MJM Racing LLC

Is there such a thing as a clutch that is too light? I'm talking about rotating mass, not pedal pressure or clamping force. This will be in a 2000 Camaro SS (LS1), but I would think the answer would be similar to an early C5 (LS1). The car is mostly autox and street, but I'd like to do a track day now and then.

I've heard that going to a very light aluminum flywheel with a small diameter multi disk (like the Fidanza 7") can cause idle and other low speed problems and may require a bunch of custom tuning to get right. Has anyone tried this? Is there any truth to the need for tuning? Maybe something that light can not be made street friendly and is for dedicated race cars only?

davidfarmer

I've never run a full carbon clutch, but I've run 5.5" Quartermaster clutches with aluminum dampers.......literally reducing the exterior rotating mass from 60lbs to around 8lbs (also cuts the moment-of-inertia by about 80%). I've had this in real race motors, and also in a stock LS1 for my NASA car, and it didn't effect idle at all.

Now that reduction in rotating inertia makes the engine a bit easier to stall (as does the on/off nature of that particular clutch), but it ran just fine.

MJM Racing LLC

Thanks David. Supposedly, the Fidanza twin is supposed to be smooth and similar in feel to stock (engagement and pedal weight), but I've only heard from 1 person that tried it, and they has some issues with rough idle etc. I thought there maybe more of the Corvette guys would have tried a set up like this and could provide some feedback, like you did.

I'm wondering if the issues the other guy had may have been due to other tuning he had done previously? Or maybe your NASA car was tuned to match the set up, clutch included? Does NASA allow computer tuning or it the stock tune required?