Dan Scanlan test drives Infiniti’s G37 Sport, a GT coupe for those who need a
road rocket with a back seat.
For a six-year-old human, the whole world is just opening up for them – an interesting yet daunting place to explore, but you are sure you are ready for it at that age. If you are a six-year-old dog, half your now middle-aged life is over, but there’s still some life left in Fido. But if you are a six-year-old car design, well, that’s almost ancient these days. So then
why does the ‘13 Infiniti G37 Sport still look like a six-year-old kid ready to romp in a
field with his puppy, full of fitness and fun?
The G-Series coupe was born in 2003, then heavily revised and redesigned for 2008 into this sleek G37. Its flowing wedge shape seems stretched over a body with muscle underneath, edges framing curves from its rounded nose to its muscular rear shape. Four smoked
chrome blades form the leading edge of the slim grill flanked by upswept HID headlights,
the dip in between flowing into the edge that delineates the front fender tops. A deep
center air intake gets a lower lip that is framed left and right by blades that look like
the supports for a Formula One racecar’s nose wing.
The curve of the flat-edged front flares flow close to the nose’s lower side vents and chrome-ringed fog lights. Framed in those shapely fenders are bladed 15-spoke titanium-finish Enkei alloys wearing Bridgestone Potenza P225/45R19 front and P245/40R19 rear rubber, showing off silver brake calipers.
The rear window and roof line taper to a thin chrome spoiler at the trailing edge of the trunk lid, the rear-view camera lens a dimple in the center. The car has an athletic stance on those 19-inch performance tires, with enough muscle to nicely accent the curved wedge shape. Fit and finish was very good. Despite its good looks, the design has been around long enough that no one noticed it!
Keyless entry occurs after a tap of black rubber buttons on the door handles, then wide doors open into a driver-oriented gray over cream white cockpit with Infiniti’s classic "Silk Obi" aluminum accents. Like the Z-car that birthed it, the power tilt and telescoping three-spoke steering wheel adjusts with the curved gauge binnacle in front of it. That wheel has a thick stitched leather-clad rim with stereo, voice command and Bluetooth buttons on the left and cruise controls on the right. The gauge package under the padded binnacle has concise white on black main (160-mph speedometer/9,000-rpm tach) gauges with blue-purple light rings flanking a simple white LCD trip computer.
The front bucket seats are more aggressively bolstered in the Sport model, with 12-way driver/8-way passenger adjustments with power lumbar. There is dual memory presets for the driver, who also gets power upper and lower side bolsters and manual thigh bolster adjustment. The seat proved to be very comfortable and supportive during 400 miles of driving. More alloy decorates the pedals and dead pedal. Dead center on the dash is the seven-inch high-res color LCD touchscreen with the AM-FM-CD-XM Satellite ten-speaker Bose sound system, satellite navigation, XM traffic and weather displays with radar and forecast, plus cellphone and streaming audio sourced from a Bluetoothed cellphone.
Navigation, phone, car information and very basic audio (AM/FM/SiriusXM/CD) functions can be accessed via voice command with a menu and audio prompts. In a time when almost everyone else’s main control button/knob is mounted on the center console for easier use, the high dashboard location on the G37 is a bit awkward.
Access to the back seats is a bit tight, although the front seats motor forward and back to their original positions thanks to a seatback-top button. Once there, headroom is tight, while legroom is minimal as well. Kids will fit just fine. The rear seatback folds pretty flat in one
piece, expanding a shallow but usable trunk that handled a big suitcase and some
soft bags on a weekend trip with my spouse.
Our 7,900-mile-old G37 Sport faced a Florida east coast to west coast drive, almost three hours each way on everything from interstate to narrow coastal roads. Having a 330-horsepower 3.7-liter V-6 (and 270 pound-feet of torque) from the 370Z under the aluminum hood, coupled to a precise six-speed manual and just the right clutch effort, made my drive enjoyable.
Our G37 Sport 6MT sprinted to 60 mph in a tick under six seconds. Power was delivered very well via a viscous limited-slip differential; a snarling V-6 growl an appreciated accompaniment. We could pass anything we needed to with a downshift, and even found decent torque in
sixth when moving out from as low as 35-mph. Average fuel mileage was an
indicated 22-mpg on premium.
The G37 Sport was the perfect long-distance cruiser, just loping along wavy country roads in rural Florida. It was firm yet forgiving. It absorbed potholes easily with a nicely buffered rebound thanks to a sport-tuned lighter aluminum four-wheel independent suspension on an FM (front mid-ship) platform also shared with the Z. That’s independent double-wishbone up front and a multi-link rear suspension with the Sport’s large front and rear stabilizer bars.
While not as direct in feel and flat in handling as the lighter Z-car, the G37S still carved curves well. Off-ramps and country corners came and went with almost neutral handling – dive deeper and the tail stays planted with the help of stability control and decent rubber. Direct steering feel with an OK turning radius were a plus thanks to a tighter steering ratio on the Sport. Four-wheel vented disc brakes (larger 14-inch front/13.8-inch rear) had decent pedal feel, solid stopping and a good resistance to fade after repeated hard use.
The Infiniti G37 Coupe comes in Journey, All-Wheel-Drive and our Sport models as well as the Infiniti Performance Line. Our loaded test car had a base price of $44,900; with destination, it was $45,795. For more information about the latest vehicles from Infinity, please visit http://www.infinitiusa.com/?dcp=ppi.63023880.&dcc=0.240189298
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