Carbonetics Pro Blade for evo VIII
Dec 8, 2011, 11:01 AM
#1
Carbonetics Pro Blade for evo VIII
I just got my car back today with this clutch and I thought I would give a quick initial review. I will be updating this as I put more time on the car, but now heres my first impressions before I forget 
. Thank you to Nate@MAPerformance for hooking me up with this clutch. 
Well so far it seems like a pretty good clutch. Its pretty easy to slip and take off smoothly. Compared to when I first drove my ACT clutch, this is worlds smoother. The ACT was a bear trap in comparison until ~3k miles of breaking in. The pedal pressure also feels a bit heavier than my HDSS (which felt the same as stock) but after a few minutes I don't know if it really is. But that was my first impression. I'd say the engagement is not as linear as I was expecting though. It feels like it grabs exponentially stronger for every cm you let the pedal out. I almost stalled a few times because I haven't figured out how to best slip it yet on engagement. And you can't feel the engagement point as well as you can on a fresh ACT. But considering this is with an evo 9 1st gear with 4.11 final drive I think its pretty driveable. Its not really a fair comparison vs my old 6speed. Also its 32 degrees Fahrenheit where I am right now.
There is some chatter from time to time, but usually its pretty quiet. The chatter happens when I'm ex: sitting at a light in neutral, and the RPMs just happen to hit a sweet spot. Its not very intrusive, definitely not like some exedy twins. Sounds like a mild exhaust rattle. Its infrequent enough to where I don't think its a big deal for many people. If you have coilovers, an exhaust, and front engine mount then you're already used to more noise than this clutch will bother you with.
The biggest problem I have right now is that the clutch is out of room for adjustment. The push/pull conversion arm is adjusted all the way out and it still starts engaging very close to the floor. I'll have to see if theres any more room in the pedal. Or maybe it gets better with more break-in time.
For now heres some pics:
*UPDATE* 03/01/12
I've put 3k miles on this clutch now. Most of it highway but quite a bit of it was in stop and go. Initially I had problems with low engagement point on the pedal and stalling but I've since adjusted the clutch pedal and bumped timing around my idle. I don't have issues anymore. The clutch has broken in nicely and there is NO vibrations/noise/chattering/weirdness at all. The only thing I've noticed is if you slip it for more than 1.5seconds it will start to judder mildly. But otherwise driveability is superb. My friend with an ACT XTSS in his STi says its as easy to drive as his clutch (he's on stock flywheel). He had no problems driving my car. I also feel its as easy to drive as my previous HDSS (stock flywheel). The only thing being uphill requires a little more slipping. And its actually smoother in the cold (below freezing). It shifts GREAT too! I can bang gears pretty much as fast as I want to with this clutch. I really have to say carbonetics has not disappointed with this clutch. Especially if it behaves this well AND hold all the power Curt's evo puts out. I'll probably be testing it in a winter tracking day (hello clutch kicks!) and then in a few months I'll try it out on the track and give my impressions.
*UPDATE* 16/01/12
I made a video to show the driveability of the clutch. I'm at 7k now and its still getting easier and easier to drive. Its at the point now that as long as I tell someone my car has an aftermarket clutch they won't stall it on the first try.
http://youtu.be/ygmkvqqMDzY
*UPDATE* 24/04/12
Last week I tried some launching on this clutch. First ever one was at the drag strip friday night. I bogged hard because I was too afraid to slip it. Next launch was saturday afternoon when I just wanted to practice launching. Well I tried to give it more slip but it shot to redline and I aborted quick. And then the car wouldn't go into gear any more with the engine on. The trans was pulled off this week and it was found that the clutch welded itself to the pressure plate. I'll have pics once I go to collect my car and the left overs. Also they noted that the clutch disc was nearly worn down. Thats with 10k miles of mixed highway and heavy inner city stop and go.
The shop that services my car is also a mitsu rally team and they use the competition twin disc clutch in their race cars. They have experience with hydraulic TOBs and the push/pull contraption that comes with the kit. When they first put in the clutch they strongly advised me to use the hydraulic TOB, but I felt it was unnecessary. When the pulled it off they told me again that I should've went with the hydraulic TOB. They felt that was a major component of the failure and the wear. It doesn't disengage quick apparently. And I can see that, my initial impressions where I said clutch engagement was "exponential" is probably a result of the weird contraption carbonetics ships the clutch with.
I should mention that I didn't do the carbonetics warm up procedure. I figured I only have 300wtq. I'm not sure if that would have made a difference. I feel this is definitely a clutch that you should not launch! Ever! Even Kiyo told me that he prefers that I never launch on the clutch, or if I do, I need to DUMP the clutch.
My final impressions: I really liked this clutch while I had it. Great driveability, very lightweight, very little extra noise (I can really pick up on details like that), and awesome ability to rev match and shift quick. I became a lazy driver with it because its just so much less important to rev match than the stock heavy clutch/flywheel. The soft engagement and lightweight just took care of any rpm mismatch with no noticeable shock. But I am disappointed that it is (IMO and Kiyo's opinion) not meant to be launched at all, and I thought the disc would last longer than the mileage I put it through. Thats about exedy twin mileage. Even if it didn't fail I would've had to change it out by the end of the summer anyways.
So there you have it! My review from beginning to end of this clutch. My next clutch is going to be the much hyped competition clutch HD with street disc. Hopefully it will last more than a year in my car.....no clutch has so far.
. Thank you to Nate@MAPerformance for hooking me up with this clutch. Well so far it seems like a pretty good clutch. Its pretty easy to slip and take off smoothly. Compared to when I first drove my ACT clutch, this is worlds smoother. The ACT was a bear trap in comparison until ~3k miles of breaking in. The pedal pressure also feels a bit heavier than my HDSS (which felt the same as stock) but after a few minutes I don't know if it really is. But that was my first impression. I'd say the engagement is not as linear as I was expecting though. It feels like it grabs exponentially stronger for every cm you let the pedal out. I almost stalled a few times because I haven't figured out how to best slip it yet on engagement. And you can't feel the engagement point as well as you can on a fresh ACT. But considering this is with an evo 9 1st gear with 4.11 final drive I think its pretty driveable. Its not really a fair comparison vs my old 6speed. Also its 32 degrees Fahrenheit where I am right now.
There is some chatter from time to time, but usually its pretty quiet. The chatter happens when I'm ex: sitting at a light in neutral, and the RPMs just happen to hit a sweet spot. Its not very intrusive, definitely not like some exedy twins. Sounds like a mild exhaust rattle. Its infrequent enough to where I don't think its a big deal for many people. If you have coilovers, an exhaust, and front engine mount then you're already used to more noise than this clutch will bother you with.
The biggest problem I have right now is that the clutch is out of room for adjustment. The push/pull conversion arm is adjusted all the way out and it still starts engaging very close to the floor. I'll have to see if theres any more room in the pedal. Or maybe it gets better with more break-in time.
For now heres some pics:
*UPDATE* 03/01/12
I've put 3k miles on this clutch now. Most of it highway but quite a bit of it was in stop and go. Initially I had problems with low engagement point on the pedal and stalling but I've since adjusted the clutch pedal and bumped timing around my idle. I don't have issues anymore. The clutch has broken in nicely and there is NO vibrations/noise/chattering/weirdness at all. The only thing I've noticed is if you slip it for more than 1.5seconds it will start to judder mildly. But otherwise driveability is superb. My friend with an ACT XTSS in his STi says its as easy to drive as his clutch (he's on stock flywheel). He had no problems driving my car. I also feel its as easy to drive as my previous HDSS (stock flywheel). The only thing being uphill requires a little more slipping. And its actually smoother in the cold (below freezing). It shifts GREAT too! I can bang gears pretty much as fast as I want to with this clutch. I really have to say carbonetics has not disappointed with this clutch. Especially if it behaves this well AND hold all the power Curt's evo puts out. I'll probably be testing it in a winter tracking day (hello clutch kicks!) and then in a few months I'll try it out on the track and give my impressions.
*UPDATE* 16/01/12
I made a video to show the driveability of the clutch. I'm at 7k now and its still getting easier and easier to drive. Its at the point now that as long as I tell someone my car has an aftermarket clutch they won't stall it on the first try.
http://youtu.be/ygmkvqqMDzY
*UPDATE* 24/04/12
Last week I tried some launching on this clutch. First ever one was at the drag strip friday night. I bogged hard because I was too afraid to slip it. Next launch was saturday afternoon when I just wanted to practice launching. Well I tried to give it more slip but it shot to redline and I aborted quick. And then the car wouldn't go into gear any more with the engine on. The trans was pulled off this week and it was found that the clutch welded itself to the pressure plate. I'll have pics once I go to collect my car and the left overs. Also they noted that the clutch disc was nearly worn down. Thats with 10k miles of mixed highway and heavy inner city stop and go.
The shop that services my car is also a mitsu rally team and they use the competition twin disc clutch in their race cars. They have experience with hydraulic TOBs and the push/pull contraption that comes with the kit. When they first put in the clutch they strongly advised me to use the hydraulic TOB, but I felt it was unnecessary. When the pulled it off they told me again that I should've went with the hydraulic TOB. They felt that was a major component of the failure and the wear. It doesn't disengage quick apparently. And I can see that, my initial impressions where I said clutch engagement was "exponential" is probably a result of the weird contraption carbonetics ships the clutch with.
I should mention that I didn't do the carbonetics warm up procedure. I figured I only have 300wtq. I'm not sure if that would have made a difference. I feel this is definitely a clutch that you should not launch! Ever! Even Kiyo told me that he prefers that I never launch on the clutch, or if I do, I need to DUMP the clutch.
My final impressions: I really liked this clutch while I had it. Great driveability, very lightweight, very little extra noise (I can really pick up on details like that), and awesome ability to rev match and shift quick. I became a lazy driver with it because its just so much less important to rev match than the stock heavy clutch/flywheel. The soft engagement and lightweight just took care of any rpm mismatch with no noticeable shock. But I am disappointed that it is (IMO and Kiyo's opinion) not meant to be launched at all, and I thought the disc would last longer than the mileage I put it through. Thats about exedy twin mileage. Even if it didn't fail I would've had to change it out by the end of the summer anyways.
So there you have it! My review from beginning to end of this clutch. My next clutch is going to be the much hyped competition clutch HD with street disc. Hopefully it will last more than a year in my car.....no clutch has so far.
Last edited by deeman101; Apr 26, 2012 at 02:37 PM.
Dec 8, 2011, 01:35 PM
#3
Former Sponsor
iTrader: (6)
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: MN
Posts: 60
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Hey...thanks for the kind words! Sounds like you are off to a good start with a relatively new product! I also forwarded over your request for more information to the right people and I will advise you when they get back to me! For now, thanks for the honorable mention...lol
Jan 16, 2012, 01:27 PM
#13
I made a video to show the driveability of the clutch. I'm at 7k now and its still getting easier and easier to drive. Its at the point now that as long as I tell someone my car has an aftermarket clutch they won't stall it on the first try.
http://youtu.be/ygmkvqqMDzY
http://youtu.be/ygmkvqqMDzY
