![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.gannett-cdn.com\/presto\/2019\/12\/03\/PDTN\/2537a59b-5214-4b84-a0be-6e086672ddef-q60_fr3-4.JPG?crop=3281,2094,x744,y76&width=540&height=&fit=bounds&auto=webp\")
<\/p>\n<\/div>The Infiniti Q60 Red Sport 400 (as in 400 horsepower) is a fun drive on track with its all-wheel-drive power and slippery 0.28 drag-coefficient. At over 4,000 pounds, the all-wheel drive model is heavy.\u00a0(Photo: Henry Payne, The Detroit News)<\/span><\/p>\n The Infiniti Q60 Red Sport 400 is another mouthful of luxury alphanumeric badging that will make your brain hurt.<\/p>\n Just remember that Q60 rhymes with \u201ccue sexy.\u201d<\/p>\n Infiniti has come a long way from the somnolent\u00a01989 ads that introduced the brand \u2014 not with footage of sleek cars \u2014 but with quietly narrated commercials about water and geese. I\u2019m not making this up. Thirty years later the growly, aggressive, shapely Q60 has no patience for water. Or geese.<\/p>\n Cresting the curvy hills of west Oakland county, I toggled the Q60\u2019s drive mode to Sport Plus and put pedal to metal. Four-hundred horses under the hood roared in unison, the quick\u00a0seven-speed transmission firing off shifts like a shotgun. Hustling into a tight bend, I flicked through downshifts as the exhaust barked loudly.<\/p>\n If a flock of geese was anywhere nearby, it would have scattered. Cue sexy.<\/p>\n How sexy? The Q60 Red Sport 400 (400 signals 400 horsepower) is now one of the official driving-school cars of the terrific M1 Concourse test track in Pontiac. Right alongside M1\u2019s ferocious, 700-plus-horsepower Dodge Charger and Challenger Hellcats, and earth-pawing Viper ACR.<\/p>\n Red Sport, Hellcat, Viper. That\u2019s a lot of underworld references. You get the point. This isn\u2019t your father\u2019s Infiniti.<\/p>\n It\u2019s taken a long time, but Nissan\u2019s luxury\u00a0brand has finally produced a halo coupe with personality, style and twin-turbo V-6 power. All that sexiness still sits on top of Nissan\u2019s aged\u00a0rear-wheel drive FM platform which has been the bones of everything from the Nissan 370Z to the late Infiniti G35.<\/p>\n If the Japanese brand can stick with its nomenclature and update its platforms over time, it has a chance to bottle a credible formula of emotion and value.<\/p>\n Start with the fundamentals. The Red Sport\u2019s powerful baritone comes from the same twin-turbo V-6 found in the base coupe that puts out a detuned 300 horses. Infiniti then wraps this playful mill in its updated, head-turning Infiniti design (also found in the compact QX30 ute of all things). The hood and flanks are deeply scalloped. The lines flow to all the right places over 20-inch wheels.<\/p>\n With its lower hood and grille, these new cars eschew the heavy, swollen-cheek appearance of other Infiniti models that reminded me of Eddie Murphy\u2019s Nutty Professor. It wasn\u2019t a memorable look. The Q\u2019s pouty grille (essentially an inverted Jaguar mouth) is flanked by angry, LED running lights that glow with menace in your rearview mirror.<\/p>\n Sitting next to a hippy $90,000 Lexus LC500 coupe in the M1 Concourse paddock, the Infiniti holds its own.<\/p>\n Slip inside and the premium vibe dulls. The sculpted door handles continue the sinewy lines of the exterior, but the old Infiniti FM architecture shows its age in the console and instrument panels. If you cross-shop with state-of the-art digital interiors from BMW or Audi, you\u2019ll be taken back in time. There\u2019s an old-school truck brake for the emergency brake. Analog displays and screens are from another era, though\u00a0they make up in utility what they lack in modernity.<\/p>\n The dual-stacked screens remind of old Honda Accords (the 2019 version of that mainstream sedan shames the Infiniti\u2019s interior architecture), but they work together nicely \u2014\u00a0separating navigation and radio\/vehicle information that now have to co-exist on state-of-the-art tablet displays of competitors.<\/p>\n