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Infiniti's QX Sport Inspiration is still attractive, in Paris, and now gray

Yes, crossovers tend to be boring. But this one is pretty! Then we remember it's going to turn into the front-drive-based QX50, so we automatically lose some interest. But the wheels will be driven by Infiniti's new VC-Turbo engine, which is kind of exciting! And for the 2016 Paris show, those wheels are bigger – 22-inchers in place of the 21s that the QX Sport Inspiration concept debuted with in Beijing earlier this year. (It's hard to tell a difference in the photos, but you can bet the imaginary ride of this concept will suffer, imaginarily.) The 22s are also painted bronze now along with the brake calipers, and the whole vehicle gets a coat of matte gray paint to replace the silver it was originally shown with. There's also some new brown leather in the previously very black and white interior. It's still pretty black and white, actually. Then there's the variable-compression-ratio VC-Turbo engine that will power the production QX50. We're getting a better look at this 2.0-liter four-cylinder turbo in cutaway form at the Paris show, and it continues to fascinate. It's a pretty neat thing, with a movable stroke position that allows it to vary the compression ratio between 8:1 for performance and 14:1 for efficiency (when the turbo isn't needed). That might not sound terribly cool, but it's a pretty big step forward in the march of efficient power. So yeah, crossovers can be boring, but at least this concept and the production car that will soon follow it have a few things going for them. Related Video: Featured Gallery Infiniti QX Sport Inspiration: Paris 2016 View 12 Photos Related Gallery Infiniti QX Sport Concept Related Gallery Infiniti QX Sport Inspiration concept for Paris View 10 Photos Image Credit: Live photos copyright 2016 Drew Phillips / Autoblog Paris Motor Show Infiniti Crossover Concept Cars Luxury 2016 paris motor show infiniti qx sport inspiration concept

Infiniti offers chance to design Sebastian Vettel's helmet for the USGP

The Circuit of the Americas will host its second United States Grand Prix in November, and based on what's happening with New Jersey it might be the only US torch left alight in the Formula One firmament. The story even before the inaugural event was about getting American fans involved, and Infiniti appears to be making the first splash this year with a competition to design Sebastian Vettel's helmet for the first two days of race weekend.
The only thing required of the graphic designer within you is to head to the competition site, download the helmet template and slather it in your unique technicolor vision. It will require some thought to make something interesting, though, since much of the helmet is already committed to team and sponsor logos; other than a few thin strips along the sides, your creativity will be confined to the oval atop the shell. Vettel will choose the winner and will wear the selected lid during the free practices and qualifying.
The grand prize winner will also get a VIP trip for two to the grand prix as a guest of Infiniti, which includes some face time with the triple world champion himself. The contest is on now, the deadline for entries is 11:59 pm GMT (6:59 EST), Sunday, September 29th and the winner is chosen the very next day. There's a press release below with more info if you want the complete skinny before putting stylus to digital paper.

Poor headlights cause 40 cars to miss IIHS Top Safety Pick rating

Over the past few months, we've noticed a number of cars and SUVs that have come incredibly close to earning one of the IIHS's highest accolades, the Top Safety Pick rating. They have great crash test scores and solid automatic emergency braking and forward collision warning systems. What trips them up is headlights. That got us wondering, how many vehicles are there that are coming up short because they don't have headlights that meet the organization's criteria for an "Acceptable" or "Good" rating. This is a revision made after 2017, a year in which headlights weren't factored in for this specific award. This is also why why some vehicles, such as the Ford F-150, might have had the award last year, but have lost it for this year. We reached out to someone at IIHS to find out. He responded with the following car models. Depending on how you count, a whopping 40 models crash well enough to receive the rating, but don't get it because their headlights are either "Poor" or "Marginal." We say depending on how you count because the IIHS actual counts truck body styles differently, and the Infiniti Q70 is a special case. Apparently the version of the Q70 that has good headlights doesn't have adequate forward collision prevention technology. And the one that has good forward collision tech doesn't have good enough headlights. We've provided the entire list of vehicles below in alphabetical order. Interestingly, it seems the Volkswagen Group is having the most difficulty providing good headlights with its otherwise safe cars. It had the most models on the list at 9 split between Audi and Volkswagen. GM is next in line with 7 models. It is worth noting again that though these vehicles have subpar headlights and don't quite earn Top Safety Pick awards, that doesn't mean they're unsafe. They all score well enough in crash testing and forward collision prevention that they would get the coveted award if the lights were better.