Plugged in the title but nothing came up, but then a saw a link at the bottom taking to a thread regarding it. Apparently trash. Too bad. Can’t afford a super charger. Have a ram air intake now and may add test pipes if I can get away with it. Don’t think I have the $$$ to swap out the rear end either. From what I’ve read so far the bolt-on mods, for the money just don’t cut it. It’s not the horsepower I can’t live with, it’s the lack of low end torque and the seven speed A tranny that doesn’t really know what the hell to do even after you tell it. A two second thought process for a transmission to downshift when you floor it just ain’t right! Wish I had found a standard! Thnx

 

I mean, it's no secret the VQ lacks the low end grunt. Most of the enjoyment comes from the fact you can wring them out. Test pipes and a tune made my 7AT car a lot more fun but the transmission is what it is unfortunately. If you're going to do anything, I'd pull the trigger now before the EPA shuts down the aftermarket industry and tuning. Take a moment to sign the RPM act and write your representative(s).

 

Yep, I agree with @RMB5190 . You can make it into a fun and beautiful car, but making it fast is not worth the $$, imo. Intake / exhaust / tune is probably the reasonable combo for this engine. Even with a tragic tranny, it's peppy and sounds great - very unique and enjoyable.
With some suspension stuff you can make it into a decent canyon carver as well. Plus, if you are ok with pedal shifting, you can time the gears where they don't impact your fun in the corners.
I love looking at this car, inside and out, and have been willing to overlook the shortcomings for years now. We get complements every time we are out too, and the only thing I changed was the ride height.

Enjoy her for what she is and not for what she could be.

 

Oh heck don’t get me wrong. I love this ride. I was all set to buy a WRX to satisfy my perfoance craving and Ive always had the mod sickness. My Harley is a torque monster and my sport quads are modded and tuned for racing so unfortunately I’ve kinda got it in my blood. But as it turned out, an acquaintance of mine’s wife drove this G before I bought it. He had it sitting in his show room all slick amd sparkly, and i made the mistake of going to look at it Anyway, bloody well fell in love with it right then and there. I have always wanted a convertible sport ride and it was a hard top at that! (that top kinda scares me though), It only had one owner previous to her who sold it to her at 10,000 miles and after that it was garage kept and babied and only driven another 28,000 as a weekender. So I got this 2010 with 38k miles. The thing looked like it just rolled off the showroom floor. Seriously immaculate and of course that drew me in even more. Well then I drove it…and the thing rides on rails. It came with the upgraded sport suspension and wheels which’ll virtually makes it skip over railroad tracks. It also has the upgraded interior luxury package which is just plain screams Infiniti . I stand outside and stare at it. So there’s a long story about how and why I bought this beautiful car.

I really don’t have any complaints as such. Just always looking for this and that to try to get all I can out of anything sporty. So I’ve learned to twist it tight for the power up top and the paddles or sport mode definitely wake it up. I’ll probably switch the ram air out for cold air system. The ram air air system it came with has a tendency to suck too much of the heat from under the hood because the tubes that lead from the grill into the filters probably are not doing enough. I’ve heard the test pipes and they sound damn good! I’m just curious how you get away with those when you have to pass inspection? And the other thing that I’m a bit concerned about is when you open up an exhaust like that you typically lose some of the anti-reversion and thus even more of the low-end torque. I guess maybe if it’s done right with a good tune that may not be the case.

So how do you guys deal with inspections? And as far as suspension, I’d like to drop it an inch or two with coil overs to get rid of the wheel gap but I’m afraid the thing’ll near shake me into kidney failure. Other than that I can’t imagine that that sport suspension would really need any other work unless y’all know something I don’t.

So anyway as you can see I’ve gotten into a hell of a ramble here so sorry to make everything so long guys but it’s the first time I’ve taken an opportunity since I’ve had the ride to swap talk with fellow G lovers. I had a couple of friends that liked to poke at my ribs by telling me I’m driving a woman’s sports car. So I just slapped them. Lol. Always appreciate any feedback about anything any time guys. Thanks for listening! 😜

 

Congrats on the purchase. Spend some time using the search feature for any questions you have, guaranteed they've been asked.

As far as suspension, do sway bars, especially for the convertible. Best suspension mod hands down for the G. I have Tein Street Basis Z coilovers (great price) and they are barely stiffer than my stock sport suspension, I love them. Plenty of other good ones out there. Sounds like you would want something with dampening control, so that would increase the price.

As far as test pipes, I have the Motordyne ART pipes which has an extended O2 sensor bung. I've never thrown a CEL (knock on wood) in about 7 years with them. Visual inspection only for cats in my county, which is a joke anyways lol. They stick a mirror under and "check". If anything, I say they are high flow cats. No CEL, so it passes fine. If you add test pipes, I'd recommend ones that are resonated like the ones I have. Fast Intentions also makes some as well. This will help reduce/eliminate any rasp that is typically associated with test pipes on the VQ. I definitely did not feel any power loss with my Motordyne catback and ART pipes.

The G vert, done right, can look really good.

Best intakes that don't require a tune are Stillen Gen 3. Other good options that require a tune, SOHO Motorsports (2.7 inch), Upton (3 inch), AdminTuning (3 inch), RZG (3 inch), Miami Z Parts, tons more on Instagram. Since you're '09 and up you can run EcuTek if you later decide to have someone tune the car.

Stay on top of maintenance (I'm all about preventative maintenance) and enjoy her! Another small note; if it's in great shape and you plan on keeping it awhile, I highly recommend you get the paint ceramic coated (and paint correction if needed). It has made a huge difference on my G. You can see before/after on my Instagram; jpowers36. I love it.

 

I recently installed this, https://www.ebay.com/itm/380358428378, and it made the car have that low end power I was looking for also. Made the car fun to drive. It's loud though and it does drone at highway speeds. Ended up taking them off after a couple of weeks but I miss the low end power so I'm going to get them again sometime in the future. I didn't feel the extra power until I did the ecu reset and just it idle for a few minutes to get used to the extra flow. I have an IPL so your result might vary.

 

do a tranny swap

 

I and a lot of others out there know exactly the frustration that you're feeling.

But don't lose hope.

You CAN make certain changes to the car which will make it feel 'as it should' from the factory

Yes, you HAVE to pay.

But a little here and there when you can will all add up to a greater sum.