So, last April or so I picked up a G37XS with 64000miles on the clock. I bought it from a place in New Jersey - even though I swore I would never buy a car from Jersey - but the miles and interior were SO good, I couldn’t pass it up.

As many of you know, I spent a lot of time, money and effort getting her into damn near show-shape, but alas there was an accident just before Xmas and I found out today the car is totaled with over $12000 in damages. I don’t have the after pics, as I’m not sure I will ever be ready to share, but suffice it to say, Chapter 2 begins tomorrow with another G37 sedan, just an S this time, that is significantly better in damn near every way, shape and form than the original.

This will be an interesting Journey as I plan to swap a whole bunch of parts from Car 1 to Car 2 and look forward to sharing Car 2 with you tomorrow…

Once I take the parts I want, and Car 1 goes to the junkyard in the sky, I’ll be happy to share where Car 1 is (assuming they can tell me) in case anyone wants to jump on some of the remaining (and expensive!) parts still with her.

Stay tuned…

PS - looks like I don’t need to sell my Z1 stainless brake lines anymore that fit the S, not the XS. Perhaps this was an omen??

 

18" Sport wheels in that color are growing on me.

Also refreshing to see pics of MD homes (grew up there) as something that size on a large plot here in CA is 2.5-3M.

 

Picked up the new ride today. Will post pics shortly (ie as soon as my son brings it back &#128545.

A few details:

2013 Moonlight White Pearl G37S 7AT.
58000 miles
Florida garaged car
Mint condition all the way around with the exception of the front wheels which will soon have my gunmetal rims/tires on there.
Not a spot of rust I can find anywhere.
Had my friend at Nissan pull the full vehicle history report and appears that it was always maintained at the dealer and only one issue it’s whole life - Evap canister sensor replaced (not even sure what that is). New front and rear pads and rotors at 48000miles.

I came across this car shortly after I bought the blue one up in New Jersey and was a bit disappointed because this was clearly the better car. 6 months ago I joked with my son that maybe I should just buy this one for me…

So, for the last 6 months I’ve been keeping a loose eye on this car and the price came down considerably over that time. Lo and behold, turns out that I needed a replacement.

Now the fun part comes - transferring over as much of the stuff as possible from the old car to the new one, Thankfully my lifelong friend owns a body shop and has already told me not to worry and that he would move over whatever I wanted to.

Looks like minimally I’m going to eat the cost of the Z1 BBK and the wheel hubs - too hard to remove/replace off of two cars. And I’m going to need to buy two new rear tires and have the larger rear rims of the new car powder coated to match the fronts,

All in all I think we will end up in a good place (and need to stay there). There are not that many gems like this left floating around and certainly not within an hour of where I live, dumb luck.

 

Driving differences between the XS and S at first glance. The steering on the S is lighter and quicker- did not expect it to feel lighter, maybe a tad too light for a sports sedan. This could also be because I had a new steering rack put on the XS and dialed the alignment to a neutral setting thus taking some of the quickness out of the steering.

The lower center of gravity on the S is very noticeable. Could certainly still use an even stiffer suspension. The S definitely feels lighter. You can certainly tell the difference in mass from the lack of AWD gear. Will these Konis work on the sedan? If so, I might have to go this route, I had Koni yellows on my Acura CLS back in the day and they were nothing short of amazing, https://www.z1motorsports.com/shock-...37-p-9606.html

Question: I have the G37S coupe swaybar on the rear of the donor XS. Should I put this on the S or not enough difference to warrant the effort?

I can’t wait to move my front strut tower brace over to the S - there is a lot more front end flex without it,

 

Teaser pics…

 

Very sorry to hear about the grey one, it was nice to follow along your build

Best of luck on the transfer/new build, I never drove an AWD G37 but I must imagine the RWD feels funner in the curve

Maybe once the weather breaks we can try to arrange a connect at Cars and Coffee in Potomac

 

Thank you. It was a bit traumatic for sure after all of the work I put into it. I am very thankful that I have good friends that own a: 1) bodyshop, 2) repair shop, and 3) a tire and wheel shop (as well as Amayama!). Without any of them, that project would not have taken off. And, I am very thankful that each of them stepped up to help translocate all of the stuff from the blue car to the white car so that I didn't take such a huge bath on those parts.

Also very thankful that insurance gave me a good payout and incredibly thankful that the white car just happened to be sitting an hour away for over 6 months and was there when I really needed it. The white car passed inspection without a single issue, so, in the end between the quality of the white car, and the fact that it is an S are two big wins for sure.

Now...there is a black 6-speed 2013 in Texas right now with only 68k miles on it.... Hmmm?

 

A couple of interesting thoughts on the difference between the two:

1) The XS definitely floats more on the softer/higher suspension. Really needed to be lowered and stiffer. Not surprising.
2) The rear G37 coupe sway bar made a huge difference on the XS. The S already feels as good with the stock sway bar.
3) Aftermarket front strut bar made a HUGE difference on the XS, but very minimal difference on the S. Seems as though the S is already much stiffer. Interestingly, the XS has that big, bulky underside brace while the S does not - seems as though stiffness is built into the S inherently vs added on via additional bracing in the XS.
4) The steering on the S is lighter and quicker. Surprised that it was lighter - I think this could actually use a bit more weighting TBH.
5) The stock Akebono brakes are really good. They are MUCH better than the Z1 BBK that I put on the Blue car. Now, this could be partially pads, but also the pedal firmness of the Akebonos is much better than the Z1. Note: on the S, the pads and rotors were recently replaced with OEM by the previous owner, so they are quite new.
6) The Stillen exhaust sounds better on the S than the XS and doesn't drone as much. I have no idea why, BUT, no question the S sounds more aggressive.
7) The transmission is firmer and quicker on the S vs the XS, even though I did a fully transmission fluid change on the XS.
8) You can really feel the weight difference in the S vs the XS. Feels unquestionably lighter.