While any Corvette owner is a lucky person, those with a C5 ('97-'04) have one of the best Corvettes ever created. With great handling, acceleration, and stopping ability, these cars are amazing, affordable, and exotic performance machines. But that doesn't mean they can't be improved upon. Case in point: those sticky clutches.
One common problem with these cars is the manual transmission clutch system. While the newer cars have fewer problems, early cars ('97-'00) are often plagued with clutch-release woes. Many owners have seen their clutches hang up and fail to release, especially under hard acceleration (just when you need it the most). It can be so severe that it pins the pedal to the floor. More often, it's a matter of "overcentering" of the clutch, which is usually repaired by installing new components or blueprinting the system.
Corvette clutches commonly wear from heavy use and hard shifting. A number of excellent options are available today in the aftermarket that provide good grip and nice pedal feel. Long gone are those Borg & Beck three-finger clutches, replaced with single- and dual-disc clutches for standard and heavy-horsepower applications. All have driving comfort and performance in mind and offer state-of-the-art technology.
The following are a few of the most advanced clutches available. Our recommendation? If you're planning to increase the horsepower of your engine with a supercharger, nitrous, or other enhancement, go for the dual-disc system. If you're looking for simplicity, the single-disc is fine for your vehicle. Regardless of which you choose, a solid clutch is critical to performance. Remember, you can have all the horsepower in the world, but it will be wasted if you can't stick it to the ground.
Exedy Hyper Single ClutchThe Corvette Hyper Single clutch is engineered to optimize performance for cars that are modified, but do not require the clutch capacity of a multi-plate clutch. The Hyper Single clutch is comfortable in street or race environments. Similar to the Exedy multi-plate clutch, it has a forged aluminum purple clutch cover. The aluminum cover is stiffer than a stamped cover and allows a higher lever ratio to maintain reasonable pedal effort and avoid flex.
All Corvette Hyper clutches come with a steel flywheel and a six-puck cerametallic facing, spring center damper disc assembly (38 pounds). The disc is generally smaller and thinner than the OEM disc, making for lower inertia and therefore quicker, easier shifting and less wear and tear on the transmission synchros. The higher clamp load and cerametallic friction facings allow this clutch to handle approximately twice the torque of the OEM clutch and generally higher than other single-plate clutches. An additional feature of the pressure plate is a series of turbine-like, airflow-enhancing vanes that keep the clutch cooler under extreme operating conditions to improve wear life.
For higher-powered Corvette applications, Exedy offers a twin-plate clutch, which is designed for hot street action as well as drag, road, and rally racing. The twin-plate clutches are rated for above 650hp applications and come with sprung-hub damper discs, making it the smoothest-engaging twin plate in the marketplace.
The Corvette multi-plate clutch comes with a lightweight, chrome-moly steel flywheel and the famous purple-anodized, forged-aluminum clutch cover. All have T5001 cerametallic friction materials for extreme heat resistance. The Exedy twin, which is currently being run in street and drag-race applications, including the Three Hour Grand American Series, offers high-horsepower owners everything they need.
The brand new twin-disc triple carbon-fiber clutch facing system incorporates all of the benefits of the twin-disc system but adds more grip and less rotational mass by using carbon-fiber-lined discs. These discs are less prone to disengagement problems because there is less weight and heat involvement. According to press materials, a lot of time was spent working with the carbon-fiber materials to ensure they resist slippage and deliver longer wear than standard metallic-lined clutches. Pedal feel and engagement are acceptable even in normal daily usage.
Centerforce I And II Clutch SystemsUsing Centerforce's unique clutch system, the single-disc 11-inch clutch is a direct replacement for C5 Corvettes. This system requires no vehicle modification and utilizes Centerforce's unique counterweighted clutch cover system to increase grip on the clutch disc as rpm increases. This system is sold complete with all ancillary components, including the clutch-release bearing. Best of all, the increased-strength pressure-plate system provides better clutch control, avoiding common pressure-plate flex that can hamper overall clutch performance.
For more horsepower than stock, the Centerforce II uses a 12-inch clutch and steel flywheel. No additional modifications to the vehicle are required, but the increased surface area increases the grip strength of the clutch. This system is also sold complete with all ancillary components available and incorporates Centerforce's counterweighted clutch-finger system as well.