Light weight flywheel - good idea?

[scottj]

Originally Posted by DavidNJ

Scott,

Could you elaborate on your setup and experiences?

Thanks,

David

David,

I was running a 3.54 gear, a Richmond 5spd, an aluminum flywheel, and an 11" Long clutch behind a 434 cid small block. It has a Super Victor intake and a solid roller with 264*/272* @ .050, 106* LS, .690/.666 Lift.
With that cam it may seem hard to believe that it was very easy to drive on the street, but it was, and initially most of the miles were on the street. The weight of the aluminum flywheel was a non-issue as the car was very easy to get rolling. The problem I had was downshifting the Richmond on the roadcourse. I would not recommend that trans for serious track use. The Richmond was replaced with a Jerico 4spd, a 7-1/4" Quarter Master button clutch, and a reverse mount starter/bellhousing. As you can imagine, on the street the button clutch won't tolerate slipping at all and the Jerico requires very precise upshifts and downshifts when at part throttle. In short, it's a lot of work but it can be done without damaging the equipment.
On the track, the low polar MOI allows lightnening fast downshifts as the revs can be matched very quickly. The clutch and trans swap accounted for 5-6 seconds off my lap times.

Sorry for being long-winded.


Scott