Hi,

In my donor car – 2.0litre 20v turbo fiat coupe, the clutch was starting to slip. It did drive and managed to get up my step driveway. I am just going to use it as it is for now while I build the rolling chassis. No point spending money on a new clutch at this stage is there.

My question really is, is it worth up grading to a heavier rated one? As the car is going to be a lot lighter than the coupe (1/3 the weight hopefully) will the slightly slipping clutch even slip at all once in the kit?

From peoples experience would the likes of a paddle clutch be just too severe in my kit car? What do standard clutches in the donor car feel like in comparison to in the kits?

My friend upgraded his Evo with a paddle clutch and he hated it, it was un-drivable for normal use. In a lighter car I imagine this effect would be a lot worse. He changed it for an organic one later.

My mind is to complement my power upgrades with a heavy duty standard clutch, maybe organic?

What are peoples thoughts? I just have no idea how the weight difference will effect the performance of the engine, I know it will be rapid, the coupe was not a snail! But quantifying it is hard….

Cheers, Rob

[Edited on 11/5/11 by b14wrc]

A standard Valeo clutch will be fine, even with a reasonable amount of tuning. Avoid "Techniclutch" from eBay which is just a cheap aftermarket clutch painted red.

My 20VT is on the original clutch at 105,000 miles and I drive it pretty hard.

Paddle clutches are evil things for a road car, even with sprung centers in the plates.

[Edited on 11/5/11 by MikeRJ]

Do not get a paddle clutch

I had one on my turbo engine in the kit, it was a 6 puck rigid centre.

Worst thing ever, took out and fitted an uprated organic clutch, best money i have ever spent, made the car soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much better to drive.

I would spend a bit more and get an uprated organic one for your app as you have then future prof your engine if you start to up the power levels (and you will start upping the power)

Slap a new clutch into it as you fit the engine, either Valeo or LUK (both make clutches for the car manufacturers who then rebrand them as dealer clutches). Fit the clutch as you fit the engine, that way you will not have to remove the engine again at a later date. You would only need to upgrade the clutch if you were uprating the engine bhp by more than about 100bhp I suspect.