NEW PLATFORM, NEW LIFE; Remember the M45? Not many do. But plenty will know the new one.(News)

Byline: MARK VAUGHN

When the Infiniti M45 debuted, it looked good on paper. A shorter version of the big Q45, it was lighter, yet powered by the same V8. As our subsequent testing proved, the M45 was indeed quicker, faster and more agile than the Q. And at $10,000 less, it should have sold like gangbusters, or at least like hot cakes.

But it didn't, unless you consider 4755 sales per year gangbusters. People couldn't get over the slab-sided appearance of the last M. And how much marketing push was there behind it, anyway? Name one single M45 ad, go ahead, just one. That's what we thought.

Now the new M45, due out in a year, is transferred from the mighty Q to the next evolution of the FM platform, the same underpinnings that, in slightly different configuration, ride under the mighty Z car. The new M45 shares an awful lot with another FM platform performer, the very successful, much-loved Infiniti G35, for which there are still long waiting lists and occasional dealer markups. Technically, the new M45 will ride on the Global Mid-Luxury platform, but you can call it the new FM.

So, can the 2005 M45 do what the present one didn't? It should-just imagine a G35 with a V8. You can even call this one the G45 if you want.

We drove a very, very early test mule of the upcoming M45 with the hood riveted together and black anti-spy-photographer paint sprayed on, and found a lot to be happy about.

First, that new platform. Who knew the last G35 was so loose? Driving an old G35 back-to-back against the new M45 at Nissan's desert proving grounds, the first thing you notice, before the big whoomph of that V8, is the improvement in torsional stiffness. Engineers added three new crossmembers and 250 spot- and arc-welds. Torsional rigidity goes up by 30 percent, which isn't remarkable, but front lateral stiffness increases by 1400 percent. That is not a typo. Infiniti showed us computer simulations of the front ends of the ...