360 F1 clutches

1671 Views 5 Replies 0 Participants Last post by Paul Baros (Paulb), May 11, 2006

Discussion Starter · May 10, 2006

I'm getting dangerously cl

I'm getting dangerously close to purchasing a 360, however, I've noticed that a lot of the F1's have already had the clutch replaced. Is this normal or why are these clutches being replaced so soon?

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Discussion Starter · #2 · May 10, 2006

People who drive Ferraris like

People who drive Ferraris like they are drag racing cars will eat clutches, independent of the F1 transmissions. People who respect the clutches can get a hundred thousand miles out of their clutches even if they take their cars to race tracks, also independent of F1 transmissions.

F1 transmissions make full throttle upshifts easy--foot to the floor and pop the right lever. This is a fast way to shift, but hard on the clutches. I suspect that the F1 transmissions simply make it easier to abuse the clutches.

I put the clutch eating process down on the drivers sholders. Drive the car in a sane manner and you should be able to enjoy a goodly long clutch life.

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Discussion Starter · #3 · May 10, 2006

Mitch-
Are there general rule

Mitch-
Are there general rules/practices that you can give to reduce clutch wear in every day driving? My father taught me how to drive a stick, but never told me pros/cons of keeping clutch depressed at stop lights vs. putting in neutral; or slow clutch pedal release vs. quick release; or whether to hold the car when starting on an incline with the clutch/throttle or use the parking brake, etc. Any tips that you can give us future Ferrari owners would be greatly appreciated.

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Discussion Starter · #4 · May 10, 2006

General guide to long clutch l

General guide to long clutch life.

1) do not put power through the clutch while it is in the 'friction zone'. Power causes heat, heat causes wear, heat also causes glazing of the friction surface leading to an inability to hold the TQ of the engine. TQ breaks clutches loose, HP burns them up.

2) for long through out bearing life, leave the clutch pedal up at stop lights and the transmission out of gear in neutral.

3) when starting, use as few revs as possible (idle on a F355 works just fine), and slide the clutch up at a speed where the engine does not lug but the car accelerates away from dead stop. After the clutch is fully enguaged add power. In parctice as long as you are running at 10% or less throttle, the clutch wear is minimal and brisk starts can be achieved.

4) when shifting up, throttle out, clutch in, switch gears, clutch up rather fast, then add throttle. Done at the right rate, the engine RPMs will be at the right point when this shift takes about 0.5 seconds (rather fast). Done slower, you may need to toe in some throttle to prevent under reving the engine durring engagement.

5) when shifting down, Throttle out, clutch in, shift to neutral, blip throttle, shift into gear, clutch out medium fast, add throttle. Here I feather the clutch through the friction zone feeling the engagement with the left foot and if it feels wrong, I slow down the engagement and add throttle to adjust engine speed.

With the right control over the throttle, the synchronizers do almost no work and can last forever. Once you get good with a Ferrari transmission and throttle pedal, you can even achieve grinding free shifts without ever using the clutch.

Done properly, the Ferrari transmission rewards the driver with nice smooth and fast 'snick' 'snick' 'snick' gear chages.

I have 25K miles on my current clutch with 37 track days (or 4.2K track miles). I lost a clutch shortly after buying the car at 22K miles. Since I have never eaten a clutch in my life (and never ever wanted to drive an automatic transmission), I put this one down to prior owners abuse.

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Discussion Starter · #5 · May 10, 2006

For incline starting, I can op

For incline starting, I can operate the brake pedal and the throttle pedal with the right foot as I feed in clutch with the left foot.

I find the auto-latch parking brake clumsy on inclines.

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Discussion Starter · #6 · May 11, 2006

Wow! Thanks Mitch. I will pr

Wow! Thanks Mitch. I will practice these techniques on a beater (Volkswagen Jetta) to perfect them prior to trying them out on something expensive/exotic.

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