How much clutch ?

[Christopher Crowe]

For those with one of the pneumatic or electronic shifting systems.

In real-life, just how many times do you use the clutch pedal in your GSXR powered car? Not HABITUAL use... but honest need-to-use, not counting the initial roll-off, of course...

Do you think you could get by without a clutch pedal? Or are there times when having only a hand-clutch would leave you sad and regretful...

Thanks,

Chris

[ghickman]

Chris
With my pneumatic system I use the clutch only to get going from neutral to first gear. I'd still want a clutch though, I use it on rolling starts etc.

If the standing starts work on the East Coast Pro Series I expect it to be adopted on the West Coast; you'd for sure need a clutch for that.

We rigged up a pretty neat pneumatic clutch that used the same air supply as the shifter. It worked but we couldn't get it packaged to fit inside the raised nose...I still wanted a clutch pedal in case it failed.

[RobLav]

With my hand operated shift linkage, I used the clutch on downshifts where more than one gear was needed, which can be significant depending on the track. It may not be necessary all the time, but you need to have a fully operating clutch.

[Rick Kean]

From way out/down here, it seems like the bike's hand lever clutch might work well if pivoted on and forward of the shifter. Anybody discarded this option yet, and why please.

Rick Kean
Houston

[Christopher Crowe]

With a Pro-shift system it almost seems like you could dispense with a foot actuated clutch except for initial roll-off and the standing starts -- for which you'd use a hand-operated clutch. Set the rpms and dump it when the flag falls.

It would be hard for me; I grew up in the days of heel and toe and took pride in doing it seemlessly -- and it became a habit. It was pretty important in the Trans Am/A-Sedan cars of the day with their stock front discs and drum (!) rear brakes. I wonder about the go-kart kids? Would they be stone-happy in an FB with just a clutch lever for occasional use?

Rob, I guess with hand-shifting you'd definitely want a conventional clutch. But what about with the insty-shift units?

Gary, the notion of electronic-accuation is very cool (although it'd probably be a very in-out kind of deal, I'd assume). Do you have a pic or print of the unit you guys designed? I doubt the Pro-shift solinoid would work for the function (at least as designed), but Geartronics has all that stored up pressure to work with, so...

Thanks again guys,

C

PS: Gary, you still have the pneumatic-based unit?

[Steveslowboy]

Hi All,
I'm new on here - stumbled upon it while researching for my dry sump project (for another thread!).

I run a bike engined hill-climb car here in the UK - a carbon tub, GSXR1100 water cooled engine on an MBE EMS system. It is fitted with a full paddles shift pneumatic MIL system.

I only ever use the clutch to get into 1st and then leaving the start line. One of my fellow competitors fitted a hand clutch on his gear lever - as he built his car with just two pedals. I'm not familiar with the chassis you guys use, but my steering column is between the brake pedal and clutch so getting rid of the clutch pedal would still not allow me to use left-foot braking. My thoughts on getting rid of the clutch pedal is only to be able to run a pure 2-pedal car and benefit from left-foot braking.

When my friend spun his car on-track, he couldn't get to the clutch hand-lever and down-shift the gear lever quick enough and stalled - losing him his run. So, in a pupre paddle car you would probably be ok - so long as the location for the clutch lever was cleverly thought through so you could get to it quickly.

By the way, excellent forum - and loads of useful information!
Cheers
Steve