By Jim Brennan

UDMan

Welcome to the CarDomain Obscure Muscle Car Parking Lot, a regular feature which aims to expand the notion of what a muscle car is, and to show that obscure muscle cars came from all over the world. For 2003 Nissan has decided to fill the $15,000 hole in their line-up between the hot selling G35 and the not-so-hot selling Q45, with a sports sedan retailing near $42,000. Now, the company wasn’t loaded with money at that time, so they found a way to do this one cheap. They took a home market luxury sedan (the Nissan Cedric/Gloria) complete with styling from a couple decades ago. They called it the M45, and it’s the subject of this installment of the Obscure Muscle Car Parking Lot. Continue reading after the jump!

Continue reading "CarDomain Obscure Muscle Car Parking Lot: the 2003-04 Infiniti M45" »

By Ben Schaffer

The Real JDM

No this is not a GT-R with a hybrid engine…but it might be the closest thing we’ll see to it.

Check out the Infiniti Essence, which as Autoblog reports, is “powered by a twin-turbo, direct-injection 3.7-liter V6 and a new electric drive design dubbed “3D Motor”, the Essence yields a combined 592 brake horsepower (434 via internal-combustion, 158 brake horsepower via the lithium-ion backed disc-shaped electric motor).

I think this is a pretty great concept car! I felt it was worth of sharing with you all. It feels to me like a morph of a R35 GT-R and an Aston Martin.

Nissan has formally announced that they are pulling out of the North American International Auto Show, along with their Infiniti brand. They join Ferrari, Porsche, Land Rover, Mitsubishi, and Suzuki in "reducing costs." This leaves more room for the locals (if they pony up for it) and for the upstarts from China that provided us with so much entertainment last year. I’m starting to wonder if we will see one of them on the main floor. Who’s press conference will get crashed this year?

I think Infiniti knocked it out of the park with this one. Like the coupe, it comes with a 325 hp 3.7-liter V6, and either a 6-speed manual or a paddle-shift 7-speed auto. See more pics and read the press release over at Jalopnik.

This week’s Showroom Showdown got a healthy number of replies, and when the votes were all counted, the G37 had defeated the Bimmer by a 3-to-2 margin. Good looks and a slight edge in horsepower seemed to carry the day for Infiniti.

The BMW 135i killed the Subaru STI in a Showroom Showdown last year. So now it’s back to fight the new Infiniti G37 Coupe. Both cars start at $35k. Both cars are RWD 2+2s with six cylinder power, though the G37 packs an extra 30 ponies and 300 pounds. Which would you choose?

Sure, this photo of Samuel’s G35 is pretty and all, but do you think there’s enough going on color-wise? Just kidding. We liked it so much we decided to make him our Amoco Ultimate winner for this week, which means we’ll be hooking him up with a $250 gas card. Here’s what Samuel had to say about why he deserved to win:

"I am trying to get into the scene and get a few sponsors so I can take this car to the next level. I’m a Marine and deploy often so I don’t always have time to do things like this. The car is a 2003 Infinity G35 with 35k miles and about 60k of work/parts into it. The majority of the money has been put into the engine, paint, and body work. It still needs interior work but everything else is flawless. Its boost is set at 8psi and is pushing 404whp. The engine is all chrome and looks amazing."

Head over to his ride page and check out all the awesome work he’s done, and make sure to enter the Amoco Ultimate Your Car Is Worth It Photo Contest!

Samantha has made a laundry list of mods to her G35, and it came out looking super-clean. These babies are good-looking straight out of the box, but I think the Greddy bumper and side skirts make it look even hotter. Of course, not all of the work Samantha has done is cosmetic. She’s added a twin-turbo setup and is planning on taking the car in for tuning soon. Head over to her page and get all the details on this wicked rude!

DoctorNo over at VWVortex scanned in some pages from the April issue of New Model Magazine X, with pics of the new 370Z, along with the Toyota FR and Toyota 4500GTh. He reports that the new 370Z will have different headlights (with LEDs) and will be powered by the VQ37VHR (the 3.7 liter V6 currently used in the Infiniti G37). Expect an official announcement from Nissan in November. For a good look at the car as whole, go to Response.jp.

Continue reading "Nissan 370Z Pics Appearing in Japanese Magazines" »

Nissan is looking at building a four door Infiniti with GT-R running gear. Infiniti dealers have been begging for a halo car, and, well, I’m sure it would be fun to spank the heck out of the M5 and new Porsche Panamera. More at Motor Authority.