Probably ranked second out of all the cars I have owned, the Infiniti G35 6MT provided a great blend of performance and luxury.  Nothing beat the natural note of the VQ35 and just how nicely balanced everything was on the car.  Unfortunately I didn't keep it for very long since I moved to California and didn't bring it with me, but while I had it I threw on a few mods to it making it a nicer daily driver.  I didn't want to go overboard on the car, so it just got a nice OEM front lip, a few set of wheels including the first set of 20-inch Volk Racing GT-Cs in Diamond Black ever, and a GReddy SP2 axle-back exhaust while lowered on TEIN S-Tech springs.

Read about the rest of the build after the break.

So after selling my 1999 Honda Civic Si to good friend Dewayne, I started looking around at cars I could afford.  I looked at the RX-8, an RS-X and I don't even know what other cars I looked at, but after seeing the G35 Coupe in person, I knew it was what I wanted to get.  I really wanted an Ivory Pearl one back then, but there weren't any 6MTs anywhere in Ivory Pearl and being the impatient person I was, I settled on a silver one.  I just wanted the car to be honest.  I picked it up on 9/25/2003 and before I had even bought the car I scored myself a set of clear bumper lenses just so it wouldn't have to be stock for more than a couple of hours.



Less than a month later, I had ordered up a set of TEIN S-Tech springs and an Injen Cold Air Intake for the coupe.  I headed up to Endless Speed & Sound in Ocala, Gainesville to say what's up to the guys and Dewayne was nice enough to help me install the springs and intake.  I knew I didn't really want a crappy ride out of the car, and really I didn't want to dump a whole lot of money into the car so I opted for a cheap set of springs that rode nice and would give the car just a lower stance than it already was.

Not long after, I ordered up an OEM front lip for the car since I didn't really like any of the kits out and wanted to keep the car subtle and clean.  I knew all I really wanted after that would be a different exhaust, but not something that would change the note of the VQ.  Shortly after the new year, GReddy had their SP2 axle-back out for the G35 and I scooped up one of the first units to come into America.  It was perfect for what I wanted - a deeper note to the already awesome tone of the VQ35 and it was an axle-back which made it easy to install/uninstall... plus it was cheap at my cost.

After that around March, I was fortunate enough to get the first set of 19-inch RH Pro J5 wheels ever into America.  RH Pro was a spin off from Dazz Motorsports and the J5 was one of the first wheels to really take advantage of the 350Z/G35 wheel wells and offer a ridiculous lip size.  The wheels were lightweight and I put on a traditional silver finish.  Back then I also worked for Enjuku Racing, so we stickered up the car and took it out to Battle of the Imports to attract some potential G35 customers.  Apparently the car had won some sort of trophy that day, but I wasn't really there to show (nor did I care) and I had left before they announced the winners.

During Tokyo Auto Salon 2004, the Top Secret 350Z sported a set of 20-inch GT-C wheels.  Back then, it was Volk Racing's first set of 20-inch wheels and I knew I had to size up and get myself a set of 20-inch GT-C's.  When we put in the order, I asked if we could get it in a black finish, since back then black wheels weren't very popular.  Rays Engineering liked the idea and out came the Diamond Black finish that ended up on a lot of their wheels.  These were the first set of 20-inch GT-Cs in the nation and the first set of Volk Racing wheels in Diamond Black finish to hit the US soil.  They hit the ground on June 8th, 2004 and I was stoked to put them on the car.  It was a 20x9.5 +32 in the front and a 20x10.5 +22 in the rear.

Since my car was the first one on RH Pro J5's, it was fitting that we'd use my car to throw on the new SBC coating for both the RH Pro J5 and J8.  Dazz sent a set over to Florida and we threw them on the car.  On the driver side were the J5s in SBC and on the passenger side were the J8s in SBC.  This was back in July 2004, when photoshoots were just about the worst thing you could do out in the Orlando, Florida heat.

Then in September, I decided to start parting the car out since I was considering the move to California.  I put the car basically back to stock, minus the springs, and headed to South Florida right before SEMA 2004.  While I was down there, I got bored one day and did a rig shot of the G35 which was really popular back then since few photographers really knew how to do a rig shot.

After I came back from SEMA 2004 and got the offer to move to California and work with Modified Magazine, I started exploring options on what to do with the G35.  Transport ranged anywhere from $800-$1200 and the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to just get a cheaper payment and to get out of the lease.  On a whim I contacted Infiniti Financial Services and they told me it would be a penalty of just $1300.84 to get out of my lease.  Since I was already planning to spend that much to transport the car, I gladly paid it and walked away from the lease.  I put back on the stock springs the night before the lease return, cleaned up the interior best that I could and waited for the inspector to show up on 12/2/2004.  I was a little paranoid that he'd find all sorts of things to penalize me on, but the guy did the fastest inspection job I had ever seen and told me he wish every car was like this.  Let me tell you one thing, the tires were pretty bald on the inside and the interior wasn't exactly in great shape.  But apparently people had much worse condition cars on lease returns... and considering mine was barely a year old all that was left was to drop off the keys.

The 6MT G35 was by far the second funnest car I had ever owned to drive, my E92 335 being the top of the list.  But something about the note of the G35 and just the way it handled and performed made it a really awesome car.  I always wanted one again, but after moving to California and seeing multiple G35s on the street, I got sick of them.  What were Civics in Florida were G35s in California.

Modifications mentioned for the 2004 Infiniti G35 Coupe: