Q-ship #12 - 1990-93 Infiniti Q45

By John LeBlanc

For 1990, both Nissan and Toyota launched what are today seminal cars: the Lexus LS400 and the Infiniti Q45. With Toyota targeting Mercedes, and Nissan targeting BMW, no one could predict the damage these two upstart Japanese brands would wreak on the traditional luxury car market.

Been to a Mercedes shop lately?

First shown in Detroit in early 1989, the Q was the production version of Nissan's CUE-X show car that was displayed four years earlier at the Tokyo show. When launched, critics whined that Nissan designers unequivocally failed in their defiant first stab to author an original Japanese identity for this class of car. However, the elements criticized most - the stealthy grille-less front end with the big Samurai badge, the overly chromed door handles - are appreciated today by Q-ship cognoscenti. Especially after the marketing wanks succumbed in 1994 by slapping on the fake Jaguar grille and additional tinsel-work.

The surreptitious bodywork hid the tsunami-like all-aluminum V8 engine with twin chain-driven overhead cams, four valves per cylinder, and sequential multi-point fuel injection that had a lot of Q owners yelling "Pass the sake!"

This VH45DE engine found in the 1990-1996 cars displaced 4.5 liters and was good for an upstanding 278 hp. With a flat-like-Kansas torque curve from 2000 rpm to 4000 rpm, where it peaked at 285 lb.-ft., there's plenty of steam down there to power this 3879-pound Q-ship from a standstill to sixty in 6.7 seconds, blowing the socken off of contemporary BMW 735Is and M-B 560SELs.

A relatively fast steering ratio, and an all-independent multi-link suspension shared with the 300ZX, allowed the Q to attain BMW-killer status. Eventually making its way onto the options list was the Touring model which added Nissan's HICAS II four-wheel steering and a Nissan-engineered semi-active hydraulic suspension system that used conventional shocks and springs and permitted the driver to select the mode and level of damping.

As mentioned, the Q succumbed to baroque, conventional luxury car styling pastiches being added on with the second-generation 1997-2001 cars. Fundamentally a warmed over Nissan Cedric with a detuned mill, down to 4.1 liters and 266 hp, and an interior befitting a Sedan de Ville, not a Sedan de Autobahn, the second generation Qs are definitely not a straight-six.com Q-Ship of choice.

Along with the original LS400, the Q was a Japanese luxo-barge that scared the bejeezus out of the Germanic brands into bettering their own products, and is a car Detroit has yet to produce. All this at $38,000 US (in 1989 dollars) and with none of the snooty brand status that the German brands are saddled with, today a used Q is a depreciation bargain.

Undoubtedly, the Q was ahead of its time, and it has taken Nissan two subsequent generations of Q to get back to its BMW-killer roots.

Engine
configuration v8
power 278 hp
torque 294 lb.-ft
displacement 4494 cc

Gear box
4 speed automatic

Performance
0 - 60 mph 6.7 sec
top speed 150 mph

Current price: $4,372 - $8,888 US
Q rivals: Audi V8, BMW 735I, Lexus LS400, M-B 560SEL
Anti-Q rivals: Nissan 300ZX, Lexus SC4000, Mazda RX-7, Porsche 944
Q rating: 4/6