Infiniti Dynamic Drive

Just before the Singapore GP late last month, new Japanese premium marque Infiniti held its first ever local event prior to its showroom opening later in the year. The Infiniti Dynamic Drive event was attended by the media, prospects and customers. The day started off with a detailed introduction of the brand, its core values, its products and the brand mission. Infiniti personnel from Japan were invited in giving the detailed presentation. After the participants were thoroughly introduced to the brand, it was time for everyone to get behind the wheel in one of Infiniti’s new models – the M37 executive saloon.

The M37 is Infiniti’s answer to the BMW 5 Series and packs 332bhp from its VQ series 3.7-litre V6 motor. With 332bhp and 365Nm to play with in a rear wheel drive machine on a tight, wet handling course designed by Infiniti dealer Wearnes Automotive’s Motorsports manager Denis Lian, it certainly is a recipe for fun for all the participants.

Despite being a large executive saloon, the M37 was surprisingly agile and felt at ease on the tight handling course. The course, consisting of both tight, slow corners and faster sweepers that can reveal a car’s dynamic deficiencies but the M37 certainly felt like it doesn’t suffer from any during the short spin round the course – the chassis feels well balanced and when the nose finally gives in to understeer, the M’s trick 4-wheel Active Steer system will work together with electronic driver aids like the VDC (Vehicle Dynamic Control) to not only curb understeer but also help the nose to turn in into the corner.

The M’s punchy V6 not only delivers enough oomph but also sounds glorious when worked hard – in fact, the M37’s exhaust note sounds more rorty and sportier than even the similarly powered Nissan 370Z sports car.

In addition to the drive, the participants also experienced the M37’s superb sounding Bose stereo system as well as its Active Noise cancellation feature at the sound station. The latter ensures that the M37’s cabin will be free from external road and wind noise, thus giving occupants a more serene and relaxing ride. Whilst the event gave us a taste of the Infiniti M37’s potential, we need to drive it further before passing final judgment on this new executive saloon so look out for a more comprehensive test drive report of the M coming up soon on oneshift.

Obviously, the biggest news for Infiniti globally in 2011 is its marketing partnership with the reigning Formula 1 constructors’ champion Red Bull Racing that was announced at the Geneva Motorshow. The partnership not only sees Infiniti logos adorning Vettel and Webber’s overalls and cars but also a possible technical collaboration between the two parties in the area of KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery System) for RBR’s F1 cars – Infiniti and its parent company, Nissan are after all, very advanced in hybrid technologies for their road cars. This partnership with RBR has since expanded to see F1 driver’s champ Sebastian Vettel becoming Infiniti’s brand ambassador and more recently at the Korean GP last week, it was announced that the partnership between Infiniti and EBR will extend into the 2012 season. From 2012, Infiniti will feature more prominent branding on the Red Bull Racing F1 cars, with enhanced logos on the side of the chassis and cockpit top of the next generation car. The Infiniti name and logo will also be expanded to new areas on the drivers’ overalls and team equipment. In addition, Infiniti and Red Bull Racing will increase the global and market leverage of their partnership through more marketing and media activities throughout the year. Infiniti says that the accelerated program with RBR further solidifies its shared vision with the championship winning F1 team, with work streams already in place to develop the partnership into a technical collaboration. Infiniti will also continue to build on its personal agreement with Sebastian Vettel, who has already worked on several projects with the company including the launch of the Infiniti FX Sebastian Vettel version at the Frankfurt auto show in September.

Red Bull Racing chief designer Rob Marshall, ex-Red Bull Racing driver and these days, team consultant, DTM driver and BBC F1 pundit David Coulthard and Infiniti F1 Global Director, Andreas Sigl were presented to the media at a press conference after the morning activities were completed. The trio talked mostly about how Red Bull Racing and Infinti both can benefit greatly from the partnership and other F1 related topics. The icing on the cake for everyone present was surely the rides around the handling course in the M37 with Coulthard behind the wheel. Despite having retired at the end of the 2008 season, the Scots man still looks sharp behind the wheel, showing off his driving skills to the present crowd and his passengers. With such a big open area to play with at the Changi Exhibition Centre grounds, DC was certainly having fun making the M go sideways in the corners and even performed some donuts to the crowd.

At the end of the day, the event not only gave us a taste of Infiniti’s 5 Series challenger, the M37 but also made me understand Infiniti’s brand mission and core values even more – it is certainly different in values and concept when compared to the usual Japanese car maker.

Credits: Story by Raymond Lai Photos by Yang