Review: GTM Stage 2 Supercharger (G37)
 

First off, I'd like to thank Frank and Suzanne Hill at Hill's Garage in Baltimore Maryland. His mechanical skills are second to none and I have never seen someone so precise, skillful, and knowledgeable about cars the way he is. He really goes out of his way to make sure the customer is always happy with the outcome. It doesn't matter if you're getting an oil change, or looking to shred tires with forced induction, he'll take care of you. I have gone to multiple shops in the last 4 years of me owning my G37, but I have been going to Hill's for the last 3. At this point, I have spoiled myself and don't let anyone else touch my car because both Frank and Suzanne care. It's hard to find exceptional customer service nowadays, but I've been fortunate enough to find it.

Their tuner, Frank Smith is one of the best in the business. He has a huge reputation in the Dodge Viper, Porsche, and other extremely high horsepower platforms. Now he's completely annihilating the Nissan / Infiniti, making great numbers! Their tunes are guaranteed, without questions. The amount of power he has been able to extract from the VQ motor is crazy to say the least.

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Lastly, special thanks goes out to Sam @ GTM. He's always willing to help out and answer any questions I have / had about the build. If anyone has ever talked to him over the phone, you can vouch, he really does take his time in explaining to the customer, even if you didn't buy it from him. Who else can you honestly say goes out of their way to help someone even if it's not their product? Sam, you have my business now and in the future! :JAMIN:


Now, on to the build...

Infinti G37s (6MT) 510whp / 370ft-lbs on 93 Octane 10.5 - 11 psi

Parts:

GTM Stage 2 Supercharger Turn-Key (custom tune)
19 Row Oil Cooler w/ ThermoStatic Plate
HKS Spark Plugs
JWT Clutch / Stock Flywheel
CNT Resonated Test Pipes
Invidia Gemini Exhaust
DynoTune Boost / Air Fuel Digital Square Gauge
Z1 Motorsports Aluminum Driveshaft
TWM Performance Short Throw Shifter

I was going back and forth trying to decide which route I wanted to go. After many phone calls to Sam, we both decided the Stage 2 Supercharger kit was the best option for me. I wanted something "stealthy" and quiet. If someone drove next to me, I didn't want the car to scream "I HAVE 500WHP!" I hit the nail on the head! Aside from the TurboSmart blow off valve venting to atmosphere when you hit boost, you really can't tell the cars supercharged, just the way I like it. You hear a very mild whistling noise, nothing like the Vortech kits I've heard in the past. This makes daily driving very enjoyable and professional. If need be, you can turn the windows up and you won't really even notice the charger. This is great if you're trying to throw someone off guard when you mash the gas pedal, or if you're taking your grandmother to bingo.

I didn't know what to expect when driving the car. Everyone told me, "It's like driving a stock car, but with a lot more power." At first, I didn't understand what that meant because how can you slap 200hp+ onto a car and it drives like stock? Well this is where it really surprised me. The car is very tame under normal load, which means ANYONE can drive this car, but when you start laying into throttle, you better hang onto your @$$ because the charger is yelling at you to give it more. It's crazy has linear the power comes on and throws you into the seat without any give. In my eyes, the ultimate sleeper.

I thought I was going to have issues with traction because having that type of power is worthless if you can't hook it. To my surprise with 285s in the rear I can hook 2nd gear without a problem. 1st gear is a nice show-off gear, but if you really want to hook and haul, 2nd feels great, 3rd even better. The amount of profanity that came out of my mouth as well as friend's, could have reenacted scarface 3 times. It was that crazy at wide open throttle.

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Videos:

I had to take them with my Android phone, sorry about the shakiness. I guess you could say I was a little excited. :P

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I'll be working on driving videos over the next couple weeks... stay tuned. Thanks!

Would I be correct in saying this was the tuner kit and not the turn key kit?

Actually it was the turn-key, but with a custom tune.

Sweet!!!

nice turnout. def going to enjoy the car much more now. the s/c setup is super smooth. Hill's is def a great shop and the couple are really really nice :)

Congrats on the great numbers! What's the story on the drive-shaft?

Looking great! I'm glad to hear that you are enjoying it!

Great review! +1 Rep!

Awesome numbers too!

I'm curious too.

Thanks for the love guys! The stock driveshaft on the G37 is a two piece steel design. The 370 has a 1 piece carbon fiber from the manufacture. It was to free up some rotational mass and get more power to the wheels. G37's stock shaft is 32lbs.... this brings it down to half that weight when using aluminum. Something the Z doesn't need.

Ah, gotcha. I mistakenly assumed that the G37s would have this same part.

Nice numbers! :tup:

Good to hear about the quality of work at Hill's Garage. I'm planning on having my car UpRev tuned there later this year.

Do it... they've been able to squeeze really good numbers out of these motors.

Last month an '09 370 automatic with long tube headers, catback, and intake made 20whp from just the tune.

Wow that's awesome! My car's the same if you just replace the headers with HFCs.

You should make great numbers, over 300whp easily. The power differences between high flow cats and test pipes are minimal when you're N/A.

Next on the agenda: Methanol and a little more timing.

Yup saw that another local guy with similar mods made 320 whp and 280 tq after getting tuned at Hill's.

The one thing I will say is that whichever place does their alignments is fvcking terrible. Do not take your car there especially if you're lowered. After I had an accident I had my car repaired at Wilson's Auto Body who work a lot with Hill's Garage. They were trying to tell me I needed rear camber arms and that my insurance wouldn't cover them because I was lowered. Took my car to Nissan of Bowie to get an alignment done afterwards and they got it back to my pre accident specs. The alignment I got from Hill's associated shop was so terrible and not to safe for driving. There was over 1* difference in camber from left to right side and the car was definitely pulling to the left. It wasn't even that bad after the accident, but they somehow made it worse.

Seems like they really cared more about making money off me getting the camber arms installed by them than to actually fix my alignment. Not saying this is anything bad about Hill's garage themselves, but be careful if they are sending your car to get an alignment done somewhere else.

Nice :tup:

I totally hear you... it sucks dealing with multiple shops because when you vouch for someone and they fvuck up, it makes everyone look bad. Frank started doing his own alignments now... he uses an alignment machine a couple shops down. If you can't find someone reliable, might as well do it yourself.

Do me a favor, PM me the shop name you originally took it to so I can let them know.

Thanks man

I'll have to look at my paperwork and see if i still have it. I would have remembered if I had taken it there myself, but the body shop did all of that while they were repairing my car. I'm out of town for the weekend so I'll have to look when I get back. BTW this was back towards the end of February so it wasn't too long ago.

I know Frankie down at Wilson's. Ill ask him and find out.

Cool. If you ask him about me, he'll probably know who you're talking about. Tell him I'm the guy with the gray 370Z.

I'm I the only one that thought the intakes were going into the little cooler on the top at first glance? :icon17:

Anyway, nice build man.

LOL yeah it does... damn illusions :D

Man, your review is spot on from my exact thoughts. It was funny reading this because I just wrote down my thoughts yesterday in my build journal and it's very much the same lol. Also read your meth thread because I decided to do this as well.

http://www.the370z.com/forced-induct...ol-dyno-2.html

What type of exhaust are you running from the headers back? I'm trying to figure out if there is a trend with the guys making 500+whp on superchargers and their cars with the type of exhaust they are running. I'm running long tubes (think I'm one of maybe a couple running LTH's and SC's?), MD Y pipe (resonator currently) and Tanabe exhaust.

When I was originally tuned for 543whp, it was with resonated test pipes and the Invidia Gemini exhaust, on methanol. 510whp was without methanol and a couple degrees of less timing.

I still have the test pipes, but I switched the Gemini out for the Motordyne exhaust. When it was retuned, it really didn't make much of a difference power wise. I did it more for the sound than anything.

I see. Thanks for the info.