Nissan and Renault are partners. Infiniti is the premium Nissan. How the Vettel FX SUVs are supposed to be impressive I can't answer
Possible also that the USA can buy Infiniti, but not Renault, products? Nissan is after all just a re-badged Datsun. [Source; JC on Top Gear ] F1 is worldwide after all chaps. Cheers, Ian
Ahhh. Makes sense - Europe's a tough nut to crack....... Be you American, Japanese, Korean or Aussie (!) those Euro M/f'ers seem to know what they want. I can't be bothered to check - Is is "Infiniti" or "Infinity" btw? Cheers, Ian
Their dealer in Lyon, France (Rue de Saxe) was in the same area of town as the Lotus, Aston Martin and other dealerships. They always had premium cars in there and looked to have a good floor turnover. They were at little risk though of challenging Peugeot 206s for French inner-city dominance. Nice part of town, bottleneck for Sunday drivers coming back from Geneve and elsewhere. Once had an F50, two Testarossas and an 360 stopped at the trafic lights waiting for an FF to make a left-turn. Ferrari still ruled the street. When the F430 was downstairs on the street, the butcher, baker and ice-cream maker, and all their customers would come out to see. Narrow streets for sound are similar to tunnels, having a Ferrari at idle between those walls sounds like an F1 on warmup.
Huh? Gotta respectfully disagree there - Renault have been one of the best engine suppliers in F1 for decades. I could be wrong, but I'm 99% certain the boys in France aren't relying on their Japanese cousins for any technology. Cheers, Ian
I had a feeling that would be the retort Maybe they do need to get a Japanese alternator fired up Cheers, Ian
Thanks for the thread, I've been confused myself, hearing Red Bull have Renault engines, but seeing in the upscale Nissan logo. What's next, VW logo's on Ducatti? Auto manufacturing used to be a thing of national pride, gone are those days long by! BMW's exported to Germany from the USA, who'd a thunk it...(Or to China for that matter)
Shocking! Next you'll tell me that Chevrolet isn't French. Sorry but that horse left the barn years ago. Determining the nationality of a modern car is Impossible. Various plant locations, parts suppliers and owners. Who'd have guessed that Volvo would become a Chinese brand?
Why is everyone calling it Infinity?!?!? lol Infiniti was created for the American market because the Nissan brand was considered "cheap" so they created the Inifiniti brand to fool people and it worked! They are nothing more than re-badged Nissans. Infinti doesn't exist in Japan, nor did Lexus till a few years ago and Acura is another re branding exercise. It's not just Japanese cars, GM network of car manufacturers are also known to re-badge cars depending on the market. It's quiet obvious with the announcement of having a track or 2 in the states this is marketing exercise 101. Infiniti/Nissan have nothing to do with the F1 team engines. Nissan and Reno have been in an Alliance since the late 90's. As you can see Vettel is visiting the Reno factory not the infinti factory [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMmoXEP51K4[/ame]
It must be difficult for a young person to remain grounded when you have people fawning all over you all the time like that. Good on him.
"Rebadged" or not, they are amazing cars. Shades of Maserati & BMW with a rock solid foundation of Nissan reliability. Love em!
All I know is when I drive my G35 now I feel a lot like Mark Webber, except without the exceptionally well-defined jawbone.
A better question to ask is why is the Renault F1 team still bearing Lotus livery, given that Lotus withdrew its sponsorship a while back?
