense. The non-DAS Red Sport 400 has a steering ratio of 15:1 in RWD and 16.7:1 in AWD forms. The DAS system can vary between 12:1 and 32.9:1 in RWD and 11.8:1 to 32.3:1 in AWD flavors. At its extremes, the DAS system's ratio is vastly different than the fixed-ratio cars. So sure, with a super-quick steering ratio available, the DAS driver's going to do less work. It's all in the gearing. Does this mean it's better, that the steering feel is more natural, that it's easier to hustle quickly? The amount the driver saws at the wheel isn't an indication of that, necessarily. After a few days in a rear-drive Red Sport 400, I'm saying that the spooky disconnection between the driver and the front wheels would be a severe deficit to a driver on a real autocross course. It's not like the DAS system is choosing bad ratios within its range, it's just not supplying the feedback to make it enjoyable. Knowing what your front tires are up to is critical. I can hear you saying right now, "But what Q50 Red Sport 400 owners are going to autocross their cars?" Sure, but it was just a means to an end: showing off the DAS in a good light. And in that case, it probably did. The thing is, in isolation, not back-to-back with a non-DAS car with a slow steering ratio, the DAS system has the same issues it's always had: It simply doesn't feel natural. It doesn't feel intuitive. There doesn't seem to be any real advantage over a slightly quicker rack. I don't hear about people making buying decisions based on how much work they have to do sawing at the wheel, do you? So, that's one side of the Q50 coin – one that's hard to ignore if you're an enthusiast and steering feel is an important connection between you and the vehicle you just dropped a large hunk of change on, and will be spending a lot of your time in. The other is that there's a really compelling reason to drive a Red Sport 400: The 3.0-liter, twin-turbocharged V6 is a monster.

US-built Infiniti Q50 engines to go into Euro-only cars

Back in March, Infiniti announced that it would be adding a 2.0-liter, turbocharged four-cylinder to its Q50 line for European and Chinese buyers. Now, we know where that engine will be built.
Nissan's Decherd, TN facility will receive the $319-million investment, which will see a separate, dedicated line for the Infiniti engines. According to Automotive News, this is more than a line running alongside the Nissan operations - the Infiniti facility will sport its own unique architecture and interior lighting, in a bid to distinguish the premium line from its mass-market parent company.
The logistics of all this do seem, on the surface, quite screwy. Building a new engine on one continent for a car built on another that will eventually go on sale on a third doesn't seem too bright, although there is a catch here. The new engine will also find its way into the Mercedes-Benz C-Class, which will kick off production in Vance, AL later this year.