I have had my 1998 2.0 GL a year now, lovely car but it doesn't feel quite right.

from stopped, gently pulling the clutch from the floor to get first gear will easily stop the engine and hardly move the car. Especially so once it's warm and it idles at 500rpm instead of 1500.

The clutch only slips when I get the gas/clutch balance very wrong. I've only driven a crappy corsa before this so is this just what a powerful clutch is like?

And the gearbox question... 1st gear has a fairly loud whine that disappears in all the other gears. Recently changed all the oils in this (engine/box/diff) but the noise has stayed the same.

I thought I might need either a new clutch or some bearings but as I'm sure you'll understand I don't want to do this job twice.

Any help would be appreciated, cheers.

 

The whine could be something outside the gearbox, prop bearings for example. WRX & sti boxes whine due to the output shaft bearing wearing amongst other things. Tricky to say but if your clutch is slipping on full chat (with clutch relased and you're in a higher gear) then you'll need to replace it anyway, recommend clutch bearing too. Then see if situation changes, good luck