Guys:

Great news today. . .considering how frustrated I was becoming yesterday! https://www.s2ki.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=20695

I took my stook this morning to the dealer and it is not clutch slipping as I thought before and instead vibration caused by what they call the pressure plate. . .and it seems they are going to proceed with the replacement of the flywheel and clutch assembly !

All I have to say is THANKS THANKS THANKS!

Now I can spend that $1,000 for the new S-03's!

 

It's a heavy duty clutch ... In Japan, you even have the option to pay more and get a triple or double plate clutch as well. Anyway, it takes alot of trashing, burning the clutch with 9000RPMs drop, heaps of endless abuse before it decides to die on you. Trust me on that, Honda's heavy duty clutch lasts more than it's brakes.

 

Well that's something that's great to know. . .triple plated clutch. . .SWEET

 

I hope you are right, Takashi. I just experienced for the first time how easy it is to burn the clutch in my car. I tried a higher-RPM launch tonight at an autocross event and obviously didn't snap the clutch out fast enough (I would have had to have side-stepped it to be any faster) and it burnt for a good second or so. When I backed off and it finally fully engaged, my shift into second burnt also!

I never knew that burning-clutch smells quite a bit like cat piss.

I was very embarassed, but did manage to post some good times, beating out a regular Boxster (driven gingerly by an older gentleman, I should add) and matching a number of older 911s. This was my second invite to our local Porsche club's regular auto-x night. My best run was only 4-5 seconds slower than the fastest of the night, posted by one of their best drivers, and noticeably, the group was much friendlier to me after all the runs were finished.

I'm a total rookie and owe a LOT to the car helping make me look good and to my boss who is a veteran auto-x driver and Porsche fanatic -- but that slippage scared the hell out of me.

Thats great if it can take some burnings, but...I'd rather have a clutch that would dig in better, even if it didn't last quite as long.

I still don't have the heart/stomach to side-step the clutch at 5000rpms+