What in the Wild, Wild World of Sports...?

[Y2K5SRT]

Took the GTS out for a spin tonight before heading off to a trade show in New Orleans for four days. Had driven 10-15 miles of fairly open roads and came to a stop sign with lots of open four lane in front of me. Decided I would do a nice launch and conquer the speed limit in a hurry. No cars in any direction and I launched it. The car started to go and then ZOOM the engine raced and the car didn't increase speed at all. Uh oh. Shifted to second and let out the clutch completely and same thing: Engine would respond to the throttle perfectly, but the car wasn't increasing in speed. I immediately pushed in the clutch, pulled to the side of the road and a little smoke came out from under the car. Stunk to high heaven and smelled like clutch something fierce. I waited a few minutes and gently got back on the road. No problems. Drove it out on the highway to cool it off (?) and came back. I got a little more aggressive with it and still NO problem. Before I came home I did another fast launch and it was fine. Any idea of what just happened? The clutch has about 2800 miles on it (replaced when the motor was out during the winter) and I have never had this happen on any car before. I am not worried at all, but am genuinely curious.

Thanks!

Chris

 

[Roland L-Ocala FL]

Chris,
Something similar happened to Brian Evans (Indiana member) at the Gingerman last year, but he didn't even do a burnout. Hopefully, he can shed some light on this for you if he is watching the board. A Viper tech even crawled under the car to check the 2nd geat lockout, and could find nothing wrong, from what I remember. I checked with him a few days later, and everything seemed to be OK. Hope it is nothing serious. He goes by the name BVETTE on the board. How about it Brian, are you out there? I think his problem had more to do with shifting, it would not shift into any gear but 2nd. Then he let it cool down, and it was fine after that.
"What's your name cowboy? Tex, Mam! Well Texmam, get your friggin feet off my stage!" Another great line from Blazing Saddles, the best movie Mel Brooks ever made. Who can ever forget the campfire scene? Women (most women) think it's gross, most men loved it and laughed their guts out.

 

[BurnR8]

I Love IT!! "Hey, somebody hasta run back to town and get a sh*t load 'a dimes!!" Froggy Love Daddy?

lol

 

[Sniper]

"What in the hell is going on here! You guys are a hootin and a hollerin like a bunch of Kansas City F######!"

 

[C O D Y]

I just got the car back today after being at the dealer for weeks. They put a new clutch and flywheel in, the old one (3,471 miles if you can call that old) was smoked. This is after the same thing happened to me a month ago.

The car has never been on the track or to the drag strip since it was new. At the time I smoked the clutch I was trying to do a small launch. RPM's were at 2000 and dropped the clutch while in 1st gear and stepped on it. I barely moved, however the engine was screaming. Same horrible smell you talked about! After I let it cool off, it seemed fine, but I was so worried about it I went and put it on the dyno. It dynoed (stock) at 412 RWHP. I still wasn't convinced that nothing was wrong. I took it to the dealer after the dyno and sure enough the clutch and flywheel were smoked (bad). The dyno didn't show any loss because the drum was already in motion and the clutch would then be pretty much hooked up. But when I tried to lunch, I would notice it was about 10% short on the power. It feels MUCH better now.

Why is this happening?

 

[Doug Supercharged Vipers]

No strange phenomenon, pretty simple:

Anytime I install a clutch I prefer to put some miles on the car before I go racing. I try to put a minimum of 4 - 5 hundred miles on the new clutch to allow it to seat. The new clutch needs to "wear in" to seat flush against the flywheel to work most efficiently. If the clutch breaks loose lightly, it may only glaze the flywheel a minimal amount. You can still drive with the same clutch by racking up some miles before calling it a total loss. It may still be fine and some easy miles may clean off the glaze. It's not the accumulative miles that makes the clutch meet an early demise, it may be at sometime or another the clutch had some abuse that added insult to injury. Oil leaks also can contaminate the assembly.

Now if the clutch is really bad with hot spots on the flywheel, disc and pressure plate burned, put a fork in it, it's done!

Regards,
Doug