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Clutch pedal modifications

Clutch Pedal Modifications This picture shows how I modified my pedal assembly in an effort to facilitate performance driving.  I bought a used pedal cluster from Jason at Zionsville.  Then I removed the clutch pedal and had my friend Sean McLean cut and weld it into a new position (he also reinforced it while he was at it).  After he was done I swapped the modified pedal in for the existing one.  I originally planned to swap the entire pedal assembly but this proved difficult without removing the steering column first.

My goal here was to have the clutch pedal farther away from me than the brake pedal.  Although the clutch pedal location can be adjusted to some extent with the eccentric bolt at the end of the master cylinder push rod, this only allows about 3-4 mm variation.  I wanted the clutch pedal about an inch farther away from me.  I have several reasons for this. 


First, the actual effective travel required to disengage the clutch on my M3 is very short.  Having the pedal as high as it was from the  factory provided way too much travel and caused a lot of wasted time and movement, as well as making the clutch difficult to modulate.  Some BMW owners fabricate a "pedal stop" to prevent unnecessary travel in the clutch pedal.  This is a viable solution but it negates one of the other advantages of the current method.  Namely, having the clutch pedal farther away than the brake pedal gives me more room to come across with my left foot during left foot braking.  And I use left foot braking almost exclusively when I auto-x.  Lastly, having the clutch effort concentrated farther away from my body means that my leg is more extended when operating the clutch and this saves my knees some irritation when driving in traffic.  Moving the seat farther back was not an option as then my arms are too stretched out when reaching the steering wheel.

I also adjusted the positioning of the brake pedal so that under full pressure, it comes to rest in-plane with the throttle pedal.  This makes it much easier to heel-toe.  Luckily, BMW engineers saw fit to place the brake and throttle pedals close together so that pedal covers (extensions) would be superfluous.  This is definitely not the case with my 87 GTI!  I suppose VW is more sensitive to lawsuits after the AUDI debacle in the 80's.



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Home
Back to Installs
place holder
place holder
Installs Part-1
Installs Part-2
Installs Part-3
Ground Control Suspension
2.5 L Engine Rebuild
M Coupe Diff Cover
Custom Ergonomics
Sparco Stress Bar