I think the Z is a all around great sports car. Just the other day I looked up and I was doing 90, it felt like I was doing around 65 mph. Now that's a sports car, plus it cost 10,000 less then my parents Corvette and has more options.

 

What I mean by jack of all trades and the master of none is:
it's a well rounded sports car. It has OK power, OK handling, 6spd, an OK interior, etc, etc, but it doesn't lead the pack in any category. There are lighter cars, more powerfull cars, faster cars, better handling cars, etc.

And yes, I did drive the car off the lot thinking it isn't all that fast, but the fact that it looked good, had a 6spd, RWD, was a two seater, had some heritage, and was in the price range I was willing to pay were a lot of the reason behind the purchase. The longer I owned the car, the more I began to realize how much the car was lacking. That's not to say I don't like the car, but just that it needs a little help reaching it's potential.

Link to my initial thoughts on the Z

 

Wonder if you can Restrict the Top end a bit to make it feel like it has a bunch of bottom end torqe? IE have the airflow cut in half above 5 Grand with a butterfly valve on the intake. It will make the car a bunch slower since you are loosing all of that top end power but you will get the heavy bottom end "Kick" when you shift.

 

I should add that the experience from the passenger's side is very different. When the dealer took me out for the initial test drive, he punched it hard and I did feel the g's when riding shotgun, more so than when I'm in the drivers' seat.

 

If this is anything like Motorbikes, you "feel" torque. It's what makes you feel the acceleration. V-twin bikes such as Aprilias and Ducatis are just as fast as 750's, but due to the way they make power feel much slower. If you were a motorcycle racing fan during the early 00's before the liter bikes became legal, V-Twins dominated world superbike, and did very well here in the US vs 750's which "felt" faster. Again this is not an apple to apple comparison.

Edit:
To add to this, in the late 80's and early 90's motogp engine designers didn't understand the importance of a non "peak torque" engine. The 2 strokes they were riding around on had to be ran in an RPM range of 2k ish. So you couldn't let the rpm's dip from say 10k-12k or you would be out of the power. Thats why if you watch a lot of old bike racing you see a SLEW of highsides from the sudden jolt of power comming into the power range mid turn, huge wheel spin, the bike steps out a bit, the rider chops the throttle just a little, and he is now out of the power curve giving the wheel full traction again slingshotting the rider as the bike straightens up. Since then they have gone to 4 strokes and the entire motogp world has changed, but it's all somewhat relevant. Now they make a very flat torque curve which is much easier to ride/race/drive. I've ridden bikes with no low end power and they felt faster because when the power comes on its a huge surge, where a bike with a nice line of power is in my opinion more usuable. So i suppose same goes with cars. /ramble on
Sorry to go on, but bikes and bike racing are my true passion

 

Was driveing my dad to the hospital one day, he drives a civic and NEVER goes over 65. Any ways i was driveing 80mph becuase we were late, the entire time he kept saying this POS IS SLOW, DAM YOU DRIVE SLOW.

He kept looking at the average speed and average miles per galon and it said like 67 and he assumed i was going 67 and the car to him felt like it was going 67. If he had known i was going 80 he would have been yelling slow down but he was too dumb to look at the speedometor.

Either way, the car at 65 feels like your literarly crawling, wich actualy from what i can see is a good thing.

Also ever notice how easy it is to get from 60 to 80 and not even feel it? it takes like no time at all and ya dont even feel it. I started to pass my friend, she was in her black civic on the highway i started at 70 behind her and ended up 125 before i let off the gas, she said all of a sudden she seen me "fly" by but i didnt feel any power but i can tell you it didnt take long to get to 125 hehe.

 

I was reading those threads about how the Z doesnt feel fast, and I got in my car, and it was true....

But then I noticed that I was surrounded in a bucket seat that is super supportive, and I was holding the wheel tightly, so I let my body go was cruising in second around 3-4 thousand RPM and then I punched it, well I got thrown back into the seat and it felt fast! For the guy saying that a Z is a dissapointment stock, you need to stop. I'm sure its easy to say that now that you are turbo, but it isnt a dissapointment, the Z stock, or even close to stock out runs most cars, like the GT Mustang, SRT4, S2000, I know because I only have a popcharger and 19 inch rims and have out run all of the before mentioned cars and they had light mods...

Go sit in the Z, let yourself go, dont sit so snug in the Bucket seat, and punch it in the middle of your RPM range, you will feel the TQ, the Z is well designed and you dont get jerked around, you are well supported and the car is solid. The Z is no slouch in stock form, or a dissapointment. There are reasons the car stops "feeling fast", and this doesnt happen with just the Z. I know when I first test drove one, I like the punch, and thought it had a great kick. Now I dont feel it as much because I am so comfortable in the car, the seat holds me tight (Im 6' 180lbs) and the TQ is everywhere in the RPM range so its a smooth quickness.

***Edit

The same thing happened in my 95 VR4 now that I think about it, the car was lightly modded, around 335HP and 325TQ 6 speed 7K Redline....When I FIRST got the car, the power was AMAZING, the TQ was AMAZING, but after a year it didnt so much anymore....same thing, the VR4 has 320lbs ft of tq at only 2300 rpms and only starts dropping off in the high RPMS, just like the Z the TQ is down low and smooth all the way up to redline where it drops off a little, it has supportive bucket seats, and after that long you get comfortable in the car, even thought it didnt feel that fast anymore I was still beating everything on the street, new Camaro's, Cobra's (pre-03), Turbo'ed 4 bangers, and stock the VR4's did 13.4-13.6 at 100-101 mph....

 

Before selling my 210 HP '97 Eclipse GS-T, my initial reaction to my first 350Z drive was "it doesn't feel as fast". However, what some of the guys are saying about a flat power curve is true. The turbo Eclipse gave you a sudden strong burst from about 2,800 RPM to 4,800 RPM. This is what mistakenly led me to believe the GS-T was quicker. In the ~ 3,300 RPMs below and above this range there wasn't much power. The Z, in contrast, has its power spread out across the entire band. It takes-off much quicker than the Eclipse and continues strong throughout the band. No power pulse like a 4-banger turbo, but smooth prolonged acceleration. No question about it, the Z is the quicker car of the two, even if it doesn't "feel" like it.

I also agree that when driving it is difficult to gauge the acceleration because you're holding on to the steering wheel. An interesting gauge I found is my passenger's head. Drive normally and watch it sink it to the headrest when you accelerate and lurch forward when you switch gears! I never noticed this head-rocking effect much with the Eclipse (unless I was purposely accelerating hard). With the Z it seems to happen when I'm just driving "normally". I feel sorry for my poor wife!

- John

 

Butt Dyno's lie, but sometimes that's a good thing.

There are several cars that aren't fast (IE Miata, Celica, etc), but they feel like they are and can be more entertaining to drive.

Then there ar cars that are extremely fast, but don't really feel it. One of the best experiences I have of this is griving a Phantom Turbo. It was silky smooth and quiet and I had no idea the driver had taken it up to 120 so quickly. It felt like 50 MPH.
A lot of this is how smooth the TQ curve is and how isolated you are from the outside environment.

 

Ha ha! That's funny! I know exactly what you're talking about.

I think this is called the head-ometer...

 

[QUOTE=mecinoid]The Z is just about as fast as those V8 monsters. What we are really talking about here is a quick car. You know, a heavy car like a GTO or my Firebird feels quicker than a lighter car with less HP even though it might be just as quick. You need more torque to push more weight so feeling is different. I do get more of a power thrill out of my Firebird because of the low end torque. However, when the Z turns on in the upper Rpms it feels almost as good.

Example, you get hit with a twig at a fast speed it stings. You get hit with a log at that same speed it hurts right. It is because it has some weight behind it. Roughy the same idea using AJPhysics

I actually bought the Z to keep me out of tickets. I doesn't make me want to punch the gas like the Firebird. But, if I want to go, I stomp it and I'm gone .......


A BIG +1 on everything you wrote

 

Perception over reality. I don't get it. And why do we say fast when we mean quick?

Reminds me of my Focus SVT. Short intake runners opened a 6k rpm and you could feel the kick. Ford released updated code that opened the runners at 5k which increased HP from 5k to 6k rpm. Nothing changed outside of the 5k -6k band. And guess what....owners complained that it didn't "feel" as fast. I still don't get it.

 

The head o meter is pretty accurate....my GF smacking me lets me know I'm giving to much gas in each gear lol....

I dont care if the Z doesnt "feel" fast, the ***** is....

 

i just traded my 04 GOAT in on a new 05 touring. can tell you for sure the z is slower than a goat, even the 04 (the 05s have 400 hp). however the 350z drives like a real sports car, and does everything a more expensive car can do, while the gto is very fast, can pin you to your seat and lay rubber shifting into 3rd gear, but it is a touring car, it is heavy, it is quiet and very good riding, but ITS NOT A SPORTS CAR!!

 

A week after I first picked her up at the dealer in Nov. 2002 I was driving with my wife in the passenger seat. We were traveling over highway 152 from Gilroy to Los Banos in N. Cal. 152 goes over a mountain and the roadway is 3 lanes and very smooth with many elevation changes and big long flowing curves and S's.
Anyway here I was cruising at 85mph and finally i look down at the speedo and it reads 110mph. WHOA!! I don't know how long we were doing that speed but I had absolutely no clue the car was doing it.

 

lol, yeah, happens to me all the time. The car cruises so quiet, I think I'm going slow, until I look down at the speedometer, and I'm doing around 80-90 on the highway.

 

the car isnt slow its just the feel eh...
the stick ur head out of the window.. that'll feel faster

 

Just look in your rear view mirror when you punch it, you'll see your Z isn't slow!

 

Boy do I know that road! LOL, my grandparents live in Gilroy, don't you love the smell that smacks you in the face when you get there? lol.

I loved going fast in my VR4 on that road, only done it once with my Z, and the Z was brand new so I wasnt driving hard, but there are crazy *** people in minivans with 12 people inside doing 80-90 on that road, THAT is scary, one time I had this raised truck, 90's F150 go by me in my VR4 and I was doing 85.....I was like WTF, his truck is tipping every which way, I slowed down and let him go ahead to say the least...

 

I couldnt agree more, I do it all the time, cars are buslengths behind, half WOT in the first 2 gears....