OEM Clutch vs Stillen

[GTMikey]

You'll know when it starts to go. It was pretty obvious in my case when it was time to change it. Progressively worse slip, clutch smell, etc. The OEM clutch is really resilient as long as you don't ride it out hard or doing anything like the notorious 3rd gear start.

I forget who it was but Ed Sims and I were drag racing at Infineon Raceway in 2010 at SAAC 35. We were killing everyone running about 130-135mph 1/4 miles. A third GT showed up and he did a 3rd gear start and unleashed the worlds best burnout of all time and ended his day after that with no clutch. The crowd was in Awe...........

 

[GTMikey]

Here's what lead to the pre-mature demise of my clutch. I had stock clutch fluid in the car, I made about 8-9 1/4 mile passes in 90 minutes, probably boiled a little fluid. Being a new owner of a GT I was not aware of the issues others experienced with stock clutch fluid. Fast forward 20 months, same fluid in the car, probably contaminated with a little moisture, I ran 2 hard days at Spring Mtn in Vegas and then drove home 350 miles to San Diego. That was just my inexperience of not servicing or prepping the car for the track. Live and learn Off to see Kendall Friday for a clutch and other goodies

 

[Ed Sims]

I forget who it was but Ed Sims and I were drag racing at Infineon Raceway in 2010 at SAAC 35. We were killing everyone running about 130-135mph 1/4 miles. A third GT showed up and he did a 3rd gear start and unleashed the worlds best burnout of all time and ended his day after that with no clutch. The crowd was in Awe...........

That madman was Piana & his blue GTX. I will have to say I never saw that much smoke off a clutch before. It was impressive.

Ed

 

[Colton74]

Very timely thread for me. Changing out my Spec clutch to a Stillen clutch next week. Interesting comments.

 

[steved57]

Very timely thread for me. Changing out my Spec clutch to a Stillen clutch next week. Interesting comments.

Why from Spec to Stillen ? Any issues with the Spec ?

 

[GT Tech]

I'm doing the clutch install for Steve (colton74) His car has what everyone who heard it, believed was a bad throw out bearing. The car has a SPEC clutch, with crazy pedal effort. Almost made the car unfun(?) to drive. After spending MANY hours separating the trans axle from the motor, Steve and I discovered that the input shaft had rusted to the clutch splines. Never saw that before. Long story short, car still makes noise, worse than ever. I spent hours researching SPEC clutches on the web, checking forums from BMW, Merc, and numerous Asian cars. Very common issue with SPEC clutch was rattling of the torque springs in the clutch hubs. Also, rivets holding discs together failing. Their full blown race part may be ok, but I can't recommend their "street" type.

As a side note, I've dealt with many of the vendors on our little site, and know many others. Never had an issue with any of them. I believe in promoting our site vendors. Kyle at Stillen did Steve and I a real "solid", and I want to thank him for that. Great guy, and a great vendor.

 

[2112]

Good to know,

Thanks guys.

 

[Fubar]

That madman was Piana & his blue GTX. I will have to say I never saw that much smoke off a clutch before. It was impressive.

Ed

I guess you weren't there for Aggies Texas Mile run... whoa baby! I thought his car was on fire.

 

[Mullet]

I guess you weren't there for Aggies Texas Mile run... whoa baby! I thought his car was on fire.

this

 

[tmcphail]

I have the second spec clutch made for the GT installed back in 2006, 40k miles and going strong.

 

[nota4re]

I too have had very good results with Spec clutches - never seen the faintest hint of the problems GT Tech mentioned. Hopefully an isolated case.

 

[GT Tech]

Not,
Just out of curiosity, which SPEC clutches are you running? (they have about a bazillion different versions) How high is your pedal effort?

Thanks
Rich

 

[ChipBeck]

Under Pressure

Rich,

Kendall will know the model # (I don't) of the Spec clutch he put in my GT. As for pedal effort, it would take some kind of push scale to measure it accurately but it feels like it's between 50% to 80% higher than stock. It's not objectionable at all and feels normal with a few drives. When I drive a stock clutch now it feels strange but the stock unit certainly had smoother engagement. Does anyone have a device that could measure actual pedal pressure? It would be interesting to know.

Chip

 

[nota4re]

Hi Chip, Rich,

The SPEC clutch that we have installed in the TT cars is the P-Trim model. I had the pleasure of driving AlohaGT's car around today and I have to say that the clutch has broken in nicely - and not near as tough as I remember. Here's a chart of the different clutches available from SPEC.

 

[Mullet]

St trim for me

 

[GT Tech]

Steve had never driven a GT before buying his, so he really didn't have anything to judge it by. I, on the other hand, have driven one or two GTs, and felt the required pressure was very excessive. When I was racing my IHRA stock class Mustang, I tested some REALLY HD clutches for Ford Racing. (they were center-force clutches, and basically on-off switches ) None of them were anywhere near as tough as the one in Steve's car.

Thanks for the info. Damn, I love this place.

 

[GTMikey]

I ended going to see Kendall and used the stock clutch given its a pulley/tune, feels like the day I got it.