1979 308GTS - My first Ferrari experience

To my recollection is 4-5 lbs lighter, about 25%, anyway. I wouldn't have changed it just for weight reduction, but the original one had a combo of gouges and radial cracks from a long ago pressure plate that had something broken that caused the disc to wear out unevenly on the outside when i bought the car in 1984. The diaphragm spring pulled the friction plate further away on one side vs the other causing the disc to wear in a taper, inside wasn't bad, outside was grinding rivets into the FW.

I changed the clutch disc and PP back then, and looked at the messed up flywheel and decided i could keep using it, as a new Ferrari FW was some ridiculous $$ amount from the dealer.

Since it needed to be replaced anyway, i went with a lighter weight FW.

Doug

 

BTW, I remembered those radial FW cracks one time when i missed a shift c. 1985 and As I watched the tach hit about 10.5K, RPM, and I thought about the cracks and that FW being inline with my back, and the aluminum transfer case housing wasn't a scatter shield, as my heart seemed to stop as i watched the RPM seem to ever so slowly drop back down into a sub 7K RPM range.

I had seen the results of FW explosions on a Chevy at the dragstrip once,and how the pieces of FW took off the drivers foot and punched a hole thru the dash on a 57 Chevy. That thought crossed my mind.... and wondered if maybe the firewall on the 308 was armored behind the drivers seat....seems like a good place for 2' x 3' by 1/4" thick piece of AR360 plate...

Doug

 

Super easy, 17mm socket and wrench. Prep for plating then they come back like new.

 

Thank you

 

When I still had the V8 I didn't lighten the flywheel but did lighten the clutch. At the time I googled and was afraid based on stuff I read so just did the clutch.... and noticed nothing. The math says it made the car faster but I didn't notice. The internet said it would lug more pulling away...again didn't notice. The stock flywheel/clutch assembly is 34lbs iirc, about 1/2 flywheel and 1/2 clutch. My clutch is a smaller OD and 7.5lbs vs 17 stock. On the V12 i reused the clutch and lightened the flywheel so the assembly is 17lbs.....it drives fine.

So my thought is lighter is better and know in your heart it's faster. It will free rev faster, it noticed that and that just sounds good