Isn’t it strange how things turn out sometimes? In March 2011, one of our readers tipped us off on a 2004 Infiniti G35 Coupe dressed up to look like a Nissan GT-R that she had found in Quebec, Canada.
A few months later, the group’s head-honcho, Carlos Ghosn, hinted an Infiniti version of the Godzilla, but he was neither here nor there.
“If you ask me, ‘are we going to do that’, I would say ‘no, I don’t think so’”, said Ghosn. But then he added: “If your question is ‘could we do that’, I would say ‘yes’. All technologies developed for Nissan are available to Infiniti.”
Now, CAR Magazine is reporting that Nissan’s luxury arm is indeed considering building such a model. According to the British publication, Infiniti’s head of advanced planning Francois Bancon admitted that the company is currently looking at producing a “halo” model based on the GT-R’s running gear.
“It’s too good a platform to use only on one model”, said Bancon referring to the GT-R’s 545HP 3.8-liter V6, its double-clutch gearbox and four-wheel drive system that makes it compete against supercars double its price.
Bancon added that a decision will be made in within next two or three years. “We have three or four proposals we are looking at right now. Once we have launched the new smaller Infiniti, the time would be right to have a flagship,” Bancon was quoted as saying.
However, he stressed that it won’t be a simple rebadging process as an Infiniti has to be more refined and sophisticated than a Nissan.
“It would have to be softer than the GT-R, and that’s extremely difficult to do”, Bancon explained. “You can’t easily tweak the GT-R to deliver the sophisticated, more refined performance we would need on an Infiniti.”
PHOTO GALLERY
