AP Racing race clutch
AP Racing's competition clutches are the other half of Coventry's grip on motorsport: 5.5- and 7.25-inch paddle and multi-plate units transmitting everything from F1 history to club rally — the establishment alternative in every serious driveline.
History
AP Racing's clutch heritage runs as deep as its brakes: Coventry has supplied competition clutches to Formula 1, world rallying and touring cars for half a century, and the customer catalogue distils that lineage — cerametallic paddle clutches for rally and race four-cylinders, small-diameter (5.5-inch, 7.25-inch) multi-plate units for formula and sports-racing applications, and matched covers, plates and release systems catalogued by CP number like the brake side of the house.
The market position is the establishment's: where Tilton speaks American club racing's dialect, AP's clutch catalogue is British and European motorsport's native tongue — rally builds (the paddle-clutch-behind-a-YB-or-Millington default), historic single-seaters, touring cars and GT machinery specifying AP by tradition and dealer network alike.
Used AP clutch hardware follows friction-market law: stack measurement against published specs (plates, floaters, diaphragm condition), heat-history honesty on cerametallic paddles (blued hubs tell tales), and CP-number fitment verification — with AP's rebuild-parts catalogue keeping cores serviceable and the used trade priced against readily available new units.
Palmarès
Transmitting World Championship power across F1, WRC and touring-car history; inside British and European rally and race champions at every national level for five decades — the establishment clutch record, written in CP numbers.
What to check before you buy
CP numbers settle identity: verify the exact clutch model, diameter and spline against AP's catalogue and your flywheel/gearbox combination — paddle versus multi-plate versus twin-plate families serve different lives. Measure the friction stack against published wear specs where possible; inspect diaphragm fingers and paddle-lining condition (cerametallic linings chip visibly when abused), and read heat discolouration honestly. Release-bearing compatibility (travel, contact pattern) belongs in the same purchase. New availability through the dealer network anchors used pricing — pay for measured condition and matched assemblies, never for patina.
Did you know
- AP has supplied clutch and brake hardware to Grand Prix racing across half a century — Coventry's two product lines bracket the racing car's energy in and energy out.
- The cerametallic paddle clutch behind a rally four is such a British-rally default that 'AP paddle' functions as a spec-sheet noun.
- Small-diameter clutch stacks are measured like brake discs — published wear specs turn used AP purchases into arithmetic, the friction trade's honest corner.
