Originally Posted by Mergnthwirker

For more than 25 years I owned an Alfa Romeo Giulietta from 1961. That car lived for high revs, and if you wound it out it performed extremely well (by 1960/70's standards). If I drive my Z the same way it is *amazingly* fast. But most people don't drive their cars this way, and in the Z, it has enough torque that you don't have to in everyday driving. But when you do... holy cow!

It does require a recalibration of how you drive. Seven out of my last 10 cars were turbos, so I had lost the knack. Lower and mid-range torque are beautiful things. Usually there is not a lot of benefit in winding them out much above the torque peak. Not true when driving the Z. It makes its maximum torque and horsepower very high up in the rev range so you need to use the whole power band to extract its best. And the immediacy of naturally aspirated engines is really addictive. It took me a while to get back into that mode after I got my 370Z.

I suspect that you did not drive the Z in a way that extracts the most it has to offer. I highly recommend you spend some time hitting the redline before you give up on the Z!