Hey, new member here and new of a G35.
I had been looking around online for ideas on what the first mod for my car should be, and contrary to my first instinct, one of the most important mods are brakes. http://speed.academy/infiniti-g35-tu...ack-test-350z/
After that I would probably be looking at a set of coilovers, and maybe suspension upgrades if y'all think it would be beneficial.

My current cart looks like:
Akebono Big Brake Kit from Z1 Motorsports, at $1398
BC Racing BR Coilovers at $998
Z1 Adjustable Suspension Package w/ Z1 Adjustable Toe Arms at $700

I definitely wanna track my car a little bit and have some fun with it, but since it's also my daily, I'm not looking to slam it or put crazy amounts of camber on it.
Is the big brake set a good bang for the buck, and would I really benefit from the adjustable suspension package?

Thanks for any help!

 

If you are going to track it, yes BBK with proper pads is a good investment. Adjustable suspension to dial it in, yes. Don't know what's in the Z1 kit, but you'll want adjustable sways too. 5/16" plenum spacer, revup airbox, uprev tune to smooth out power band and give you more pull at lower RPMs coming out of corners.

 

That article doesn't even mention the single most important part of brakes and how/why their comparison numbers are so wildly different and how/why the OEM brakes faded so quickly so at best that article is just misinforming the public, at worst they're being intentionally disingenuous.

Yes big brakes are great for track use, the extra volume and surface area of the metal helps to dissipate heat but that isn't nearly as important as proper pad selection.

OEM pads are designed to be quiet, not create excess dust, and provide a balance of cold and hot stopping power, and have a long life.

Track pads are designed to be noisy, dusty, have terrible cold stop but have excellent hot stopping power with no fade, and have a VERY short lifespan.

They claim their track pads had "no noise to speak of" which I call BS on, maybe you can't hear them with the windows rolled up or over the roar of the engine but I guarantee they're noisy and dusty. They have to be if they're not going to fade...

If you have the 2003-2004 non-brembo with the smaller calipers then yes switching to a better caliper (buying rebuilt brembo's, with rotors, pads, and brake lines) will give you all the performance you'll need for weekend track use, will probably only cost you about $1k for the entire setup if you shop around for rebuilt brembo calipers. If you can find a local G35 or 350Z in a pick-n-pull with the brembo's then you can probably get the entire kit for even cheaper. There's also the newer G37 sport brake option which came with factory Akebono's that perform excellently with good pads if you can find a good donor car to pull them from.

If you have the 2005+ calipers then just throw a good set of track pads on and hit the track and see for yourself how it performs, there's a LOT more important parts of the car to upgrade (tires, tires, tires, tires, and suspension) before your calipers and rotors are going to be the limiting factor.

If money is not a factor then go ahead and drop $6k worth of brakes on it, they're full blown racing quality components and will pair well with $4k worth of suspension upgrades and $4k worth of racing wheels/tires.

 

Your current shopping cart looks pretty decent but I would definitely find room for a Hotchkis 4 way adjustable sway bar with good end links.

 

I definitely won't be dropping 6k on brakes anytime soon, but it seems like the Akebonos provide a bit more braking capability than OEM calipers provide, and swapping out pads and rotors for something a bit more aggressive for track use saves only a small amount.
And as for the sway bars, I will definitely be adding a set to my cart.

 

Can you share some other info about your G? Miles, history, etc? Have all the bushings already been swapped to polyurethane? Engine mounts/diff mount upgraded? It's easy to throw some expensive parts on the car but if you don't look at it as a system, your weak link will be elsewhere and that expensive part won't be performing as well as it should (or anywhere near it)...

 

Currently, its sitting at about 98k miles, it was apparently owned by a family who lived in the country in Central Kansas. I don't know much else of the story behind it as I only bought it a month ago.
However, I'm pretty sure that the car is 100% stock.

 

IMO your best bet is to go through the whole car and replace every bit of rubber you can find preventatively before you start messing with the suspension settings... Differential bushings, front end bushings, and engine/trans mounts are the big ones. Once you've got it handing and riding well stock height on poly bushings that won't wear out further, it's a good time to make modifications so you can dial in your changes one by one with as few variables as possible. There are also so many common issues with the G's bushings it just makes sense to take care of it all at once.

 

any suggestions for good bushings?

 

Energy suspension makes a complete kit. I used it for everything except powertrain I went with all Z1 Motorsports. Whiteline is another great option. First decide what durometer rating you want and start shopping for ones that meet those specs.

At the end if the day they're pretty much all cut the same so it really comes down to durometer rating.

Buy lots, and lots of grease for them. Don't be afraid to drill/tap and install a grease sert on to every place you put poly bushings, saves a lot of headache getting rid of squeaks.

 

Excuse me, a what?

 

It's a typo: grease zerk. A lil knobby port you use to lube the bushing.

 

I installed the Whiteline bushings wherever possible, greased them according to the instructions, no squeaks after two winters and two summers of daily driving. The little dimples on the inside of the Whiteline bushings do a great job at retaining grease virtually forever without messing about with zerks and all that. So many people complain about squeaky poly bushings but haven't had a single problem with the Whitelines even while exposing the said bushings to salt, rain, snow, and horrible potholed roads.

I've got Energy steering rack bushings and sway bar bushings since Whiteline didn't make those. Used lots of grease, but there's no dimples so it could come out over time.

"Whiteline essentials kit"

 

Thanks guys, sometimes that voice-to-text does silly things and I hate typing.

 

Well,, thank you all for helping me out on getting my car upgrades started. I have no idea when I'll have the time to do it, but that's besides the point.