Associate Editor Brandon Turkus compares two Infiniti Q50 Red Sport 400s, one with the second-generation Direct Adaptive Steering system and one without.
TranscriptBRANDON TURKUS: Hi, Autoblog. I am here in the Infiniti Q50 Red Sport 400. Let me give you a brief demonstration of Infiniti's Direct Adaptive Steering system. It's really cool. I am in a car that does not have DAS right now. And I'm going to take it through a slalom, and then a short auto cross course. I want you to watch how hard I'm having to work at the steering wheel, I'm really having to saw at it. And then later on you'll see me in a DAS car, and you'll find that it's a lot easier. So here we go.
We're in the sport plus mode, so sharp throttle, most aggressive transmission, and in a DAS car, the most aggressive steering set up. So there's more weight, a little bit more responsive. It feels a lot better. This is not the greatest, as you're about to see. So really having to work at the steering. All right, and that's the end of the slalom. I know it's really short, I wish it were longer too.
But now we're going to pull up to the auto cross section. And again, you'll see it even more here, I've really got to work at the steering to get this thing going. So he gave me the OK, here we go.
[ENGINE REVVING]
I know, not the best handwork there. Don't judge me. But see, I really gotta add a lot of angle to get it around this course. It's not easy at all. And now we're out of the NVH and ride comfort section. And you'll see that I have to keep a little bit closer eye on the steering, 'cause it's not ironing out the bad stuff as easily as the DAS car. So hands off the steering, can see you the steering wheel is moving around a lot more. It's not quite going off course yet, it's really bouncing.
And with DAS you're going to see that it irons out the bumps better. It keeps you tracking a lot more straight and true, and it's better from a performance standpoint, too. My only complaint is that it doesn't have quite as much feedback through the wheel on the handling sections. So I'm going to pull in and park, I'm going to switch to a DAS car, and you can see how it goes. All right Autoblog, I'm back, I am in a Direct Adaptive Steering equipped Q50 Red Sport 400. And again, watch the steering, watch how much less I have to work at the wheel. It's really amazing. I didn't think it was going to be quite such a big deal until I actually experienced it myself. I wasn't going to make this video until I saw this firsthand.
So here we go, coming up to the slalom section again. Some maniac turned off the AC. So, here we go. Look at that. Working a lot less at the steering wheel. And the weight is better, it feels better. Feedback is not quite as good, I'll admit. But the extra steering weight makes a big difference in how hard you have to work. And thing is, the weight feels natural. It doesn't feel artificial. It doesn't feel, you know, super heavy or obnoxiously heavy. It's just really, really good. We're coming up to the auto cross section so you can see it again. [ENGINE REVVING]
So, yeah, bad handiwork on the last section is not such an issue here because I don't have to dial in as much steering angle. it's just a hell of a lot easier. And to be entirely honest, a lot more fun. Now we're onto the NVH section again. Slow down, put it into drive mode, and again, watch the steering. Watch the difference-- watch how the wheel just doesn't move this time. Again this is still in sport, this is the most aggressive setting right now. And it just irons out the bumps like few cars I've ever driven. It's a really impressive system. But it's one of those things that if you're thinking about buying this car, you need to drive the systems back to back. You're not going to notice this if you just hop right in the DAS car. This is the car that I was driving all morning. So I didn't really realize how good it was until I got into a non DAS car later in the day. So you really have to experience that for yourself if you're going to look into getting one of these.
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