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Infiniti Looks To The Future At Spaceport America

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Spaceport America lies in the middle of nowhere near Truth or Consequences, New Mexico. The futuristic facility is where Sir Richard’s Branson’s Virgin Galactic is in the process of relocating, from Mojave, California, to begin space tourism operations. Virgin has already sent a civilian, Beth Moses, into space earlier this year. Branson himself is supposed to become the first commercial passenger soon.

I’m here to drive 2020 Infiniti vehicles on the 12,000-foot runway, and for a tour of the space complex. It’s windy, as it tends to be out here, and a fine layer of yellow dust has begun to accumulate on the black, white and red test vehicles.

As I put the Infiniti Q60 Red Sport through its paces on a twisting rally course on the runway, I can’t help but think that this pavement is where I’ll be launching from in SpaceShipTwo a few years down the road. I’m scheduled to be Virgin Galactic’s 610th passenger. The space outfit, which just went public on the New York Stock Exchange, will take four to six passengers and two pilots per flight to suborbital space, considered 50 miles above the Earth. That means lots of flights before I go up. A ticket will set you back $250,000.

On my birthday in 2010 I bought a ticket, and have been waiting a decade for my ride. A crash of Virgin Galactic’s VSS Enterprise in 2014, which killed pilot Michael Alsbury, delayed operations while a new craft, VSS Unity, was built. During the interim, I trained, including a MiG-25 Foxbat flight at Mach 2.6 to 84,000 feet above the Earth, a centrifuge program pulling up to 6 G’s at the NASTAR center in Southampton, Pennsylvania, and a nausea-inducing parabolic weightlessness flight over Moscow in an Ilyushin IL-76 cargo plane.

Infiniti has strategically chosen Spaceport for test drives because the futuristic theme fits with the carmaker’s “30 Years Forward” operations plan. Infiniti, founded in 1989, like Virgin Galactic is relocating its headquarters, from Hong Kong to Japan, says Trevor Hale, general manager of global communications.

It’s no secret that Infiniti, a part of Nissan, is finding challenges with its “Luxury Should Be Lived In” marketing campaign, differentiating itself from other brands like BMW Group, Mercedes-Benz and General Motors. With such a cluttered field, the competition is fierce. Infiniti sales are down more than 15% through the first nine months of 2019, compared with the same period in 2018.

At Spaceport, several make-shift tracks were available to test on. The first venue, navigated in a QX50 SUV crossover, was a road course just outside of the facility. The goal was to try out a new ProPILOT assist function in the vehicle. I found the experience a bit surreal, as once you set the program in motion - for me, at 45 mph - the car basically drives itself. Take your foot off of the gas pedal and brake, and the vehicle maintains a set distance between you and the lead car. If that car speeds up, so do you. If it slows down, so do you. If you take your hands off of the steering while in a mild curve, the car self-corrects.

The strangest part of the experience is slowing down. I had the urge several times to hit the brake, which would have taken the car out of ProPILOT. I didn’t.

Next up was navigating a QX80 full-size luxury SUV through an off-road dirt course. Ascent and descent hill angles were above 20 degrees. Potholes were deep, and the corners sharp. The SUV was surprisingly stable for a luxury vehicle under challenging conditions.

The most interesting test for me was the rally course, partly on the runway and partly on dirt. When the Q60’s 400-horsepower turbo kicked in, it was easy with rear-wheel drive to drift through the corners. Just as I thought I was learning the rhythm of the course and “getting” it, I went for a hot lap with a pro driver. As is the case with auto journalists, who tend to be a bit full of themselves (I had once driven a Bugatti Veyron at 253 mph, whoop-dee-doo-dah), the ride-along was humbling. The pro was able to bring out fully the vehicle’s handling, acceleration and braking characteristics.

After the drives, I was treated to a tour of the Spaceport building itself. Jason Lazich, director of infrastructure and ground services for Virgin Galactic, gave a short talk as did a representative from Spaceport. Virgin is Spaceport’s anchor tenant, though it owns no part of the launch complex. That is owned by the New Mexico government. When asked when the first commercial space flights will begin, Lazich said it depends on the FAA certification process, which is in the works now. But indications are that flights should happen next year, perhaps in the first half.

At the end of the day, Infiniti showcased a new midsize SUV crossover, the QX55, to be available next year. As with many of Infiniti’s vehicles, it’s smart-looking with impressive guts. The question is, how will it sell? As with Virgin Galactic’s space flights, only time will tell.

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