Infiniti Q50 Eau Rouge cancelled

Infiniti has killed off any chance of its GT-R-engined Q50 Eau Rouge making production, stating the business case just doesn't stack up.

Speaking to MOTOR's UK sister mag CAR, Infiniti vice-president Francois Goupil de Bouille revealed that the Q50 Eau Rouge had been canned as the development costs would outweigh the projected sales revenue.

It's a shame for enthusiasts, as while projected sales numbers were small, the Eau Rouge would've given the Infiniti brand a much-needed halo product.

Powered by a 417kW/600Nm version of the Nissan R35 GT-R's 3.8-litre twin-turbo V6, combined with a modified version of that car's clever all-wheel drive system, the Q50 Eau Rouge promised shattering performance, 0-100km/h claimed to take just 3.8sec.

Infiniti continues to struggle to achieve a foothold in Australia, selling just 358 cars as of August 2015. This is just five ahead of Maserati and well behind main rival Lexus (5907), let alone the three big Germans.

Good news could be at hand, however, for as well as pivotal mainstream models like the new Q30 small SUV, de Bouille stated that Infiniti had not ruled out creating its own fast car division to take on the likes of Audi's quattro division or Mercedes-AMG.

With parent company Renault seemingly cutting ties with F1 outfit Red Bull, perhaps Infiniti - one of the team's main sponsors - can used the money it saves on sponsorship to create a truly desirable performance model.