Season 112’s PC car is the Infiniti Project Black S. This car was added to the game in February 2020 (update 2.9.3) and was the milestone reward for season 97. This is the only Infiniti in game which makes fusions more rare. As a relatively new car to the game luckily stage 6 requirements for the cup should be relatively low. The current fastest time for the Project Black S is 10.359 placing it in the top third of Tier 4 cars.
Infiniti is the luxury division of Nissan and as such inherits the history of that company. Of note, Infiniti is primarily marketed in the US and China, and in fact doesn’t exist in Japan. Instead the Infiniti Q50 is sold in Japan as the Nissan Skyline with no changes other than brand/name. Infiniti began with a name selection and logo creation in 1987 and the debut of the Q45 Sedan and M30 Coupe in 1989. In 1990 Infiniti produced a third model for the lineup, the G20, and in 1992, a fourth, the J30. In 1995 Infiniti launched the VQ Series V6 engine family which was the predecessor to the Infiniti Twin Turbo V6. By the mid 1990s, Infiniti was struggling to keep up with Lexus and Acura (direct competitors for the market) and made changes. It introduced the QX4 in 1996 based on the Nissan Pathfinder (becoming the first mid-size luxury SUV) and in 1998 revised the G20 but failed to meet expectations. A revised J30 was offered in 1996 as the I30 and later I35 but also had disappointing sales. In the 2000s Infiniti realized there were issues with its branding and marketing (which had often included videos of nature without even showing the car it was marketing). The Nissan Skyline based G35 helped improve Infiniti sales and image and was voted Motor Trend Car of the Year in 2003. At the same time the FX35 and 45 were released as sport-tuned crossovers and significantly bumped sales and success. Since then many new and revised models have been introduced with mixed but generally positive success. In 2018 Infiniti announced that it will be an all-electric company by 2021.
Infiniti has had a brief history in racing with involvement in the Indy Racing League from 1996 to 2002 with only a few wins, and the highest placement achieved by Eddie Cheever at third in 2000. Infiniti entered Formula One in 2011 as a sponsor of Red Bull Racing and signed Sebastian Vettel as global ambassador. Beginning in 2016 Infiniti has provided engineering resources to the Renaults F1 Team including co-development of the Power Unit’s Energy Recovery System (ERS). The Infiniti and Renault F1 team collaborated on the Project Black S, which is a road car featuring an ERS based on the Formula One version.
The Project Black S was unveiled in 2018 at the Paris Motor Show. It is a Q60 coupe prototype with a Formula One-based hybrid engine. The 3.0L, 563 hp engine features twin-turbos and accelerates from 0-60mph in 4.0 seconds. The Project Black S has not yet been taken into production (if it ever will be).
Interesting note: Infiniti shows up in all capitals in many places but is not an acronym. The capitalization is part of the branding and logo, and the font used is actually the Infiniti Brand Typeface.
The fastest time (10.359 sec) is achieved with a tune of NOS: 2214/5.3, Tires: 1/99, FD: 2.37. Perfect launch, deep good second and NOS, early perfect third, perfect shifts out. This dynos at 10.402 so beats dyno by .043 seconds
At stage 5 and various upgrades in between full stage 6, the same shift pattern (NOS in 2nd) generally applies and seems to just barely beat dyno. Tuning can vary significantly as you upgrade but tuning for max evo seems to get the best outcome along the way. Dyno for stage 5 is 12.261 and I was able to consistently run around 12.230 on trial runs.
Stage 6 effects:
Part | Dyno (sec) | Improvement (sec) |
Body | 11.802 | .459 |
NOS | 11.846 | .415 |
Engine | 11.867 | .394 |
Transmission | 12.063 | .198 |
Turbo | 12.079 | .182 |
Intake | 12.099 | .162 |
Tires | 12.124 | .137 |
There is a large difference between Engine and Transmission so unfortunately this is another case where which Stage 6s you get will have a big impact.
Prestige Cup Thresholds:
Speed Trap 1 (4): 125 mph (201 km/h)
Speed Trap 2 (10): 136 mph (218 km/h)
Speed Trap 3 (16): 150 mph (241 km/h)
Speed Trap 4 (22): 165 mph (265 km/h)
Sprint 1 (7): 5.557s
Sprint 2 (13): 4.148s
Sprint 3 (19): 3.112s
Stage 6 (28): 12.367s
Final Time (30): 11.697s
I did not need to re-tune for any speed traps or sprints with a stage 5 build, but needed 2 stage 6s for race 28 (the second slowest time is .4 seconds faster than the slowest I found for race 28) and a third for race 30. Depending on which ones you get you could finish with as few as 2, or need as many as 4 (more if not fully fused).