8HP70 Clutchflite??

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DionR

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I kind of buried this in a thread so thought I would share it more publicly in case anyone else thought it was cool.



I remember the clutchflite idea, at least at the tail end of it's use. Always seemed like cool idea, run a clutch to launch the car and then shift it like an automatic. Functionally it was short lived as torque converter tech obsoleted the idea, plus they were kind of known for exploding. Either way, always seemed like a cool idea, kind of like the idea of having a pet dragon until the reality of it sets in after it eats the wife and kids.

For the street or drag racing, running an 8HP in a similar setup kind of makes the same sense as a pet dragon. But for a road race setup I can see it having advantages by hooking the crank directly to the pump and doing away with a fair amount of rotating mass. After that, I bet it works just like the BMW DSG, other than I don't think the BMW setup had a clutch pedal.

And if the setup in the YT video maintained the use of the TC, maybe a switch could be flipped and the trans returned to full auto so my wife could drive it if need be. Best of both worlds.

To be clear, pretty sure the only reason these guys are doing it is so they can do clutch kicks to get the tires spinning while drifting.
 
Here's the controller:


There are 8 different configurable drive modes. Not definitive, but kind of looks like there is the option to maybe have an auto mode and a virtual clutch mode. So maybe I could get both a "manual/sequential" and a full auto option.

Kind of spendy, but considering my T56 Magnum kit from SST cost me just over $5K, seems like the 8HP70 might still come in cheaper than a T56 swap. Plus, I know of one build that got an 8HP under the floor of a B-body without cutting the floor by shaving the 8HP case.
 
Dion, I just read an old story from 67 about guy doing 7000 rpm dumps in his 409 chevy powered 57 BelAir equipped with a ClucthFlite!! Insane to think abut how hard this is on the small planet carriers and the splines on the output shaft.
 
When I was in the Navy there used to be a 55 Chev, hemi, Clutchflite that ran at the old carlsbad strip.

I think one big problem with them is the way they drove the oil pump. I doubt that spider drive affair could tolerate much "actual mileage"

The other thing I read is that transmission shafts are just not rated for the massive torque "hit" of a clutch. I would also guess that back then, the aftermarket stronger shafts were not available
 
But more so, tires were way more slippery than they are now!
 
I’ve been watching a playlist on that channel where they put an 8HP70 in a BMW M3 drift car. Been pretty interesting.

There are like 5 clutch packs in the 8HP and that’s what they lock and unlock to make the virtual clutch work. And the owner of the car said it felt just like a manual car and really liked it. And they leave the TC in the transmission and just lock it up right away to make the virtual clutch work.

And the fact that the TC is still in play means it could be run full auto and the clutch pedal ignore.

Pretty cool stuff.
 
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