It would be an understatement to say Infiniti has squandered good will and squashed enthusiasts’ dreams at multiple points in history. But the automaker’s about to, hopefully, make good on broken promises and make it up to its fans. A true sports car is coming, and it sounds hot. On Wednesday at the 2026 New York auto show, Senior Vice President of U.S. Marketing and Sales of Nissan and Infiniti Tiago Castro told The Drive the upcoming Infiniti sport sedan will have “high horsepower” and “it will come with a manual transmission.” Castro said, “Infiniti is committed to that vehicle (referencing the sports sedan)” and confirmed the car is indeed a sedan. There’s little doubt the resurrection of the Infiniti sport sedan will be based on the latest Nissan Z and its manual transmission. While not ready to talk horsepower numbers, Castro, who’s first Infiniti when he joined the company was a G35 with a manual transmission, described the sedan as “exciting,” as he slid towards the edge of his seat. Castro knows the take rate for the manual transmission, or possibly even the sports sedan itself, will be low, but it’s important. The executive said, “We need that connection with where the brand is. Going back to where Infiniti was successful. It’s when we connected with our customer base. And our customer base wants a Q50S performance car that they can drive, whether it’s a manual or automatic. So that’s exciting. I don’t expect the volume to be very high, but it’s more of a niche vehicle, but it’s an opportunity vehicle.” At one point the world was set to (possibly) get a Formula 1-inspired Infiniti Q60 Black S. It was essentially a hotted up hybrid Nissan Z with a twin-turbo V6 and Renault F1 hybrid tech. It didn’t happen. Let’s not forget about the GT-R-powered Q50 Eau Rouge, which would’ve been a BMW M3 eater, but then wasn’t. Enthusiasts likely haven’t forgotten that the Q60 Coupe and Q50 sedan were left to die on the vine only to be killed off so Infiniti could build more crossovers. What’s different this time? At least for the moment, both the new head of Nissan, which owns Infiniti, and head of Nissan and Infiniti U.S. are enthusiasts. There are car people in the hot seat.
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