Here’s What Made The Porsche Carrera GT’s V10 Engine So Special – SlashGear

First impressions by the media were excellent. The UK’s CAR magazine described the Carrera GT as “expletive-inducingly quick,” while Car and Driver remarked: “That free-revving engine is unlike anything else we’ve ever sampled. It’s loud…the kind that prickles your body hair. The power peak is high as is the torque, but the engine is quite flexible.”

But no article about the Porsche Carrera GT is complete without a mention of the clutch. Porsche sought to produce one that was as small and light as possible, thus lowering weight, the position of the engine, and the center of gravity in a bid to improve driving dynamics. The result was the world’s first ceramic two-plate dry clutch with a plate diameter of 6.65 inches. Porsche says: “This extremely strong clutch is especially compact and makes it possible to achieve a very low center of gravity”.

It was half the size and weight of a contemporary Porsche 911 Turbo clutch, says Sterling Sackey, an automotive auction house that goes on to say how Porsche updated the car’s anti-stall technology throughout the years, installing new code as the cars came in for regular servicing. Sterling Sackey adds: “The complaints about the Carrera GT’s clutch usually come from owners, or more likely, one-time drivers, who don’t know how to use this anti-stall system properly — use no throttle input, simply let the clutch out until it just reaches the bite point, and hold there as the computer meters the throttle appropriately.”