So, I've been using the manual mode in my Z a lot lately. I shift out of 1st at around 2k - 3k rpms, and every other gear at 4k *Damn Break-in period *. I have a number of questions :

- How high in RPMS can you shift out of 1st, and what is the best for a good launch ?

- Can you mess up the tranny downshifting from to high a speed into the next gear down ?

- What are the speeds you downshift at from each gear, for purposes of more power, or dropping speed ?

I usually down shift from 4th - 3rd around 35mph, and from 3rd - 2nd at around 25 - 20mph.

* I realize the significant amount of threads created on this subject "5at in Manual Mode", but i wanted specific questions to shifting, so figured i would create a new thread. Sorry if i suck

 

You can shift out of first as high as you want. I think the throttle gets cut at 6900, so anytime before that will work. Shifting around redline will get the best results (keep in mind that there is always a delay between when you shift and when it happens).

Yes, you can mess it up. But it depends on the gear and what you're doing. Doing it while braking is worse than doing it while just slowing down or downshifting for more power. 5th to 4th will most likely be fine. 3rd to 2nd will most likely suck. 4th to 3rd will be somewhere in the middle. If you don't believe me, try it once and see what happens. It most likely won't be fun. And if you're at too high a speed, it might not even let you shift.

You're downshift speeds sound about right for slowing down/stopping. And when you're looking for more power, you don't really want to drop speed (at least not much).

 

I have shifted out of 1st once above 3k and it felt like an entirely different car. It took off and I was taken really off guard by how much quicker the car was. Everyone always talks about launching at 2500rpms, so when I went much higher I didn't know whether it was ok or not. The Z just seems much more responsive and powerful when you rev it up there.

 

That's because the Z's powerband doesn't really take off until somewhere around 3500 rpms. And if you think that's fun, just wait till you get above 4k. My personal favorite RPM is 4500. WOW!

 

I'll second that...as soon as you get it over 4000, it's go time

 

How do you launch that high of an RPM on a 5AT?

 

Sounds like there holding the brake down until there reach the RPM's they want to launch at....

 

Stand on the brake. it will not work well unless you remove the stoplight fuse.
if you don't do this the power will be cut by about 30% because the ECU is sensing that there is an unsafe condition. (throttle on while brake applied),

I shift out of every gear at 6600 rpm while racing.
i start out at 2500 rpm stall (brake on)
The tranny will not let you shift down at too high a speed.
the speed you downshift at is determined by the conditions. sometimes in road racing I will just start tapping the shifter down and if I doesn't shift down I know I'm going too fast for that. I have driven it so much now I can tell when to shift down and not even look at the gauges.