Sports package or not?
 

Im thinking of getting a 09 Z, but use mostly for daily commute with traffic going no faster than 40-50mph, do you think i should still get a sport package? i dont race. i can afford an extra $3K but i just like to know if i benefit from it or not.

Are you planning on 6MT or 7AT? If 6MT, you get the SRM, which is a great feature...even more so if you aren't already familiar with heel-to-toe shifting. I've never heel-to-toe shifted before, but if my next car doesn't have a SRM-similar feature, I'll have to learn how. It's made shifting much smoother!

The brake upgrade is more visual for your type of driving. The non-sports brakes will do the job handily, but the sports brakes do look great!

The front/rear spoiler is available in an aero package, so are still available sans sports. I think they look great and do not like the Z without at least the rear spoiler. My opinion only, of course.

The tire/wheel upgrade certainly makes the car look a lot better, at the cost of upping your maintence costs on the car (18" to 19" tires). I can't say enough about the looks of the sports wheels though, easily one of the best "stock" wheels I've seen.

The VLSD may not be as noticeable for the type of driving you expect, but on the occassional "spirited driving" trips you may take outside of your normal commute, it'll certainly be helpful.

Top of my head, I can't think of the other sports features, but if there are a few components of the upgrade you want it's absolutely worth the cost. All of the features individually would easily double the package's cost (no option for SRM aftermarket).

Bang for buck, sports pgk is a hell of a deal!

I agree with what Matt said. Slow or fast you may need to slam on the brakes in case of an emergency then u will appreciate the bigger brakes. Close calls are better than impact. My rotors are purple now.:eek:

SRM is for babies who do not know how to drive a stick.... I am kidding of course! :)

I have a base model with the aero package. Though no issues spending the extra +10%, I opted to not buy the sports package. I like my cars in the "raw" and enjoy the excitement of the traditional heel-toe.

In my humble opinion, unless you track regularly, the extra $ is not worth it. Much like the Nav, unless you travel a lot, how often will you be utilizing it?

Don't get me wrong, sometimes I wished I bought the sports model. But wishing is normal and we never get satisfied.

If money is no issue, buy the extra options. There is no substitute knowing that your Z is "Fully Loaded.". Plus it would be one less thing for you to say "I wished that....."

good luck.

Sport package is well worth it. The 19's look incredible, and the SRM is great. I've been driving stick for 15 years, and thought I'd never use it, but it's really nice for day to day driving.

yes sport package. get it.

On the street the stopping distances are essentially the same with both the sport and non-sport. In theory the sport brakes should do better under light track duty but the reality is they don't.

So the best reasons to get the Sport package are:
- SRM
- Larger sport wheels
- Viscous LSD (good for street use)

yes..get it.

+1, also your resale might be higher with sports pack...

Thanks guys for the great answers.

Matt, youre right. The 19" wheels do look better. Once you go 19" you can't go back. :icon18:

I drive auto. And I have no idea what SRM mean or it would help with an Auto transmission.

The SRM is for the manual only. All the auto's have a version of SRM so you're good.

Absolutely get the Sport Package. Even in a traffic jam, the SRM comes in handy, makes it smooth. And when you get out of traffic and onto back roads, you will thank me. Get the Sport Package. :driving:

I have a 7at base. I actually like the 18s and will probably change out wheels anyway. So STM and wheels didn't matter-wider tires aren't a huge aftermarket hit. But I miss the big brakes and aftermarket is probably the cost of sport package. Also, I think LSD is sport option and attractive. Personal choice, I think, but definitely a great value either way.

I'd get the Sport Package just for the wheels and the spoiler, and bragging rights:"My rotors are bigger than yours"

if your planning to upgrade your wheels, brakes tires someday then I would get the base and spend the extra 3 grand for that.

sport:tup:

:icon18:

On the auto the decision is less compelling. You can buy the sports brakes, used for about $1000, and a brand new Carbonetic real LSD for about $1200 (not the viscous crap). That just leaves the wheels and tires. If you are going to swap those out anyway then the decision becomes tougher.

BTW a good after market BBK starts at $4K.

Ok, get the sport package. is that simple.

Enjoy.

Not that simple. It's a stock or swap decision up front - especially if financing in the upgrades. Why pay on extras that aren't staying on the car? But assuming no plans to mod on package pieces - yes upgrade is incredible bargain.

No no, I was talking about "zmyride" comment, he is not stating that he is going to upgrade in the future :)

Get Sport Package, as you said that you can afford it, and enjoy.
Spoiler, Rims, Tires, Breaks, if it is manual transmission, synchro reeving.

i was presented a deal on a base 6spd that i could not pass up, I have since traded my base wheels plus cash for the 19s, the brakes are just fine. but the lack of an lsd is the biggest bummer. I am going to try to make it until next summer and my next mod will be a LSD. So i paid 700+ my base wheels for oem 19s with near mint rubber, and ill get the lsd for 1250. Thats 2000 right there, and i still dont have SRM or the brakes.

I got the dealer to throw in front and rear spoilers for free with my purchase as well, so if i had to pay for that it would be even closer to the original 3k package price. BUT in my situation they were playing with the price of the base model a lot more than the other so i took the base.

its worth it if you personally want/like what it offers.

:rofl2:

This seems as good a place as any to ask since it's been mentioned in here so...

Wheel/tire size differences: Means you don't rotate tires and, what, you just replace the front ones more often than the rear?

And, heel/toe rev-matching. That refers to having your foot on the brake/gas at the same tiime, but seriously, unless you're "racing" for some kind of reason, wouldn't you just leave the brake alone when downshifting and just "feather" the gas most of the time (assuming you were in a car with no SRM)?

With rear wheel drive and street driving I expect to see my rear tires wear out faster than the front.

SRM is probably a nice feature if your concern is lap times, but not as important for daily driving. The 7at was my choice after driving manual transmission cars for over 45 years.

I chose the sport package because I wasn’t planning on changing the wheels, brakes, springs or lsd and the package was a good value (no road racing in my future).

Dayum ! Another old fart. I'm not feeling so lonely any more ! :)

Both the base an the sport have a staggered setup, you cannot rotate the tires. On RWD cars typically the rears wear out faster on street driving and the fronts wear out faster on track.

Heel & toe refers to the technique of braking for a corner while down shifting to ensure that you are in the target gear for the corner and saves clutch wear and heat because you are synchronizing the gear box with the engine.
You obviously don't need to heel & toe if you are just simply down shifting.

Even just commuting your tires are gonna last 20k miles or less. From the research I've done online the tires for the Sports package wheels are gonna be about $50+ more for each. That's about an extra $200+ every 18-24 months.

Just something to consider.

Sport package. This is a sports car.

makes perfect sense haha

seriously eveytime i walk by the car and look at the 19's especially in the back i just cant help thinking how crazy those look!

Wheels/tires: No, you can't rotate the tires. I suppose you could unmount the rears and swap them right-for-left, and unmount the front tires from the rim and do the same thing. But conventional wisdom has it that once the tires have been rotating in one direction, it is unwise to switch them to rotating in the other direction b/c the belts take a "set" and switching can upset the plies. So No. And BTW, you are much more likely to wear out the rear tires before the front, so you will likely end up replacing them in pairs (if you keep the same brand). Otherwise if you replace all 4, you end up throwing away two tires with life still in 'em.

Heel/toe: without the synchro-rev, when you are braking for a corner with your toe on the brake, at the same time --while you are braking--you can rotate your heel to the accelerator pedal to "blip" the throttle to match the revs to the speed of the drivetrain in the lower gear that you will need when exiting the corner at a lower speed.

At Bondurant's high-performance driving school, they taught us to ease off on the brake and "trail brake" to keep the car down on its suspension in the corner, which helps rotate the car in the corner. Then ease up on the brake in last part of the corner, and smoothly accelerate as the weight shifts towards the rear so you can maximize traction throughout the turn. Tires have a limit to their traction, so you want to use them to their best advantage based on where you are in the turn. Heel-and-toe braking lets you do this by controlling both the braking and the application of the throttle at the same time.

The rev-matching feature is extremely nice b/c it always gets the right engine speed based on the speed the drivetrain is rotating, so there are never any jerks to upset the chassis balance in the middle of the corner. I spent a lot of time learning how to heel/toe, so I avoided using the synchro-rev for the first couple of months I owned my Z. But I found when I took it autocrossing that my times were actually better when I let the system rev match and I focused instead on hitting my braking points and steering the best line. Maybe if I were a better driver, I would not have discovered this... But on a 3:35 course, I was more than 5-10 seconds faster with the system on.

YMMV

The sports package is, I think, a pretty obvious upgrade and an incredible value for the money. The wheels and brakes alone make the upgrade more than worth it imo. The addition of the LSD and SRM are cherries on top. If this was a BMW a package of this nature would cost $8K or so...

Plus those 19's are some the best looking stock wheels out there, I have had a few people ask me where I got them...

I'm not going to pass on the sports option. Its one of the biggest bang for the buck packages out there. If you don't like/need synchrorev you can turn it off. If you want to upgrade your wheels later you can get much more back from your forged rays then the base wheels. The brakes alone make it worth it and the thought of a peg-legged Z is sad.

This is a very good reply. And before I come off as a total idiot, I want to make sure people understand what I was trying to convey. I say this because I see a lot of "heel/toe" comments in here and I didn't want the casual driver to think that's something they needed do know in order to drive the stick. The "heel/toe" "trick" is mostly used in tracking/racing, etc. In every day driving, you're more likely to see this--a person slows down by pressing the brake, letting the tranny and brakes slow them down. When slowed down enough for a turn (whatever it is), you'll then see the person put the foot back on the gas, tap it a bit, and downshift. Heck, some people don't even worry about the little tap. This was all I was trying to explain before some people began to think (who were new to a stick, etc.) that heel/toe was something they needed to learn. ANd that's not the case.

NOW, if you want to be a bit more aggressive with your car, THEN without auto rev-matching, you'd want to learn that foot maneuver.

But your reply was an excellent description of how to use it and how to tackle curves/turns. :tup:

I take the opposite tack: if you can't heel/toe, you either should be learning or you shouldn't be driving a manual.

:p

It's fun to learn, it helps you feel more connected to the car, and it's an excellent feeling when you get it right shift after shift. Relying on SRM also means you won't be able to shift properly in a car without it.

Yeah, I know, I'm an ornery f**k. :tiphat:

Well, I didnt' know it till now. :icon17:

J/K. I salute your dedication.