Lately, car guys have been leaning heavily on focus, as in, "The Mixelton Roadmaster 8000 GT is much more focused than the previous model." Meaning, the car is more responsive and driver-oriented. The steering ratio is quicker, the road feel more vivid in the wheel. The brake attack is sharper, the throttle quicker to pick up. The suspension trades a degree of suppleness for greater roll stiffness and body control while cornering. You know, focus.
The 2008 Infiniti G37 Coupe, which went on sale last month with a base price of $34,250, definitely has the whole Bausch & Lomb thing going on. This is the update to the G35 Coupe (model years 2002 to 2007), a car that signaled Infiniti's return to relevance and - of no small consequence - outsold the BMW 3-series coupe roughly 2-1. The G37, as the moniker suggests, has a higher displacement engine, more horsepower (330 h.p., up 55 h.p. from the G35 Coupe), a redesigned interior and exterior, and lots of fancy-schmancy technology, including available four-wheel active steering.
All of which makes the G37 about twice the car of the G35. At the same time, Infiniti's engineers have tried to give the G37 sharpness, a crispness, or - the word the company's shamans use - vibrancy. Because focus, I guess, was overused.
The G35 Coupe was a decent car mechanically, and it had some lovely, fluid exterior lines - some might even call it classic. But no one who stepped out of a 3-series and into a G35 could seriously contend that the Infiniti had the driving dynamics, the shrewd balance, the well-oiled athleticism - the focus, if you will - of the BMW.
Meanwhile, the G35 interior was an unrefined collage of parts-bin switches and hard plastic surfaces. Luxury sports coupe? Well, that's two-thirds right, anyway.
With the 2008 update, the G coupe's interior decor gets in step with the redesigned G35 Sedan introduced late last year, and that's a good thing. Richer materials, including African rosewood that's a $450, stand-alone option, are contoured into a handsome and serene twin-scallop cockpit design. Infiniti also makes a lot of noise about its aluminum cabin trim textured like washi rice paper - part of an emerging meme about the brand's Japanese quintessentialism.
The car's electronics are better integrated into the living space. Unlike the nav unit display in the G35 Coupe, which popped out of the dashboard like a piece of LCD toast, the G37's display is situated in its own binnacle into the upper dash. The multifunction rotary control is a bit of a reach from the driver's seat, but nothing you couldn't get used to. The instruments and switches are backlighted in a cool violet.
And yet, despite the major healing of the cabin, the Infiniti still doesn't have quite the top-shelf refinement of the BMW. It's here that the BMW's several-thousand-dollar price premium earns its keep.
On the outside, the G37 quietly evolves the previous design. The volumes, profile and fullback stance are virtually identical. The hood, fender flares and rocker panels are a little more sculpted. The biggest difference is the large lighting instruments - headlights and taillights - that envelop the car's corners in Zircon sparkle.
The G37's big lens is its hot new engine, a stroked version of the sedan's 3.5-liter with Nissan/Infiniti's Variable Valve Event and Lift (VVEL) cylinder heads, producing 270 pound-feet of torque at 5,200 revolutions per minute. The gearing options are a six-speed manual or - as in the test car - a five-speed automatic with manual-shift mode. Characteristic of the current generation of smart-shifters, the automatic will vigorously blip the throttle on downshifts and will refrain from upshifting while cornering hard to avoid upsetting the car's balance.
Buttoned to either transmission, the all-aluminum V6 puts on steam in a hurry. Zero-to-60 acceleration is in the mid five-second range, but the car really isn't at its best until it's thrumming along in the middle gears.
In other words, the engine has a lot of character, a lusty, on-the-cam feel. On the road, it means the G37 is happiest boiling away in lower gears between corners. Putting the power down in tight, low-speed corners sometimes will overwhelm the limited-slip differential, and the stability control light will flicker, but mostly, the G37 seems unusually connected to the road.
Base price: $34,250.
Price, as tested: $40,000 (est.).
Power train: 3.7-liter, 24-valve, DOHC V6 with variable-valve timing and lift; five-speed automatic; rear-wheel drive.
Horsepower: 330 at 7,000 r.p.m.
Torque: 270 pound-feet at 5,200 r.p.m.
Curb weight: 3,770 pounds.
0-60 m.p.h.: 5.6 seconds (est.).
Wheelbase: 112.2 inches.
Overall length: 183.1 inches.
EPA fuel economy: 18 miles per gallon city, 24 m.p.g. highway.
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