Infiniti Is Bringing a Retro Racecar EV Concept to Pebble Beach

When we think of Infiniti, we usually don’t think “retro”. The brand is not even 30-years old, but that isn’t stopping it from taking some old-school inspiration to build a retro grand prix car packed with modern EV tech. At the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance next week, Infiniti will unveil an electric prototype car that blends “powerful elegance” with retro styling.

“It started as a simple thought: What if we found a car, down at the southern tip of Japan, buried deep in the barn, hidden from all eyes for 70 years?” asked Infiniti senior vice president of global design Alfonso Albaisa. “What if in this car we found the seed of passion planted during our first Japanese Grand Prix and the power and artistry of Infiniti today? What would this discovery look like?”

So this concept is sort of an answer to a question nobody asked, but it still sounds pretty cool. We get a couple teaser images in the Thursday press release. In one, we see the back of an open-wheel, open-body barchetta-style racecar. In the other, we get a close-up of the cockpit with no windshield, the number "09" on the side, and an old school racing helmet and goggles sitting on the car.

Buzzwords like “retro” and “heritage” are normally reserved for super old brands like Harley-Davidson that have many years of history to draw inspiration and design cues from. Infiniti might not have its own historic pedigree, and the motorsports history it does have is sparse.

Either way, we’re looking forward to seeing what this blast from their non-existent past has to offer.