by "uofime-2" (uofime-2)
Published 02/27/2017 at 11:54
by "uofime-2" (uofime-2)
Published 02/27/2017 at 11:54
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STARS: 2
There were certainly some growing pains but after a little over a week together and some coaching through all the activities that week of use entailed it seems like everything will be OK.
I’m a strong enough person to admit that the transition wasn’t seamless. That first journey from the garage to the Pho restaurant for dinner was not without a couple stalls and those pretty much continued daily for the rest of the week. Every stop meant gritting my teeth and doing a delicate dance in an attempt to keep thing smooth and any lapse in attention which lead to falling into old ways would lead to prompt humiliation.
The stronger pressure plate means not only is the pedal more stiff (leg day everyday), but the friction zone on the pedal is smaller and lock up occurs faster. Meaning lock up has gone from the middle of the throw to near the bottom. On the upside the actual pedal feel is improved, you can actually feel something there now! Adding to the difficulty is the lighter weight flywheel. Less inertia means less forgiveness. Less useful travel, in a different location and precious little warning before it all goes wrong all added to the fact that while the clutch is still brand new you really don’t want to slip it more than absolutely necessary has mean the first week was a struggle.
Now that I’ve had a week and 300 miles on it, I think were both getting broken in. I rolled through the lovely rush hour traffic this morning and it’s finally feeling more natural, feeding the power in at the right time on take off and re-learning the down shift dance. I’m not good yet, but at least I’m not questioning if I made the right decision.
"OPPOsaurus WRX" (opposaurus)
02/27/2017 at 12:05, STARS: 0
I learned how to manual in my WRX. For the first month I wondered if I had made a huge mistake. It takes some time but u’ll end up loving it.
"uofime-2" (uofime-2)
02/27/2017 at 12:13, STARS: 0
I had those issues years ago now, though the old clutch got finished off by my sister’s boyfriend learning it ha ha.
I should have been more clear, this is clutch setup #2 and I’ve made things harder for myself by adding a streetlite flywheel and an uprated Exedy stage 1 clutch and pressure plate
"DAWRX - The Herb Strikes Back" (karsonkinja)
02/27/2017 at 12:14, STARS: 1
I think it honestly took me about 6-8 months in mine to learn all of the transmissions little quirks and understand how to smoothly drive it. I had to learn from experience rather than feel.
I came from a 1996 Toyota Tacoma 4cyl. with the 5 speed. I had been driving it for almost 3 years at that point, so I thought it wouldn’t be to difficult to transition...I thought...
"Aaron M - MasoFiST" (amarks563)
02/27/2017 at 12:19, STARS: 0
I put a stage 2 clutch on my 2007 after I added a bunch of power and the OEM clutch started letting go in fifth. That, the lightweight flywheel, and the addition of a bit of turbo lag (aftermarket turbo) made the stop-and-go traffic thing such a pain. About a year after that, I moved to downtown Boston. The clutch wasn’t the main reason I got rid of the WRX...but I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t a factor.
"uofime-2" (uofime-2)
02/27/2017 at 12:24, STARS: 0
I came from a 5speed Chevy Aveo, may have learned some bad habits there. Adding the new clutch and flywheel as made me have to re learn all over again.
"uofime-2" (uofime-2)
02/27/2017 at 12:26, STARS: 0
Looking at manufacturer torque ratings and the batshit things people do on the forums I almost got a stage 2 clutch. Thank god I listened to my friends and went with the more moderate option.
"diplodicus" (diplodicus)
02/27/2017 at 12:37, STARS: 0
Every clutch I’ve driven feels different and takes me a while to get used too. Depends on the bite point how long.
I’m consistently impressed with Matt Farah’s ability to be smooth and rev match in all his one takes. I doubt I could drive that many different manuals and adjust that quickly.
"Aaron M - MasoFiST" (amarks563)
02/27/2017 at 12:38, STARS: 0
Yeah, if I had actually paid attention to NASIOC I’d either have wasted a lot of money or been even worse off. Problem was, 300 whp in an EJ255 is somewhere north of 400 ft-lbs of torque at the crank...
The car was an absolute riot on open roads, but once I moved the times I got to drive it like that got fewer and fewer. The real reason I got rid of the car, though, was that it had 160,000 miles on a stock, unbuilt engine, 50,000 of which was on an aftermarket turbo. The transmission was stock as well.
"uofime-2" (uofime-2)
02/27/2017 at 12:52, STARS: 0
What clutch was it, like a CC stage 2?
The advice I got from a friend was don’t bother putting more than that in or you’ll just frag the transmission.
Woof, yeah at that age that thing was kind of a time bomb, though the upgraded turbo is a lot of times more safe than pushing a stocker since it pushes the power up the rpm range and lets torque be kept reasonable on the lower end.
I’m at around 300whp/315tq and while I’d love to add a FMIC or flex fuel I’ve got a lot of other things that I’d rather do first so that made this decision easier.
"DAWRX - The Herb Strikes Back" (karsonkinja)
02/27/2017 at 13:13, STARS: 1
Maybe I learned bad habits too, all I know is that I could shift as smooth as glass in that truck. My WRX feels inconsistent, sometimes even if I nail a shift it can feel really “jumpy”.
"Aaron M - MasoFiST" (amarks563)
02/27/2017 at 13:13, STARS: 0
It was in fact a CC stage 2. Recommended by my tuner, and considering the less beefy stock clutch in the GDs it was likely the right choice. The upgraded turbo was likely safer than the stock one...I blew the stock one, so it was likely more reliable, too. To be honest, I had great luck with my mods...my tuner was pretty knowledgeable and helped me make some good choices. At that age, though, the stock stuff started breaking, and that made me nervous about when something big and expensive was going to go.
"DAWRX - The Herb Strikes Back" (karsonkinja)
02/27/2017 at 13:19, STARS: 0
Yeah and thats the thing, I could hear and feel the engagement point in the Tacoma, the WRX...not so much. I’ve had to learn a general idea of where it is. And where the engagement point itself seems to be pretty general too.
I don’t want anyone to take this as me hating on the car though, Just hating on a specific design flaw. They could’ve done better, this felt half assed.
I think Matt Farah has had so much experience professionally driving different cars he has a much better ability to adapt and cope with different transmissions and their quirks.
"uofime-2" (uofime-2)
02/27/2017 at 13:33, STARS: 0
there’s a lot of factors that play into that. The new WRX throttle is really touchy stock tiny angles translate into large differences in torque requested.
It also has really stiff springs on the sprung center of the clutch.
"uofime-2" (uofime-2)
02/27/2017 at 13:35, STARS: 0
WRX’s have dampers in the clutch line to save the drive train from the particularly hamfisted so the speed you drop the pedal is not always the speed the slave cylinder moves the fork it definitely makes the action feel non linear at times.
"DAWRX - The Herb Strikes Back" (karsonkinja)
02/27/2017 at 13:53, STARS: 0
That would definitely explain some of what I feel. It seems like Subaru focused less on the “experience” and more on performance or something when they engineered this car. I’ve had to learn some things like being more deliberate with the clutch pedal, and shifting faster to improve my experience. But then again all that can be undone when I get new shoes. (Seriously I got new shoes last weekend and my first time driving with them was rough)
I love the car so much though. It really is a part of me. I have a forged bond with it and can’t imagine driving anything else.
"uofime-2" (uofime-2)
02/27/2017 at 14:06, STARS: 0
ha ha, Yeah I know what you’re saying, it is weird going from one pair of shoes to another. The best is summer when you can just go barefoot tho!
They definitely made some compromises to both feel fast and feel comfortabble and quite while being cheap and light.
Mounting the whole drive train with marshmallows is one of their decisions I was particularly not fond of.