Discussion
Had a day out at Castle Combe yesterday, really enjoyed both the circuit and the way the car drove.
Since it had last been out on track I'd had this done:
OE Wishbones and balljoints
OE Cup shocks
Cooksport springs
Polybushed the front ARB, rear shock mounts and the rear beam bushes
Camber bolts
Pure Motorsport solid front shock mounts and strut brace
Ferodo DS2500 front pads
R888 tyres on OZ/Sparco alloys
Oil service
I thought it was good fun before, but having that lot done and a geo setup it's now an absolute little monster. It's lost none of the fun factor but it's a whole lot more composed. I'd read in a few places that a suspension refresh and geo setup is one of the best things you can do to these and I wholeheartedly agree.
The plan now is to just enjoy the car, a couple of minor tweaks are probably coming but I do mean minor - a remap to give it a better low-down power delivery, some spacers for a slightly wider track and some shims for the rear to correct the toe which is a bit out at the moment.
Couple of vids from the day, I had a datalogger running but it was having trouble getting a GPS fix so the speed/g-force data is a bit erratic.....
My best lap of the day
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVqwhXY8ZEg
A mate in his R500 desperately trying to keep up (or, he was nearly out of fuel so decided to sit behind me and do some tracking shots, I prefer to believe I was just faster
)
http://youtu.be/MEix4exSNUw
That R500 is one amazing piece of kit, the only thing there that was faster on the day was a Radical with a Civ Type-R engine running slicks.
Couple of pics:
Hopefully off to Thruxton at the end of June as I'd like to get a handle on more of my local tracks, but I want to do Bedford GT again too.
Can't see anything replacing the 182 any time soon, unless my numbers come up in the lottery tonight.......
Since it had last been out on track I'd had this done:
OE Wishbones and balljoints
OE Cup shocks
Cooksport springs
Polybushed the front ARB, rear shock mounts and the rear beam bushes
Camber bolts
Pure Motorsport solid front shock mounts and strut brace
Ferodo DS2500 front pads
R888 tyres on OZ/Sparco alloys
Oil service
I thought it was good fun before, but having that lot done and a geo setup it's now an absolute little monster. It's lost none of the fun factor but it's a whole lot more composed. I'd read in a few places that a suspension refresh and geo setup is one of the best things you can do to these and I wholeheartedly agree.
The plan now is to just enjoy the car, a couple of minor tweaks are probably coming but I do mean minor - a remap to give it a better low-down power delivery, some spacers for a slightly wider track and some shims for the rear to correct the toe which is a bit out at the moment.
Couple of vids from the day, I had a datalogger running but it was having trouble getting a GPS fix so the speed/g-force data is a bit erratic.....
My best lap of the day
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVqwhXY8ZEg
A mate in his R500 desperately trying to keep up (or, he was nearly out of fuel so decided to sit behind me and do some tracking shots, I prefer to believe I was just faster
)http://youtu.be/MEix4exSNUw
That R500 is one amazing piece of kit, the only thing there that was faster on the day was a Radical with a Civ Type-R engine running slicks.
Couple of pics:
Hopefully off to Thruxton at the end of June as I'd like to get a handle on more of my local tracks, but I want to do Bedford GT again too.
Can't see anything replacing the 182 any time soon, unless my numbers come up in the lottery tonight.......
Busy day on the 182 yesterday 
There's a very cheap induction mod written up on ClioSport, basically a 70mm pipe with a 90 degree bend and a cheap cone filter. Yes, I know, chavvy and heat-soak city. Except it seems this one actually works, it's been proven that the temperature behind the passenger headlight is considerably lower than the rest of the engine bay and that's where the cold air feed comes in anyway. Essentially for about £40 you have the induction system noise and potentially a little more power, or at least no power loss anyway.
I decided to give it a go. There was another mod I wanted to do as well, which was to improve the brake cooling. Since putting the DS2500 pads on I've not had a problem, but that doesn't mean I won't in future as the brake cooling on the RS Clios is famously bad. Ideally I'd have used some ducting and diverter plates but I thought I'd try the cheap and easy approach and see how I get on with that.
So, strip out the foglights, modify the wheel arch liners, move or remove anything that blocks the airflow from foglight openings to the wheels (horn, carbon canister) and strip out and replace the induction system. I stupidly thought I had a couple of hours work ahead of me, it took four.....
First stop was to strip the wheel arch liners out to get access to everything. I knew the passenger side wasn't in great shape, but I was surprised to see just how bad it was. Spot the difference:
I didn't want to get rid of the driver's side arch because doing that exposes one of the engine pulleys, but it was into the bin for the passenger side one and then out with the hot knife to "modify" the driver's side arch. It only caught fire once, which I was quite impressed with
Having done that it was time to remove the foglights, move the horns out of the way and tidy up the cables and pipework that were left behind. Bit of a mess at this point:
After tidying that lot away with some cable ties I removed the airbox and cold air pipework along with the carbon canister. Fair old pile of stuff that I've removed:
Wheel arch liner goes back on the driver's side and hopefully this shot shows why I've done it - nice straight path for air to run from the bumper through to the brakes. Time will tell if it makes much of a difference, but it certainly can't hurt.
On to the induction kit - really simple to fit and although I've probably gone a bit overboard with the cable ties at least it's not waggling around (at least until the ties give up from the heat of the engine).
My inner chav likes this very, very much
It's absolutely hilarious, the noise it makes is really hard-edged and aggressive. The best thing about it though is that it doesn't change the sound of the car at all when you're at small throttle openings, so if you want to be discreet you can. I'm probably imagining it but I'd swear it's a little freer revving and more responsive too, that probably is just the placebo effect though.
That'll be the car ready for Thruxton at the end of June then.
There's a very cheap induction mod written up on ClioSport, basically a 70mm pipe with a 90 degree bend and a cheap cone filter. Yes, I know, chavvy and heat-soak city. Except it seems this one actually works, it's been proven that the temperature behind the passenger headlight is considerably lower than the rest of the engine bay and that's where the cold air feed comes in anyway. Essentially for about £40 you have the induction system noise and potentially a little more power, or at least no power loss anyway.
I decided to give it a go. There was another mod I wanted to do as well, which was to improve the brake cooling. Since putting the DS2500 pads on I've not had a problem, but that doesn't mean I won't in future as the brake cooling on the RS Clios is famously bad. Ideally I'd have used some ducting and diverter plates but I thought I'd try the cheap and easy approach and see how I get on with that.
So, strip out the foglights, modify the wheel arch liners, move or remove anything that blocks the airflow from foglight openings to the wheels (horn, carbon canister) and strip out and replace the induction system. I stupidly thought I had a couple of hours work ahead of me, it took four.....
First stop was to strip the wheel arch liners out to get access to everything. I knew the passenger side wasn't in great shape, but I was surprised to see just how bad it was. Spot the difference:
I didn't want to get rid of the driver's side arch because doing that exposes one of the engine pulleys, but it was into the bin for the passenger side one and then out with the hot knife to "modify" the driver's side arch. It only caught fire once, which I was quite impressed with
Having done that it was time to remove the foglights, move the horns out of the way and tidy up the cables and pipework that were left behind. Bit of a mess at this point:
After tidying that lot away with some cable ties I removed the airbox and cold air pipework along with the carbon canister. Fair old pile of stuff that I've removed:
Wheel arch liner goes back on the driver's side and hopefully this shot shows why I've done it - nice straight path for air to run from the bumper through to the brakes. Time will tell if it makes much of a difference, but it certainly can't hurt.
On to the induction kit - really simple to fit and although I've probably gone a bit overboard with the cable ties at least it's not waggling around (at least until the ties give up from the heat of the engine).
My inner chav likes this very, very much
It's absolutely hilarious, the noise it makes is really hard-edged and aggressive. The best thing about it though is that it doesn't change the sound of the car at all when you're at small throttle openings, so if you want to be discreet you can. I'm probably imagining it but I'd swear it's a little freer revving and more responsive too, that probably is just the placebo effect though.
That'll be the car ready for Thruxton at the end of June then.
Edited by anonymous-user on Sunday 31st May 18:39
So, Thruxton.....
Great day. Car worked really well, although it definitely felt a little under powered given Thruxton is such a very fast circuit. That said I was out-braking a lot of stuff there into the two big stops which was a lot of fun. I moved the rear ARB from the soft to the hard setting and that improved the car even more.
By the last couple of runs I was consistently hitting the same lap times and without more power I don't honestly think I could have gone any quicker, I was pretty much flat out through the longer corners. I don't think I'll do Thruxton again in this car, but it's one hell of a circuit.
In terms of developing the car further I've just got a bit of kit to correct the last remaining problem with the driving position. The gear lever needs too much of a stretch to get third and the throw is too long so I've bought a modified Scenic shifter from ClioSport and will be getting it fitted soon. It sits the gear knob much closer to the driver and also has a shorter throw. I'll post some pics when it's fitted.
Back to Bedford GT in July with a bit of luck.
Great day. Car worked really well, although it definitely felt a little under powered given Thruxton is such a very fast circuit. That said I was out-braking a lot of stuff there into the two big stops which was a lot of fun. I moved the rear ARB from the soft to the hard setting and that improved the car even more.
By the last couple of runs I was consistently hitting the same lap times and without more power I don't honestly think I could have gone any quicker, I was pretty much flat out through the longer corners. I don't think I'll do Thruxton again in this car, but it's one hell of a circuit.
In terms of developing the car further I've just got a bit of kit to correct the last remaining problem with the driving position. The gear lever needs too much of a stretch to get third and the throw is too long so I've bought a modified Scenic shifter from ClioSport and will be getting it fitted soon. It sits the gear knob much closer to the driver and also has a shorter throw. I'll post some pics when it's fitted.
Back to Bedford GT in July with a bit of luck.
Not something I'd heard of before, but someone on another forum mentioned the CG-Lock as being worth a try if you can't or don't want to fit proper harnesses.
For £40 I thought it was worth a punt so ordered one and so far I'm really impressed. Even in fast road driving I'm held in place a lot better and it's much easier to drive the car because I'm not having to brace myself against the g-forces anywhere near as much. Be interesting to see how it holds up to proper track use.
New gear lever is being fitted this week, then off to the Bedford GT circuit on the 20th.
For £40 I thought it was worth a punt so ordered one and so far I'm really impressed. Even in fast road driving I'm held in place a lot better and it's much easier to drive the car because I'm not having to brace myself against the g-forces anywhere near as much. Be interesting to see how it holds up to proper track use.
New gear lever is being fitted this week, then off to the Bedford GT circuit on the 20th.
New gear lever fitted
Shift is hugely improved, it's a combination of the position being so much better because it's closer to the driver, it's much stiffer and has a slightly shorter throw. I'm really happy with it and looking forward to trying it out on the track.
Edited by anonymous-user on Saturday 11th July 09:36
Bedford was awesome.
The new gear lever worked perfectly, shift was spot on. The CG Lock held me in place really well, I was able to concentrate on my driving much more without worrying about bracing myself under hard braking.
The car is exactly where I want it now, just me to work on, and there's plenty of work to do there
The new gear lever worked perfectly, shift was spot on. The CG Lock held me in place really well, I was able to concentrate on my driving much more without worrying about bracing myself under hard braking.
The car is exactly where I want it now, just me to work on, and there's plenty of work to do there
Sounds like your having a lot of fun in it. I used to own a 172 Cup and loved it. I've not read the entire thread so you might have already done this but have you considered fitting a heat proof inlet gasket set?
When I had my 172 Cup; there was somebody on Cliosport that developed an inlet gasket set out of PTFE that provided really good heat insulation to the inlet plenum. It went from being really hot; almost too hot to touch, to being able to hold your hand on it. This might bring down inlet temps and hence give you a bit more bang for your buck so to speak.
Easy to fit as well.
When I had my 172 Cup; there was somebody on Cliosport that developed an inlet gasket set out of PTFE that provided really good heat insulation to the inlet plenum. It went from being really hot; almost too hot to touch, to being able to hold your hand on it. This might bring down inlet temps and hence give you a bit more bang for your buck so to speak.
Easy to fit as well.
Has it really been July since I did a trackday? Bloody hell. That'd explain why I'm so keen to get back out there again.
Probably the last one of the year coming up on the 31st, back to Bedford on the SEN layout. I did my first ever trackday there almost exactly a year ago and haven't been back since, so it will be interesting to see how much quicker I can go compared to last time.
The only thing which has happened to the car since the last update is I have bent the bumper hanger on the passenger side out of the way of the tyre as it was rubbing in hard cornering. Hopefully that's the annoying rubbing noise sorted
I've got the track day bug big time now, so much that I'm seriously considering changing my daily driver for something sheddy and putting the money towards something like a nice Caterham for weekend/track use. The current plan is to get another year out of the Clio and see how my finances are. Patience is not one of my virtues, however
Probably the last one of the year coming up on the 31st, back to Bedford on the SEN layout. I did my first ever trackday there almost exactly a year ago and haven't been back since, so it will be interesting to see how much quicker I can go compared to last time.
The only thing which has happened to the car since the last update is I have bent the bumper hanger on the passenger side out of the way of the tyre as it was rubbing in hard cornering. Hopefully that's the annoying rubbing noise sorted
I've got the track day bug big time now, so much that I'm seriously considering changing my daily driver for something sheddy and putting the money towards something like a nice Caterham for weekend/track use. The current plan is to get another year out of the Clio and see how my finances are. Patience is not one of my virtues, however
Edited by anonymous-user on Friday 16th October 14:18
Well that didn't go so well, on the way to Bedford the Clio developed a misfire and then started cutting out on one cylinder. I got it running well for a while by disconnecting the injectors and HT leads and plugging them all back in again, but the problem came back.
Only managed about 15 or 20 laps and drove home in a very noisy and very unhappy 3-pot Clio.
Poo.
It's probably nothing more serious than a failed injector as they're all getting on for having about 120k miles on them now. To be fair to the car this is it's sixth track day and it's the first time it's let me down, I know a lot of people who'd love to have that much reliability in their track cars
Only managed about 15 or 20 laps and drove home in a very noisy and very unhappy 3-pot Clio.
Poo.
It's probably nothing more serious than a failed injector as they're all getting on for having about 120k miles on them now. To be fair to the car this is it's sixth track day and it's the first time it's let me down, I know a lot of people who'd love to have that much reliability in their track cars
Ouch. Bruised my hands to hell and back doing it, but the dodgy injector has been replaced and the Clio is fighting fit again
It had obviously been getting a bit ropey for a while, the engine feels much smoother now the new injector is on.
Time for the car to have a little nap over the winter months. Next outing will probably be a shakedown track day to make sure everything is as it should be before....... Spa Francorchamps.
It had obviously been getting a bit ropey for a while, the engine feels much smoother now the new injector is on.
Time for the car to have a little nap over the winter months. Next outing will probably be a shakedown track day to make sure everything is as it should be before....... Spa Francorchamps.
It's a great little car mate
I probably won't have it too much longer as I'm selling the Alpina and putting the money into upgrading from the Clio to something a bit quicker but as a starter/budget track car it has been absolutely superb. I'll probably strip most of the tastier mods off it and sell them separately as there is a very strong market for tuning parts for these.
If that doesn't work out I'm still perfectly happy with it, although I suspect it might be a bit under-powered running up Kemmel at Spa
I probably won't have it too much longer as I'm selling the Alpina and putting the money into upgrading from the Clio to something a bit quicker but as a starter/budget track car it has been absolutely superb. I'll probably strip most of the tastier mods off it and sell them separately as there is a very strong market for tuning parts for these.
If that doesn't work out I'm still perfectly happy with it, although I suspect it might be a bit under-powered running up Kemmel at Spa
charltjr said:
Well the replacement track day car is here - another Clio but a rather special one with a Megane turbo engine in it - so this is now up for sale. Obviously can't link to the ad, but it's not going to be hard to find on a certain popular motoring website's classified section
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