Officially, the Q50 Eau Rouge Prototype is still that – a concept test-bed – but Infiniti continues to make plenty of noise about the potential VR38DETT-powered, all-wheel drive super saloon. The latest promotion involved a race around Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium – home of the legendary high-speed corner ‘Eau Rouge’, from where the machine takes it name.
The competition pitted four-time defending F1 World Champion and Infiniti’s Director of Performance, Sebastian Vettel, against race driver and journalist, Parker Kligerman, and professional Chinese pool player, Pan Xaoting. The twist: each driver only had a limited amount of time in which to complete the challenge – something determined by how much social media interaction they could individually muster in the weeks leading up to the race. One social media action equated to one millisecond of time, and on the day the winner was determined by the distance they covered within the allocation, so speed and clean driving also played an important role.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2Y5NHg_GsA
Considering Vettel’s credentials, let alone the fact that he netted the most available time, it’s not surprising who won – albeit having a wet track to contend with during his run. But it’s a neat short film all the same. And for the record (mostly because the clip doesn’t completely reveal it) Vettel managed 8.748km in 04:10:920, Xaoting 7.300km in 04:00:050, and Kligerman 6.241km in 03:02:370.
Don’t be surprised if our Publisher gets her driving gloves on to bring you an exclusive first-hand impression of the Q50 Eau Rouge Prototype in the near future…
Brad Lord
brad@speedhunters.com
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