Recently picked up this 05 g coupe with 95k miles that will be used as a drift car. Ordered up a clutch and it’s on stands already 😁

 

Should be a fun project, welcome to the forums.

Read up on putting a kill switch on the yaw sensor, with the VDC off using the dash button it doesn't FULLY kill the VDC.

You're probably going to want to source a non-VLSD differential so you can weld it. Or replace your VLSD with a different unit, they don't really hold up to the abuse of drifting.

Here's the OEM gear ratio chart in case you want to get a diff with factory 3.7 or 3.9, the Nismo ones came with the factory clutch LSD.

 

I was planning on welding this diff, didn’t know it came with a vlsd. So I’ll definitely end up grabbing an lsd for this thing. What would factory gear ratio help with?

 

Helps with breaking the tires free / keep spinning easier and give you a better range of gears since you don't need the top end for drifting.

If you're going with a turbo build it really won't matter since you'll be able to spin the tires free easily. NA it's a lot more challenging keeping speed and angle but you can make it easier by having shorter gears since you can just leave it in 3rd usually. 3rd with the stock 3.5 is a little too fast and not enough power (obviously depends on the track). But if you are going with turbo or SC then it might be fine and you might actually want the 3.5 gear for some really big and fast tracks, check with whoever your local group is (probably SCCA yeah?) and see what everyone else is running and how big the tracks are.

 

Makes sense. Thanks for the detailed reply. I’m not sure if I want to boost a Revup, idk how reliable that would be and I also just boosted my g37 so don’t wanna drop too many racks rn lol, I think my goal for rn is to learn the physics of rwd with FBO NA.

 

You're going to find that the car is heavy, which isn't a BAD thing because it rotates very predictably. The weight is going to keep your speed down though and eventually you're going to get jealous of lighter framed cars like 240's and such.

Fortunately there's a LOT of extra weight in the G35 that's pretty simple to reduce, the power seats are insanely heavy at like 70 lbs apiece. You can put in some lightweight Sparco/Recaro or other brand and drop 50 lbs per seat.

The stock battery is pretty heavy, going with a lightweight option will probably save you 25 lbs.

The stock dual mass flywheel is significantly heavier than the Z1 motorsports 14 lb lightweight one, plus it makes that engine rev out MUCH faster, you will almost definitely want to put one on and the chatter is definitely tolerable (I daily drive with one). It's really only noisy below 1600 rpm.

One issue you're going to run into very quickly is that yes the stock 19 wheel look good and are lightweight but those tires are EXPENSIVE. You're probably going to want to get some aftermarket lightweight 18s, (maybe 17s???) because the rubber will be significantly cheaper and more readily available.

Spare tire and everything out of the trunk is like 50lbs worth of stuff.

Rear seat upper/lower is about 50lbs and it's easy to reinstall later if you do want it.

The 200 lbs you subtract will make a good difference especially since it's coming off the mid and rear of the vehicle, the flywheel makes the car rev substantially quicker and overall the throttle modulation will feel insanely better without all that extra metal moving around on the DMFW.

Your rear diff bushing is going to be destroyed your first weekend I strongly recommend replacing it with a poly bushing immediately unless it's already been done. The stock rubber one has a super short lifespan so it might already be replaced with a poly unit.

 

Amazing info!!!! Like I stated in the OP I already ordered up a clutch and that includes the z1 6 puck mild performance clutch with the z1 mid weight flywheel. Was worried about chatter on the exedy lightweight and it was an extra 200 or so compared to the free mid weight 😬

the rear diff bushing is probably oem. Car had 95k miles only and was completely bone stock, so I imagine if they replaced it they went oem anyway.