With a history dating back to almost a hundred years ago, Spa-Francorchamps is one of the older tracks in the world. Boasting 20 turns, the most famous turn has to be Eau Rogue, which is a left-right-left corner with a blind summit. Eau Rogue gets its name from the stream that the track crosses, in which Infiniti borrows the name for their GT-R powered Q50. Now, the management at Spa-Francorchamps isn’t too happy with Infiniti’s choice of names.
Pierre-Alain Thibaut, Spa-Francorchamps’s track director said, “It’s like they want to steal the brand from the circuit. We consider it exactly the opposite of fair play.” So far, Nissan has tried to trademark “Eau Rouge” in its homeland, Japan. Besides Japan, Nissan is also seeking to trademark the name in US. The US Patent and Trademark Office will be publishing Nissan’s application on the 4th of November, with a 30 day period for complaints to be made.
The Q50 Eau Rouge is powered by the Nissan GT-R’s VR38DETT, the Q50 Eau Rouge boasts a total of 568 hp and 600 NM of torque. However, unlike the GT-R, the Q50 Eau Rogue’s transmission is carried over from the Infiniti Q70’s partsbin, which is a seven speed automatic, with an all wheel drive system for better traction.
At this rate, it does seem obvious that Infiniti Q50 Eau Rouge would likely undergo full production, although with the management of Spa-Francorchamps challenging the Eau Rogue name, the end result may vary. We are certainly looking forward to how this story progresses!
