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Old 09-30-2014, 10:51 PM   #26
Kingtal0n
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imagine you had a flywheel that weighs 100lbs. You think that when you let out the clutch it will slow down much? No. It will rip the tires off the car and propel the vehicle forward as the rpms drop slightly.

Imagine you had a flywheel that weighs 0.01lbs. You think that when you let out the clutch it wont come to a complete stop, stalling the engine?

On the other hand, getting that 100lb flywheel moving will be costly. And carrying that thing around, spinning all the time, will also be costly. Also, when sudden changed in RPM are required, such as between shifts, it will be more difficult to slow down because of all that spinning mass, the clutch will work harder and get hotter.


These two extremes should give you an idea why people tend to go only slightly less weight than stock, and why many will say do not go too light. It gives a slight performance increase without being so light that driving the car becomes a chore.

Note that vehicle weight also factors in. the heavier the vehicle the heavier you want the flywheel. It should become obvious why if you consider back to the 0.01lbs flywheel example. Imagine if your car also weighed 0.01lbs. You could let out the clutch and not stall the engine, because the car is so light it would move as easily as the flywheel did, and just a couple horsepower would get you moving pretty fast. Big heavy trucks with big heavy engines that carry heavy loads should have big heavy flywheels.
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