i gotta clear this up, the amount of people having a go about clutch damage and it not being able to be repaired, there is no clutch damage it is clutch heat and if you overheat the cluch leav it or dont slip it and it cools down again meaning you get full drive, i hope this clears a few things up for people and every time i now see a post with clutch damage in it im gonna be linking to this.

rant over

Quote from james12s :

it is clutch heat and if you overheat the cluch leav it or dont slip it and it cools down again meaning you get full drive

By which time the race is over, and all you did was a slightly gentler start than you'd actually do in real life. Maybe I should Scawen some datalogging of my starts (partly so he can laugh at me more), so he can see how revs and speed correspond (and from that derive clutch inputs and slips).

yeah well it happened to me at one point were the clutch started to get a bt hot so i took a bit more care, it cooled down and i got full drive again very soon, my point is that it is not damage just heat

edit: the only real race experiance i have had is when i drive karts but my dad used to race and were he is um.. quite heavy he had to be carful with the cluth cos they were procarts with cetrefugal clutches and if he overheated it the clutchbell would expand and bye bye drive lol

I dont understand the problem people have with the heat. Might just be the way I drive but even 10 laps in FMB on the new SO track and I didnt get clutch to heat much at all.

Same with most of the other cars.

Clutch heat is not a problem if you drive correctly and don't intentionally overheat it by flatshifting.

its only a problem if your drifting and are like, really going for it.

Quote from Woz :

I dont understand the problem people have with the heat. Might just be the way I drive but even 10 laps in FMB on the new SO track and I didnt get clutch to heat much at all.

Same with most of the other cars.

Same for me. I don't see what all the fuss is about.

If you don`t crash or drifts, it`s no problem at all to keep cool clutch all the time. Problem is when you crash or something like that, then there is almost nothing and it`s dead. Putting it in wrong gear and full trottle, it`s dead in matter of a few seconds.

Quote from The Very End :

If you don`t crash or drifts, it`s no problem at all to keep cool clutch all the time. Problem is when you crash or something like that, then there is almost nothing and it`s dead. Putting it in wrong gear and full trottle, it`s dead in matter of a few seconds.

Sounds right then because its easy to smoke a clutch. Let me abuse you road car and I will let you smell burning clutch in no time at all

The number one tip I can give people is if your using auto clutch and loose control of the car don't keep the throttle nailed while you are spinning. If your in a too higher gear and rolling backwards the auto clutch will be slipped to try get the car rolling again and will overheat VERY quickly. Come to a complete stop before trying to take off and don't use full power if you can help it.
Just like a real car if you sit there slipping the clutch under full power you'll kill it. If you need some kind of slipping action going on then dial up enough revs that you can just drop the clutch and get wheel spin.

Quote from harjun :

its only a problem if your drifting and are like, really going for it.

How on earth does drifting increase the load on the clutch?

Quote from ajp71 :

How on earth does drifting increase the load on the clutch?

Clutch kick technique You are kicking the clutch to rev the engine and release it quickly to initiate slide...

So don`t do it then
Joke..

Yea, I've had no problems with the clutch... until I took the LX6 for a spin in the city... drifting

I know this is random, but I saw a Top Gear episode the other day and when they put a Ferrari on the Top Gear track - with the Stig - off the line, there was a TON of smoke from the "tortured clutch." Has anyone noticed whether or not this happens in LFS (the smoke) - or if it happens that often in real life racing? Just curious.

You shouldn't use the clutch to drift. You should induce it by steering, and breaking to a lesser degree, that and some throttle control are plenty to get and keep a slide going.. But then what do I know about drifting...

Quote from Breizh :

You shouldn't use the clutch to drift. You should induce it by steering, and breaking to a lesser degree, that and some throttle control are plenty to get and keep a slide going.. But then what do I know about drifting...

Yes, I know - that's not what I meant. I should have mentioned the fact that I rarely drive that track, and I rarely drive that car, so I was doing a lot of starting and stopping every time I spun out.

Tho I've gotten good enough now that I can do one large drift where the course goes left, left again, followed by an immediate right turn. Loads of fun

Quote from Breizh :

You shouldn't use the clutch to drift. You should induce it by steering, and breaking to a lesser degree, that and some throttle control are plenty to get and keep a slide going.. But then what do I know about drifting...

The clutch is used to prolong a drift in which otherwise you would lose power and re-gain grip.

Question: Should holding the brakes on alittle bit or handbrake increase clutch heat?

Quote from wabbit :

Question: Should holding the brakes on alittle bit or handbrake increase clutch heat?

If you press the loud pedal at the same time, yes indeed!

Edit: Is this what you mean? http://youtube.com/watch?v=PQ2qsiwL0Bs

Quote from Mikkel Petersen :

If you press the loud pedal at the same time, yes indeed!

So thats a bug then, cause it doesn't seem to heat up for me.

If you press the brake, but the clutch isn't slipping (i.e. speed is proportional to rpm), then no, there is no heat build up in the clutch (well, not that anyone would notice).

If you hold the car on the brake, and slip the clutch whilst using throttle, then yes, there will be heat build up, from the slippage.

Quote from wabbit :

Question: Should holding the brakes on alittle bit or handbrake increase clutch heat?

Nope - just straining the engine, killing mileage, and overheating the brakes, among other things...

...but that's not really modeled in LFS yet anyway, so who cares?