I'm delighted to see a balanced discussion about clutches. In my son's day much rubbish was talked on the subject. My son was very successful - and almost invariably raced on a clutch engine, but often (for cost reasons practised DD) and with a data logger. So here are our findings.
1) Theoretically (for the mathematicians amongst you) a clutched engine will be slightly slower - the extra inertia costs about half a tenth per lap on a typical circuit. BUT..
2) In practise the extra inertia made for better braking nullyfying the theoretical advantage BUT
3) If you lock up under braking (you shouldn't if you want to go quickly) it takes quite a time for the clutch to re-engage, costing time.
4) But if you want to finish first, first you have to finish and on that score there is no contest.
|
|