I picked up a used 2007 G35x a few months ago. AWD is new to me and so far I love it, except I guess I get a little jealous when I hear someone squealing their back tires...

Anyways, it seems like it has to be really wet out for there to be any drama at all. If the pavement is dry, I literally can't get the thing to lose grip (with VDC off). Am I being too sheepish? Anyone have any thoughts on aggressive driving with AWD in general?

Also, does anyone have experience with autocross? I'm thinking of trying it out this summer (its cheap to participate and I don't know of any real tracks close to here I live).

 

Yes it is hard to lose traction with the X. I always do it in the snow. VDC off and you are good to go. Drry pavement it is sticking to it.

tg

 

If you floor it fast enough around a turn, with VDC off, you can get it to slide.

Its a lot harder than RWD though haha

 

Oops, i read this again and it sounds like I'm slamming the autocross ppl out there! thats not what i meant...of course it is REAL...you know what i meant though

 

I have never attempted to make the tires squeal but I have definately punched it (briefly) from a dead stop. Obviously, in rain and snow you can get varied amounts of spin but like mentioned above, on warm dry pavement this baby sticks like glue in a straight line.

 

About a month ago I got turned around in an old industrial park and was at a dead stop. I was pissed off at being lost and late and I felt like chirping the tires - which I never do. I punched it flat down and g-damn the car stuck on the road and shot forward like a cannon. Honestly I always knew this car was fun to drive (more fun than my old 04 Z) but this was nuts.

 

Drive on a lake (frozen of course).

Turning off VDC and flooring the rwd G35 isn't fun, it's more scary. This car is NOT stable when kicking the tail out.

My 02 Trans Am on the other hand is very controlled when I slide out the rear.

 

What would really be cool is if we AWD cars had a sep switch to disable the awd system, so we could break our tires loose just like 2wd cars but i digress.... these sedans handle very well imo. In early May i will be taking mine to Brainerd Intl. raceway for a 1 day school!! 3 mile road course now if i could just get rid of that sickening 130 mph speed limiter..

 

What is this 130mph limit you speak of? I'm not aware of it...

But wait...for real...do our cars have an electronic limter at some point?

 

130mph on AWD cars, why? I have no clue. I know my old 07 G35x had it, won't try it on my new 08g35xS though!

 

All cars do...tire ratings for one thing. Parts used in the assembly have their own limitations which effect where the overall limitations will occur.

 

I'm not trying to start up the whole "What's the real limit" thing again, but my X has seen 145 and still had more to go when I let off.
I honestly don't know why, but ask 10 different people and get 10 different top ends.

 

I know what you mean,, but i can assure every member here, mine only goes 130 mph Its almost like its a region thing,, diff. cars going to diff parts of the country,,, or I maybe should have picked the one next to it last March regards...

 

Autocrossed my 08 sport for the first time last weekend. Previously autocrossed the 02 altima for a couple years. Everyone at the track was very impressed with the performance of the G in an auto-x event. It was a local event, so classes were bumped, meaning that there was too few cars in certain classes, so the classes were bunched together. As it turned out, D stock (the G35 sedan and others) was lumped into A stock, which includes M3's, M5's, NSX's, S2000's etc. It was just me and the s2000 and my times ran from 81.2 secs with a passenger on the first runs to a best time of 74.5 secs. The s2000's best time-75.6. All in all, I was more than impressed with the G35S sedan for autocross, and I've heard that lap times in the X are improved over the Sport. Just keep in mind that our cars are taller than a typical auto-x car, and weight transfer is a real factor, so smoothness is even more important, and slower can be faster.

On a side note, there are no real tracks around here either, but I recently drove the 3.5 hours to College Station, TX for The Driver's Edge driving school at Texas World Speedway. I'll give more details and pics later, but suffice it to say that it was damned educational and the most fun i've yet had on four wheels.

P.S. While autocross is great fun while you're driving, the problem is that you don't drive enough. You'll spend from 3-7 hours at the track for only 4-8 minutes of total driving time. . . but it's great fun to compete against other vehicles, and that competition makes for a fun 4-8 minutes. Hope that helped.

 

No speed limiter here.

tg