GT Clutch Explosion


Here's an interesting little story.
In the fall of 05, I was told by my boss to take one of the engineering cars to one of the Ford buildings in Dearborn. They were letting an exec use it for the weekend. (A woman in marketing) One Monday, the car came back to the plant on a flat bed. According to the exec, when she tried to drive it back to work on Monday, the car wouldn't move. She also said the car was uncomfortable to drive, hard to get in and out of, (hit her head on the door) and VERY low on power. Of course we all knew what had happened.

When I pulled the trans to replace the clutch, we couldn't belive how bad it was. The friction material on the front disc was completely gone, and on the second disc, just the disc hub was left. It had gotten so hot that it melted the seals on the throw out bearing. They didn't give her a car again.

I'll attach a picture of the carnage, but I had to shrink it down a lot to upload the photo. :thumbsup:thumbsup

http://www.fordgtforum.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=4749&stc=1&d=1197591320
GT pictures 0022.jpg
 
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GT Tech said:
Here's an interesting little story.
In the fall of 05, I was told by my boss to take one of the engineering cars to one of the Ford buildings in Dearborn. They were letting an exec use it for the weekend. (A woman in marketing) One Monday, the car came back to the plant on a flat bed. According to the exec, when she tried to drive it back to work on Monday, the car wouldn't move. She also said the car was uncomfortable to drive, hard to get in and out of, (hit her head on the door) and VERY low on power. Of course we all knew what had happened.

When I pulled the trans to replace the clutch, we couldn't belive how bad it was. The friction material on the front disc was completely gone, and on the second disc, just the disc hub was left. It had gotten so hot that it melted the seals on the throw out bearing. They didn't give her a car again.

I'll attach a picture of the carnage, but I had to shrink it down a lot to upload the photo. :thumbsup:thumbsup

http://www.fordgtforum.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=4749&stc=1&d=1197591320
GT pictures 0022.jpg
Click to expand...


ummmmm...Wow...I don't really know what to say about that picture.

When the engineer from Ricardo was out he was showing us some of the pictures from some of the experimental clutches. Some of them had definitely been the victims of abusive drivers more so than an actual part failure.
 
gt tech , how are you fixed for vegas? are you in next year? gtjoey..1314:thumbsup
 
Joey my friend, sorry I missed your call. Tried calling back, but you have so many numbers, and you don't answer ANY of them.

Looking forward to the Vegas event. I love Vegas anyway, and now it's only 100 miles up the road. You WILL be there I assume? I'd hate to have to send Moose and Rocko to pay you a visit.

I may even try to set up a little pit stop for people driving there. There are some real neat scenic roads on the way there. The original Rt. 66 is quite a ride.

Sorry for hi-jacking the thread guys, but it's for the one and only GT JOEY :thumbsup:thumbsup:thumbsup:thumbsup:thumbsup:thumbsup

Back to clutch thread :cheers
 
Rich commented you only get 1 3rd gear burnout:rofl

Unfortuneately, I can personally vouch for that.:frown
 
GT TECH , GREAT NEWS!!!! WILL BE THERE WITH BELLS. Hows about posting some real:eek clutch blow up jobs from the factory:biggrin. Hey, that pic. you posted was that car ever resold:eek . gtjoey 1314
 
gtjoey said:
GT TECH , GREAT NEWS!!!! WILL BE THERE WITH BELLS. Hows about posting some real:eek clutch blow up jobs from the factory:biggrin. Hey, that pic. you posted was that car ever resold:eek . gtjoey 1314
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Run the VIN in Carfax. You can see in the picture.
 
The car was an engineering car and as far as I know, it's still in the Ford fleet. We were told that these cars would never be sold to the public. I suspect that some of the cars ended up in some Ford exec's garages. Just my 2 cents of course. The car in the picture was VIN # 116, which was Job 1. The first production level car. We called it the "Fred" car, as a certain engineering manager had a major oops with it. I understand that there was another major oops after it was repaired the first time.

I tried to get the old shop car when the program ended, but I was told it went to DST for scrap. Also tried to get the roof car for the museum, but no luck. :frown
 
GT Tech said:
I tried to get the old shop car when the program ended, but I was told it went to DST for scrap. Also tried to get the roof car for the museum, but no luck. :frown
Click to expand...

I thought Fred gave the roof car to Joey...:thumbsup
Well if he didn't, he should have..:biggrin:thumbsup:lol:thumbsup:biggrin
 
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