The year is half way gone now and today, the 22nd June is the shortest day of the year. What does that mean? We have everything to look forward to as the days get longer and await spring to arrive.
We have more new stock arriving from overseas next week and hopefully more to follow soon after. We will post updates on that later.
Today though, we are going to give everyone some info on Torini approved clutches.
The supplied and recommended Torini clutch is a product produced by Noram USA. The Torini GEL clutch as it is known is actually produced by Noram as the "Noram Ultimate" clutch.
The other approved clutch is the "beginner" clutch. This clutch is also manufactured by the Noram company as the "Noram GE". Often referred to as the "GE20" in reference to the number of teeth on the drum.
Now the Ultimate clutch sure has its advantages. Cooler temps due to holes in the drum, changeable sprockets and 34 grams lighter than a stock GE clutch.
On paper the GE doesn't really offer anything of interest but it really is a very robust and well performing clutch.
Now for those that don't know us, we have a history in 4 stroke endurance karting going back beyond the days before 4SS was even considered and the governing body didn't even realize 4 stroke karting was a thing. During this time we have used the Noram GE20 clutch continually in the Prokart/SEK series, inline with the rules in the UK and Europe. The clutch has also been used in the the highly regarded NSW TEKA endurance series, both these series have been running for 20 years, so i guess the GE clutch has been here since the "beginning"
Now we will get a bit more technical. The GEL or Ultimate clutch is obviously a more refined product than the GE and the Ultimate works great in its recommended form. In all honesty, maybe we haven't given the Ultimate enough time and leant towards the use of the GE20 on our karts and for our customers, due to its history and our knowledge. This in no way means the factory supplied or recommended products are wrong, or what we use or suggest is the only right way. This is what works for us and our customers.
The Ultimate clutch has been claimed on numerous occasions to suffer from excess slip resulting in clutch shoe lining damage and then continued slippage requiring shoe replacement. It has been proven on numerous occasions that this has been as a result of not using the recommended clutch settings and this is the exact scenario we encountered during testing.
What else we found was that "recommended" does not always mean "best performance" and up until the clutch lining failure, we actually experienced better results on the dyno and better performance on track.
Our theory behind this is the same as any 4 stroke engines we have tested in the past, Honda GX200, Briggs Animal/206, Subaru KX21. They all performed better with softer clutch engagement, and more so in engines with advanced timing where later and softer engagement was of a huge benefit and allowed the engine to accelerate better without the more sudden/harsh engagement.
To offer some sort of comparison, the SEK Honda GX200 with factory timing can be used on a more aggressive setting but personally i don't. The Subaru KX21 engine provided much better bottom end torque and we could engage the clutch much earlier than any other engine tested, but once again with soft engagement. The Briggs Animal engine, for various reasons always used a much softer engagement which was a huge benefit. All the above tests done with the GE16/20 clutch and used for extended periods in endurance racing and even with the softest of setting offered consistent performance.
Now we have lost count of how many GE clutches we have sold and recently to 4SS competitors in NSW, QLD, VIC and SA. All have offered great feedback on both performance and reliability. It seems from feedback that the GE clutch can handle a much later and softer engagements for extended periods and still offer consistency and our customers claim they have seen increased performance on track.
We offer Torini Clubmaxx packages in various forms to suit each customer, but our most popular option is a complete ready to run kit with run in oil, race oil, accelerator inner cable, Noram GE20 clutch and no engine adapter at $1375. Contact us to discuss the perfect package for you.
Complete Noram GE20 clutches are available on our website for just $149.95 with your choice of Red or white springs, or one of each if you so please. We also stock complete GE Ultimate clutches for those that prefer the Torini recommended clutch.
We also have stock of parts for both clutches and replacement springs for just $5 each.
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