Found an issue!

Every once in a while I had noticed I needed to press harder on the clutch to start our '08 GT, I put a Bondurant clutch pedal extension on it so I just knew was pressing it full stroke. Well, yesterday I was vacuuming it out, there was my wife's hand picked floor mat ... but wait! "What's this?" I asked myself.

A rolled up OEM floor mat balled in a roll up condition above the floor up behind the clutch and brake, and gas pedals. The hook that was in the carpet is gone, just a square hole where it was once. It's a nice mat ... carpet covered rubber. I look on the passenger side, there's the mate to it under the new mat she put in, I thought she replaced them. LOL.

Probably picked up 2.7 horses just from increased gas pedal travel.

 

I have seen people do that. You wanna just be like

 

Oh man!!! I'm actually happy to hear it didn't get under your brake pedal. Yikes!
By the way, nice horsepower gain. I never heard of the carpet mod before.

 

Well, I guess because the brake pedal sets some further from the floor and that the carpeted mat was just rolled once ... the brake likely never reached it.

"The carpet mod" ....

 

In the subsequent drives, I've noted that it does shift more consistently easier, so there's that too. I guess while it didn't hinder brake operation, might have been limiting clutch pedal travel. It is a cleaner pull or push through neutral, where as I was pausing more allowing the synchros to do "their thing". I never did try rapid shifting it, I just was aggrevated by the long pauses which upset my timing.

Also, no more having to press harder on the clutch to start the car.

Still hard to believe the rolled up mat was there that long, but the floor is black, the mat was rolled up so the rubber side was out and it's black too, and with the new mats she put in, maybe it was the source of my issues? I can well live with this as it is now.

 

As we get older, black mats on black carpet in a garage means you can't see a thing. I used to believe my carpets stayed so clean until I started putting a flashlight down there to see that vacuuming was needed long ago.

 

Well, ordered replacement hooks for the carpet so I can replace the missing hook, Dorman sells in a two pack, #45186. I seen the hole where there once was one on the left, I might add one beside it .

Back in the '70s I had a Dart Swinger 340 with 4 speed, was a time or two the hanging gas pedal's lower left corner got caught by the big rubber floor mats. I stompped the pedal a couple times, it released. Soon I cut a big chunk of floor mat out. It didn't hold it wide open, but it was past half and when the left foot had pressed the clutch for a granny shift, rpms shot up fast. Never happened when power shifting because the gas wasn't let up to shift then. My other cars with manuals back then were GM products and had the gas pedal that like "hinged" on the floor, never had an issue with them. .