what mods do you have or have you seen that give our cars significant top end.

 

Buy a faster car.

 

Top end is where the car lacks performance. On the test drive I was sold from the zero to sixty but once you get up past that it's a dog.

If there was a tuning option that was simple, I bet you could get a few more ponies from the car. Also, limited mods make it a bit hard.

 

significant gains would be seen if you did full bolt-ons and got an uprev tune. there is limited aftermarket support for this car which will make it frustrating to mod to a degree. most opinions are that this car is great from 50-100 in terms of acceleration but after that it drop offs

 

The car HorsePower and Torque curves drop off at the higher RPM that expains why it is sluggish at the top. Also why would anyone want to go faster than 130MPH with a Maxima? If you want to race it you got the wrong car.

 

I agree because of the CVT, but disagree because it is a Maxima. The Maxima has always been advertised as the 4DSC with the same engine (minus FI) as the 300ZX. It was designed to be as fast as the Z's if you wanted them to be. With the CVT they kinda threw us 4DSC fans under the bus in terms of this being what I'd actually call a 4 door sports car.

for a DD, this car is perfect because the speed ranges it is quick at are realistic for street driving. for a race car you want to track I agree this is the wrong car. I personally just wanted to maximize the platform, which definitely makes this car much more fun to drive. They didn't give us a VQ35DE for nothin'!

 

Get a 5th gen! lls

 

or a Z......people lookin to build a race car and shopping in the family sedan section are i think slightly confused

 

That goes back to what you said 2 post ago, people just associate the Max as that Sporty "4DSC"....This goes back to the 2nd gen, they were sporty and pretty quick/fast for there day and each subsequent gen people hold to that...

 

4 door sports car, not 4 door race car.

nah but people mod what they love for tons of reasons, im sure a lot of big block V8 guys think we waste our time when they can make cars that push out 1000whp and we're scramblin for a few horses here and there lol. i like modding the 7th gen Max cause its a challenge; there's basically no aftermarket support and the CVT gets no love from real racers so what can i say im an uphill battle kinda guy. its no race car but this is one of the best DD's i think you can own and with a couple mods can live up to that 4dsc name.

 

Yuyp you are right but some just old it to a higher standard...what has happened is the competition has gotten much faster and in some cases faster than the Max, back then it was King! trust me I get it, I have had Z's and Maxi's since 88!

 

The trick to the Maxima is figuring out the CVT. From a stop, mashing it to the floor is the only thing you can do. IMO, Nissan did a damn decent job on the low and mid-range on the VQ35DE.

If you are already cruising along at anything over 30mph, hitting the pedal to anything over ~60% throttle for a second or two, THEN punching it to the floor will set you back in the seat. I have had it smack the rev limiter twice doing that. If you are already cruising and immediately hit it to the floor, it just won't get crazy....ever. In my experience, you really have to go to around 50-60% throtte....THEN hit it to the floor after it has a chance to know what you want it to do. It's pretty impressive when you do that.

Personally, I have decided that the CVT has an attitude. There are some days that it is just lazy. Always have to be on the pedal to get it to go. Other days, it is aggressive. Barely pressing the pedal makes it want to scoot.

As far as comparison to the Z....there is no comparison. Previous cars include: 90 Camry 5-spd 2.0L, 03 Corolla 5-spd 1.8L (supercharged @ 50,000mi), 07 Altima 3.5SE 6-spd (favorite car EVER), 09 370Z 6-spd and now current 10 Maxima SV.

The VQ37VHR and VQ35DE are 60º V6 engines. That's where the similarity ends. Maxima is a sporty family sedan. Anyone that would compare the Maxima to a 370Z has obviously never spent time behind the wheel of a 370Z. In the truest sense of the phrase, it really is like comparing apples to oranges.

Late,
Trav

 

Have you tried putting the car "manually" in "first gear" at a stop, stomping the pedal then shifting over to D when you get up to like 30-40? maybe its just my car but i will freakin take off when i do that

 

I have done that a dozen times or so and more often than not my CVT doesn't realize it was in D, it just kept revving toward redline as if it was still in M-mode.
All this after the valve-body change out 4K ago to fix the sluggish acceleration issues.
You get what you get with the CVT!!! Maybe I can blow it up before 120K and get another...