"Driving hard" is going to be a relative measure. For me, driving hard is something you can't do on public roads without going to illegal speeds. The Z is a performance car. You can take a Fiesta out on the roads and push it to its limits and still be relatively legal and safe 9and have loads of fun!). The Z has more performance than that. It will get into illegal territory quickly and/or become unsafe on the roads. I know, that's not what you want to hear, but it's reality.
Still, you can have *loads* of fun with this car and still be relatively legal on public roads. Just the looks alone can let you strut around like you're bigger than Prince.
What's wrong with the 7AT? There are certainly people who want the visceral feedback and involvement that a clutch gives them, and that's perfectly fine. But our 7AT comes with a manual mode which allows you to get roughly the same driving effect, just without the mechanical involvement. And the shifts are faster.
We can get into the whole discussion on whether you should drive a car "hard" from the start, or if you should follow the factory spec in the manual and be easy on it for the first 1200 miles. I lean more towards this argument:
Break In Secrets--How To Break In New Motorcycle and Car Engines For More Power. In the end, it's your car and neither of us are likely master engineers, so you choose what you'd like to do.
(I know, the page looks like it was made in 1996 on Geocities. But it's still valid advice.)
If you've not been over 6500 rpms, you're not driving it hard. Driving hard should at least include teasing the marked redline.
Leave VDC
on, first of all. Take it off if you know high performance driving and/or are on a closed course. Otherwise, as mentioned above, this car has enough performance to get you into unsafe territory in a flash.
The Z has great balance to learn and learn to enjoy turns with. It loves turns and has really great balance and grip for it, as long as you don't lose the tail too early with too much throttle. If you're on a closed course, you can play with the tail behavior crazy well.
Adjust your side mirrors co you cover your blind spots as much as you can. This usually means flaring them out a little bit more than you'd use on most cars (at least that applies to me...). We have awful blind spots that you need to protect yourself from.
Beyond that, if you can safely drive a car, you can drive the Z.
It's not a minivan; you won't floor it after every light and may not floor it much at all on public roads, and it'll still be fun.
That said, drive within your budget as well, that is gas and tire expense, as well as your insurance. Don't hoon around if you can't absorb the tickets.
Why? I hate to say it, but if you were going to want a manual that badly, you should have bought one.