Hey everyone,

I've had my 2003 G35 Coupe for about 6 months now, and I kind of want to start doing some small mods just to add a little bit of extra flavor to her. I was thinking of either installing a spoiler, side skirts, or a Stillen Z-tube intake kit for the sound. What would y'all recommend I start with first? Any advice is appreciated. I just started getting into this kind of stuff pretty recently, so I do take difficulty of installation into account.

 

If you want sound, get an exhaust.

IMHO, skip the cone intake since 1. It sounds like crap. You may have heard someone on some forum talk about how amazing their intake sounds, but the truth is it's an annoying sucking sound. 2. They don't necessarily make power. In fact, you may lose power where you normally like having it.

Open up your exhaust with a nice cat-back system. If you don't want your car to be too loud, then go for Stillen, Nismo, or Borla. If you want loud, there are plenty off options for that. If you don't want to spend a lot of money, you can look for a used exhaust system in the classifieds.

If you want looks, IMHO, skip the side skirts and get a front lip. Add side skirts to the front lip but side skirts alone are not going to look good. If you have black plastic somewhere and you don't like it, paint it.

If you want looks, you should seriously consider dropping your car with lowering springs and new struts. There is no single cheap mod more dramatic than a drop with lowering springs, but you will want new struts and a camber and toe adjustment kit with that. Bodywork can make a huge difference but your car will still look dumb if it is kitted but not dropped.

 

Drop it, tint it, add a trunk lip spoiler and a chin spoiler. Bingo! It's very easy to make a G look good!

 

Wow! Phoking tj, that's a sweet looking coupe! Before you start spending $$ on modifications to the beautiful coupe I want you to read the First Mod sticky at the top of the coupe page along with a few others! Since I've been here the best mod has always been Motordynes 5/16" spacer! That's a mod you can actually feel in the seat of your pants the minute you nail the throttle. Lowering isn't a cheap mod, the best way to get an adjustable suspension so you can get the perfect profile is with "Coilovers!" BC coilovers have been the most popular ones to install for a long time! Lowering must also include adjustable suspension parts to bring your alignment back to OE specs, SPL kit and a few others are available thru our Marketplace under vendor suspension! Then you'll need to find a alignment shop that has the ability to correct altered suspensions. You're looking at $2K just to get your coupe lowered and drive it so you're not buying new tires every 10K miles...or less! I've given you enough information to ponder for now, enjoy that beautiful coupe and the ride!
Gary

 

If he skips the coilovers, he can gather the parts for a more reliable and better performing suspension for about $1k.

 

Buying springs and quality shocks like Tokico's comes very close to the cost of BC coilovers, then you have the ability to change your ride height any time you feel like it! Often I've wanted to drop my backside down an inch or raise my front to keep from scraping, without coil overs I don't have the ability!
Gary

 

Coilovers are basically trading reliability for ride height adjustment. If this isn't a dd, then that isn't a horrible thing. But those coilovers will not handle around all the bumps and potholes like a 2 piece suspension.

 

She's already tinted, I just chose 70% in the front to keep it legal and 40% in the back since I do a lot of nighttime driving. I definitely am down for the spoilers though.

 

Hey thanks for your long response man, I really appreciate it. I did some research into the spacers, and I'm a bit hesitant to do it to say the least. A lot of people on the forums seem to swear they can feel the gains, while a bunch of other people say that it was a waste of money and they didn't notice anything different. If I do lower it, I would probably go with the coilovers for the flexibility.

 

Quality adjustable a-arms and toe adjusters for the rear will cost you close to that installed! Suspension mods our member must include unless a family member owns a tire store!

Regardless of which way you lower your coupe or sedan not slowing down/stopping for speed bumps is disastrous, changing lanes when you run into poor quality road is more than recommended! I don't know anyone that has said, "Wish I hadn't installed coil overs and gone with springs/shocks...quite the opposite!
Gary

 

If you open your eyes and step away from the fanboy crowd, you will see there are plenty of people who prefer a 2 piece suspension, even for autocross.

A lot of those coilovers are poorly balanced, or aren't adjustable enough. They can work great for a track car where you've built the **** out of the car, but for a street car setup, that unbalanced system can actually hinder your time through turns. Yes, you feel the Gs but your car can actually be slower. I get it though, some people love the "feel" of a race car.

Some people like to spend their money for an uncomfortable suspension that doesn't perform as well for looks, while others actually care about the level of engineering that goes into these kinds of products, but to each their own.

 

I did a Injen intake on mine and it helped the sound a lot. Prob not much extra nut, but worth the cash for a much tighter sound.

 

Get a Z-tube and plenum spacer for now and do the idler pulley delete on your motor with a shorter serpentine belt.