HI,
Im just curious if anyone has taken out the Sentra SE-R Spec V for a test ride and what they think about the Helical Differential which comes STANDARD on that vehicle. I decided to wait till Feb before buying my SE 6speed but I was just wondering how much of a difference it will really make. I'll probably try to test drive one myself next week.
Thanks, AL

 

I loved it! Test drove a pre-production version at Mossy Nissan in Oceanside, CA. Alot of the Maximas guys in so cal know most of the guys there. That Spec-V was a blast to drive!

 

I drove one today, and ran the hell out of it. I thought that the LSD gave it a real sticky feel, whech was comforting with the crappy clutch that it comes with. I especially liked the feel shifting into 2nd at 6800rpm. BTW: I had it up to 120mph and it still didn't want to shift into 6th smooth. The dealer was scared to death at first, but was at ease when he realized that I'm a "car guy"
So, what is the 6th gear for, anyway? The limiter won't let you go past 143mph. and the rev lim doesn't cut the fuel until about 7300rpm!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This is not a houswife's 4cldr car!!!! I really loved the "Skyline" seats too....
Damn I want one.
$18,000.00
VERY worth it....

 

no offense, but all the spec v owners at www.b15sentra.net say that the redline is like 6100 and fuel cut is around 6400. Were you looking at the tach at all?

 

I test drove one in November and I really didn't notice if the HLSD helped or not. If it did it was only at low speeds while shooting out of tight corners. The wheels would still spin, but I'm assuming that they both were. On icy streets, the car spun out just as much as the Max that I bought a week later. The Max has no problem laying down dual black strips either - go figure!

Where it may really help (but you would have a hard time telling, unless you could turn it on and off at will) is during high speed canyon carving or autocross where the Spec-V handling is a blast (would easily out run my stock 2k2 Max SE in the twisties). It may be what helps give the car such awesome grip under power in the turns.

Weird as it sounds, at times the Sentra felt faster and more powerful than the Maxima, at least until you looked at the speedo.

 

no offense, but some spec v owners at www.b15sentra.net say that their spec V does not have rev limiter at all.

 

No offense to you either, but I know what I'm talking about and I'm telling you once only that I pushed this thing as far as it would go through it's first four gears at least and I know what was up. The fuel cut on the reg SE-R is around 6400 I believe but I think that's what the dealer said as I didn't waste my time driving it. I did take the Spec V out, and the dealer was also a Nissan guy and let me do whatever to the car.

 

Hi, Did you notice any torque steer on the Spec-V?
Thanks, AL

 

Good question! I test drove the Spec-V right after testing an Altima 3.5 SE 5spd. The Altima had very noticable T.S. and could yank the wheel pretty hard, especially when one of the wheels broke loose on grit or snow. I don't remember the Spec-V yanking at the wheel, but it did pull somewhat when floored in 2nd and 3rd. Nothing like the Altima though, which had me more concerned as I had decided to buy the 3.5 SE even before testing the Sentra.

As it turned out, the 3.5 SE didn't show up on time so I test drove and ended up purchasing a Maxima 6spd w/o HLSD. It too had T.S., but not as bad as the Altima. The steering in general felt better in both the Max and Sentra over the Altima.