Infiniti Q50 S Red Sport 2016 Review

Infiniti Q50 S Red Sport

Australian Launch Review
Yarra Valley, Victoria

Infiniti wants to be known as a performance brand and its new range-topping Q50, the 298kW/475Nm S Red Sport, certainly has barrel-loads of grunt. The problem is, it might be just a bit too much for the Q50 to handle. The Q50 S Red Sport is priced from $79,900 (plus on-road costs).

The Yarra Valley has some great driving roads and what better place to showcase the new twin-turbo Infiniti Q50 S Red Sport’s talents than this playground filled with sinuous blacktop.

Climbing into the Q50 cabin, it’s a familiar scene because it hasn’t changed since before this upgrade (much like the exterior, except for the Q50 S Red Sport’s small boot spoiler). Front seats are supportive, with a nice long base and in this spec; you can adjust lumbar and clench your midriff snugly with the adjustable side supports.

Like the front, occupants in the rear have enough room to not feel squeezed in, although they miss out on the door pockets those up front are treated to.

Key instruments and controls don’t present any problems, but the information screens (there are two) are not the most intuitive out there. The drive mode switch is set too far back on the centre console if you want to change modes in a hurry.

What is completely foreign to the Q50 is the heavy-breathing V6 under the bonnet. Just taking off from our starting point it is obvious that this engine packs not just a punch but a king hit. No performance figures were proffered, but it feels like it’ll do a sub-five-second 0-100km/h sprint easily.

Next we cruised down some patchy secondary roads; not by any means the worst the Australian road network can throw up, but it wasn’t freshly laid tarmac either. This was the first opportunity for us to see how well the new-fangled Dynamic Digital Suspension, with damper valving adjusted on the go, would smooth our path.

It didn’t do too well at all, in fact the dampers seemed rather combobulated. The ride was fussy, constantly jiggling, especially on rebound where it felt as if the damper’s electronic brain couldn’t make up its mind what valve setting to use, so it tried a few.

The Sport or Sport+ settings, in which the dampers were firmer, made the ride only slightly better. As we’ve experienced with run-flat tyres before, the Q50’s didn’t seem to help things, with abrupt bumps not really very well cushioned.

Finally, we approached a nice, twisty section of road. It had been raining all morning and the road was still glistening, so we eased into it. Lucky we did, because the Q50’s Dunlops were not eager to keep a solid grip on the road.

Squeezing the accelerator out of corners -- almost economy-run style -- resulted in an instant loss of traction and a small step sideways. The traction and stability controls stepped in to stop a slide from progressing from minor to rather terminal, but it felt as though it should’ve come in sooner. The front-end didn’t have much grip either, even with fairly conservative entry speeds.

Giving the twin-turbo its head on the straights would again get the wheels spinning and traction control working when going over small bumps.

Finally the road dried out and corners could be tackled with a bit more confidence. Here the Q50 S Red Sport wasn’t such a good sport either.

Going into a smooth, tight right-hander at around 70km/h then trying to power out at the apex, the traction control light began to flicker. Soon speed dropped to 30km/h in second gear, the transmission stubbornly refusing to kick-down to first. There was no obvious loss of grip to make traction control system drop power output and hold second.

In more flowing corners -- or at least those where we weren’t attempting to withdraw a large wad of power or torque -- the Q50 handled well, with a flat stance and responsive if not tactile steering.

Working the paddle-shifters revealed a transmission that was slow to respond to the shift command -- either up or down the gears. The transmission wouldn’t hold gears when in manual mode either, upshifting on the cusp of redline. Otherwise shifts were crisp and in the Sport+ mode the predictive downshifts seemed to mostly get the right gear at the right time.

A few overtaking manouvres later on proved again that this engine just simply hammers, reeling in the blacktop relentlessly. At the bottom end of the rev range, turbo lag doesn’t seem to be part of the 3.0-litre twin-turbo’s repertoire either.

Fuel efficiency does seem to be a S Red Sport forte though, if the trip computer can be trusted. It showed an average of 10.2L/100km.

A brief drive of the 224kW Sport Premium showed a tamer engine, but one whose outputs seem better suited to the Q50 chassis.

The Infiniti Q50 S Red Sport has a great engine with lashings of power and torque, and its updated steering is an improvement, but Infiniti engineers need to improve its traction and ride quality.

2016 Infiniti Q50 S Red Sport pricing and specifications:
Price: $79,900 (plus on-road costs)
Engine: 3.0-litre six-cylinder twin-turbo petrol
Output: 298kW/475Nm
Transmission: Seven-speed dual-clutch
Fuel: 9.3L/100km (ADR Combined)
CO2: 214g/km (ADR Combined)
Safety rating: Five-star ANCAP

Also consider:
>> BMW 3 Series  (from $54,900 plus ORCs)
>> Jaguar XE  (from $60,400 plus ORCs)
>> Lexus IS (from $57,500 plus ORCs)