The ****yst side of my brain got the best of me.

Being a daily driven Z06, and the fact that I have two ACL reconstructed knees (left one done over 13 years ago), I figured I'd calculate how many clutch cycles I'm putting on the car five days/week to and from the office.

Due to traffic and the unpredictability of a So Cal freeway, I take two different routes...surface roads in the morning and freeway in the evening. The morning commute is ~21 miles, covering ~44 stoplights and 7 stop signs. Has three stretches where I can shift into 5th and 6th gear and I max at 70mph (posted limit is 55 and I have a Passport). A great drive for sipping coffee, mowing through the gears a couple times, and listening to some good music. [EDIT: I might add that at the early 6:00-6:30am hour, I end up hitting more green lights than red ones.]

This morning I calculated 98 (+/- 3) clutch cycles. So that's roughly 500/wk on just the inbound path.

The evening drive I absolutely despise. Only 17 miles and the freeway is the lesser of two evils (the streets I take in the morning are a traffic mess the other way). It's constant on/off clutch cycles for the first 5 miles or so and then it opens up until 5 miles from home, where I exit and take surface roads the rest of the way. Home drive is only 17 stoplights and 6 stop signs.

I'll calculate that tonight and let you know what it was. I'm going to guess 175-200.

One more reason why I bought an extended warranty (it won't cover a clutch, but I can think of a bunch of other stuff that it will save my azz on).

Oh yeah...the quads on my left leg look great.

-Dean

 

Interesting... I often have wondered how many times in a given day commute you depress the clutch..... pretty amazing when you think of the entire life of the car.

 

"Real hot rods have a clutch!" used to be my signature on another forum.

 

This is the reason I have been toying around with an auto......and now that they make the auto a 6spd it's even more tempting.
Wish we could have both............or e-gear

 

There's not 44 stoplights in the entire county I live in!

 

Somebody has way too much time on their hands...

 

Arguably true (at times), but I can never get tired of looking at your avatar.

 

That makes two of us

 

My left knee was rebiult in '78. Since owning the Z06 I've gotten a lot more clicks in it. I think my next car will have paddle shifters.

 

*** UPDATE ***
Well, traffic going home tonight was a LOT lighter than usual. Might have had something to do with leaving after 6pm.

Anyway, total cycles were only 106. I'm confident it's closer to the 150 level if I left more toward rush hour.

Hmmm...assume 140 as "average", then account for the 100 avg for the morning commute...carry the 3...that's over 60,000 clutch cycles per year!

Now if I throw in more 1-4, 2-4 and 3-5 shifts in there, I'm sure I can get that number down to, say, 59,000?!?

 

Gives you a new respect for the mechanics of the clutch itself.

 

You mean thumb buttons?.......

 

Had those in my '04 Pontiac GTP w/Comp G pkg (which I sold to get to the Z06). They are novel at first. After about 5 minutes playing with them the novelty wears out and you just let the car shift on its own. They worked best in traffic when you wanted to engine brake vs foot brake.

Atok is right...the engineering on a clutch mechanism to withstand hundreds of thousands of cycles over its lifetime is really astounding. Think about that vs. a starter motor, which typically only has to do its job 2X/day.

-Dean

 

My wife's hometown is the county seat in MT and there isn't one stoplight in the COUNTY!

 

Baseballdude:
I think I like N CA better. Placerville to Folsom 17 miles and one light. I usually do this on 2 wheels, but taking the automatic truck for a couple weeks - my clutch foot/(MC shift foot) just had a bonion surgery. should be clutchable in about a week. My second ACL replacement has all been on the throttle leg and works fine.

 

Yeah Ferrari must be crazy for putting these on their cars. With all that F1 race success who could really take them seriously.... but Pontiac is the technology leader, right?

 

A BIG chunk of Ferrari's market is rich guys with more $ than sense who want to own a Ferrari and could actually care less about the actual performance. What kind of comparison is F1 success to MOST of Ferrari's street cars? I guess the Monte Carlos and new Impalas are just plain bada$$ since Jimmie Johnson and Gordo dominated NASCAR this year in them...

 

My point was that paddle shifters could offer a way for us aging baby boomer's an option to going to an automatic transmission. I'll keep my clutch cars as long as my knee can take it.

I'm a GM car guy all the way as well as a Nascar fan but I can tell you from personal experience that a Ferrari 430 is truely an amazing car. I'd never buy one but I've seen some "rich guys" smoke us Z06 drivers at Mid Ohio during track days on the back straightaway. When I get my car back from Lingenfelter I can say that it wont happen again, unless the guy with the F40 is there.

 

Hey that's a sore spot with me! I bought my wife a 2000 Monte Carlo because she liked it for some strange reason. I figured it would be fast as he11 because that's what Jeffie drives. And his stock car must be just like mine except the paint job Well her car is slower than ****. Come to find out it doesn't have a 800hp V8. It's got a V6, and they stuck it in there sideways for some odd reason. It has an auto trans for God's sake! Oh, and I've looked and looked for the rear diff and I can't find it. I have no idea why this car even moves

In other words you can't compare Nascar to GM street cars. They are not even close to similar. Only the resemblance is the skin that Hendrix throws on the tube frame chassis kinda looks like a Monte...

On the other hand. Ferrari actually passed down the F1 technology to their so-called street cars. We know they only build race cars. Some get license plates other don't. The paddle shifters, launch technology, braking, suspension come down from their F1 program. Their cars are incredible. Wish I was one of those rich guys. I'd flog that car early and often, on track.

The only GM car that really shares technology from their race program is the Corvette.

 

I agree CJ, on both counts.

I drove a Masserati a couple of months ago. One of those people with too much money. He knew I tracked my Corvette and was a fairly competent driver. He doesn't push his car and asked me to try it out and see what I thought. Well who was I to say no to help him out

Paddle shifters, triptronic clutch or trans. Whatever it is. When you go from Auto mode to Manual shift. It upshifts and bumps like you were speed shifting. It downshifts by rev matching for you. And blips the throttle. That thing is cool as all get up. If I had knee problems or just got sick of clutching. I'd be all over that. Their V8 has a sweet sound to it. Somewhere between an American V8 and a Ferrari V8. The car handles very well. I'd trash it with my Z06 for a 1/4 of the price.

Now the Ferrari. I've been on track with a couple of them who's owners actually drive the car like they stole it. You can't mistaken that engine when it's coming for you. They handle turns and braking very well. They maybe for the rich who have more $$$ than brains as it was put. But a few of them run these cars for all they're worth. And it is impressive to watch. Z06 owners are no different. An expensive sports car that very few drive to its potential. Different scale of economy, but not cheap by any stretch of the imagination.

Bang for the buck though the Z06 is incredible and deserves to be up on that list of special cars. I love the notion of race on weekends and commute to work on the weekdays.

Graham