Mad Sci,
Could you describe what it felt like driving a sintered iron clutch ?
I know this is somewhat like asking "What does beer taste like ?"
I can imagine, but it's just imagining without doing.
I also understand that asking about clutch wear is pointless and depends on everything else in the universe.
I'm sure many will come along and argue this but I'll post it anyway.
The sintered iron clutch, if properly adapted to your application (meaning you had a Rob Youngblood or a Hyatt or a Cale...dang...can't think of Cale's last name right now but he owns Black Magic Clutches put together a clutch for you that may have different levers or spring rates or what ever) will be the easiest to drive, the easiest on parts and the quickest at the track of any clutch. It's that simple. You'll run so little base load (pressure) it's silly (I'd have to check my notes but off the top of my head I'm running right now, just for street stuff about 875 base load and about 8 grams on all the levers for a total...again going off my head and not my notes about a total of 1200ish pounds of plate load at 7000 RPM so that is really very little and at the track I'd drop the base load down to the low 600's and tune from there) and you can tune the clutch any way you want it.
Everyone squeals at the unsprung hub. With very little base load you'll never know its not a sprung hub. The weight of the disc by itself is a bit heavy, but it's still less that two rag discs and a floater by a ways.
I'd never ever go back to anything else. They are easily the most street friendly clutch I've used. And done correctly, they don't break parts.
You are on the right track in that you already have an aluminum flywheel. That's almost half the battle. A heavy flywheel is a parts killer and you just don't need it.
If for some reason you decide to not use a sintered iron clutch, I'd suggest you look into the clutch tamer. My first choice is always the SO clutch, but the upfront costs and all the nonsense on the interwebs scare some off. The clutch tamer will cover most of the evils of a rag disc clutch and allow you to tune the application of the clutch. In other words, the CT allows you to control how the clutch is applied to the rest of the drive train and the chassis/tire. The SI clutch is my first choice. Any other clutch than that and you'll need a CT.
