ohnoyuji,
I feel your pain.
I also have a Gen5 3MZ 3.3l slug drive by wire. Here is what I do to some what alleviate the problem.
1. I manually shift the car when driving in traffic or in the city. I do this because the 3MZ has so much torque the computer upshifts the car rapidly to maximize the fuel economy. I keep the car in a gear until I'm over 4,500 RPM, then I up shift. This also eliminates the downshift problem, because you're already in the right gear incase you want to get on it. Sometimes you leave a traffic light and before you're even going 30 mph your car is already in 5th gear. Same situation but by manually shifting you'll be in only 2nd gear and can stomp it with no downshift required.
2. You need to learn to try and not let off the gas all the way when driving, other than a complete stop. If you're going 45 mph and let go of the gas all the way and decide to stomp it, it has a pretty pronounced delay. Same situation but with the gas pedal slightly depressed, you stomp it and it pulls like a mother.
3. If you want to take off from a stop light or any complete stop you need to two foot it. Meaning the gas pedal needs to be slightly depressed to have the drive by wire deal engaged. So if you have your right foot on the gas you need to have your left foot on the brake. And I'm not talking about bringing up the RPM's to 3,000 and doing a smoking burn out(Which it will do if asked to). I'm talking about bringing the rpm's up to about 1,000 or so, just a little above idle. When you let go of the brake and stomp it will launch pretty hard.
And for those of you who don't understand what I'm talikng about and think I'm full of %&$(^*#. Here's an example of the delay in the drive by wire. {While going aprox. 45 mph you let go of the gas completely. The tranny goes into neutral and you're coasting. You can actually stomp on the gas pedal pretty hard and let go right away, and the motor won't have even noticed. Or just barely a raise in the rpm to about 1,200 or so. Here's what it's like. [Install a 4" piece of bungy cord in the throttle cable of your camry and you've now got drive by wire.] This vehicle was definitely not designed for drag racing reaction times.
It's not as bad as all that, but bad for any car enthusiast who likes driving cars.
Oh, by the way doing the above is not for everyday driving, or we'll have to invade more middle east countries. It's just for when your testosterone is getting a little high.
Hope this helps,
Mike
PS - I'm trying to find a Solara auto manual shifter set up which would make the shifting much easier.
