February 13, 2006 - Infiniti's G35 Coupe is one of the sexiest vehicles we've ever laid eyes on. Sure, some of you may think we're crazy for choosing an "inferior" Japanese car over something more exotic like, say... a Ferrari Enzo, but we're entitled to like whatever the hell we want. Besides, while the Enzo is certainly fast and has an ***-load of status and prestige behind it, we still find ourselves drawn to the U.S.-spec Skyline. The G35 Coupe is just a damn pretty car.

Besides, have you really taken a good look at the Enzo? It's fast, but it certainly isn't pretty. While we'd love to drive Ferrari's ultimate road car, we don't have that "need" to project any image of "status" to people who mean nothing to us. Unlike most Ferrari owners (at least those who live here in L.A.), we're actually pretty happy and secure with ourselves. We don't need a flashy expensive car to compensate for our insecurities.

Now that we explained ourselves thoroughly, we can get on to business. We really do think that the G35 Coupe is the prettiest production car out there. This car is automotive perfection in our eyes, and we thought it would be a long time before we saw a prettier machine.

Well, we finally saw a prettier machine, and coincidentally enough, it's a sports coupe concept - also from Infiniti. This bad-*** concept is creatively called the "Infiniti Sports Coupe Concept", and this car could very well be a lightly-disguised version of the next G35.

Not much is known about the Infiniti Coupe Concept, so we don't know if the venerable VQ35 has a home under the hood of this vehicle. However, as the VQ powers just about every car in the Nissan/Infiniti lineup, we think it's a safe bet to say that the coupe concept has a VQ, too. If this is the next G35, we'd venture to guess that the power output would remain at 300 horses or so at the flywheel.


The exterior of the Infiniti Coupe Concept screams "G35!" at every angle. In fact, if we didn't know that this is "only a concept", we would think that this was just a very hooked-up G. The front bumper of this concept has the same trademark twin airscoops, and the grille looks almost identical to the one on the current G35. The only major visual difference is in the headlights; it looks as if Infiniti swapped in some headlamps from the bigger M sedan.

Moving to the side of the car, the Infiniti Coupe Concept looks just like a G35 with a body kit. Sure, the windows tilt up slightly towards the back, but as the overall shape of the side and rear 3/4 windows is almost identical to that of the production G, it's only noticeable to the "trained" eye. The swooping character line and bulging rear fenders are noticeable, but they are very subtle, again making the Coupe Concept look like a "regular" G35. The back of the Coupe Concept mimics the front in that it looks like a "regular" G35 equipped with the lenses from an M sedan.

The interior of the Coupe Concept looks like it's a nice place to spend time in. Thanks to the "double wave design", the cabin of this concept looks much more spacious than its production G counterpart. While Infiniti won't give up the goods on what kind of features that center console has, it will tell us that the gauges have a violet glow and that the aluminum trim is textured so that it resembles Japanese washi paper. We'd rather hear about nav systems, premium sound systems, integrated iPod functionality or anything cool like that - but no dice this time. Hopefully we'll find out more in the future.

We sure hope that this Infiniti Coupe Concept we are looking at turns out to be the next-gen G35 coupe. This Coupe Concept would represent a nice evolutional change, rather than a major re-design. Infiniti is playing it safe with this car, and it is sure to be a hit with the G35 crowd. Unlike most concepts, this Coupe Concept looks to be production-ready. We wouldn't be surprised to see this Coupe Concept in showrooms in the next couple of years. Hopefully by the time it comes out, we'll finally be able to afford one!