Remember when you were younger, and you were so into racing games that you saved every penny to get a steering wheel for your desktop PC? Both the keyboard and that wheel are computer input devices, but they are good at different things - one is for typing and the other for determining the position of your hands.
On a car, the steering wheel is not the same as a keyboard. Yes, there are variable ratio systems, but there's a shaft that connects you to the front wheels, while the PC or Xbox wheel uses an electric motor to trick you.
Infiniti tried to blur the line with a fly-by-wire system, a stepping stone between today's cars and a future where the wheel is eliminated or occasionally appears from under the dash.
Somehow, the Japanese car company let its thirst for knowledge interfere with making a good car. We are talking about the Q50 Red Sport 400. With a 400 horsepower twin-turbo V6 engine, it should have been as good as the Mercedes C450 AMG, if not better, but the reality is a little different.
The latest episode of Motor Trend's show Ignition puts the most powerful version of the 2016 Q50 through its paces. The problem is not the lack of steering feel; it's the fact that the car actively moves the front wheels when you don't tell it to. Making things even worse is the fake engine sound being piped through the speakers.
At the beginning of the year, it looked like Infiniti was going to take over the world. The updated version of the Q50 got turbocharged engines that made Lexus feel dull. The new 3.0 being used bolts to a seven-speed automatic and is good for 60 in just 4.5 seconds. But with reviews like this, will people still like it?
It's not even cheap, as prices start at about $47,950. For $51,725, you could drive away a C450 AMG sedan which sounds better and comes with standard AWD.
Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida. Full profile
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