ClassicCar

The extra thickness of the flywheel is necessary due to the friction heat of the dry clutch. The oil bathed clutch has less friction and the oil bath transfers the heat to the cover of the pressure plate assembly whichin turn is air cooled. No wonder Hudson wet clutches were superior, when maintained properly. VW is using wet clutches in their current automated manual transmissions. The corks on the Hudson wet clutch do not depend on friction so much as suction, they work like the suckers on an Octopus's tentacles. The more fluid squeezed out between the corks and the flywheel/ pressure-plate faces, the more grip it has. A Hudson wet clutch can handle enough torque to twist the splines on the input shaft with no damage to the corks.

Bob & Oldfarmer, thanks for the information about the Hudson dry clutch & about the overdrive. Still learning something new. Bob, in your picture there is something near the exhaust elbow outlet. Is that connected to the breather toob or the exhaust elbow and what is it used for?
Lee O'Dell

Lee, that's connected to the breather tube and presumably went to the aircleaner.

This is one of the dished centre conversion flywheels that were used when putting a short crank 55/56 308 into a manual stepdown.

Never too old to learn.