Yea..yea. Wrenching on cars is not as enjoyable as it once was for me. I don't mind doing it but I'm also not giddy about it either like I was at 18-22. I also anticipate my time (and desire) to play with a car is going to diminish as my daughter gets older. Looking for something with performance off the start or; lightly modding to get where I want. Similar to the G37 but with a better performance base to work with.

 

Spending a weekend wrenching on the car requires a little more spousal equity when kids are involved

I always like this guy's reviews, especially the quality that goes into the video/editing. Farewell review of the 370Z:

 

I'm actually contemplating a Z roadster rather than a Miata at this point, with the argument to my wife being commonality of parts.

Of course, $2500 exhaust and $600 pair of brake rotors for the G later, I might not be making my *best* argument.

 

It's a fair bet that most of the people in this thread have strong interest in the new Z. I could see wanting that car, and nursing that ambition for a few years before making it happen.

But I think my values align more to the GT cruiser world, and my G actually bridges that gap between sportscar and cruiser. So there's that.

Whatever comes with the car (and old age), I absolutely will test drive the new Z next year. Really looking forward to that.

 

I have a strong interest in the current Z

I think it would be a great toy or 3rd car to keep tucked away for nice days. Analog inputs, decent power for the street, sounds good, 6MT, and minus the current craziness in the used car market, it's not outrageously priced. Certainly an alternative to the Mustang GT and Camaro SS.


+1 Should have more luck than i did in 1994 trying to test drive a 300ZX TT.

 

I'm glad I'm enjoying the G as used car prices for cool sports cars are quite high at this time. I need the G to hold me over for the a few years before getting a replacement.

This will probably be the last decade we can get a sports car with a manual.

 

Test drove via Turo a 2020 G70 3.3TT Sport edition. Very fun car. Shame he put some General tires on the rear and kept the Michilen PS4's in the front. Only 18k on the odometer and already replaced the rears haha. Anyways, here's what I liked and didn't like about the car:

Liked:
1. Siberian Ice looks far better in person and is more complicated than anticipated. Something of a mix of pale blue, pale gray and white. No flake whatsover.
2. Stereo was excellent. Has slightly less bass than our Bose systems, but excellent mid and treble system. Also has an option for sound stage where it makes everything sound like a concert. Software stuff by Lexicon obviously but honestly I preferred it over "unmolested."
3. Seats were very comfortable. I liked that the seats automatically bolstered up tighter in the chest/rib section when the car was placed in sport mode. Heated and cooled seat options both worked quite well, but you won't be cooking eggs on them either (ie BMW hot).
4. All controls are very high quality. Absolutely premium materials unlike our nissan sentra switches. Everything they could make out of milled aluminum it seems they did. And it showed.
5. Intuitive controls. Analogous to our cars, everything could be done quite easily. I don't need to go into a submenu to turn on wipers or other random crap.
6. Aesthetically speaking, it's a damn good looking car.
7. Headlights had excellent cutoff line and output. Also, they would change direction with the turn which I didn't know they did in this car. Nice touch.
8. Very nice hefty key. Sounds stupid I suppose but it's a nice key. I really liked it.

Disliked:
1. Moron put worse tires on the rear. Car broke out all over the place due to "excessive" torque. I am clearly used to a N/A motor with lower torque because this car just liked breaking traction, even with traction control on.
2. Doesn't sound horrible but I also wouldn't advertise that it sounds well because it doesn't. It's bleh.
3. Seats. No thigh extender and the seat bolsters do no inflate or deflate in the leg section.
4. Rear seats....yeah, they are definitely tighter than the g37 sedan. Tight enough it might be a breaking point for me. Sitting in a reasonable position left a marginal amount of room for someone behind me. Definitely not an adult. I'm only 6 foot tall fyi with a 32" inseam.
5. Dash/tablet screen. While everything worked very well, the instrument cluster itself for the speedo drove me nuts. The speedometer changes it's gradient from 10mph markers to 20mph markers between the 60 and 80 mark but doesn't change the distance. Essentially, the speedo jumps up and down quicker between 0-60 than it does 70 and above. It cuts the scale and hence speed it moves in half. It should be noted this was NOT the 3D cluster. Additionally, the cluster didn't tell me a ton of information I would expect in sport mode, like tranny temp, oil temp, etc. Would have liked more available information.

Overall I really liked the car but I have major concerns about rear seating given that I have 4 children and haul kids all over the damn place. It's otherwise a wonderful car. It does require very high quality tires though. I am confident it would have performed better on egress from turns if Michelins were back on the rear.

 

Perhaps the (not-yet-released) GV70 would be a better family fit. Damn attractive crossover in a sea of otherwise bland crossovers.

 

I read an article the other day that listed interesting cars that will be legal to import into the U.S. next year. (I have been looking for a clean R33 GT-R all year, but have not had much luck.) One of the cars on the list is the original Lotus Elise- the S1. This has to be one of the purest driving cars ever made. Interesting.

Another car is the Subaru WRX STI Ver. III, probably the best looking Subaru ever made and along with Colin McRae's rally success a large reason why my first real car was a 1998 Subaru 2.5RS and my next two cars were Subarus. Tempting.

But the one that really caught my eye was the Mitsubishi Evo 5- arguably the best looking Evo of all time. I think I liked this one due to the large Subaru-like fog lights. It really caught my attention when the article mentioned expected prices to be in the $20,000 range (about 1/3 the cost of a clean R33 Skyline). Yes, please!

I must really be missing having AWD for the winter. The G37 is entertaining with winter tires, but getting a little AWD turbo rally car sideways in the snow is the best kind of addiction. And would you just look at that black beast below? It has aged well.

 

Here I take a much closer look at the Q50S Red Sport 400 to see if it is a worthy replacement for my car. First video with the new camera and a bit longer than usual.

 

Nice review. Thanks for giving it another go! Question though, at the 4:20 - 4:27 mark, you mention you can still get it with the hydraulic steering...is that true??? I was always under the impression this was drive by wire only.

 

Your commentary is really getting polished. Very professional, but still approachable.

 

Getting better. Since you mentioned exhaust sound, it would have been nice to throw some revs in for the viewers to hear.

 

Thanks. The Direct Adaptive Steering is optional, but when I look at the 2021 online it looks like they are all at least electronic steering. Confusing since the last one I drove maybe a year ago did not have the Direct Adaptive Steering and my Infiniti rep claimed that it was a hydraulic steering unit. It felt much better than the one in my recent video and really just like my car. Now when I search for hydraulic steering in the Q50S there are lots of articles that claim that the Q50S was supposed to get a hydraulic rack, but only a few that claim it actually has it. At this point, who the hell knows?

Thanks. The exhaust sounds decent, but nothing amazing like an aftermarket exhaust or even remotely approaching the Veloster N. I also fear that some of that sound was piped into the cabin via the stereo, but I am not 100% sure.

I will get to the point of editing in some more things eventually. Baby steps at this point. This time around the big project was getting the sound to turn out since it was a pretty windy day. The new camcorder is supposed to have wind reduction technology, but it barely did anything. I had to tape some foam over the mic holes on the front and bottom of the unit. A simple fix for sure, but wow was it effective. I also just picked up a wireless mic that I can wear so the sound should be consistent regardless of where I am in relation to the camera. My goal for each new video is to improve something from the last one. We will see how it goes...

 

Thanks - so the one in the video did not have DAS equipped and you'd say it was a better 'feeling' car?