Uh, SwivelHips, and KSWAY...........thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!!

InfinitiG35Fan, it is fun, no doubt, but I'm thinking having both woud be funner (is that a word?).

If you forget - and I have - it just revvs really high, which if you're banging out like I do you'll almost miss it. Except, the accelerator starts vibrating, so you'll feel the reminder in your right foot.......then you can slap it back into D or quickly upshift once or twice.

Can't say if it'll automatically upshift to save us from ourselves (as it does for downshifts, where above a certain RPM it won't go to the lower gear).

Someone else might know.

Of course, when going to manual mode (from a standstill) the D in the instrument panel goes to a 1, which is the gear it'll mostly happen in. And unfortunately, unlike the 6MT, there's no blinking shift light to alert us to shift up at a certain RPM.

Still, it doesn't happen very often once you get in the habit, not to mention more driver involvement is what manual mode is all about. Personally, I'm just done with foot clutches.

Also, although I know these systems are - for the most part - built to be durable and/or "battle tested" to where it makes no difference whether you habitually drive in auto or manual, reading up on this site has me NOT doing only a couple things.

1. No downshifting into 1st, period. There is no rev-matching that I've heard, and even if there was, what's the purpose?

(Unless I'm being a dumba-- who's not really paying attention to driving conditions and needs some last-minute deceleration. Again, practice makes permanent.)

2. DO NOT repeatedly - preferably never - keep running up to redline in whatever gear.

(Arguably abusive, and really not necessary. Max torque really does come at around 4800 RPM; the car seems to start pulling hard on up to about 5500......I'm estimating, after which I'll upshift. Redline is 6700 for our version of this VQ35 if I'm reading the dial correctly; max HP comes at 6200.)

Overall, I've noticed the engine starting to get quite revved up, nicely torquey, and quite jumpy beginning at 4000 (to around 5000 RPM)........a good feeling, to be sure.

That said, our VQ engines are know for their prodigious mid-range torque, so I'm not saying much.

Anyway, try it out. It's crazy fun.

Especially leaving FL Turnpike toll booths and merging from highway on-ramps.