I have heard that the fidenza flywheel is the best flywheel available for the maxima. I heard that the ultra lightwieght ones (5 lbs) were no good for our cars. Is this true? The fidenza also seems to be the cheapest besides OEM. Anyone with experience who has a fidenza or unorthodox or stillen or some other lightwieght one? Thanks for the input guys.

 

I "think" that they do perform better under street conditions where your not putting down serious hp 300+, but under track conditions if your turboed or insane psi SCed the flywheel isnt strong enough to deliver the power. Im pretty sure thats how the rumors go.

 

using a too light of a flywheel will cause the rpms to drop super fast making it harder for daily driving. Never heard about it not being able to deliver power or whatever that rumor you heard of.

 

A few weeks ago I was asking around about whether or not I should get the ultra light 5lb Unorthodox Racing flywheel. Many people advised me against it, saying that the ultra light flywheel will make everyday driving, especially in traffic, a big mess.

Well, let me tell you that there is absolutely no truth to that. My everyday drivability has hardly changed... if at all. The ONLY difference is that I can no longer get the car rolling by only sliding the clutch out, without modulating it with the gas pedal. In other words, I have to drive it like I would drive any other 5-spd car (outside of a Maxima).

My attitude going into this upgrade was, if I am going to go lighter, I will go as light as I can... go big or go home. Worst case scenario, I'd have a few days of "adjusting". But there was none of that. I got used to the new flywheel (and clutch) coming right off the parking lot.

The RPMS DO NOT drop to nothing like some people claim. The car DOES NOT buck or slam my head back in everyday driving. So unless you drive standard like a monkey, you have nothing to worry about by getting an ultra light flywheel. You will only benefit as much as possible with the lightest possible flywheel.

I would highly recommend getting a flywheel as light as you can get it (in our case, Unorthodox Racing). Hope this helps.

 

I would not want to drive around with anything lighter than my findanza. RPM's drop much quicker and mine is only 12lbs.

 

hrmm how much do these flywheels run for? and how hard is installation?

 

I went from stock flywheel to my UR which is advertised as 5 lbs. I don't know if the Fidanza flywheel is 12 lbs on it's own or along with something else.

But stock to my UR, I really do not find that the RPMS drop that quick... as long as you know how to drive a 5-spd, rev match, all that crap... then you'll be fine. Yes the RPMs dp drop, but it is really not as bad as people make it out to be.

I personally have only been driving stick for about a year and a half, so I'm not a pro by any means.

 

The Fidanza is way cheaper than the Unorthodox Racing... my UR cost me $399 I think, from Custom Maxima.

Installation is not easy... you have to take the tranny out. Unless you have a lot of time and good resources, I wouldn't recommend doing this by yourself. By a lot of time, I mean that you'd better have another car to drive you around because you will not finish this in a day if you do it in your driveway.

 

Don't know if your tying to infer anything with your "know how to drive a 5-speed" comment, so i won't flame. But I have been driving a stick for over 8 years and pull respectable 60' at the track.

I, for one, don't want a car that I have to rev match every time I shift or have to shift fast as hell all the time. Having to rev match on every shift, to me, effect driveability. 95% of the time I drive it's just for transportation purposes and screw having to rev match all the time.

 

No it wasn't meant to flame at all. My point was that I am new to driving stick. I am self-taught and am still learning and picking up tips wherever I can. A buddy of mine has been driving stick all his life (since he turned about 14) gave me some good tips when I first started driving stick. He showed me how to rev match and such, and eluded to that being the proper way to drive a 5-spd, save your tranny, etc. It has nothing to do with having a lightweight flywheel.

I don't find rev matching to be that much of a hassle at all. You just get used to it. I don't see how I could NOT rev match... that to me affects my normal drivability. I rev matched when I had a stock flywheel too.

Incidentally, my girlfriend has been driving stick way longer than I have and she went to driving school on a standard. However there is no doubt that I am a better 5-spd driver than she is. So experience does count for something, but not if you were not taught properly. She was taught to "roast the clutch, but do not stall" and ride the clutch through turns (while downshifting), etc.

So again in conclusion... ultra light flywheel hasn't changed my driving habits more than just a tad. The only thing that has changed, I outlined in my first post above.

P.S. My 60' at the track is probably in the lower echelon on this forum... but I think part of the reason is the one particular track itself that I mostly race at over here. But my ETs for NA motor are probably in the upper echelon of this forum (no times with MEVI yet) so I don't know what that says about my driving. But that's a whole other story.

 

I have the UR flywheel cause I couldn't get Fidanza one in time and have had no problems at all driving it in any situation. Don't believe people that say its harder to drive cause its not true. I got used to it as soon as I drive it and didn't notice much of a difference in my ability to drive even with all my mods. I put the underdrive pulley, flywheel, clutch, STS, and y-pipe all installed in one day and was still fine driving it fine.