With a name like “Q50 Red Sport 400,” you’d think that the hottest version of Infiniti’s best-selling sedan would have a clear mission. Close your eyes, and just focus on the name. Do you see a no-compromises sport sedan? Or a luxury sedan with a slight sporty streak? If you’re like me, you probably imagine the former, but in reality the car is closer to the latter.
For 2016, Infiniti replaces the aging naturally aspirated, 3.7-liter VQ-series V-6 with a new twin-turbo, 3.0-liter VR-series V-6 available in two states of tune. The base 3.0t makes 300 hp and 295 lb-ft of torque, but the Red Sport 400, as its name suggests, makes 400 hp and 350 lb-ft. In addition to that extra potency, the Red Sport gets an electronically controlled Digital Dynamic suspension, larger brakes, and a set of staggered 19-by-8.5-inch front and 19-by-9.5-inch rear alloy wheels for rear-wheel-drive models (AWD variants get 19-by-9s all around). Our car came with the optional Bridgestone Potenza RE050A non-run-flat summer tires in a staggered fitment of 245/40R19 front and 265/35R19 rear.
On paper, that sounds like the makings of a legit sport sedan. But again, that image doesn’t quite match up with reality. Open the Red Sport’s door, and you see an interior that’s more luxury than sport. The leather-upholstered driver’s seat offers adjustable bolsters, which help keep you in place on twisty roads, and the column-mounted shift paddles for the seven-speed automatic transmission are long, so they can be easily reached no matter where your hands are on the steering wheel. Other than those two details, there’s nothing in the interior that hints at its sporting intentions. That’s not to say it isn’t nice. Save for creaky front door panels that flex a little too easily, the Q50’s interior feels high-quality. Materials look and feel nice, and the design is easy on the eyes. The dual-screen center stack looks high-tech, but it’s less cohesive than it could be with its recessed matte top screen and glossy bottom display that’s flush with the controls.
Although you won’t get the impression of sportiness by sitting in it, it’ll hit you as soon as you step on the gas. In typical Infiniti fashion, throttle tip-in is aggressive. Apply anything more than normal pressure to the right pedal, and the engine is soon wailing at stratospherically high rpms. In Sport mode, the throttle is even touchier, with a very thin threshold between “I’m a normal driver just going about my business” and “I’m a speed-obsessed maniac. Look at me!” On the other end of the spectrum, throttle response is dialed way back in Eco mode. At some points it even felt like the pedal was pushing back when I wanted to accelerate. You feel that same resistance when the optional forward collision system with auto braking detects a crash risk ahead. The accelerator pedal actually lifts up to prevent you from gaining more speed. This is great when there’s a legitimate collision risk in front of you but annoying when it’s triggered by a median or some other object not in your path of travel, as happened twice during my drive when turning on gentle bends.
If the Q50 Red Sport 400 has one thing going for it, it’s speed. The twin-turbo V-6 accelerates effortlessly on the highway, and with minimal lag from the turbos, you won’t miss the old naturally aspirated 3.7-liter. From a standstill, the Red Sport booked it to 60 mph in 4.5 seconds and completed the quarter mile in 13 seconds flat at 109.2 mph. That’s 0.7 second quicker than our old long-term 2014 Q50S in both acceleration tests. That’s also about as quick as a 2016 Mercedes-Benz C450 AMG we tested, which hit 60 mph in 4.4 seconds, and matches the Infiniti in the quarter at 13 seconds at 107.7 mph. That car makes 362 hp and 384 lb-ft from its 3.0-liter, twin-turbo V-6 but has the advantage of all-wheel drive. As an added bonus, the new force-fed six-cylinder is relatively efficient. The Red Sport achieved 21.0/29.7 mpg city/highway in our Real MPG tests, beating its EPA highway rating by 3.7 mpg and also besting the 20.0/29.6 Real MPG results of our old naturally aspirated long-termer.
The arrival of the twin-turbo V-6 is the biggest change for 2016, but another major one is the updated Direct Adaptive Steering system. The optional steer-by-wire system received some tweaks after complaints from both customers and critics. As a refresher, the DAS system aims to get rid of the steering column completely, meaning the car doesn’t rely on a mechanical link between the steering wheel and the front wheels but instead an electronic connection and an array of electric motors moving the wheels and providing the driver with simulated steering feedback. Because the Department of Transportation mandates it, all Q50s have a physical steering column just in case the DAS system fails. The goal, though, is to eventually eliminate it.
The system works well enough on the streets (a non-DAS car we also drove is pictured here). Day to day, most drivers probably won’t notice the techno-wizardry at work in the steering rack. After some spirited driving on a canyon road, I decided I liked the steering feel in Standard mode best, as it offers the most natural feedback and weight. In Sport mode, the wheel feels artificially heavy, like there’s something pushing back. That’s because there is something pushing back: an electric motor. It reminds me of the early force feedback video game controllers I used to play “Gran Turismo” as a kid. Back then, the resistance made the virtual driving experience more real. But in the Q50, I don’t feel the extra heft enhances anything. There’s also some weirdness at full lock. The motor is constantly moving, as if it can’t decide where full lock is.
Our test team had even more criticism for DAS at the track. Road test editor Chris Walton was able to get a 25.6-second lap time on our figure-eight course, a respectable number, but said he “was continually wondering what ratio [he was] going to encounter and in which circumstance.” Walton also wasn’t a fan of how the car performed with stability control off, saying it feels “remarkably different” with the nannies disabled—both in how it reacts and how light and loose the rear end becomes. Senior features editor Jason Cammisa nicely sums up the Red Sport’s unpredictability at the limit:
“The Q50 has good grip and excellent body control, but it never reacts the same way twice—except that if given full throttle with stability control off, it always lights up one rear tire and does absolutely nothing to stop the one-wheel peel. Keep your foot buried during a transition, and it’ll explode sideways as weight and grip transfers to the spinning wheel. Then, to add insult to injury, the steering doesn’t reliably react as you’ve requested, making catching the slide even more unlikely. At its limits with stability off, the Q50 is a handful and a half.”
That one-wheel peel is due to the car having an open differential, a part you don’t normally expect on a sport sedan. Although a viscous limited-slip differential was offered on the previous G37, that option curiously isn’t available on the Q50. Walton posits that the Red Sport could’ve shaved some time off its figure-eight result if the car wasn’t constantly spinning the inside tire. If you don’t want to mess with the DAS system, there’s good news. You don’t have to. DAS is a $1,000 option, though to get it you need to specify several other packages. Conventional hydraulic power steering comes standard.
This brings us back to the question of what the Q50 Red Sport is intended to be. It’s fast but not particularly rewarding to drive. It’s reasonably luxurious, but the ride is uncharacteristically stiff for a luxury car in either of the adjustable suspension’s two settings. The Q50 is a better car with the new twin-turbo engine, but much like the Infiniti brand itself, it still lacks a clear objective. When you’re a challenger brand and your competition includes jacks-of-all-trades such as the 3 Series, C-Class, and A4, being a master of one would help you stand out.
| 2016 Infiniti Q50S 3.0t (Red Sport 400) | |
| BASE PRICE | $48,855 |
| PRICE AS TESTED | $57,475 |
| VEHICLE LAYOUT | Front-engine, RWD, 5-pass, 4-door sedan |
| ENGINE | 3.0L/400-hp/350-lb-ft twin-turbo DOHC 24-valve V-6 |
| TRANSMISSION | 7-speed automatic |
| CURB WEIGHT (F/R DIST) | 3,872 lb (56/44%) |
| WHEELBASE | 112.2 in |
| LENGTH x WIDTH x HEIGHT | 189.1 x 71.8 x 56.8 in |
| 0-60 MPH | 4.5 sec |
| QUARTER MILE | 13.0 sec @ 109.2 mph |
| BRAKING, 60-0 MPH | 105 ft |
| LATERAL ACCELERATION | 0.93 g (avg) |
| MT FIGURE EIGHT | 25.6 sec @ 0.74 g (avg) |
| EPA CITY/HWY/COMB FUEL ECON | 20/26/22 mpg |
| ENERGY CONS, CITY/HWY | 169/130 kW-hrs/100 miles |
| CO2 EMISSIONS, COMB | 0.87 lb/mile |
The post 2016 Infiniti Q50 Red Sport 400 First Test: Track-Testing the Most Powerful Q50 appeared first on Motor Trend.
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