Don't believe those printed times . . . they're way off. A buddy of mine has an 06 Track stock and officially timed it out at 0-60 5.4.

 

Two words . . . driver's race.

 

Dude you are so right screw the 300 hp and 06's I like my 03' z donig 5.4 0-60!!

 

that doesn't sound right, unless drivers issues.

 

When going from 0-60 how many times do you have to shift gears? With my automatic I only have to manually shift it once. When I was a teenager driving a new Pontiac GTO 37 years ago, many automatics were quicker with novice or semi-novice drivers. I have timed my runs from 0-60 numerous times on the same good road and my times have ranged from 5.04 to 5.89. Most of the times have been in the 5.8 range with a few 5.4's. Every time I have done a run I have the traction control to off, shifter is in the manual mode, just a driver, half a tank of gas, and I have never broke loose the tires.

 

I have been reading automobile magazines for over 40 years. These magazines exist to make money in the entertainment for car people and to market cars and accessories. What I see is when new model comes out the times are quicker. In subsequent years they get progressively slower. Many times they do comparison tests against a newer model with the automaker buying reprints of the article to have in the dealer's showrooms. For example in 1996 to the best of my memory, auto magazines tested a new Lexus ES300 and the times were in the 7.7 category. Two years later, Lexus added additional 10 hp but the times published by magazines went down by over a half second. They publish quicker times to establish the model and when the model ages without significant upgrades or advertising dollars the times get slower. Here is my opinion on 350Z times. They keep testing new heavier models with the same basic engine therefore the times will be slower. I personally think if you had the same model under the same conditions a 2006 will have the similar times as a 2003. This would only apply for AT cars since the horsepower and torque are the same. Note: the 2006 has more hp in a MT but the torque is less. 0-60 times are more related to torque while top speed is horsepower.

 

I think it was road and track magazine or something that has a policy of when they test times they rev high and drop the clutch. I just picked it up out of a different forum so don't take my word.

 

06 might has better lap time, i guess. because of better suspension and 500 rpm higher.