What's the worst clutch torture you've personally witnessed?

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ComradeTony
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What's the worst clutch torture you've personally witnessed?

Post by ComradeTony »

This might be a fun topic considering a lot of us know some dumb manual drivers. I'll start off.

I've watched a friend (term applied loosely) just pop the clutch into 3rd with no rev-match while doing about 85 mph on the highway. Hopefully no one can top that by much.
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Re: What's the worst clutch torture you've personally witnessed?

Post by IMBoring25 »

That's worse on the rest of the driveline than it is on the clutch.

I've seen people sit at red lights on a hill holding the car in place with the clutch. It doesn't get much worse than that.
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Re: What's the worst clutch torture you've personally witnessed?

Post by Prodigal Son »

Saw someone sitting on a hill the other day who would roll back a foot, catch it, pull forward, rollback, and so on, over and over.
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Re: What's the worst clutch torture you've personally witnessed?

Post by padauk_dust »

I let some kid test drive my Acura (I was riding shotgun) and... he did nearly everything to ruin the clutch. I thought he might actually be trying to ruin it.
I finally had to pull him over after a few minutes of driving; the last straw was when he wanted to sit on a hill using the clutch waiting for a light that just turned red in the middle of dense downtown traffic... I yanked the handbrake and made him get out.

He did it all though; terrible launches at 3k or more, starting in second gear (out of laziness), clutch dumps, stalls, non-rev matched shifts into lower gears, tire squealing takeoffs (unintentional).


One of his questions was, "What's that smell?"


I wanted to punch him in the face.
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Re: What's the worst clutch torture you've personally witnessed?

Post by permabanned »

i went over to a friends house to pick up his shortblock and finish tearing it down at my house because i have air tools. on the way back i let him drive it, and the first time he got on it it was interesting

redlines 1st at 7 grand
grabs second
hangs second gear at 6 grand for about 3-4 seconds then it climbs up to 7
grabs 3rd
hangs at 6 grand again for a few seconds then climbs up to 7
by then were going 80 down some random country road. he slows down and im like WTF are you doing. i smelled clutch for a week after that, im not even exagerating. for a week i could smell rotten eggs and brakes smell around the front of the car

granted the dude is about 6'5 and has longass legs, he even had the seat all the way back, but i guess when your that tall you cant take your foot all the way off the clutch when your driving spirited

clutch is still holding great since last august and me driving very spirited everywhere. ebay FTW
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Re: What's the worst clutch torture you've personally witnessed?

Post by Caramel »

Prodigal Son - Maybe.. he was practicing... hahahha.

padauk_dust - why'd you let him drive your standard in the first place =( sounds terrible.
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Re: What's the worst clutch torture you've personally witnessed?

Post by kamesama980 »

other than trying to teach my GF how to drive stick in my truck (which was amusing...105 lbs vs heavy truck clutch) I watch some old asian guy in a beat to hell CRX (no rice, just rust) who, for EVERY SHIFT, clutch in, shift, rev to 3k, slooowly let out clutch. keep in mind he was short shifting so 1k probly would have been a rev-match.
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Re: What's the worst clutch torture you've personally witnessed?

Post by AHTOXA »

permabanned wrote: granted the dude is about 6'5 and has longass legs, he even had the seat all the way back, but i guess when your that tall you cant take your foot all the way off the clutch when your driving spirited
I'm taller than that and I've never had issues with any of the manual cars I have driven. Like Ash, I also worked valet.

Back on topic:

- the other day a dude in a brand new G37 was sitting at the light. I was behind him. Light turns green, he revs to at least 3k and burns the crap out of the clutch slowly taking off. I cringed.

- my friend downshifting to 3rd on the highway with no revmatch. I'm trying to convince him to start revmatching and doubleclutching but he's been driving the wrong way for 5-6 years now. Hard to change.

- another friend does ricer launches: stabs throttle repeatedly while letting go of the clutch. This always puzzled me as why do people do that?

- I have seen a valet guy learn to drive manual on a customer's Porshe. I never let people valet my car. I worked that job and I know what some attendants do.
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Re: What's the worst clutch torture you've personally witnessed?

Post by theholycow »

When test-driving my car, I took it up to 80 or 85 or so on the highway in 4th, then missed 5th and put it into 3rd. I don't think it was as abusive on the clutch as it was on the engine. I saw white smoke behind me...
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Re: What's the worst clutch torture you've personally witnessed?

Post by AHTOXA »

theholycow wrote:When test-driving my car, I took it up to 80 or 85 or so on the highway in 4th, then missed 5th and put it into 3rd. I don't think it was as abusive on the clutch as it was on the engine. I saw white smoke behind me...
You bought that same vehicle?
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Re: What's the worst clutch torture you've personally witnessed?

Post by theholycow »

No, I leased it. (And yes, I did all the math and fully understand the ramifications of leasing...sometimes it does make sense.)
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Re: What's the worst clutch torture you've personally witnessed?

Post by AHTOXA »

Yes, sometimes it does. I'm not really against leasing but it's very small window when leasing actually makes sense. Some of my friends are leasing as well.
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Re: What's the worst clutch torture you've personally witnessed?

Post by Bawked »

Prodigal Son wrote:Saw someone sitting on a hill the other day who would roll back a foot, catch it, pull forward, rollback, and so on, over and over.
I have done that.... it doesn't create much wear as far as i'm concerned, but then again i'd love to drop a new heavy clutch in.

Ppl in nz tend to roast their wheels more than their clutch, but at work one day i saw a guy like revving to 4k rpm and slipping the hell outta the clutch. hell i coulda out launched him in 2nd with no-gas.
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Re: What's the worst clutch torture you've personally witnessed?

Post by DW10+BE4/5L »

There are a few bad cases I've personally witnessed but they are no match for what I've seen on Britain's Worst Driver. There was an episode where they made the Britain's worst drivers parallel park uphill in reverse. There was also a guy spraying water on the windows so that the drivers wouldn't see. They had plenty of cars in reserve but they almost ran out. Usually you can only smell the clutch but in this case you could also see it as it escaped the torture as a blue cloud of smoke.
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Re: What's the worst clutch torture you've personally witnessed?

Post by jory543 »

Worst thing I've done personally was when I was driving spiritedly. I missed 4th and hit second accidentally, blew my clutch to bits. When I took it out there was just dust and chunks left of the friction material.

A couple of my friends drive with their foot resting on the clutch pedal, and they have both been through at least one clutch. I told one that it was bad to do that and he wised up, but my other buddy still does the same thing. He revs the motor to 3-4k and slips the snot out of the clutch to get moving but w/e, at least it's not my clutch.
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