Which really lasts longer?

I think it largely depends on how the car is driven. I'm told if the car is driven in auto mode you can expect a lot more clutch wear and tear and a shorter life. Also, traffic conditions could also have a lot to do with clutch wear. Somebody told me 5-8k miles for a f1 clutch, others have said longer. The clutch on my f1 was replaced at 5,300 miles. I was told the previous owner did mostly city driving in auto mode. I drive the f1 like I would drive a manual transmission. I put the car in neutral at lights and so on.

 

The cost was right around $4,000.

 

hope that's not normal.
on my SMG M3, i have 29k miles, no issue at all with clutch, and i do drive in bad traffic often here in NY.
hope Ferrari ones can last too.

 

This topic has been extensively discussed. My service manager said the clutch should last a bit over 20,000 miles. Mine was replaced at about 30,000 miles. I'm the original owner.

It all depend on driving condition. I prefer the rural backroads nearby and avoid city traffic as much as possible.

Auto mode should be ripped out of the system.

 

I've had manual transmissions on 1/2 of the cars I've owned and never replaced a clutch, including a couple of 911's. Someone with more mechanical knowledge than me would need to chime in as why the Ferrari and other high performance cars are harder on clutches. The Ferrari is only a short step away from being a race car and maybe that has something to do with it? I'd love to know as well.

 

Abso f'ing lutely.

 

If you stop and think about it, this doesn't make any sense. While moving, what difference does it make who pulls the paddle, you or the computer? In fact, drive the car in auto and watch the shift points. You'll notice that Ferrari programmed the car to short shift. Whereas, most of us Ricky Racer wannabes shift about 2,000 rpm higher.

Now, you're talking. Even when I use the auto mode, I shift into neutral. Be doing this for way too long to sit at a light with the clutch in.

Also note, reverse is a killer because the clutch constantly slips. What you're supposed to do is blip the throttle and coast.

However, my guess is that the real reason for wear is that most of us are NOT short shifting in F1. Letting the car rev up is so cool that I'm betting that most of us are shifting at higher shift points in normal driving than we would be with a stick.

Dr "Short Shifting" Who

 

Why should Ferrari "bother" to build a better clutch when they're getting $4000 to replace each one? Sounds like a big money maker for them.

 

You're definitely right about the short shifting. When I test drove the car I put it into auto mode. The computer had the car in 6th gear at about 45 m.p.h. The auto mode seems to shift the car excessively IMO. I do significantly less shifting than the computer. I think this had a lot to do the auto mode wear.

 

Look at an exploded diagram of a clutch. Now, think about the physics involved. Clutchs are designed to slip and catch. All clutchs will eventually wear out. However, the harder the engagement, the more wear. Why do you think that more than a few "launch control" burnouts will violate the warranty?

When I drive a Maranello on the street, I'm always short shifting. The car has so much torque that running up the revs are very hard on the clutch. A Modena has less torque, but not that much.

Think about it.

Dale

ps When you have it in the auto mode, watch the downshifts. This is even harder on a clutch. You'll notice that the auto mode downshifts v-e-r-y slowly.

 

It makes sense. I haven't seen auto mode since my test drive. And you're right it's too much fun shifting at the higher rpm's. I always short shift my daily driver. Saves on gas and clutch. Thanks for the info.

 

I've put over 150k miles on 6 six difference Ferraris over a 20 year period and have never had to replace a clutch...none of them had the F1 tranny though.

 

Clutches wear from slippage, every time you shift there is some slippage depending on how fast you release the clutch, faster release = less slippage/less wear, slower release = more slippage/more wear. Taking this into consideration people with F1 transmissions seem to shift many more times than others with full manual transmissions creating more clutch release/grip cycles, each cycle has some amount of slip which causes wear.

People don't shift as much with a full manual because it is more work, if you shifted as much with a manual as you do with an F1 you would have to replace the clutch and get an artifical knee at the same time. Also with the F1 trans you don't have a clutch pedal to feel the clutch slipping so you don't know how much slip the F1 trans is allowing, therefore if you drive slowly in traffic the F1 trans may be allowing much more slippage for smooth forward progress than a person controlling a clutch pedal would.