Check Out The New Infiniti Prototype 9 EV
Whenever I see a car like this, I immediately picture gentlemen racers with their leather helmets, goggles, and scarves racing around an old Silverstone or something. I wasn’t alive to enjoy racing back then, but there’s something almost comforting about that image of classic racing that made it almost more “fancy,” for lack of a better word.
The Infiniti Prototype 9 will be attempting to capture some of that nostalgia at the 2017 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance next week. Infiniti built the car around a simple idea: what would a 1940s Infiniti grand prix car look like? Apparently like this, complete with a Fisker Karma-esque front grille:
The car is powered by a prototype electric motor and battery from Nissan’s Advanced Powertrain Department, which provides 148 HP and 236 lb/ft of torque to the rear wheels. Top speed is 106 MPH, and 0-62 MPH can be achieved in 5.5 seconds. Along with a 43/57 weight distribution, the Prototype 9 should be a blast at a track day, but I wouldn’t plan a whole day out just yet; the battery is only abler to handle about 20 minutes of flat out racing.
The body is handmade and rests of a ladder frame chassis. There is no power steering and no brake booster, so if you intend to get behind the wheels of this beauty, you better now how to actualy drive. Inside the cockpit, all you’ll find is a seat, three gauges, a handful of switches, a gear selector and a steering wheel. It’s driving taken down to the barest of essentials.
The only question remaining is: will the car run? I guess we’ll have to wait for the Concours d’Elegance to find out if we’ll see the Prototype 9 hurtling around Laguna Seca!
