To me, one of the biggest issues in the way a lot of people prepare their
vintage cars is the tendency to use a lightened stock, cast iron,
flywheel. A proper racing flywheel and clutch (the "Tilton" type setup) is
expensive, and to many is a luxury. I always put a steel or aluminium
flywheel in, and in the Midget used a racing F-3 type clutch (from
Quartermaster rather than Tilton, as it happens) and felt a ton better
about the prospect of having it explode. Side benefit is that they seem to
run just fine covered in oil - no slip when the rear seal is shot! A
single plate clutch is good for about 250 HP, so 90 odd from a 948 is peanuts.
I confess I never thought of the U-joint problem, though - even though I've
seen it happen on the track.
Brian
At 02:54 PM 02/16/2000 -0500, you wrote:
>In a message dated 2/16/00 10:44:18 AM Pacific Standard Time,
>JWoesvra@aol.com writes:
>
><< A broken u-joint can be just as frightening. >>
>A related story,
>A few months ago I was talking with Bob Sharp about one of his Datsun 2000
>roadster racecars that I'm restoring for vintage racing. He told me that once
>in a race, the front u-joint let go and came right up through the floor and
>just missed his right leg! (Looks like a steel plate was installed shortly
>thereafer.) With the 2000's 5-speed OD trans and 4.6 (and up) gears, that
>drive shaft is really spinning.
>
>BTW, anyone have any good/bad experience with composite drive shafts?
>
>Craig Carter
>Fountain Valley, CA
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