I'm not convinced that starting a car in anything but first gear (unless you're on a downslope and can get some movement before using the clutch) is a good idea. Here's why:
Starting the car in 2nd or 3rd will make the clutch wear out
exponentially faster.
Let's say, for the sake of argument that 2nd gear will spin the clutch pad twice as fast as 1st gear. One might think, "So my clutch might wear out twice as fast, no big deal, I can still make it last 75k miles..." However, when you factor in
heat and amount of time needed to slip the clutch, we're talking about an exponential factor. A hot clutch wears its material out
much faster. Also, if you need to slip it for twice as long, at twice the speed; we're looking at clutch wear of (2*2)x= y where x equals some sort of heat factor and y equals the amount of clutch material used relative to using first. So, we're using four times as much clutch material
before multiplying it by however much the added heat affects it.
I'm sure my equation is not quite right, and there are some other factors. I'm a musician, not a physicist (I'm sure I'm ignoring weight and a few other variables).
So, how much is a clutch worth? I will admit one miiiight be able to squeeze a bit more FE, but I'm not convinced of that, especially since all that slippage is wasted energy, and that energy is being converted to heat on the clutch which increases wear.
That's just my $0.02.
JMac
