I started this thread to see what rpm you guys are starting off at to get the car moving. I realized when I was first learning how to drive this car back in March that our clutch engagement point was higher than the rest, meaning that while your letting off the clutch, thinking it is going to engage you could be accidentaly pressing the gas a little too much. I had to make some adjustments in my driving to drive this car and it has made me a better manual transmission driver in the long run. I say this becasue it was very easy for me to drive other manual transmission cars. For example, in my brothers Audi s4, I can get it moving with no gas at all most of the time, but then again he has an rs4 clutch. But in my 350z, when I am starting off in my car on flat ground and slightly slanted uphill I will get the car moving at about 1100 rpms. As for downward slopes it depends how steep it is but I usually get the car moving at 1000 rpms or no gas at all. If any of you guy have any tips for getting the car moving at a lower rpm, i'm all ears. Also if I were to purchase a different clutch would the clutch point be different than stock and would it differ with the amount of gas I would have to give it? With your responses if you guys have a different clutch than stock, please list it.

Thanks in a advance for your responses.
Dan

 

Ease off the clutch untill the car starts moving on its own, you should be fully off the clutch before really giving it any gas. The engagement point is very suttle and you dont even really feel it with the stock clutch but youll just know after driving a while when to give it gas without still having your foot on the clutch pedal at all. You dont want to be slipping the clutch all the time to get the car moving. It wont last very long that way.

And dont drive with your foot resting on the clutch. My stock clutch made it 50,000 miles and still had alot of life left in it when they changed my tranny. Yours should last just as long. I seen a Z for sale with 110,000 miles that still had the stock clutch and a couple owned it and shared the car. So even a women can make it to 100k.

 

Normally (flat surface), you really don't have to give gas to get going, just ease out the clutch (no gas) and you should start rolling.

^Well for my '06 it's like that.

 

<--- doesn't worry about rpm's when starting off. Don't worry about the number and get a feel for the car from the feedback it provides.

 

I dump the clutch around 4500RPM>

 

Could have seen that one coming, thanks for the feedback guys.

I try to ease off the clutch with no gas in my 06, but as I do that the car seems to feel like its going to stall and then i try to give it some gas and the rpms spike up to like 2000. Maybe i'm not letting off the clutch slow enough?

 

62,000 miles and I never looked. 1,000? 2,000 RPM? Not sure.

 

the car tells me how to let up the clutch and how much throttle to apply.

 

yea, sound + feel.
some mornings may be cold, others warm, maybe different rpms would do same thing.

 

it is something you need to feel and listen for in order to get right. you can take off ideally at almost any (not ridiculously high) rpm, depending on what you are trying to do. i will only apply gas after i have released the pedal most of the way, but in a smooth motion. it is hard to describe with words... like i said it is something you need to feel and learn on your own.

 

Usually around 1500RPMs but really anwhere from no gas to about 2.5K when starting on a hill (i live in seattle and we have some REALLY steep hills). Honestly I can start it with no gas, but it seems like i'm slipping clutch for a rediculous amount of time in order to do it smooth. I'm not entirely sure giving it a little gas and slipping the clutch for a much shorter period isn't better for it. In the end, it's just a clutch on a RWD car. There are wose things to have to replace.

If i still had my AWD celica, i'd be way more worried about clutch life.

 

you shouldnt have to give it any gas to start rolling, the first time i drove the z i got of gear just fine without any gas. you should just be easy on the throttle seems to me your new to the car and dont know how hard to push the pedals, since you say you tap the gas and spike to 2k

 

+1, driving stick is all about feel.

 

Have to admit the clutch on my 06 has been difficult to learn. I learned to drive on manual tranny back in the 70s and have owned many. I think the big difference is the Z clutch engages very late as compared to others i've owned. Seems like i'm letting out the pedal for days before it finally engages. I still find myself getting impatient at times with the throttle and end up giving it too much gas before the clutch fully engages - then i have to slip the clutch to avoid the jack-rabbit start.

 

I just listen for bog and keep it just above that (light weight flywheel makes it a bit tougher)

 

I have to give my 07 a bit of gas to get it going smoothly. Yes technically you can start it on level ground with no gas, but it takes about 5 seconds to do it correctly. Usually you have someone behind you and have to get going faster than that. I generally get it to about 1.5 -2k and get it going. It feels a lot smother starting at those RPM's rather than not using gas.

 

Start off around 1500-2000.

I blip the throttle quickly bring the rpms up a little, and begin releasing the clutch during this. When the rpms start coming down more, I find the sweet spot that I can fully disengage the clutch and give it gas.

 

I thought it was just me having a hard time learning this car's clutch I end up revving the engine to about 2k or so before I let the clutch out because I'm afraid of stalling. I'm trying to find the best balance between clutch and gas and this thread was great.

 

whole weekend I was easing out at 1k-2k RPMS. Roads in philly suck..never really that flat and lots of bumps.


But generally, I try 500-1k rpms.

 

Yea, you can say that again philly roads are terrible, espically broad street which I travel when i'm going to the Birds game. But thanks I got the answer I needed from this thread, listen and feel what the car is doing and go from there.