Clutch Questions!

[DMCVegas]

So, two quick questions:

1. What is the maximum amount of HP & Torque that the stock DMC-12 Clutch can handle?

2. On the Input Shaft that the clutch disc connects to, which is better: Larger, yet fewer splines, or smaller, but more splines?

[Lightning]

I know it cannot handle the turbo that was just done. I'm guessing we upped it near 200HP so my guess is 150hp to be safe. As for the splines, I am not sure.

[Nicholas R]

I'm pretty sure it's a wash with the splines. The splines aren't a week point so it's very unlikely you'd fail there. The large spline pattern with few splines is a very oddball pattern and a bit harder to find a clutch for than the more common 24mm-21 pattern. The 24mm-21 is fairly common between Lotuses and Renaults. The next clutch I use will be an AP Racing clutch for the Renault shaft (however now that Centerforce is making their dual friction clutch for the DeLorean again, they too have me intrigued).

[DMCVegas]

Very interesting. Thank you both for the input! I suppose that with an engine swap it might not matter with the clutch per se, but I see that there are options between Renault splines and Ford ones for the input shaft so I was curious about that.

[DMCMW Dave]

Here's a strange one. I'd heard of these but never saw one until today. This is the very rear early car 10-spline clutch compared to the common 21-spline. Houston has the correct discs for these in stock.

Very rare, very early cars only.

Early 10 - spline
38419

Common 21- spline
38418