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The mid-priced, high performance automotive marketplace is teeming with sensational rides. Cutting-edge products from BMW, Porsche, Nissan/Infiniti, Audi, Subaru, Mitsubishi et al, operate in a performance envelope that just a generation ago was the domain of exotics: 0-60 times in the 5’s (or less), balanced chassis and suspensions that deliver in the neighborhood of .9g’s cornering, 80-0 braking around 200 feet.

It’s a marketplace niche we call the g-zone.

G-zone cars come in different shapes and styles: classic 2-seat roadsters, 2-door sport coupes, 4-door sport sedans, convertibles with hard and soft tops, with an occasional 3– or 5-door hatchback in the mix. While the top performers are predominantly RWD or AWD, a handful of factory-tuned FWD vehicles jostle with the bigger boys. There’s no “right” configuration; as with most things in life, what we want is locked in a perpetual arm wrestle with what we need.

Fortunately, within the g-zone needs and wants can be satisfied simultaneously: dual-clutch paddle-shifter gearboxes and forward-facing child seats aren’t mutually exclusive propositions, and high performance doesn’t necessarily require big bucks.

Brand cachet doesn’t carry much weight in the g-zone. In the diehard enthusiast trenches, knowledgeable S4 owners and STi drivers share the same enthusiast DNA; enlightened Cayman owners appreciate that a 370z delivers impressive performance at an attractive price point by dialing back the refinement a notch; and while M3 pilots may not aspire to own a JCW Mini, they respect the car’s heritage and fun-to-drive factor.

The reality is that all cars – and especially those in the g-zone – have strengths and weaknesses. From gjunkies’ perspective, the community of high-performance enthusiasts represents an expansive body of knowledge and experience around owning, modifying and competing with g-zone cars.

The g-zone is a bottomless reservoir of interesting rides, personalities and projects, and we’re casting our web dev skills, cameras and video gear into the to pool to capture some of the action.