Need tips for driving manual 370z

gbhrps

I agree with mishuko, that by downshifting in each gear you always have the instant option of pounding the gas to accelerate out of trouble should something make it necessary.

By coasting all the way down out of gear, the extra time it'll take for you to find the right gear and then accelerate may be too late to save an impact.

Personally, I always shift down through the gears to a stop, usually missing 1st. Its the reason I bought the 6 speed in the first place.

vtec to vvel

I never downshift to 1st. If I’m in 6th, I’ll usually downshift to 3rd at about 35 mph, and then neutral. There is nothing wrong with skipping gears downshifting. Theoretically, there would be slight wear on the clutch each time the pedal is pressed (as opposed to not pressing at all), but on a very minor level if done properly.

Cory Gillmore

Excellent replies everyone thanks!

One more thing...for now..

Has anyone mastered the art of being both smooth AND fast on your 1-2 shift in your 370Z? In my short experience you have to pick one haha. It just seems the 1-2 requires the utmost patience when compared to all the other gears. If you're not patient the car will jerk forward almost every time for me. So I find myself just watching the tac until the needle stops dropping and even then I have to let out my clutch slowly in order to not make the car jerk.

With 10 months of practice, I've certainly mastered smooth 1-2 upshifts in my Z, but is it even possible to be smooth AND quick?

redondoaveb

Install one of these.
370Z & G37 AFP Clutch Pedal Assemblies

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Fast Intentions "Stage Seb" twin turbo #098- Specialty Z/Tial-Xonarotor/CJM/Ecutek/HKS/KW/SPL/Hotchkis/Rohana/Toyo
750whp/700ft.lbs

Cory Gillmore

After reading that product page that thing looks literally like a dream come true and is probably a must have for performance driving in the 370. $300 ain't too bad either! Probably another $300 in labor and it's still not too bad!

The clutch feel has always been my least favorite thing about my car and it made it a little harder than it needed to be for me to learn a manual transmission in a car. I hated how high up the engagement point was on the clutch pedal. And how stiff the pedal is. And how it seems like such a tiny engagement window for the difference between not moving and stalling the engine lol. I haven't stalled this car in probably 8 months but it was a rough couple of first months.

But I take it that means that smooth and fast 1-2 isn't possible with the factory assembly? Haha

EDIT: after a little more reading it seems the install is fairly easy. Is this true? Is it easy even for a disaster with a wrench like me? I installed my short ram intakes myself...

redondoaveb

It's a night and day difference. Everyone on here that has installed one (and there are a lot) will verify how good it is. There are multiple reviews on here also. It was my first mod, I absolutely hated how my car drove before I made the change.

This pedal will solve all the issues you mentioned.

It can be kind of a pain (literally) to install only because of the position you have to be in to do the work and you're working in tight quarters under the dash.If you don't feel comfortable in your mechanical ability then I would pay someone to do it. If you get stuck and end up not being able to complete it and need a mechanic to finish it, you won't be able to drive it to the shop.

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Fast Intentions "Stage Seb" twin turbo #098- Specialty Z/Tial-Xonarotor/CJM/Ecutek/HKS/KW/SPL/Hotchkis/Rohana/Toyo
750whp/700ft.lbs

madwi

$300 in labor is quite a bit more than it should cost, I would think. Someone that can turn wrenches decently can have the new style pedal installed in an hour, tops.

nandosman

I can turn wrenches and it took me several hours, but mostly because I'm 6'3 big guy, and had to take multiple breaks from the awful position you have to work in.

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FI Non-Res Test Pipes | FI 18" Res CBE | Stillen Gen 3 CAI | Dynotuned @ Dynosty EcuTek 325 whp

dts3

What really helped me to pickup smooth fast speed on 1-2 shitfs (and I still have a lot of work) was to work out getting back on the throttle fast enough. I was always slow to throttle coming out of first gear because I was so focused on the RPM drop

radix023

Downshifting to a light I generally let revs drop to 1200 then downshift. From 3rd I go to neutral.

For sport/racing cornering, I will downshift a bit more aggressively (earlier) but I leave the transmission a gear longer than what I will apply power in. I only go to that gear when applying power. This is from decades of racing simulations when I realized that when transitioning in a corner an aggressive downshift may have left you with unwanted engine braking, hence I leave it a gear long to mitigate than and only do the last downshift to apply power. YMMV

The only way to be really smooth from 1-2 is to baby it and shift around 2k (economy shift). If you are hooning around, you are going to be a bit rough. You can't engage 2nd at 5k and not have your head move.

Where I find myself skipping gears is away from a traffic light. I give it some welly to get away from traffic then go to 6th/overdrive.

falsereality

If you are small, flexible, and mechanically familiar then this install should be easy. It took me 3 hours to do a 1 hour job because it was a PITA to get where you need to be and see what you're doing.