Hey guys,

New member here looking for for some expert advice on the G35 coupe (2003-2005). I've gathered a ton of info searching the forums already! Hopefully these questions will be interesting to debate for the guys who have been here a long time and good stuff for us newbie's too!!

My Situation

I currently in the process of selling two cars (02 S2000 and an 06 Z4M Coupe). It looks like the S2k is gone this week (have a deposit) and a guy is picking up the Z4MC next week. I loved and tracked both of these cars and am only selling to get a performance car that I can get my 3 kids in (and maybe occasionally the wife ).

I want a car as a daily driver that I can also put on the track for 4-5 DE's/open track events per year. The car has to be quick stock or fairly easily modified (brakes, suspension) to be quick. By "quick" I mean to be able to keep up with (or preferably pass!) the guys I run with at the track. My buddies drive evo's, highly modified S2k's, 350z nismo, cayman S, etc.. My S2k was a little slower than average and beemer was a little faster.

My initial thoughts were an 2006 or 2008 Evo (Pros - fast stock: Cons - ugly, 4wd), 2002-2005 M3 (Pros -fast stock, great DD: Cons - expensive), 2000-2004 911 (sweet ride, expensive to buy AND work on). So I didn't really have a clear direction... Then a buddy who works for Nissan mentioned the G35 and the huge availability of suspension, intake, and brake mods.

My initial thoughts were that the G was a little heavy, underpowered for what I wanted to do (no offense! Just my first reaction), and probably set up much more for the street than the track. However, as I researched I found that it is a pretty good handling car out of the box. Also the older models seem to be going for $15+. So with $5k worth of mods may be a great track car.

Sooo... as I finally get to my point. Here are my thoughts/questions:

Questions

1. Should I start with the sport version that includes the Brembo package? Or does it matter because everything needs to change? Obviously I want 6MT...

2. Thoughts on price of car and total price of mods? 50,000 miles and slight imperfections are not a big deal...

3. What mods would you do? In what order/cost?

4. Is there a certain year I should concentrate on?

5. Will the stock seats work with a 4 point safety harness (i.e. mount to rear seat belt mounts and shoulder straps go under/around the headrest)?

6. I would probably install an adjustable camber plate to easily move between track and street setup. Mfr recommendation?

7. Any weight saving ideas without tearing the car apart??? Probably a silly question...

8. Is a goal of putting $20k into a car and mods to get Cayman S/Evo/350Z Nismo kind of track performance realistic? Should I go in a different direction?

Whew!! I think I'm done. Thanks for your help and please steer my in the right direction if some of these answers are elsewhere here that I haven't seen them!!