Buying Experience: Infiniti G35, part 2

How far can you push yourself or a machine in order to accomplish the impossible? Well, in this case, it was really fairly easy. Still, to get a rear-wheel drive Infiniti G35 from the "down south" to our test track in Connecticut took some doing. Here's the follow-up piece to our first installment of "Buying Experience: Infiniti G35" in which I undertook a journey to buy and deliver our latest test car.

Day 1, 4:45 AM - The livery service arrives in a black Lincoln Town Car in the pre-dawn hours to take me to the airport. My flight leaves at 6:30 AM, but check-in takes forever. I carry a travel mug filled with high-test Starbucks coffee.

6:45 AM - The pilot announces that the airport to which we are traveling is socked in with fog; we'll be delayed about 30 minutes.

9:30 AM - We finally touch down at the airport, an hour behind schedule. There's a message on my cell phone from my salesman, who's picking me up at the airport. Wants to know if I'm lost.

10:15 AM - Arrive at the dealer to sign the papers, get the keys, and get going. I notice that a rubber gasket surrounding the sunroof is askew. Car goes to the service department to be fixed.

11:00 AM - I zero-out the trip odometer and hit the road. My goal is to reach my sister's house by dinner time. MapQuest estimates that it's about seven hours away. But while the car's tank is full, mine's empty, so I stop by a Sonic Drive-In for something called a "Denver Omelet Burrito" (ham, eggs, shredded cheese, green peppers, and diced onions wrapped in a flour tortilla) and more of that Starbucks rocket fuel. Yes, I am a coffeeholic. 

I can't resist taking a picture outside the Lowe's Motor Speedway while passing through Concord, NC. This arena is huge. And while our G35's 306-hp six-cylinder doesn't quite qualify it to run with the 750-hp V8 big dogs of the NASCAR, fans of this most popular race series better get used to seeing a Japanese nameplate circling the race circuits; Toyota plans on entering its Camry in next year's Nextel Cup and Busch Series.

1:00 PM - As I'm driving through NASCAR nation, I fully expect to find a plethora of the two most popular radio formats on the dial: country and western. But, I came across almost as many hip-hop and R&B stations as country. Sadly, our G35 isn't equipped with the optional satellite radio.

6:40 PM - After about seven hours on the road and 428 miles, I make it to my sister's house in Silver Spring, MD, for a hot meal and comfortable bed. (I would have beaten MapQuest's estimate if it wasn't for the hideous Beltway traffic around Washington, D.C.)--Mike Quincy