Infiniti Q50: car review

With its computer screens and 'uncoupled' steering wheel, Infiniti's Q50 feels part car and part computer game

- Martin Love
- The Observer, Sunday 13 April 2014
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Infinite wisdom: the sophisticated Q50.

Price from £28,959
MPG up to 65
Top speed 155mph

I have an old annual called Motoring Through Punch – it's a charming collection of cartoons (car-toons!) gathered from each decade of the past century. One of my favourites is from the 1930s. It shows an old lady wearing a flowery hat, white gloves and a bemused expression. She's gripping a steering wheel as if her life depends on it. The caption says: "And do I have to keep hold of this thing?"

I had the same feeling while driving Infiniti's hyper-sophisticated new hybrid saloon, the Q50. Even the name sounds space-agey, as if it isn't a car at all but some dark star from a fathomless galaxy. It also has an extraordinary secret up its sleeve: it is the first car in the world to do away with the steering column. That round thing in your hands, formerly known as a steering wheel, now transfers your movements electronically to a high-response actuator which connects to the steering rack and thus causes your wheels to turn… that's the theory anyway.

It's not unheard of – aeronautics have used fly-by-wire technology for years. But drive-by-wire cars, in which mechanical linkages are replaced by electro-magnetic hocus-pocus, are pretty newfangled. And to sit gripping the steering wheel, knowing a little black box is going to interpret my wishes and pass them on to another black box, is unnerving. It's all too easy to imagine plunging down a country lane, eyes bulging, teeth bared, the limp steering wheel lying in your lap, your screams muted by the Q50's suede interior, like some video game gone rogue…

The technology is called Direct Adaptive Steering and the idea is that the digitally enhanced steering connection allows for better, sharper handling as it filters out all unwanted vibration. And it really works. Steering can hardly ever have felt lighter or more responsive. It does also raise the question, could the wheel be replaced with something else altogether? A banana-shaped joystick, maybe? Could you sit in the back and steer? Back-seat driving becomes a reality…

The futuristic cockpit of the Q50.

So much for the steering, what about the rest of the vehicle? Infiniti is the posh arm of Nissan, in the same way that Lexus is Chelsea to Toyota's Essex. The firm was only set up in 1989 and it makes just six high-performance yet discreet vehicles. The Q50 is the cheapest, starting at £29,000, while the QX70 is the most expensive, going for over £54,000.

The Q50 seems to be on a quest to be different – both inside and out it stands out from the crowd. Inside there are three touchscreens with a bewildering display of information and driver aids. The entertainment and online package looks more like the welcome screen of an iPad than anything you'd normally find in a car. Outside every panel is creased and pillowed, bulged and curled with almost wilful disregard for the norm. It's as if the designers have looked elsewhere and thought: "If they curve that way, we'll go the other."

It is powered by a great surging 3.5-litre V6 petrol engine and an electric motor via a seven-speed automatic box. With its featherlight controls joyfully harnessing the heavyweight powerplant, it all feels dizzyingly effortless – as if it's found an antidote to gravity. Sitting in the futuristic cockpit, surrounded by blinking screens and holding your unchained steering wheel, it's easy to imagine you are in some sort of space fantasy… Is that George Clooney floating past the window?

The Tweed Run

The Tweed Run: where style meets cycling.

On Saturday 17 May people dressed in tweed and riding lovely old bicycles will be spreading their particular brand of charm and eccentricity through the streets of London as they take part in the 6th annual Tweed Run. It's a spectacular social bicycle ride through the capital's historic streets, and all the riders wear their best tweed 1920s and 30s cycling attire. If you possess such garments, it'll certainly be the place to be. Participants can expect a day of leisurely riding in the company of fellow ladies and gentlemen exceptionally dressed in plus-fours, Harris tweed jackets, merino wool team jerseys, silk cravats, bow ties and flat caps. It's been hailed as "the metropolitan bicycle ride that brings sartorial elegance back to the bicycle." From penny-farthings to customised vintage two-wheelers and contemporary pedal-powered contraptions, prizes are awarded to the best-dressed, best moustaches and best vintage and decorated bicycles on the day. For more information, go toTweed Run

Email Martin at martin.love@observer.co.uk or follow him on twitter@MartinLove166