Don't think you will get much of a smell off the Ceramic clutch material, I am wondering if your diaphragm is too flat and possibly close to going over centre in the release position, if this is the case centrifugal force can hold it in the released position if you get on the throttle too quickly after a gear change. Diaphragms are a bit different and the clamping force or grip gets better as the plates wear until the diaphragm approaches the limits of the cover hat assy. We found with twin plate clutch from E49 and GTHO Falcons that we could improve the clutch in racing applications by using a ~ 0.040" to 0.060" washer on each of the clutch cover bolts between cover & flywheel, this was enough to prevent the diaphragm going over centre and allowed the driver to flat shift, something that is not possible with it set up to ford factory specs. Try it, what have you got to lose! You may also need a pedal stop to prevent using more clutch travel than reqd... adjust so that you can just select rev or first is enough