Johan de Nysschen's day job is running Cadillac. But in his off time, he revels in trolling his former executive compatriots. And his latest social media missive questions whether Infiniti's upper management has the balls to release the 560-HP Q50 Eau Rouge.
Posting on Facebook, de Nysschen wrote:
I heard a rumor that Noboru Tateishi is going to cop-out and shelve the Eau Rouge project now that I'm not there to pressure him. Tell any Cadillac or Audi engineer "build me a 560hp sports sedan" and you have to reign them in. At Infiniti, it seems easier to push water uphill. More enthusiasm for "driver's aids", apparently, than "driver's cars", in some quarters, it would seem.
Ouch.
Noboru Tateishi is the CVP of Infiniti's "Vehicle Test Technology" and one of the people that needs to green light the hotted-up Q50 powered by the Nissan GT-R's 3.8-liter twin-turbo V6.
A proper sports sedan is something that both de Nysschen and Andy Palmer – who recently left Nissan to head up Aston Martin – were pushing while at Nissan/Infiniti. In a follow-up post answering a question from Bertel Schmitt at the DailyKanban, de Nysschen said he's "trying to help my old team by provoking. They really want, need and deserve that car. But one guy is a bottleneck…"
Infiniti had no comment on the rumor.