First off, the gearbox is great. It's so nice to be able to change up from first to second above 5k without having to double de-clutch
.The original clutch came out with quite a bit of life left on it. However, I had decided to change it because I was convinced that the biting range was too small. This has certainly been remedied with a much wider range of bite, located further down the pedal action. The force required is higher, as expected, but entirely comfortable. It feels like the force is slightly higher around the bite point, but that might just be psychological. I do find that this clutch is smellier than the old clutch, and is inclined to produce this odour much sooner! This might be something which diminishes with age. I'm currently at about 800 miles, so just over the recommended break-in distance of 750 miles (although mileage seems to be a rather naff way to specify break-in for a clutch, even though I cannot think how else they'd try to specify it). I notice that there is some minor vibration through the pedal if I attempt to pull away slowly at low revs (<1500 rpm) but this appears to be reducing over time. I suspect that this is caused by slight misalignment of the surfaces and is part of the reason for the break-in period. It does seem to have reduced over time.
The flywheel feels great! I'd love to swap it out and do a side-by-side comparison, but the engine blips up more rapidly if, say, dropping from 6th to 4th for a quick burst of acceleration on the motorway. I've had the odd, rare occasion on the road to attempt a cheeky toe-and-heal when conditions permit and can't wait to practice this more on the track.
I was initially surprised that I wasn't occasionally stalling when pulling away as forewarned, but then I realised that, of course, the engine also finds it easier to recover from a drop in revs; if you react to the too-rapid release of the clutch in time then the engine springs back to life quite happily. It's not even that you require "a few more revs to pull away" - you just require better clutch and throttle control. The new clutch helps with this. I have specifically been pulling away fairly sedately during the clutch break-in, so perhaps I will discover that things become much harder to balance when pulling away rapidly!
I look forward to getting the car on the track with some of you in 2019!