FM Kevlar Clutch

This clutch, like a lot of stuff I've purchased, came from Fly'n Miata (formerly known as Dealer Alternative).  I believe the manufacture of this clutch is Clutchmasters and sold as a "stage 2" clutch.  FM no longer carries this clutch, however it appears to still be available from Clutchmasters.

The pressure plate is made of a carbon kevlar material.  A couple interesting characteristics about this material: (1) It has low friction characteristics.  Huh?  Why use a low friction material?  Well, that's ok, because of: (2) It has excellent wear characteristics.  The pressure plate that comes with the clutch grips the disc a lot harder.  Since the disc can withstand the stronger pressure plate stresses, it holds up fine and doesn't (normally) slip under the loads I apply to it.  The pressure plate is stronger because the leaf springs are stronger.  The heavier spring force is not significantly felt in the clutch pedal because the fulcrum point of the springs is in a slightly different position from stock.  The tradeoff is an increased in clutch pedal travel.  It's not that much... maybe an inch or so.  I got used to it immediately.

Engagement of the clutch is pretty smooth.  It's a little hard to chirp the tires going from gear to gear, but that's good as it's probably extending the life of my drivetrain components.

After about 45k miles of use including several autocross events and my "spirited" driving style that creeps up from time to time, the clutch still is holding up quite well.  The picture above was at about mile 45k.  You can see some wear marks probably from some hard launches.  If I do lots of really hard shifts, the clutch can sometimes "heat up" and get a little soft.  When this happens it tends to slip a little bit until it cools down.  This is a pretty rare problem for me.  Actually, when this happens, it's because I've been driving really too hard on the car - I take it as an indicator of drivetrain telling me,  "Whoa!! Take it easy!"

Here's my old stock clutch. The disc was worn down to the rivets. Although the flywheel wasn't in bad enough shape for turning/replacing, it would have been had this problem been neglected much longer. Of course, the clutch slippage was so bad at this point that there was no question that "it was time" to replace it. The picture above shows the pressure plate at the top and the disc at the bottom. The Fly'in Miata kevlar clutch replaced both of these items.