Category: Cars

Prepare to drool.

Click here.

(Clean up your drool. Drool and keyboards don’t mix.)

After reading (in various car magazines and online) about the 2007 Infiniti G35 Coupe for a few months, I want to see it in person.  It looks similar to my current G35 Coupe, but has been redesigned slightly all around. Very clean lines. The interior has been restyled to (near) perfection.

Knowing Infiniti, the production design will be very similar (one of their claims to fame) to the concept design depicted at the above URL. Well, minus the show car glitter — all-glass roof (DOT wouldn’t approve) and blue LED’s (illegal in Canada/US) surrounding the projection bulbs.

The only con of the G35 Coupe: gas guzzler. I get a little over 350 KM to a tank during city driving (maybe it’s just the way I drive ;)), and it takes premium fuel of all things.

I guess the pictures will have to do justice for now.  That is, until I see it in person  I don’t intend on purchasing one, as I have my hopes set on a Lexus IS sports sedan in the future (read: distant).

For those of you that followed my previous posts last year (before I became a power consumption reduction freak and trashed my old server ;)), you know that I added seven grounding wires to my car through trial-and-error (and the use of a multimeter) to yield some noticeable improvements.

A month ago, I decided to add a set of six grounding wires to Sukh’s Civic to see if I could witness any similar improvements. Sukh immediately noticed that the car’s low beams were brighter and that the stereo sounded better — the same improvements I witnessed with my car. I took several test drives and noticed increased low-end to mid-range torque, which was yet another improvement I witnessed with my car. So, there you have it. Adding several strategically placed grounding wires in the engine bay increases the overall effectiveness of a vehicle’s electrical system.

The title says it all.

Lots of goodies in the new flagship 2007 Mercedes S-Class: automated acceleration and braking, a night-vision display, among others. Those features take the fun out of driving, but they also add considerable safety benefits during night driving.

I wonder how long it’ll be until other manufacturers add such features to their production vehicles (Infiniti: hint hint).

I’ve been doing some winter tire research for my Infiniti G35 coupe.

From everyone I’ve talked to, going from high performance Michelin Pilot Sport tires to Michelin Pilot Sport A/S tires is not a good idea on the G35. I was essentially told that the car would slide around as if it were on ice skates (even at 4300 pounds curb weight!). Hmm, I’m not sure if I buy that, but being a RWD car (albeit with vehicle dynamics control), I do believe it up to an extent especially with the amount of power the engine is producing with various engine modifications.

OK, so Michelin Pilot Sport A/S tires are out of the question, especially if it does happen to snow up here. I also don’t want to waste money on tires, especially when they cost upwards of $400 to $450 per tire. Speaking of which, the stock rims on the Infiniti G35 Coupe (performance pkg.) run for $1000 a piece! I had one rim refinished a few months ago, at a cost of… get this: $313! I tried to repair the minor curb rash I spotted myself, but couldn’t find the correct paint color. The paint was what drove up the price of the refinishing job — $275 an OUNCE for the euro chrome paint used on the Infiniti G35 wheels. It’s a lead-based triple-layer paint that’s imported from Europe — shines three different colors, depending on the angle you look at the wheels from. Anyways, enough of that story.

My friend at a local car shop said the Michelin’s were out of the question (as mentioned), as were Pirelli’s and Toyo’s. I considered the Bridgestone Blizzak LM-22‘s and LM-25‘s, but they don’t make the required sizes I need for the front and back wheel configurations — resulting in differing tread patterns (bad). It appears that the Dunlop Winter Sport M3‘s are the only decent winter tires I can get for my car. Another option would be running the Blizzak LM-22’s front and back, since the LM-25’s don’t come in a 245 configuration. Either way, I’m looking at $445 for each front tire and $450 for each rear tire Quite pricey. I’ll do some more research and see if I can find a better set (and price)

Update:
I trusted my instinct and went with the Michelin Pilot A/S tires to replace the rear tires! I don’t have any regrets about my decision. The new tires perform well and provide more dry/wet traction. Ride quality is still the same. All at $421 per tire