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To put a new spin on that old cliché about the bad penny returning – at Infiniti Division, it’s the good penny Infiniti G20 that is returning.

The sporty 1999 Infiniti G20 is coming back to the Infiniti lineup after a two-year absence.

The new model is based on a highly successful European tourer called the Primera, and it’s designed with a European flair. Returning to the automotive marketing fray is a G20 and G20t touring version. The latter takes the new car to an even higher level of sports driving via low profile tires and a viscous (fluid) limited-slip differential.

The G20 embraces the cabin-forward school of thought, a design that provides excellent passenger and cargo room. The exterior features a short hood, long cabin theme that creates an overall wedge silhouette.

An aggressively slanted nose helps contribute to a coefficient of drag of 0.30.

The shape of the grille and angle of cut lines are similar to those of the top-tier Infiniti Q45 luxury sedan.

This styling is based around a totally new body that has a two inch longer wheelbase than the earlier G20. It also is 2.4 inches longer in overall length, and 0.4 inches taller in height.

This translates into 102.4 inches of wheelbase, 177.5 inches of length, and 55.1 inches of height.

Those are specs that give you fairly decent interior room. The car is classified as a five-seater, but if you are carrying some football player-sized passengers, I’d say two in the back seat are going to be more comfortable.

Front and rear shoulder room are almost identical, 53.1/53.2inches.

To enhance the sports driving nature of the sedan, the body has a10-percent increase in torsional rigidity. This lets you toss the thing about a bit without the body twisting.

To get the car to stick to the pavement, the sedan’s four-wheelindependent suspension has a new rear multi-link beam design that replaces the previous strut/parallel link system. If you are honking the G20 around a turn with the hammer down, the multi-link system enhances traction by keeping the tires vertical to the pavement. Traction front and rear is further improved by new 15-inch alloywheels that replace the previous generation’s 14-inch wheels. The sedan gets a pretty good footprint down on the running surface with196/60R15 tires.

At one stage of the chassis development activities, Infiniti engineers set up temporary quarters at Germany’s legendary Nurburgring racing circuit.

More than 100,000 miles were put on prototypes that eventually evolved into the G20 platform.

In addition, engineering figured that, while it was a good idea to make the car go, it was an even better one to make it whoa. In this light, braking was enhanced 10 percent through the adoption of new, larger, 11-inch vented front disc brakes(10.2-inch solid rear discs), and the inclusion of a new state-of-the-art anti-lock brake system.

The go power is provided by Infiniti’s 2.0-liter(121-cubic-inch), double-overhead cam, 16-valve four-cy linderengine. Lift the hood and you’ll see two beautiful individual camcovers that straddle four spark plugs.

It takes me back to the days when Fred Offenhauser was building the small Offy. There is a significant resemblance. The high-tech four-valve puts out 140-horsepower, a figure that is right in line with some pretty potent 2.0-liter sports cars. Torque is 132 foot-pounds.

Unlike a number of luxury sport sedans that turn up their respective noses at a manual transmission, the G20 has one. A five-speed manual is standard, a four-speed automatic optional. The five-speed gives the hot shoes a chance to play a little tune with the gearbox, as maximum engine speed is a rousing 7,000 rpm. And while the G20 is quick, it’s not one of those cars that will pass everything but a gas station. Mileage with the five-speed is23 mpg city/3l highway. For the automatic, it is 22/28.

This second-generation G20 gives local Dreyer and Reinbold Infiniti an opportunity to bring a luxury s port sed an to market for under $21,000 ($20,995).

The car may be the least expensive model in the Infiniti lineup, but it doesn’t give too much away to its upscale siblings.