CLUTCH
We all know clutch slip is bad, but many clutches only slip if you launch them like an animal. Unfortunately, the only way you can hit those amazing 0-60 or quarter-mile times everyone dreams of, is with a hardcore launch. And that needs an equally hardcore clutch.
Generally, they’re not so friendly to use in stopstart traffic, and can quickly pass the stresses and strains of increased power on to other transmission parts. But there’s no two ways about it, if you want to launch your car hard, you need to invest in a serious clutch…
The main reason you’d need to upgrade to a performance clutch system is if the car is producing more torque than the factory setup can handle, or the vehicle is used in such a way that the original clutch is suffering from excessive thermal loading. Performance clutches offer an increased clamping force, allowing them to hold more torque than the factory items. Many also use a wide range of friction materials with differing heat capacities, allowing them to be utilised for extremely demanding applications, such as hard launches.
There will come a point where even the performance friction material is overloaded by torque. At this point we’d either need to go larger diameter – which has all sorts of downsides with packaging problems and performance drawbacks of increasing the engines rotational mass – or go for an even harder friction material – which will make pulling away at anything other than a full- bore launch impossible.
Thankfully there is another way – stick multiple smaller clutch plates together so they can share the torque load over a smaller diameter while still offering enough compliance to allow the clutch to slip when pulling away. It’s even possible to use multiple plates of a slightly less-harsh or even organic friction material to make the car more user friendly on the street, while still capable of dealing with huge torque loads.