Credit to Infiniti, you never quite know what you're going to get with Nissan's premium offshoot. There have been concepts to
take on M3s
take on the Mercedes CLS
and now this: a concept for, well, who really knows?
The Prototype 9 is an electric racing car, designed to evoke the spirit of 1940s F1 cars. It has 148hp (with power from a new 30kWh battery), weighs 890kg and will hit 62mph in 5.5 seconds. At racing speed its batteries are said to last 20 minutes.
They're the basics. The meaning? "Prototype 9 is emblematic of Infiniti's entrepreneurial spirit and passion for stunning design", apparently, the car a celebration of Infiniti's "ingenuity, artistry and craftsmanship." Hmm. There's no denying the Prototype 9 looks fantastic, a gorgeous recreation of an incredible era, though it is quite hard to see the point. Even the Prince R380, the car that won the 1966 Japanese Grand Prix and the brand Infiniti most strongly identifies with, wasn't around until 1965, and this is designed to look like it's from two decades earlier. We're all for recognising the past, though it seems an odd strategy when your brand wasn't part of it.
Still, there's plenty to be interested by with this Prototype 9. That battery and electric motor combo are new, not yet seen in a production car and so promising much for the future. The car was built by a team of Takumi, the Nissan master craftspeople that assemble GT-Rs as well, at the Nissan Research Centre in Oppama. They have hammered the Prototype 9 steel panels into shape, the design said to have aeronautical inspiration. They have put together the interior too, stitching up the upholstery and turning aluminium shavings into the fascia with the end of a cork... Can't fault the detail!
A lot of effort has been put into this Prototype 9, clearly, and it is actually drivable too. Could make for an interesting one-make series... Expect the powertrain to feature in production models soon, if not powering a single-seater race car designed to look like it's 70 years old!