My Renaultsport Machine - Glacier White Clio 200 Cup
Discussion
Hello all, I recently sold my beloved Honda Civic EP3 Type R (build thread here: http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a... and bought myself a GW Clio 200 Cup. I have wanted one of these little cars for a long time so finally got around to buying one. Kinda the wrong order, as most people go from a Saxo, to a Clio, to Civic Tye R, then onto Subaru etc. However, I love the design and handling characteristics of Renaultsport cars and fancied trying one out. I am also about 5 years behind all the other guys who owned a Saxo when I did (FMP etc.) and they have since moved on to bigger and better things, however, I am a late bloomer so to speak, so bear with me 
After many many viewings and test drives of a few dogs, I finally found one via one of the guys on the Clio 197 forum (Ed) so thanks Ed! Had to go to Northern Ireland to find a good one with the specification I was after (Recaro's, White, Cup chassis) as all of the ones I looked at here were either not what I was after, or had something wrong with them. I don't plan to modify it as I don't think it's required. It's also my daily driver as I already have a highly tuned Peugeot S2 106 Rallye on bodies, so this is supposed to be my sensible machine! As you can tell I have a penchant for small fast French hatchbacks
Overall the car is very clean and in excellent condition, mainly owing to the fact that the lad who owned it before me is a Renault technician so he maintained it very well, and also liked detailing so the paintwork is mint. After the long ferry journey and drive back from Liverpool to Hertfordshire she was running nicely, and I was getting used to it.
I will probably just carry out a few small tweaks to tidy it up further, and get it really nice and mint. If I do anything mechanical it will be a brake upgrade in the form of some AP discs or the like. It already has an Akrapovic exhaust system so that satisfies my lust for modifications so far!
Needless to say, I am in love with the car already and it really does handle like a slightly softened race car. Fantastic little machine it is.
Firstly, after reading about the drain holes blocking and water ingress becoming a problem, I decided to tackle this as one of the first this afternoon. Went ok, not a bad job overall just fiddly, and it started p*ssing it down halfway through so I lost my sense of humour with it after a while. I also had to make a puller (bit rough but it did the job) as my wipers were on uber tight and I didn't want to damage anything by forcing them off. This worked a treat. As it happened my drain holes weren't blocked, but there was still a lot of dirt and crap in under the scuttle so gave it a good clean anyway. A few hours later i'd got the job done, cleaned and refitted all the plastics, and more importantly cleaned the scuttle area and ensured the drain holes were nice and clear. A few pics of the work. I will get some better photos of the car once the god-damned weather sorts itself out and I can clean the thing.
Interior:
Wheel and brake (calipers in great condition too, another seemingly difficult box to tick when finding one!)
My DIY bodged puller (really must buy a decent one at some point they are very handy to have):
Scuttle before:
Scuttle after:
With a bit of luck I can clean it tomorrow and get some more photos up.
Plans so far are to buy a full set of proper Renaultsport mats, some black Renaultsport 'RS' centre caps, two new front tyres, and possibly a silver Renaultsport steering wheel insert. A nice touch is that she has the FF steering wheel fitted, which is much nicer than the skinnier cup version.
That's all for now!
Lewis
After many many viewings and test drives of a few dogs, I finally found one via one of the guys on the Clio 197 forum (Ed) so thanks Ed! Had to go to Northern Ireland to find a good one with the specification I was after (Recaro's, White, Cup chassis) as all of the ones I looked at here were either not what I was after, or had something wrong with them. I don't plan to modify it as I don't think it's required. It's also my daily driver as I already have a highly tuned Peugeot S2 106 Rallye on bodies, so this is supposed to be my sensible machine! As you can tell I have a penchant for small fast French hatchbacks
Overall the car is very clean and in excellent condition, mainly owing to the fact that the lad who owned it before me is a Renault technician so he maintained it very well, and also liked detailing so the paintwork is mint. After the long ferry journey and drive back from Liverpool to Hertfordshire she was running nicely, and I was getting used to it.
I will probably just carry out a few small tweaks to tidy it up further, and get it really nice and mint. If I do anything mechanical it will be a brake upgrade in the form of some AP discs or the like. It already has an Akrapovic exhaust system so that satisfies my lust for modifications so far!
Needless to say, I am in love with the car already and it really does handle like a slightly softened race car. Fantastic little machine it is.
Firstly, after reading about the drain holes blocking and water ingress becoming a problem, I decided to tackle this as one of the first this afternoon. Went ok, not a bad job overall just fiddly, and it started p*ssing it down halfway through so I lost my sense of humour with it after a while. I also had to make a puller (bit rough but it did the job) as my wipers were on uber tight and I didn't want to damage anything by forcing them off. This worked a treat. As it happened my drain holes weren't blocked, but there was still a lot of dirt and crap in under the scuttle so gave it a good clean anyway. A few hours later i'd got the job done, cleaned and refitted all the plastics, and more importantly cleaned the scuttle area and ensured the drain holes were nice and clear. A few pics of the work. I will get some better photos of the car once the god-damned weather sorts itself out and I can clean the thing.
Interior:
Wheel and brake (calipers in great condition too, another seemingly difficult box to tick when finding one!)
My DIY bodged puller (really must buy a decent one at some point they are very handy to have):
Scuttle before:
Scuttle after:
With a bit of luck I can clean it tomorrow and get some more photos up.
Plans so far are to buy a full set of proper Renaultsport mats, some black Renaultsport 'RS' centre caps, two new front tyres, and possibly a silver Renaultsport steering wheel insert. A nice touch is that she has the FF steering wheel fitted, which is much nicer than the skinnier cup version.
That's all for now!
Lewis
Edited by Track_Cit on Sunday 1st March 00:48
Thanks chaps.
It's probably not as savagely fast in terms of acceleration when comparing to the Civic as the power delivery is more linear, and you do not get the vtec 'rush'. However, it revs to 8K still and has a lot of umph if you really give it some stick through the gears, very much like the Honda actually. This is deceptively fast I would say. Handling wise, this is much more sophisticated than the Honda. It's just so tight and precise. Great fun to drive and inspires so much confidence through the corners, and when you turn in it just wants more.
Tyres are fine for daily to be honest. They are very good I have found so far. Not expensive either really. They are loud at around 50mph on the motorway, but otherwise they are fine. I just go faster to alleviate this minor problem!
Some more work today. Annoyingly it was really nice which wound me up considering I was out in the rain yesterday - never mind! Today I tackled a few more mundane jobs, but ones that make a difference to the overall appearance of the car. Spent ages cleaning the bay and under the bonnet, also cleaned door shuts, rubber seals, boot hinges and around that area, hoovered it all out inside and generally got her looking mint. Needs a good clean outside again but will get onto that soon. Hopefully Wednesday as it's my birthday and i'm taking the day off work!
A few photos of today's efforts. Still need to take some of the whole car but will preserve those until she is gleaming. Starting to look like new though now I am stoked on it!
Scuttle clean from yesterday (bit of a cack photo but you get the idea):
Engine bay all cleaned and under bonnet. Going to remove the intake pipe and clean it up as it's messing with my OCD. However it's too tight to clean it properly in place, hence why it's grubby still.
Inside door shuts cleaned:
Interior hoovered (one side, started lashing so couldn't complete driver side):
Little black covers removed where keyless entry sensors presumably go on the FF model. Gave these a good clean:
Done:
Door and wheel shot, no reason for this photo just liked the angle:
Really love the shape of the car it's a lovely design. Looking forward to giving it clean and getting some new mats for it hopefully this week.
will update further then.
Thanks.
It's probably not as savagely fast in terms of acceleration when comparing to the Civic as the power delivery is more linear, and you do not get the vtec 'rush'. However, it revs to 8K still and has a lot of umph if you really give it some stick through the gears, very much like the Honda actually. This is deceptively fast I would say. Handling wise, this is much more sophisticated than the Honda. It's just so tight and precise. Great fun to drive and inspires so much confidence through the corners, and when you turn in it just wants more.
Tyres are fine for daily to be honest. They are very good I have found so far. Not expensive either really. They are loud at around 50mph on the motorway, but otherwise they are fine. I just go faster to alleviate this minor problem!
Some more work today. Annoyingly it was really nice which wound me up considering I was out in the rain yesterday - never mind! Today I tackled a few more mundane jobs, but ones that make a difference to the overall appearance of the car. Spent ages cleaning the bay and under the bonnet, also cleaned door shuts, rubber seals, boot hinges and around that area, hoovered it all out inside and generally got her looking mint. Needs a good clean outside again but will get onto that soon. Hopefully Wednesday as it's my birthday and i'm taking the day off work!
A few photos of today's efforts. Still need to take some of the whole car but will preserve those until she is gleaming. Starting to look like new though now I am stoked on it!
Scuttle clean from yesterday (bit of a cack photo but you get the idea):
Engine bay all cleaned and under bonnet. Going to remove the intake pipe and clean it up as it's messing with my OCD. However it's too tight to clean it properly in place, hence why it's grubby still.
Inside door shuts cleaned:
Interior hoovered (one side, started lashing so couldn't complete driver side):
Little black covers removed where keyless entry sensors presumably go on the FF model. Gave these a good clean:
Done:
Door and wheel shot, no reason for this photo just liked the angle:
Really love the shape of the car it's a lovely design. Looking forward to giving it clean and getting some new mats for it hopefully this week.
will update further then.
Thanks.
Got overtaken by a yellow one of these today, he was doing at least a ton as I was shifting some down a local beautifully twisty private road 
Sounded absolutely awesome I dont think it was standard but there was no way that I was going to keep up with him to ask him about it, was a liquid gold speck in the distance in no time.
Sounded absolutely awesome I dont think it was standard but there was no way that I was going to keep up with him to ask him about it, was a liquid gold speck in the distance in no time. 
Loved mine, but always found it abit slow. I always blamed it on running it in, I had it from brand new when Lookers did them at £200pm, and 'ran it in' for 1k miles. Every other new car I've not bothered, and been pleased with performance.
Best mod I did was change the headlights for projectors and fit HIDs. Sold at 6 months old, for £10k!
Best mod I did was change the headlights for projectors and fit HIDs. Sold at 6 months old, for £10k!
Thanks guys.
Yes I still have the rallye too, I am going to try and get it mapped and on the road/track this summer I hope.
Its a fast car but you have to thrash it to get the speed from it. It's pretty similar to my type r in that respect. But it doesn't feel as 'urgent' as the type r. This is a lot of fun of twisties though. Different car to the civic really.
A couple of arty Instagram shots from this evening:
And I really like this one:
Yes I still have the rallye too, I am going to try and get it mapped and on the road/track this summer I hope.
Its a fast car but you have to thrash it to get the speed from it. It's pretty similar to my type r in that respect. But it doesn't feel as 'urgent' as the type r. This is a lot of fun of twisties though. Different car to the civic really.
A couple of arty Instagram shots from this evening:
And I really like this one:
Edited by Track_Cit on Thursday 22 October 15:29
Yes they are fun alright, I just keep getting stuck behind numpties lately so can never really open it up properly. It does stick to the road though I will say.
Ok some more work today - feel dead tonight after a day of working on it. It was my birthday so had the day off, what better way to spend it than playing with the car
Firstly I took the rear lights off and cleaned all the gunk out from behind them, like new now.
Then I spent ages hoovering the rest of the car, mainly drivers side and cleaning the seat rails and all the nooks and crannies. I have oredered some new mats for it too which will freshen up the interior. They should arrive next week I think.
Then I cleaned the engine bay some more, looks mint now.
I also cleaned the whole car but it got dark before I could take photos, so will try and get some tomorrow!
Poo behind the light:
Cleaned:
Light refitted and looking good:
Cleaned inside the fuel filler cap (need to replace the rubber cord):
Hoovered interior (took AAAGES):
Cleaned engine bay:
Hopefully will get some shots up of the whole car tomorrow
Lewis
Ok some more work today - feel dead tonight after a day of working on it. It was my birthday so had the day off, what better way to spend it than playing with the car
Firstly I took the rear lights off and cleaned all the gunk out from behind them, like new now.
Then I spent ages hoovering the rest of the car, mainly drivers side and cleaning the seat rails and all the nooks and crannies. I have oredered some new mats for it too which will freshen up the interior. They should arrive next week I think.
Then I cleaned the engine bay some more, looks mint now.
I also cleaned the whole car but it got dark before I could take photos, so will try and get some tomorrow!
Poo behind the light:
Cleaned:
Light refitted and looking good:
Cleaned inside the fuel filler cap (need to replace the rubber cord):
Hoovered interior (took AAAGES):
Cleaned engine bay:
Hopefully will get some shots up of the whole car tomorrow
Lewis
I really like the 197's in white too.
I went for a drive yesterday as the weather was nice and took a few photo's. Gave her a bit of thrashing once warmed up on the back road. She reaaaally does stick to the road I must say. Impressed with it. First time i've been able to open it up as I always seem to get stuck behind some dawdling incompetent jerk in an MPV or Honda Jazz whenever I head out the door, however, yesterday lady luck was on my side!
The snaps. She is also very clean as I spent the day washing it this week
I went for a drive yesterday as the weather was nice and took a few photo's. Gave her a bit of thrashing once warmed up on the back road. She reaaaally does stick to the road I must say. Impressed with it. First time i've been able to open it up as I always seem to get stuck behind some dawdling incompetent jerk in an MPV or Honda Jazz whenever I head out the door, however, yesterday lady luck was on my side!
The snaps. She is also very clean as I spent the day washing it this week
Couple more recent updates on this which I have finally got around to uploading the photos of. Got some new mats, new window seals (real nightmare job that was), and a new dash clock display surround as mine was scratched up.
Also removed my speedo cluster and got rid of a dead bug that had gotten in there which was messing with my OCD!
Box of goodies:
Mats:
Centre console clock surround removed - after work night time job this was, hence flash.
Clocks out:
The offending bug:
Gone with the help of my camera lens air blower device:
New rear window seals - what a ball ache job this is.......
The old cracked seal, will try and take some photos of the bits fitted at some point:
That's all for now,
Lewis
Also removed my speedo cluster and got rid of a dead bug that had gotten in there which was messing with my OCD!
Box of goodies:
Mats:
Centre console clock surround removed - after work night time job this was, hence flash.
Clocks out:
The offending bug:
Gone with the help of my camera lens air blower device:
New rear window seals - what a ball ache job this is.......
The old cracked seal, will try and take some photos of the bits fitted at some point:
That's all for now,
Lewis
mine is having some work done on Saturday.Gassing Station | Readers' Cars | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff