Infiniti is about to get real. Infinti is about to get crazy. Infinti is about to start being sort-of-British. Infiniti is about to go racing.
You might think Infinitis are big and fat and have zero history of racing whatsoever. You might think that because you forgot that Infiniti is made by Nissan, which does have some racing heritage. So you'd be wrong.
But the Infiniti brand is now getting some of that too, with two manufacturer-backed Q50 British Touring Car Championship race cars. Which is amazing, considering how Infiniti's traditional reputation for making cars that marketing vice presidents in suburbs enjoy.
Because the BTCC is most certainly not for marketing vice presidents in suburbs:
And possibly even better, the car is being run by the Support Our Paras race team. Which sounds like a really weird name for a race team, until you consider that it's part of the Support Our Paras charity, the official charity of the British Army Parachute Regiment:
Fundraising for the Armed Forces in the United Kingdom has dropped down 30-40% in the last two years because of the drawdown in Afghanistan. But the problem doesn't go away. The Parachute Regiment lost 26 soldiers during the campaign in Afghanistan, with more than 130 others wounded. The charity also looks after the families of the wounded and those who have lost their loved ones.
Yay, charity.
Not many details have been released about the car yet, but since it's BTCC, expect it to have a turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder engineer, sequential gearbox, and rear-wheel-drive.
This will be the fastest Infiniti yet, and it shows the company is finally getting serious about being sporty. Thank God.
Photos credit: Infiniti/BTCC