Infiniti Q50 S. New arrival. Management Fleet.

crankandpiston.com welcomes the latest member to the Management Fleet, the brand new Infiniti Q50 S. And this one comes with its very own world first for production cars…

It’s not often the crankandpiston team is this eager to get a long-term model onto Fast Fleet. Indeed, phone calls and impassioned email requests to the Infiniti Middle East PR team took up several weeks alone. Now though, we have our very own Q50 S on-fleet for three months.

Why the enthusiasm for essentially a rebadged G37, I hear you ask? Development for one thing. The lineage of the G saloon may only date back to 1990 – or even last year, when Infiniti’s new ‘Q’ naming system came into effect – but increased focus on technology, connectivity, usability and exterior design have raised an eyebrow or two in the brand’s direction. Where better to start than the generation that boasts a world-first?

As some of you may remember from our first drive two months ago, the new Q50 is the first production car ever to boast steer-by-wire technology, which replaces the traditional cogs and links in favour of simulated feedback from the front wheels courtesy of actuators and sensors. It sounds (and presumably is) hideously complicated, but we were impressed with our first impressions of the new setup, and look forward to seeing if this new technology can handle the pressures of everyday usability in the Middle East. Steering-by-wire though is just the top of a very technical iceberg. As well as the traditional touchscreen infotainment system, Back-up Collision Intervention (BCI), Distance Control Assist (DCA) and various other acronyms, the Q50 also comes with ‘Chassis Control’. It’s a driver aid that inputs minute adjustments to the steering to make sure you don’t accidentally veer out of lane. Again, it involves sensors. And again, we’re looking forward – well, the bravest of us anyway – to putting this system to the test at highway cruising speeds.

There’s more to this Japanese premium saloon than mind-scrambling technology though. There’s little argument that the Q50 is a striking looking machine, all sweeps and curves across the bonnets and down the sides, where you’ll also find S exclusive 19-inch light alloy the wheels. Plus those headlights, which are so aggressively carved that they could well have been lifted straight off sister Nissan’s GT-R. Even the power on tap for our Q50 S model – 326bhp and 266lb ft of torque – suggests there’s some serious performance potential here.

But inside there’s well-upholstered leather trim, electric Sport design seats, adaptive cruise control, and iPod connectivity. The sharp styling, driver assistance systems , sports suspension and paddle shift seven-speed gearbox may encourage you to grab the Q50 S by the chiselled jawline and give it a kicking, but that’s not to say highway kilometres can’t be soaked up with ease.

Let’s just hope the Chassis Control passes its exhaustive tests to come. And that our clamours for the new Infiniti Q50 S were not ultimately in vain.

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