driving manual hard

Hi-Step'n370Z

Got it! Thanks.

I want to address this happening with the 7 speed auto:

Since this is something I do not want to replicate to find out, I instead have just been very careful and aware when I switch over to manual mode, and down shift.

It would seem that when you're cruising at highway speed, then slide over to manual mode, and your in 7th, or maybe 6th, the gear you're in would not change, but it DOES. It does not simply change to manual mode, and stay in the gear you were presently in before switching over to manual.

At normal highway speeds, it always goes to 5th gear the moment you slide over to manual. I do not know if you are already in 5th, and you switch over, what gear you're in, but I will gently try it and find out.

My point here is that if you "think" you're still in 7th, but you're really in 6th, or maybe even 5th, and you want to down shift into say 3rd, but you're not looking at the gear indicator window, and the tach at the same time, and pop the shifter 3 times, BOOM -you're all the way down to 2nd, and have revved well into the red line zone in a millisecond!

Talk about getting caught off guard! What a surprise that is.

When this happened, I have found is there is an instant decrease in power, and an intermittent surging of the engine. That is what I thought was the rev limiter doing it's job.

But, as you indicate, you're already into red line when that happens, but I don't think you're in far enough or long enough to do any damage to the engine, and the engine won't let you continue to accelerate thanks to the rev limiter.

To me, the answer was to "learn the Z" and practice by really watching the gear window, and note the speed you're traveling at the time of down shift.