ouch!!! if i had done that -- on a gallardo, the pain would last for many months. I hope you got over it quicker :)

My 97 WS6 engages so much easyer and smooth the torque and Tremic 6 speed are superior to my 370 which requires finese and I find my self going into 3rd gear from 1st in the morning. I live in a cultisac that turns and decends and its always smooth.:rolleyes:

and still a better MT driver than you it seems :tiphat:

That's because the T56 is an awesome transmission (Aston Martin, Viper, Corvette, Mangusta, etc.), and the LT1 produced peak torque in the 2400rpm range.

:icon18: nice

Worst clutch car I ever drove.. Saturn Ion. I hated that thing. It never felt connected to the road. It felt like a terrible MadCatz video game controller.

My cars been in the shop for a week.
All that means is that I haven't driven a clutch for a week so I was a little out of practice.
Got the car back, and I was doing terrible. I was giving myself a headache.
Then I realized the SRT wasn't on.
Turned it on, and I was happy.

When I got the car 6 months ago I didn't like the idea of the SRT.
I'm too old school and like the "do it yourself" downshifting.
But after I tried it for a while, I can't do without it.
That's pathetic, but true.

i do think the clutch/transmission is difficult in this car.

i've never had issues matching revs or stalling, but the damn transmission rattles and shakes on clutch-in in first and second below 3000 rpms. all the time. regardless of smoothness or clutch depression speed.

it conditions a driver to always shift out of first and second at well above 3k rpms, but that's not always possible in traffic, and honestly.. should a driver have to do that? if you're in traffic and have to let off the gas in first or second and clutch in quickly, there are rattles and shakes under the car that have nothing to do with the quality of your clutch-work. sometimes those situations just happen in traffic. it's the one huge pet peeve i have about the z.

i understand this is endemic to 370z transmissions and it's a trade-off i'm happy to make in exchange for the serious performance of the car. but.. does it make the z harder to drive? i think so, definitely.

I had a Camaro SS with much more torque and power than a Z, much lower gearing than stock, and it was much easier to drive smooth.

The Z has a very tricky clutch to run smooth. Whereas the old SS had a good inch of pedal feel between off and on, the Z seems to have about 1 centimeter. And because the car has a light flywheel, it's easy to stall it. In the Camaro, you could just let out the clutch at idle and it would walk off smoothly. The Z needs some revs, but it's hard to get off smooth and not feel like you're doing a jack rabbit getaway. Keep practicing.

The 370z? Difficult to drive? All the 370z reviews I've watched, the test drivers were all pretty convinced that the car is extremely easy to drive compared to other sports cars.

If the 370z was your first manual maybe I could understand your frustration but if you've driven a manual before the learning curve for the 370z is about the same. It just takes maybe 10-15 minutes to get used to the feel and then you're solid from there.

No kidding. :iagree: Is this the special olympics or something.

To me, the Z felt like it had a MASSIVE flywheel and it was kindof hard to rev-match my downshifts compared to my mustang GT or my Trans Am. It "lagged" when I blipped the throttle, andthis made it tricky to rev-match for me. I am used to a 1:1 response from the engine. That is, if I touch the pedal, the rpms rise. No perceptable lag, action--reaction. The Z was like "blip...thinking...REV~!". Maybe that was the ETC, but it sure felt like the flywheel was a pig.

^^^ An ECU flash fixes that, actually.

0_o

I think it's smoother when the SRM is turned off. However, I keep it on at all times. I have yet to stall the car:driving:

The 370Z hard to drive? I want what are some of you guys are smoking!

Some others need to go to driving school! :shakes head: :shakes head:

the Z has the worst clutch feel I've ever driven in 12 years of pure manual driving. it's a pain to drive but it has nothing to do with the power it has, its simply the clutch that sucks.

Man, I am with you .... the 370Z is a dream to drive .... if the guys on this thread aren't smoking something, I don;t know what is going on !!!

What other cars are you comparing the clutch to? Having driven other manuals, the Z is not that great. My friend's 700whp civic had a more civil clutch in it.

Please excuse the length of the following post.

Well, considering that there are now at LEAST 11 pages of posts on this topic, it is clear something is not as good as one might expect in a modern sports car. While I had adapted to the clutch quirks in this car, I am not one to settle for what the factory provided if I don't like it. So, I investigated and made some changes and am 100% happier. My investigation revealed 2 flaws:

1. (as others also have noted) the engagement point is too high off the floor, causing one to have to modulate at the engagement point with one's knee up in the air. Not optimum. Can it be driven this way? Sure. Would ANY race driver (not that I am) worth his/her salt NOT change it in order to improve overall performance? No.

2. The return spring on the pedal is not a simple affair. It is a linkage to a spring unit which is oriented 90 degrees away from what you might expect (for space considerations, I'm sure). The relationship between pedal motion and spring compression is not linear. It is a sinusoidal relationship. A sine function 'rate of change' (slope of curve; energy needed to move the pedal) passes through zero and 'infinity' (changing from positive to negative at each of these points) as the input (clutch pedal position) changes. This friggin linkage goes through the 'infinity' point in the relationship right about at the engagement point.

If anyone does the adjustment detailed in the other clutch thread, they can experience this first hand. With the clutch push-rod disconnected from the pedal, move the pedal through it's range of motion, starting at the pedal fully 'up' position. Push, resistance, push, resistance, push SNAP the pedal goes to the floor and stays there. You have to pull it back up (with the master cyl push-rod attached, the clutch spring, fed back thru the hydraulics, pushes the pedal back up). Pull, resistance, pull, resistance, pull SNAP the pedal snaps up to the fully 'up' position. The SNAP occurs where? Right at the stock engagement point. Maybe this was on purpose... the pedal 'helping' inexperienced drivers to get their foot off the clutch pedal once the thing is engaged.

The net result is a distinct change in pedal response, right where I least want it. What to do? Well - fortunately- when the push-rod linkage is adjusted, the relationship of pedal-position-to-engagement-point is changed, and the spring snap-over occurs well past the engagement point, as I am taking my foot off the pedal.

As discussed above, a good driver can compensate for a lot of faults in the car (Fernando Alonzo in a 2009-spec Renault F1 car comes to mind as a possible pinnacle of that!), but don't overlook the fact that many faults (such as the clutch action in our 370Z) CAN be fixed.

Again, I've driven several other manuals, lighter ones, heavier ones, more power, less power...

The Z's manual is fine. It's not butterscotch awesome smooth, but it does the job. It's certainly not "sky is falling" terrible as some here are claiming.

The transmission itself was just fine. The clutch/way it engauges are my only gripe with it. The gearbox felt just fine to me.

And here I differ. The clutch and the feeling of engagement are responsive enough for me. Again, it's no Mazda short shifter, and certainly not on BMW level.

But, then again, this isn't some hugely expensive sports car, or at least mine isn't. I bought in on the low end, so it's just been driving bliss for me since the beginning.

Plus, clutches are something that every car feels different with. You have to learn and adapt to each one and learn how to drive that exact car. I like doing this. It's sometimes challenging, but ultimately one should be able to pick it up, or as some have suggested, have some work done. But I think the stock clutch is fine. Thar I sed it.

So I was at a stop light this morning when a guy in a 370Z pulled up to me. He rolled down his window and looked over at me, his face bright red and dripping with sweat, and asked, "hey, is that 5.0 easy to drive?" He was running out of breath and I thought he was about to pass out. "Are you OK?" I asked.

"Yes--" weezing like an asthmatic child in gym class he answered, "this car is just... so hard to drive."

And that, folks, is why I sold my 370Z.

:icon18::icon18::icon18::icon18:

Prolly less work to just ride a bike wherever.

:bowrofl::roflpuke2::bowrofl::roflpuke2:

How do you like the pressure plate in the 5.0? its gotta be a lot heavier than the Z... I remember my bullitt mustang had a killer pressure plate!!! it was insane to drive on a daily basis then again I did mod the hell out of it. :hello:

It actually feels just as light as the Z. I thought it'd be heavier but not at all.

If you had the 265bhp Bullitt, it was a completely different transmission/clutch/everything than the 05+mustangs. Cable vs. Hydraulic.

With hydraulic, you have a whole 'nother set of issues, but they are certainly "easy" to press.

Yeah, the clutch in my '03 was a bit stiffer.

That's what she said?

i will reiterate. people have to adapt to the car. simple as that. if it's the only MT you've ever driven and you're used to it, i'm pretty sure you're gonna find it easy. the key is to listen and feel the car and adjust your driving to car, b/c the car isn't going to just suddenly change for you (Without modifications). If you are a really good shot with a pistol, do you pick up an m16 and say 'ok well this is how i shoot a pistol and i'm good at that' hell no. so why would you do the same with a car. if you buy a mac and are used to using a PC, do you sit there waiting for a start menu to magically appear or do you use the icons on the bottom of the screen to launch programs? i for one, when i want to close a program on a mac prefer to click the upper right hand corner of the window repeatedly in hopes that the buttons (Which are on the top left) will magically move to wear i'm clicking and close the program.

Yeah I had the '01 model and did a bunch of work on the motor... got it up to about 398~400bhp spent a crap load of money on it then some work van ran a redlight off the interstate ramp and tboned me... he was doing 70+ mph to make the light and destroyed the mustang!!! I still have a picture of it beside my bed lol it was my baby!!! I washed that thing like 3 times a week... it was soo clean!

SOOOO TRUE!!! :roflpuke2::roflpuke2: I have owned macs from pc for several years now and i find myself switching the two. One thing I did notice for new drivers to the 370z is that they need to drag the clutch more than other cars... I used to be in a s2000 club and I let them drive the Z when I first got it lol they all stalled it out several times. even after being told to drag the clutch a little. it takes a lil time to get used to the clutch feel but once you have it its one of the easiest and lightest clutches out there :tup:

or get a AT Z :tup:

What? ATs are for girls. :stirthepot:

:p

haha. in school, i knew a guy from france and he told me in europe, only handicapped people would drive ATs :)
(not sure if he was joking or serious)

my AT will kick your pathetic MT's *** if you still had your Z

I am not going to try beating a 5.0 V8 monster.

i'm pretty sure that is true, at least it was going back a few years ago.

my MT makes my wang bigger than yours.:p

if having a noisy clanky crappy MT makes your penis bigger feel free to think that. :p

while you are having trouble with 1-2 shifting il just fly past you kk.

There's a reason why women drive automatics.. they always love the "D" :roflpuke2::roflpuke2::roflpuke2::roflpuke2:

I always drive M.

HAH