speedfreek

Congrats on your purchase and happy belated birthday!

Yes the manual transmission is loud. You can change the fluid out to Redline MT-90 to quiet it down some and make it a bit smoother. In lower gears (1-2) rev to over 3k rpms to make it a bit smoother as well. After a while you will find the sweet spot. Recommend to either change the spring or install the RJM clutch pedal if you do not like the stock engagement. Lastly as you are learning to handle hills if you have a car behind you and worried about stalling and/or rolling back just engage your parking brake. Then when you feel the resistance as you start moving forward disengage the parking brake and slowly let the clutch out. Practice makes perfect and in short order you will no longer be a noob needing to rely on the parking brake.

Enjoy the Z!

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