Infiniti G35 Coilover Upgrade Guide

Considering its heavy weight, one of the best performance upgrades you can make to the Infiniti G35 is the addition of coilovers. While coilovers won’t necessarily make the car faster, they will make the car seem quicker by providing improved handling and cornering. In addition to that, they can provide a more comfortable ride and also lower the G35 up to 4″ to add a more aggressive look and stance.

Whether you are looking for stance, a lower ride height, street performance, or track-capable coilovers, this guide is going to cover everything you need to know about coilovers and lay out some of the best G35 coilovers for each goal.

If you’re looking for G35 horsepower mods, check out our guide on the 6 Best G35 Bolt-On Performance Mods.

Coilover Considerations

There are a few important considerations when selecting coilovers. These are tube design, dampening, and spring rates. An additional consideration is ride height but most G35 coilovers offer similar ride height adjustability so we will save that for the bottom section. Lastly, we’ll discuss the difference between G35 lowering springs vs coilovers.

Determining which coilovers are the “best” is rather subjective. What is best depends on what you intend to do with your car (ie. is it just for stance or is it for track use) and what your budget and ride comfort preference is. So just keep in mind that the “highest performance” coilovers might not be the best coilovers for you.

Monotube vs. Twin-Tube

Mono and twin-tube refer to the internal engineering of coilovers and how the shocks are designed. Staying away from the detailed engineering differences we’re going to provide the important highlights between the two to help you determine which you need.

• Monotube is a stiffer ride experience since they are more sensitive to movements and offer more precise dampening
  • This makes them offer better performance or handling and cornering
  • Monotube is best for the track
• Twin-tube isn’t as precise or sensitive which makes them more comfortable for daily driving
  • Twin tube is better for cars that are daily driven
• Twin-tube is less expensive than monotube since it is less costly to manufacture
  • Twin-tube offers best bang-for-the-buck for people looking for stance, lowering, daily driving, etc.

Overall, tube design really only matters for people looking for high-performance. Monotube are a bit more costly than twin-tube but are better designed for the track since they are more precise. Twin-tube is going to be more comfortable for daily driving and also offer a better bang-for-the-buck for people that don’t need track-quality handling.

Our pick: save the money and get twin-tube unless you track or autocross your G35.

Damping Adjustability

Shocks control the compression and rebound of the coil springs. They essentially control how far the springs will compress and how much “rebound” they will have after compression. Think of rebound as the height a basketball bounces after it hits the ground. Stiffer dampening will have less compression and less rebound. Softer dampening will allow more compression and rebound which provides a smoother ride experience.

When selecting G35 coilovers, you have two options: pre-set dampening or adjustable dampening. Coilovers with pre-set dampening will set the dampening to best match the spring rates and provide a balance of performance and comfort. Adjustable dampening allows you to have some control over your G35 ride quality by providing anywhere from 8 to 32 dampening levels so you can adjust them for a stiffer or more comfortable ride.

As you’d imagine, adjustable dampening coilovers are going to be more expensive. If it’s in your budget we’d suggest getting adjustable dampening on your G35, but it isn’t extremely important unless you track your car and daily drive it too. G35 coilovers without adjustable dampening are set for optimal levels of performance and comfort so unless you can see yourself needing to adjust the stiffness from time to time then you don’t need them.

Spring Rates

While shocks control the rebound and compression of the springs, the springs actually hold the weight of the car. Because they hold all 3,500lbs of the G35 they are also responsible for the softness or stiffness of your suspension. If you have really stiff springs you can set your dampening to the softest setting and it still won’t make for a comfortable ride. Spring rates also matter for height adjustability. The lower you go the stiffer springs you need to prevent your car from bottoming out.

Spring rates are measured in lbs per inch. A 500lbs/in spring rate means it requires 500lbs of force to compress the spring 1 inch. Therefore, the higher the spring rate the stiffer the ride experience will be.

For daily drivers you will want a balance of comfort and stiffness. For slammed/stance you will want spring rates on the higher end for more stiffness. Dedicated track cars with top of the line setups actually go a bit softer on spring rates but offer independent rebound, compression, and power adjustments for ultimate tunability.

Lowering Springs vs. Coilovers

Generally speaking, the worst set of coilovers will still be better than the best set of lowering springs on your G35. While lowering springs are good for a fixed drop and slightly better performance, they aren’t always the most comfortable ride experience since the stock shocks are not fine tuned for the stiffer lowering spring spring rates.

Lowering springs are a cost effective way to get a small drop but they also don’t allow for ride height adjustability. This can be an issue when trying to fit bigger wheels or tires on your car.

If you can afford coilovers, get coilovers. If you are okay with a fixed drop amount of 1.25-1.5″ and don’t care as much about ride quality and just want to save some bucks, then lowering springs will do the trick. Just keep in mind they will not be as comfortable as coilovers and won’t offer the same level of performance.

G35 Coilover Upgrade Benefits

• Ride height adjustability, down to about a 4″ drop
• Better handling and cornering performance, less body roll
• More comfortable ride quality than stock suspension and lowering springs
• Dampening adjustability (with more expensive setups)
• Best replacement for worn factory suspension

Outside of the performance benefits and lowering capabilities, coilovers are also one of the best upgrades over old G35 factory suspension. With these cars being 15+ years old now you will notice a huge difference over the factory suspension if you’ve never changed it out before. Also, if you need to replace your factory suspension, coilovers are about the same cost as all the OEM components which makes them a great choice.

For stance, daily driving, track days, suspension refreshes, etc. coilovers are the way to go to improve ride quality and handling.

Best Infiniti G35 Coilovers

As we mentioned above, the term “best” is subjective. What you use your car for and what your budget is are the two biggest factors in selecting the right setup. The first setup we mention is our recommendation for the vast majority of people reading this post. If you don’t ever intend on touching the track then you don’t really need to look further unless you want a more expensive setup for higher performance street handling.

We are going to provide 3 different setups: the best bang-for-the-buck setup for stance, lowering, or daily driving. Secondly, a setup for high-end street performance or weekend warriors who daily their G35 and track it on the weekend. Lastly, the no-expenses-sparred setup for dedicated track cars and ultimate performance.

Also, keep in mind coilover fitment is different for AWD/RWD vehicles and G35 Sport’s. Check proper fitment before purchasing.

1) Raceland Coilovers

Tier: Stance, Entry Level Street, Daily Driving, Budget/Bang-for-the-Buck
Price: $519, $549, and $619
Lowering: 1-3″ Classic, and 2-4″ Ultimo & Primo
Dampening: 15-Way Adjustable for Primo, not adjustable for Classic and Ultimo

Raceland is our favorite coilover option for more than just the G35. Raceland makes a quality product with a great balance between performance and ride quality at a very affordable price point. Customer service is great and they have a lifetime warranty in addition to offering Affirm financing for up to 12 months for anyone who can’t afford the cost upfront.

Raceland has 3 different options for the G35. All of these options are twin-tube designs which makes them best for daily driving. The Classics offer a 1-3″ drop and have softer spring rates for a more enjoyable ride. The Ultimo offers a deeper 2-4″ drop and has stiffer springs to compensate for the lower drop. The Primo are essentially the Ultimo’s but with 15-way adjustable dampening for people wanting some control over stiffness and ride quality.

If you plan on dropping 2″ or further then we recommend Ultimo or Primo since the stiffer springs will be helpful for not scraping, rubbing, or bottoming out. They also offer slightly better performance due to the stiffness, albeit at a small sacrifice to ride quality. The Classics will be most comparable to the OEM suspension while still allowing for lowering.

The Ultimo’s are the most popular option but if you can afford the extra $70 for the Primo then we suggest those as the dampening adjustability is a nice to have feature for adjusting stiffness to best suit your preferences. The Primo’s have external adjustable knobs so fine-tuning the stiffness or softness is as simple as turning a knob that is easily accessible in the engine bay.

2) Stance XR1 Coilovers

Tier: High Performance Street, Daily Driver & Track Star Hybrid
Price: $1,345
Lowering: ???
Dampening: 16-Way Adjustable

The Stance XR1’s are an inverted monotube design with 16-way adjustability which makes them a great option for the daily driver that sees occasional track time, or for the street enthusiast that is looking for a higher performance setup. Stance doesn’t provide information on how low their ride goes but from reading comments on the forums they “go about as low as you would ever want them”.

They do have slightly softer spring rates than the Raceland options which makes them less ideal for extremely low or stanced G35’s. However, the dampening adjustability can help there. The softer spring rates with adjustable dampening also make these our favorite for occasional track use since they remain comfortable on the streets but are still aggressive enough for track time.

Overall, these are quite a bit more expensive than the Raceland option which is why we would only lean towards this option if you do see track time. Or if you just really want a more expensive and higher performance street option. With that being said, if you are just looking for stance then these are probably overkill for what you need.

3) KW V3 Coilovers

Tier: Top Performance, Dedicated Track, No Budget
Price: $2,400+
Lowering: 0.8-1.5″
Dampening: Unlimited Rebound Adjustment, 14-Way Compression Adjustable, Damping Power Adjustment

KW is one of the best names in high performance suspension components. Their V3 kit for the G35 is one of the best track setups with a monotube design and 3 independent dampening adjustments. The compression, rebound, and damping power are all independently adjustable which allows for extremely precise fine tuning for track applications.

Since these are built for the track they do not offer as aggressive ride height drops which is why this option isn’t good for stance. Ultimately, these are top of the line coilovers for people who aren’t sparing any expense and need the highest of performance setups with the most adjustability.

Infiniti G35 Coilovers Summary

At the end of the day the best coilovers for your G35 really depend on what you are trying to do. If you just want stance or a slight performance improvement over OEM suspension then we recommend saving your $ and getting the Raceland coilovers. For the majority of people reading this article, this would be my recommendation. Unless you really need the added performance, the Raceland option is the best budget bang-for-the-buck coilover.

If you want higher performance street suspension or something that you can daily drive but also track then we recommend Stance XR1’s. However, there are also dozens of other options that fit into this category as well. Anything over the $1k price point that is monotube with dampening adjustability will suffice for occasional track usage.

If you want to ball out or frequently track your car then going with a KW V3 or similarly priced brand with independent rebound and compression damping control is the way to go. It’s overkill in our mind for a street car but to each their own.