Rex wrote:What about the 04 M45?
That's more of a real comparison and truer to the spirit of the original Q45, IMHO.
I think two areas the new Y50 is most comparable to the G50 is the attention to chassis stiffness and the front suspension geometry. The McPherson struts used on the FY33, F50 and Y34 just don't work as well in extremis as the old multilink and the new double A arm. Though a larger car, the G50 chassis is stiffer than the W124 (MB 300E), the benchmark for the era. A lot of development was spent ensuring the Y50 was much better than the V35 in torsional rigidity.
It's not just the wrapping, but what's underneath. Both the G50 and Y50 illustrate functional beauty lies much deeper than just the surface contours deep.