Manual Trans Advice- the Importance of Matching Your Clutch To Your Application...

Using your brakes also creates heat and shortens brake life, but as long as you do not overheat them they will last a good long while. Same with a clutch. We are talking extending slip time a few tenths of a second, which can make a huge difference in terms of impact on the drivetrain.

If you are not slipping something in a drag race scenario though, you are slow! While a properly slipping clutch does "waste" some power that gets absorbed into the clutch assy as heat, that slipping actually makes it possible to net an overall power production gain. That's because slipping allows the engine to make more power strokes in a given time frame, and that power production gain can more than offset the loss of heat energy absorbed by the clutch. Also because the car is gaining speed while the clutch is slipping, engine rpm does not get pulled down as far after the shift as the ratio change predicts, further raising average rpm. It is possible for the clutch to slip too much and squander your power production gains, the trick is finding the sweet spot.

Grant