How can you burn out the clutch? Was he riding it or something?
Well, since a clutch is in essence just two disks sliding past each other and gripping when brought together, it wears out over time. Driving in certain ways can cause this to happen fairly quickly too. Burning out a clutch is really just a term for destroying it much quickly then normal driving would do.
"Dropping the cluth" with the engine reved up is a good way to destroy one. Tons of Lancer EVO VIII owners were claiming Mitsubishi was putting faulty clutches in all the cars and were demanding recalls. Well Mitsu went under cover and discovered all these kids were dropping the clutch at 6000+ RPM when the engines producing 250HP+. It lets you get much faster acceleration for decreasing your 0-60 or 1/4 mile times. But it abuses the heck out of the clutch.
With an 18 year old behind the wheel of a G35, I would suspect that he burnt the clutch out by constantly launching the car rather quickly!
I hope "launching too fast" is a WAY understated way of meaning dropping the clutch at 6K rpm, because I launch quickly all the time, but I don't drop the clutch to do it. So, how is the best way to engage a clutch for a fast 0-60 without dropping it at launch?
I do it by dis-engaging the clutch fast, but not dropping it, and once the clutch is out, I fully engage the pedal. THis may not make the clutch last as long as it could if I was gentle, but I'm sure it beets dropping the clutch BY FAR. good topic, keep it going, maybe in a new thread???
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good topic, keep it going, maybe in a new thread???
Ask and you shall receive Rodeo... new thread to continue discussion!
Since I didn't want to steal the original post since it pertained to the old thread too, I'll summarize here:
Someone posted about a young driver who burned through the clutch of a G35 in under 6000 miles! The discussion continued with the first post of this thread.
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here's a cute story posted on a different forum:
quote:
On an unrelated not, something I thought you guys might find a little amusing, my brother is the service manager at an infiniti dealership and he just had a very interesting case come in. A guy bought his 18yr old son a G35 coupe 6spd for graduation (lucky bastard). Well, 5400 miles later, the kid had completely burned out the clutch and the flywheel. The flywheel had actually turned blue it got so hot. The kid would have even kept driving it but so much hot clutch material got on the cam sensor that the car wouldn't run! What I couldn't figure out is how the kid couldn't smell it?....anyway...just a little funny story.
endquote
When I read the title of the thread, I took it wrong because it reminded me of my old '79 Honda Civic. I had to push the car, then hop in and pop the clutch to start it. ( bad battery, starter, plug wires, and everything else, was very hard to start when wet.) At least it was light!
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Brian
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waiting. patiently.
Drag racers are cars specifically designed to do this. HOWEVER most real drag cars get torn down and rebuilt after every meet. So many people expect their own street cars to do the same types of things, but never thing about the repercutions of such actions. The kid in the G35 was probably drag racing all his friends, or taking it to the local strip. Like the sotry said though, it's hard to imagine the kid didn't know he was burning the clutch up. It defintely makes a distinct smell. I've done it on accident when I was first learning to drive stick, and you defintely remember that smell.
we got 180k out of a clutch on a twin turbo stealth. also if you want the clutch to last longet put a raceing clutch in it will be a little harder launch but you will get more life.
For 0-60 they all drop the clutch at high rpm, spin the wheels and launch as fast as possible. C&D also does a 5-60 test where the car is rolling and they just mash the pedal, more a test of torque apparently. Suprisingly, the 0-60 times are usually faster than the 5-60 times. my $.02
Location: Wilds of Canada, or the Pac NW, or the Upper Penninsula of MI...
Road and track usually puts their launch technique in the sub notes - many times they explain they do not smoke the clutch in attempting to get a perfect launch, and this may account for differences between the advertised and their tested 0-60.
What is the purpose of waiting to shift until you hit 4k rpm or higher? In my Sunfire if I wait till 3k to shift I've already lost all acceleration, 99.99% of the time I shift at 2500-2600rpm to get the best possible acceleration.
