Yes but that's by design... (the "weakness")

 

Its really the people who have never drivin AWD cars with good power before (noobs) that are having problems, you can't beat the hell out of a Zo6 on a country road and then get into an Evo and drive the same way.

 

Very true. The stock clutch will "feel" jsut fine, until you get a real clutch in there. My stock clutch held up fine for close to 36k miles with 3 visits to the drag strip where I pulled off consistent 1.8 60ft times. But on my last few trips to the strip, my times and trap speeds were way low. Clutch was fine and I could drive it normal without any problem, until near 36k it slipped.

Similar thing happened to my friend. He has about 20k miles on the car and the clutch felt fine and delivered the power great on the street. Only when he obtained a datalogger that he was able to see that his rpms were dropping ever so slightly and then picking up again throughout the rev range in each gear.

Yes, stock clutch will do fine for normal street driving, but when you are making more power, consider a clutch upgrade as a necessity rather than an option.

 

49,000 miles on stock clutch. Stock HP. I drive VERY hard, but I don't launch / drag race. I have a few times, but generally don't do it.

Stockk clutch is fine for stock HP and some hardcore canyon / mountain action, dirt roads, etc.... but if you are doing track time or drag racing, yeah, probably not strong enough. Just depends on the use. The stock clutch is not weak at all. But lets face it, the whole idea of aftermarket is that you can upgrade (otherwise there would be no aftermarket... would you pay to downgrade??), but that does not mean there is a problem with stock. But there is always something "better".

At 49k, I think car just now to the point where I need to think about replacing clutch soon, within next 10k miles. Especially with my wife learning to drive stick on it!! OMG. That is comparable to how the clutch lasted on my old Porsche. Not bad for a performance car.

 

I see your 20,000 and 3-4 launches and raise you 5,000 a few more launces, and 4 track days. And I have an '03

 

Its all in your driving habits. I believe all of the people killing their cluches are the people going out and at every redlight doing 6 grand dumps on a daily basis.

 

i drive hard. no launches(really) and i have extra boost. 19xxx miles and no real probs.

 

I have 34k miles, 320hp, and a stock clutch. At my power level I don't expect the stocker to last much longer. I don't really launch my car though.

 

When I was younger, yeah, this clutch wouldn't have lasted that long. But now that I'm older and have many many launches under my belt with countless other cars and have an idea what exactly goes on inside the gearbox, dif, tc I'll keep the launching at a minimum with this ride. I just wanted something fast and fun to drive. GT30R w/ extras, 25k miles, stock clutch.

 

Its kinda misleading when you guys use the word "weak" when referring to the clutch. Are you referring to the clamping force or the lifespan of the disc? Obviously the stock clutch won't have the same clamping force as an aftermarket unit...but in terms of its overall performance I'd say its adequate for mildly tuned cars.

In my opinion, not too many are experienced with driving AWD cars. Many are coming from either FWD or RWD cars which spun the tires on a hard launch...instead of putting massive wear on the clutch/transmission. In my area, there are a lot of younger people driving Evos...many of them having it as a first car. Inexperience and having an "almighty Evo" to race on the street leads to failures. I only have 14K on my car, but I've been putting down about 324 WHP for about 6K miles now...absolutely no problems. A few hard launches and very agressive driving describe my habits...but I don't beat the snot out of it. It comes down to how you drive your car.

 

IIRC stock clamping force is great. The clutch disc itself is designed to take the brunt of a launch, coupled with the CDV. The idea is to spin/burn the clutch, rather than breaking something further down the line.

I can't remember where I saw it but I thought I read stock clamping to be around 2200lbs!

 

At 350+ whp your stock pressure does NOT have enough clamping force,period.My clutch had just over 1000 properly broken in miles and was fine,untill the power level exceeded 350whp,then on dyno as the power level increased,clutch started to slip,couldn't even get a good torque reading it started slipping as soon as the boost hit.Was told "your clutch is toast" and told dyno operator that the clutch is almost new.He replied"What kind" and I replied "stock" and the final out come is anything over 350whp and over 350 torque the stocker just doesn't have enough clamping force.BTW,that was 2000 miles ago and only seems to slip a little in upper rpm's in upper gears,heats up a bit,grabs and goes.We will see how long it lasts at E-Town next week at the WRX/STI slaughter.Don't matter as I have a Brandy New one awaiting to be installed,by ME

 

I wouldn't mark 350 tq as the end-all-be-all number, but yes excessive power over what the car is engineered to handle clutch-wise will certainly become an issue.

 

Actually you can. A clutch is a clutch, no matter what the drivetrain layout. Whether its RWD or AWD, you don't need to overly slip the clutch to put the power to the ground.

I'm at 30k without any problems. I even lit up all four the other day when it was raining. It's all in how you drive.

 

I'm sorry but thats a load of crap. I was at 350awhp for over 10k miles, dyno'd many times, drove the car hard. Now I'm above that and still fine with the stock clutch. I'm not saying that prolonged use with high HP numbers will not wear the stock clutch out, thats obvious. But not all of the sudden after installing the mods.