Performance Parts Zone

 I think this is the first Infinit G35 i’ve posted, and the owner sent a nice email about the car.  Instead of posting a  standard spec sheet, I think i’ll let Cassidy tell you more about his car.

 ”Well, I have an 06 Infiniti G35, thats right, the G ride baby.. Anyways, I’ve been slowly modding it when i have the money.. Since i’m a full time college student my car has been on the back burner… But my first mod was an Injen Intake which i modified to prevent hydrolock.. Once the mod was on, i took my car out to the track to see what changes had occurred.. I ran a  14.0 at 100 mph (stock was 14.5 at 97mph)

 After that i got the MREV kit and high flow cats which was a noticeable gain across the entire power band.. Only complaint about the HF was that i lost some low end torque which the G really needed, and it seemed to be burning oil.. So i went to a thicker oil and it helped out.  At the track it really helped unlock the motors potential.. With the intake, MREV, and cats, i ran a 13.8 at 104mph.   So with a little motor work done, i decided to make my G stand out from the rest of the 350GT’s out there.   I orered a set of DB Volk GT-Cs, JDM clear corners w/ HID lights, Top Secret Hood, Stillen Sway Kit, and still waiting on the ARC Strut Brace.

 For the future i want to get, the kenstyle body kit, HKS Hi-power exhaust, UTEC, Tein Coilovers, and the Seibon TS Hood… Once thats done ill try to save up fro the real power… F/I!!!  Well i can dream”

Whats the deal with Carbon Fiber (C/F) these days?  It seems as though its everywhere in the automotive industry.  The question is, why?  Is it because of its performance benefits? Or maybe because its the latest trend in styling made popular by many Japanese race cars.  Can it be both?  I dont know that it can, and here is why.

I just dont buy into the whole, “I put a Carbon Fiber hood on my car to save weight as i drive to school and work everyday a little bit faster” way of thinking.  Don’t get me wrong, i like C/F (more on this later), but as a performance enhancement on a daily driven car, come on, seriously.  Carbon Fiber is used in F1 cars, Time Attack Cars, and now in airplanes. Why?, because its lightweight, strong, and stiff.  Entire car bodys are formed in C/F for the Time Attack cars, the cockpits in F1 cars are entirely C/F.  In both cases, its for the huge gains that can be had by simply reducing the vehicle weight.  Carbon Fiber weighs 1/5 of what steel does and is still considerably lighter than aluminum.  Of course, C/F also costs almost 5x as much to produce as aluminum, which is why you dont see it in mass production coming out  of Nissan, Mazda, or any of the other car manufacturers. 

Carbon Fiber for looks? I can buy that.  Like i said earlier, i like C/F, i have a C/F Hood on my car and love the way it looks.  It’s obvious that young tuners across the world like C/F for its aesthetic qualitys.  The weave, the offset of color, the clear coat on top, all lead to a visually appealing modification to any car.  Carbon Fiber for looks is fine by me, but please dont tell me you want a C/F hood on your car to make it faster.  Especially after you just showed me the crazy fiberglass stereo install you did.

Carbon Fiber right now is currently becoming hard to come by. Several airplane manufacturers have been buying all the raw C/F material they can to build a new era of airplanes out of them.  This has caused C/F prices to soar and while they have leveled out, it doesnt appear that prices will be coming down on it anytime soon.  In my opinion, this is going to increase the popularity of C/F among tuners.  It was just about played out, everyone had it, but now its not going to be so easy to get.  Like any market, low availability drives what’s hot and what’s not.  The C/F market is no different and if you are going to stay on top of the game, put together your C/F wish list now and start saving.

We are about to start the buildup of an 04 Mazda RX8.  I figured i’d let you guys in on it from the beginning, so feel free to subscribe and check back for updates and pictures as we build this car with the ultimate goal of a magazine feature.
We want this car to have a clean look with a hint of race car attitude, but we also want the car to have some power to back up its styling.  The car came to us with a set of 20” HPD MSR wheels, Mazdaspeed replica body kit, a Seibon Carbon Fiber Hood, and a Magnaflow Exhaust already installed on it.  We may leave the hood, and even the body kit, but the wheels have to go because they just don’t work with our theme for the car.  We have yet to decide what performance parts we want to use and that’s where we would love to hear from you.  Let us know what you think we should use in the build-up of this car. Give us your thoughts on exterior styling, performance parts, and suspension pieces.  For the next month or so we will be sourcing parts, so send us your suggestions soon. 
More to come soon….