Some of you may have read my post in the racing section entitled "Drag Week 2006". I had my GT at a drag racing event sponsored by Hot Rod magazine, and won my class. During the course of 40+ passes at the different drag strips, I learned about how to make my bone stock GT leave the starting line the quickest. The best way I found was to slip the clutch at the starting line while keeping the engine RPM around 4000 or so. This produced the best 60 foot times, and the quickest overall ETs.
Unfortunately, this technique also produced a lot of heat, and I smelled burning clutch quite a few times at the track. In fact, a friend of mine took some videos of the car making some passes, and in a couple of them you could see clutch smoke trailing out behind the car as it left the starting line. On the way back from the event, I started to experience slippage in sixth gear, so I figured the clutch was toast.
Last week I got it in to have the clutch replaced, and wanted to share the following photos. With the transaxle out of the car, I must say that I was stunned by the aluminum space frame in the GT. It is simply artwork. The guys at the shop where I'm having the work done do a lot of Ferraris and other exotics, and they also were very impressed, saying the frame looks like it came out of a $400K car. The engineering is superb.
I was also stunned by the clutch damage. The throwout bearing is completely toast. I have attached some pictures, and one is of the new throwout bearing. It has a green rubber dust shield around it, and a rubber seal at the front. Looking at the picture of the old throwout bearing, still on the transaxle input shaft, that dust shield is completely melted away, as is the rubber seal at the front of the bearing. The flywheel, pressure plate, and clutch discs have been exposed to extreme heat; in fact, on the engine side of the flywheel, you can see teardrop shaped discolorations in the metal (blueing) where the pressure plate bolts come through the flywheel. Obviously a big heat path there. On the friction surfaces, if you feel them with your fingers, all the mottled spots shown on the photos are raised areas, where metallics in the clutch disc have actually transferred to the pressure plate and flywheel and welded themselves in place. Although the pictures don't show it very well, the flywheel and pressure plate are also blued from the heat that they experienced.
The lesson for me is that if I'm going to take the car back to the dragstrip, and I want to go fast, I'd better run some drag tires on the car, so I can just dump the clutch when I leave, rather than slipping it. But I doubt that I'll do that anytime soon; I took the car on Drag Week to prove a point about the versatility of the vehicle, and after winning my class I think I'll just retire it to normal street asphalt carving, and perhaps the occasional open track day at a road race course.
Being somewhat crazed (like many of you I'm sure), I decided that as long as the transaxle was out of the car, it was a great opportunity to put on headers :biggrin . So, I ordered up a set of the Ford headers, and an SCT tuner from MMP last Thursday. A big thanks to the forum for all the posted info regarding exhaust systems, and also pointing me towards MMP. I'm looking forward to getting it back next week, and opening 'er up to check out the effect of the modifications...
Unfortunately, this technique also produced a lot of heat, and I smelled burning clutch quite a few times at the track. In fact, a friend of mine took some videos of the car making some passes, and in a couple of them you could see clutch smoke trailing out behind the car as it left the starting line. On the way back from the event, I started to experience slippage in sixth gear, so I figured the clutch was toast.
Last week I got it in to have the clutch replaced, and wanted to share the following photos. With the transaxle out of the car, I must say that I was stunned by the aluminum space frame in the GT. It is simply artwork. The guys at the shop where I'm having the work done do a lot of Ferraris and other exotics, and they also were very impressed, saying the frame looks like it came out of a $400K car. The engineering is superb.
I was also stunned by the clutch damage. The throwout bearing is completely toast. I have attached some pictures, and one is of the new throwout bearing. It has a green rubber dust shield around it, and a rubber seal at the front. Looking at the picture of the old throwout bearing, still on the transaxle input shaft, that dust shield is completely melted away, as is the rubber seal at the front of the bearing. The flywheel, pressure plate, and clutch discs have been exposed to extreme heat; in fact, on the engine side of the flywheel, you can see teardrop shaped discolorations in the metal (blueing) where the pressure plate bolts come through the flywheel. Obviously a big heat path there. On the friction surfaces, if you feel them with your fingers, all the mottled spots shown on the photos are raised areas, where metallics in the clutch disc have actually transferred to the pressure plate and flywheel and welded themselves in place. Although the pictures don't show it very well, the flywheel and pressure plate are also blued from the heat that they experienced.
The lesson for me is that if I'm going to take the car back to the dragstrip, and I want to go fast, I'd better run some drag tires on the car, so I can just dump the clutch when I leave, rather than slipping it. But I doubt that I'll do that anytime soon; I took the car on Drag Week to prove a point about the versatility of the vehicle, and after winning my class I think I'll just retire it to normal street asphalt carving, and perhaps the occasional open track day at a road race course.
Being somewhat crazed (like many of you I'm sure), I decided that as long as the transaxle was out of the car, it was a great opportunity to put on headers :biggrin . So, I ordered up a set of the Ford headers, and an SCT tuner from MMP last Thursday. A big thanks to the forum for all the posted info regarding exhaust systems, and also pointing me towards MMP. I'm looking forward to getting it back next week, and opening 'er up to check out the effect of the modifications...
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