According to my sources, the transmission, inside and out, is identical. You'll notice a really big dip in the RS400 torque curve early on. Tranny preservation.
Obviously it's just guessing, but I have a feeling they'll offer things like intake and exhaust components that keep your factory warranty intact along with big brakes and other handling components. Hopefully an LSD is one of those options. Still, even a base RS400 is $54K. Then needing what will most likely amount to another $10K in parts to make it an actual (overweight) performance car is really asking too much based on what else is on the market. I'd hope and wait for a much lighter Z to make an appearance.
So you may pay double what you would for say a Fast Intentions exhaust, see no more gains than the FI exhaust and really "gain" nothing in terms of warranty as they'd have to prove the exhaust caused the issue. I realize it's a pretty gray area but it's not as just and dry as I'm sure AMS/Infiniti marketing will have you believe.
I do agree with you that AMS working on the car will be of benefit. At least they road race and they work with lots of different makes including Porsche/Audi.
Audi is now doing something similar which really piqued my interest. Might be just my local Audi dealer but they've eliminated Quattro Gbmh and it's now Audi Sport. Includes one or two free track days a year and you can mod the car with parts from APR, installed by the local authorized dealer, and it won't void your warranty. This includes everything up to but not including tuning. If you mess with the ECU, you loose the warranty. As much as I wanted to love the Q60RS, I think the RS3's going to be my next vehicle. Same price, two more doors, AWD, better transmission and sub-4.0s 0-60 times no matter what the weather looks like. LOTS of headroom for improvement in the engine dept too.
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'13 Audi RS5 Misano w/mods-The Red Mist
'13 G37 IPL-SOLD
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