Not to hijack, but OP you need to also ask driving style, is car DD and sits in stop and go traffic, area you live in flat, hilly or combination.

Because someone living in a flat area and who mainly drives on the freeway, will get a much longer clutch life, than someone who drives in traffic and lives in a hilly area.

 

I drive it the way I was taught. Slide the clutch as little as possible. 90% of the time the engine management system keeps the car from stalling when you pull away with little or no throttle. I never apply throttle unless clutch is fully engaged. (Have always done this as it it allows you to more quickly determine the limits of friction on different surfaces and conditions within the spectrum of power.) I may never win a drag race but I am quicker out of corners. Also, I back up as little as possible and never apply throttle backing and car rarely stalls. Usually i just get the car moving backwards and take it out gear and coast, rendering the reverse warning moot, caution advised here.

 

I do the same.


Easy rule of thumb: When you're shifting, if the engine revs up as you're releasing the clutch, then bogs down as you're taking your foot off the clutch pedal, you got on the gas too early. I see this happen *all the time* when I let other people drive my V8V.

 

sequential/manual automated (single clutch gear boxes) like AM sport shift, BMW SMG, Audi R tronic, E gear, etc etc, slow driver burn their clutch more often, they drive their car like old man in 60s cadillac they let the clutch slip most of the time cause it to wear out, the best way is to drive these cars hard and harder, most of owner who drive their car "drive it like you stole it" they have the longest clutch life.

 

But does the sport shift clutch fully engage without giving it some gas? I believe that with a Ferrari 360 the clutch only fully engages at about 10 km/h (someone i know who owns a Ferrari told me).

When starting from a standstill i do this:

- take foot from brake
- let the car crawl forward for about 0,5 sec (basically the time it takes to change my foot from brake to accelerator)
- gently give it some gas
- shift to 2nd at 3000 rpm

I want to keep my original clutch for as long as possible because:
a) i don't want big repair bills
b) i'm paranoid about getting stranded at some traffic lights, and not being able to shift. Then you're the idiot in his fancy car and you end up on youtube

So, anymore tips

How do you guys start when the traffic light goes green?

 

007, sorry. I thought your car was a sportshift. I re-read your comment, and i now see it's a manual.

 

This is essentially the way I drive now. Took me a while to learn it, and I stalled out a few times before I figured out I need a little throttle when starting on a significant uphill. But otherwise, I don't hit the throttle until my foot is fully off the clutch. Unfortunately, I didn't learn this until after my first clutch replacement at ~27k miles (this may not all be attributable to me -- first 2 owners put the first 7k miles on the car).

 

Almost 45k on the original clutch on my 2009 sport shift. I always do a clutch learn when starting up and I try as much as possible to let the clutch fully engage without throttle input whenever possible from a standstill. I live in South Beach so there is a lot of start stop traffic but I get it on the highway at least once a week.

 

2009 with 10260 Miles - Clutch was replaced with ~8500 Miles with previous owner.

My car received a new clutch since a hose came lose and greased the clutch. This happened during a service at AM and clutch was replaced.

However, I had burned clutch smell when I had her idling in neutral in my driveway and when I parked the first couple days backwards in my garage it smelled terrible.
It seems to be better now but I only own her for couple 100 miles yet.

Is that normal or do I build up a problem?

I only drive drive MT cars since I sit in the driver seat and never had to replace a clutch in my live.

 

When I first bought my Vantage (Vantage #1) in 2007, Aston Martin still had their performance driving courses. before the course I'd rest my foot on the clutch pedal, not the dead pedal (yeah I know, roll-eyes). If I had not taken that course, I'd bet the wear on the clutch would have been much worse, but after 25K miles of very aggressive driving, mostly in city traffic, in two years, the clutch was still OK.

 

2006 V8 Vantage
Manual 28,000 miles
Original clutch, no issues so far

 

2008 roadster sportshift. 39,000 replaced by dealer. i bought the car at 49k. currently 56k. hoping to last until 78k

 

We can examine clutch launches and clutch life until the cows come home, but the fact is the clutch sucks on these cars. I find it inexcusable that a performance car is manufactured with a substandard clutch assembly. You can buy a Mustang or Camero, take it to the drag strip and beat the hell out of it and the clutch will not be a problem. Ford even has launch control in the Mustang GT. They want you to abuse the clutch. I read an article on the effort Ford but into designing and building the clutch assembly for the Mustang GT350 to make sure it was bullitproof. I am not cutting Aston Martin any slack on this.
Their clutch assemblies suck. They should recall every V8 and install a dual clutch system that works.

 

Funny that you should mention this, because Aston Martin is going to be releasing a retro-fit kit for the V8V, to allow owners to fit the Twin Plate V12VS unit into the V8 cars.

It's not going to be a recall, and I'd bet it's going to be a lot more expensive than our version, but it will be essentially the same thing.

 

2006 V8V Manual

Original clutch went out at 59,000 miles and was replaced
Mileage today is at 68,000 miles