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Administrator
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: NJ
Posts: 9,930
Drives: 09 370Z MB Sports M6
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Somewhere Between DSG and a Full Manual: Nissan's SynchroRev Match
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DETROIT - Confession: I've never mastered the heel-and-toe downshift on the track. With a bit of practice and in the right car, I can get the rhythm going on a twisty mountain road. On a track, it can take me many laps to get it right, and even then, not consistently. So I was happy to get into a Nissan 370Z with SynchroRev Match for a week and press the button. The feature is an interesting compromise between a full, clutch-it-yourself manual and a twin-clutch or sequential manual, like the kind debated in the latest Lohdown.
My first drive home in the Z was interesting, because I tend to match revs on downshifts (if not heel-and-toe) regularly. So here I was, double-clutch/match-rev downshifting on a car that matches its own revs. Several lost revs, there. Once I got used to the idea, the gearbox matched revs perfectly. In fact, too perfectly -- it knows that at a certain speed, a 3-2 downshift requires, say, a rev to 5000 rpm. It won't waste a drop of precious peak oil revving to 5100.
For that reason, the feature is underwhelming in regular driving, unless you downshift two or three gears regularly. Drop a single gear at most speeds and you won't know it's there. There is a little symbol, though, that lights up on the instrument panel.
How does it work? With a bit of experimentation, you'll find that the sensors try to figure out where you're going while in the neutral gate. Downshift from fourth to third, and you'll get a little rev only as you place it into third. Downshift from fourth to second, for example, and the engine revs as you pull it to the left edge of the horizontal neutral gate, before you pull the shift-lever into gear. So you can rev the Z without touching the throttle pedal, simply by moving the gearshift back and forth, from neutral to neutral-left.
For most of the week, I drove the Z around letting the SynchroRev Match do what I usually do with my two feet. It was mildly amusing and, I'm sure, a bit more fuel-efficient than my efforts. Mostly, I yearned for a few laps around a track where, I'm sure, the feature would improve my lap times.
My wife finally got a ride in the car after a few days. Donna's a dyed-in-the-wool manual gearbox purist who just gave a little scowl when I described the feature. She considers twin-clutch and sequential manuals "cheating."
The rev match feature comes with the $3,000 sport package, which also gets you a limited slip differential, 19-inch Bridgestone Potenzas on forged wheels, front chin and rear spoilers and sport brakes. Unless Nissan ends up selling a lot of these for the track, it's hard to avoid the conclusion that the rev match is mostly a gimmick.
As for the Z itself, Ron Kiino's review in the February issue compares it favorably with the Aston Martin DBS and calls the 370Z "a sports-car steal." I can't find much to disagree with, although Detroit's bombed-out roads emphasize the car's shortened wheelbase and makes it feel a bit more skittish and nervous than the old 350Z. I'm not enamored with the styling. That's a very subjective issue, of course, but just as the new Ford Mustang's facelift is designed to make that car look shorter, Nissan took an existing design and redrew some lines in order to actually make it shorter. Both cars were redesigned to mixed results -- I find the new Mustang and Z designs a bit less flowing and coherent than the cars they replace.
Philosophically, SynchroRev Match is another example of taking some control away from the kind of car that's all about driver control. More so than twin-clutches or sequential gearboxes, it seems to be an example of something its maker did simply because it discovered a way to make technology do something cool. Unlike DSGs, it's not a way to let you make phone calls while driving, or be able to bear the L.A. Freeways' stop-and-go traffic.
And you shouldn't make it be a deal-killer, either for the 370Z or its sport package. Like most stability control systems, SynchroRev Match can be disarmed simply by pressing a button.
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Source: Somewhere Between DSG and a Full Manual: Nissan's SynchroRev Match | Car News Blog at Motor Trend
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