Well most of what you listed is asthetic or preference, yes there handy and definantly have a place in the world. But from a purly performance standpoint, there as good or better than anything else. It's very possible you switched to an electric setup and it worked better, either your clutch fan was in poor shape, the higher flow of the eletric fan is masking some deeper cooling problems, or you just plain old needed more air than the clutch fan could provide(I mentioned that in my post).
I'll address things in order..
I've never broken a belt, ever, I'm nosing under the hood too often to let that slip by.
See paragraph above for the better cooling in your case.
I like fan shrouds, especially on C3's. But it's an asthetic preference at any rate.
Yes it's more compact, I mentioned that too.
Shock tower frame suppose ~shrug~ I'm assuming that's a stress bar between the front A-arm mounting points? If I needed one that bad I believe I could make it work reguardless, but I also mentioned space saveings i my post.
Cleans up enging compartment, asthetic preference again.
Manually operated, clutch fan dosent need to be, and neither should your electric one.
Why would you want to run it for a time after the car shuts off, the coolent is not circulating unless you have an electric water pump and a way to hold the thermostat open so your just cooling down the radiator itself. I know many vehicles do this, dont know why.
Up fron or behind radiator mounting, this is true, falls under space saveing that I mentioned.
I've never had any trouble with a corectly functionig cooing system with a conventional water pump and fan not running as it should, +/- a few degrees is just fine with me. Hell I have a 78 Lincoln with the original clutch fan and over 200K on it that will peg an autometer temp guage like you wouldnt believe, it never moves.
As far as cost, it may actually be cheaper to go with electric's, say if you had to procure the shroud and fan and all, that stuff isnt cheap either. But if you already have it on a reasonably stock car, it should be plenty. Simplicity and originality while maintaining excellent functionality are plus's in my book. It's that old "if it aint broke" thing, modifying and increasing performance is one thing, but I dont see any problems with what came on the car in this case. And that's rare for a vette.
There's nothing wrong with wanting electric whatever, it's your car, go for it. But in most stock cases there is little benifit performance wise over a correctly functioning stock setup.
It's like flex fans, few years ago everyone ran out and got flex fans that would flatten out at higher RPM's and suposidly take less power to turn, wrong. Dyno test's consistantly show a good stock clutch fan taking less power than a flex fan with no clutch.
Looking at stewart componest, they say clutch fans are "inconsistant" and do not recoment there use at all. They have been exposed to cheap, made in tiawan clutches. No I wouldnt run one on a 7K RPM race motor, but a good one is alright for mild street in my experience.
To each his own though..
