Ive been driving my brother's ~'97 Altima 5sp for the last few weeks so i can finally learn how to drive a stick. ive got the basics down. now i'm ready to go for some faster driving.

anyway, i'm just curious if anyone here with a similar model has any advice for me when "shifting hard". ive found that waiting for the revs to drop from ~6500rpm to the next gear's rpm, ~3500rpm, just seems to take too long, almost a second. should i even bother waiting for them to drop and just stick it in there immediately? it's probably a big strain on the syncros to do that i'm sure. i'm aware that the altima isnt exactly a sports car, but can i expect driving a stick of a more performance oriented car to be pretty much the same? or would one use a whole new strategy?

Also, while i'm posting, does anyone know the stock HP and vehicle weight of the ~'97 altima?

thanks, peace