Infiniti tantalized us with the reveal of the Project Black S concept at the Geneva Motor Show a few months ago, turning the Q60 coupe into a performance prototype that could eventually make production – though we aren’t exactly holding our breath.
The project is a collaboration between the luxury automaker and its corporate allies at the Renault Sport F1 team, and now it’s brought in the expertise of another company as well.
That company is Pirelli, the Italian tire manufacturer that provides the tires that Renault (and all the other teams) use on the Formula 1 championship. Announced in Montreal during the Canadian Grand Prix this past weekend, Pirelli’s contribution will naturally revolve (pun intended…) around designing and creating custom tires for the prototype as part of its new Color Edition series, with indicative tonal markings on the sidewalls.
“We were fascinated with Project Black S since Infiniti unveiled it,” said Pirelli motorsport director Paul Hembery. “It’s the ultimate expression of innovation and cutting-edge technology transfer, which is in our DNA, so we couldn’t let this opportunity go by.”
The prototype packs Infiniti’s 3.0-liter twin-turbo V6 coupled with the Kinetic Energy Recovery System from the Renault F1 racer to deliver 500 horsepower and evaluate production applications for this F1-derived propulsion system.
That’s a heck of a lot of muscle for a hybrid V6, putting it just ahead of the similar setup in the Porsche Panamera 4 E-Hybrid with its 462 horsepower, though well clear of the eight-cylinder Panamera Turbo S E-Hybrid’s 680 hp. Of course none of that is worth a dime if it can’t be transferred to the road, which is where this new deal with Pirelli comes in.
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