renault clio cup #17
Discussion
introducing our new toy, joint purchase with fellow PHer E21Jason.
the background is that i bought a gts clubman when i arrived in dubai which is a locost based 7 kit which had a 2.0l duratec fitted. i ran this for a season of trackdays [can you imagine, open pitlane with 20cars max, 4hrs for about £120 and 18p a litre of super!]. i then had a fuelling issue which very quickly escalated into a bare chasss rebuild and modification session includign a set of jenveys, carbon intake, lots of customs fab. etc. as you do......
jase has a pukka 1.4k caterham roadsport fitted with a 1.8 elise engine. he's also undetaking a refresh so we needed something to play around with before summer rolls around and it's too hot to play. enter this rather bargainous clio....
here it is in the old colours of boulevard team racing:
we have not dug that far back as yet but given the chassis no. [017] we believe it may have been an original french clio cup car. it was campaigned by BTR for several seasons of the british clio cup before it was rebuilt for endurance racing in the britcar series. hence it has several useful upgrades over the standard cup including beefier brakes and shocks and a long range fuel tank.
prior to being shipped to dubai the car was refreshed again, including an engine build by BTCC/F3/DTM champion builders Neil Brown Engineering. the sadev sequential gearbox was also rebuilt and both have since only been used for a single round of the UAETCC series. again it was this provenance that made us realise the value of the deal on offer.
anyway, although it had been serviced and prepped by a reputable local outfit we had been researching on various clio frums and nosiness got the better of us. hence it was up on the jack stands and wheels off for a good look at the spec. we also wanted to get rid of the red sperm stripe and make it ours.
the amount of old glue on there was horrendous.
however, a little elbow grease [and 6 cans of brake cleaner] later it was back on it's wheels and looking nice and shiny after a run over with some autoglym and neil's rotary polisher. i think a polished car is good for at least 10mph on the top end :P
after being filled with fuel it was tucked up in bed at 1am friday morning.....
6.5hrs later [yaaaaaawn!] and the flatbed came to take us for a shakedown on dubai autodrome's international circuit.
we had a few small problems [coolant hose came off and the clutch cable detent nut vibrated loose] but it was great fun off the bat and shows great promise. the dry break refuelling was fun as a party piece but took ages to fill the churns......
my mate nev had his gts out which is putting out about 190bhp and weighs about 550kg, and another friend dave had his 230bhp 6speed westfield. i would have a hard time keeping up with either of them in matched cars but found it a doddle to do so in the clio despite the weight penalty and 2yr old slicks. although this circuit layout doesn't favour the caterfield's brick like aero i reckon i could have braked later into some corners and corner speeds were pretty similar. the real tester will come in a couple of weeks on the club circuit which favours the lightweight low inertia cars.
jase having fun in the bowl:
biggest drama of the day was seeing nev and dave come round twice with no sign of jase. fortunately the cause was a stop off the circuit to close the passenger door which had been left off the latch by a spectator.
we packed up at noon and went to see the rolling stones at yas marina. jase was working saturday but my desire to be on track was too strong to leave the car undriven so i headed back to the autodrome to compete in my first ever autocross.
the clio really showed it's potential here. 2nd fastest on the day against a field of m3's, caymans, tuned evos and subarus etc. i was only beaten by a very well driven brand new pdk cayman s and reckon i could have had him with more practice. granted i was slick shod but cold 2yr old slicks are no advantage imo as there was bugger all feel hard under braking and the dust on track made it very slippery. it really was the chassis setup that allowed it to be such a weapon. just need a spare set of wheels to put my 888's onto next time!
all in all a great purchase for us.
we intend to do the spherical bearing and strengthening mods on the spare wishbones, take the angle grinder to the spare doors and fit perspex windows to them, and fit a silicon hose kit. that's about the level of spend we want to make but it is going to be out every weekend from now until summer. on these first impressions it is very impressive and we're already wondering how long our other cars will remain unsold when they're finished!
the background is that i bought a gts clubman when i arrived in dubai which is a locost based 7 kit which had a 2.0l duratec fitted. i ran this for a season of trackdays [can you imagine, open pitlane with 20cars max, 4hrs for about £120 and 18p a litre of super!]. i then had a fuelling issue which very quickly escalated into a bare chasss rebuild and modification session includign a set of jenveys, carbon intake, lots of customs fab. etc. as you do......
jase has a pukka 1.4k caterham roadsport fitted with a 1.8 elise engine. he's also undetaking a refresh so we needed something to play around with before summer rolls around and it's too hot to play. enter this rather bargainous clio....
here it is in the old colours of boulevard team racing:
we have not dug that far back as yet but given the chassis no. [017] we believe it may have been an original french clio cup car. it was campaigned by BTR for several seasons of the british clio cup before it was rebuilt for endurance racing in the britcar series. hence it has several useful upgrades over the standard cup including beefier brakes and shocks and a long range fuel tank.
prior to being shipped to dubai the car was refreshed again, including an engine build by BTCC/F3/DTM champion builders Neil Brown Engineering. the sadev sequential gearbox was also rebuilt and both have since only been used for a single round of the UAETCC series. again it was this provenance that made us realise the value of the deal on offer.
anyway, although it had been serviced and prepped by a reputable local outfit we had been researching on various clio frums and nosiness got the better of us. hence it was up on the jack stands and wheels off for a good look at the spec. we also wanted to get rid of the red sperm stripe and make it ours.
the amount of old glue on there was horrendous.
however, a little elbow grease [and 6 cans of brake cleaner] later it was back on it's wheels and looking nice and shiny after a run over with some autoglym and neil's rotary polisher. i think a polished car is good for at least 10mph on the top end :P
after being filled with fuel it was tucked up in bed at 1am friday morning.....
6.5hrs later [yaaaaaawn!] and the flatbed came to take us for a shakedown on dubai autodrome's international circuit.
we had a few small problems [coolant hose came off and the clutch cable detent nut vibrated loose] but it was great fun off the bat and shows great promise. the dry break refuelling was fun as a party piece but took ages to fill the churns......
my mate nev had his gts out which is putting out about 190bhp and weighs about 550kg, and another friend dave had his 230bhp 6speed westfield. i would have a hard time keeping up with either of them in matched cars but found it a doddle to do so in the clio despite the weight penalty and 2yr old slicks. although this circuit layout doesn't favour the caterfield's brick like aero i reckon i could have braked later into some corners and corner speeds were pretty similar. the real tester will come in a couple of weeks on the club circuit which favours the lightweight low inertia cars.
jase having fun in the bowl:
biggest drama of the day was seeing nev and dave come round twice with no sign of jase. fortunately the cause was a stop off the circuit to close the passenger door which had been left off the latch by a spectator.
we packed up at noon and went to see the rolling stones at yas marina. jase was working saturday but my desire to be on track was too strong to leave the car undriven so i headed back to the autodrome to compete in my first ever autocross.
the clio really showed it's potential here. 2nd fastest on the day against a field of m3's, caymans, tuned evos and subarus etc. i was only beaten by a very well driven brand new pdk cayman s and reckon i could have had him with more practice. granted i was slick shod but cold 2yr old slicks are no advantage imo as there was bugger all feel hard under braking and the dust on track made it very slippery. it really was the chassis setup that allowed it to be such a weapon. just need a spare set of wheels to put my 888's onto next time!
all in all a great purchase for us.
we intend to do the spherical bearing and strengthening mods on the spare wishbones, take the angle grinder to the spare doors and fit perspex windows to them, and fit a silicon hose kit. that's about the level of spend we want to make but it is going to be out every weekend from now until summer. on these first impressions it is very impressive and we're already wondering how long our other cars will remain unsold when they're finished!
We bought a Clio Cup from Martin at Boulevard a few years back (yours was the one we wanted to buy from him but he was taking it out to Dubai so we got his other 'spare', Paul Rivett's old car), we raced it for a couple of years in the Northern Saloons where it dominated the 2ltr class.
Really, really fun car and far quicker than it's spec would suggest - the only fly in the ointment was the price of spares from Renaultsport (it always seemed to need one of the parts it didn't share with the road car).
Having said that, the engine seemed pretty bulletproof and banging up and down the sequential 'box never gets boring - a proper mini touring-car.
Really, really fun car and far quicker than it's spec would suggest - the only fly in the ointment was the price of spares from Renaultsport (it always seemed to need one of the parts it didn't share with the road car).
Having said that, the engine seemed pretty bulletproof and banging up and down the sequential 'box never gets boring - a proper mini touring-car.
I have a guy in Dubai who is an expert in shipping, he got my car out of Dubai and into Qatar with the most ropey paperwork you've ever seen.
He knows all about the docs you need to get the car a year long pass to travel freely in the GCC and can arrange it all for you if you want?...Anyway, let me know if you want his details and I'll forward them on, he's an english guy called Bob
He knows all about the docs you need to get the car a year long pass to travel freely in the GCC and can arrange it all for you if you want?...Anyway, let me know if you want his details and I'll forward them on, he's an english guy called Bob
cheers but we've done this before with the svdp bmw so know what needs doing to have it all on the level. having everything in our name will mean no 'facilitation' payments need to be made this time...
first we need a certificate of ownership, then have it inspected by the EMSF. they'll then issue a letter so we can get the rego documents and plates from the rta and even allow us to use it on the road to drive to the track!
we use all that to get a carnet de passage which allows international temporary import without duties payable.
bit of a faff but worth it and will pay dividends when selling.
first we need a certificate of ownership, then have it inspected by the EMSF. they'll then issue a letter so we can get the rego documents and plates from the rta and even allow us to use it on the road to drive to the track!
we use all that to get a carnet de passage which allows international temporary import without duties payable.
bit of a faff but worth it and will pay dividends when selling.
shirt said:
cheers but we've done this before with the svdp bmw so know what needs doing to have it all on the level. having everything in our name will mean no 'facilitation' payments need to be made this time...
first we need a certificate of ownership, then have it inspected by the EMSF. they'll then issue a letter so we can get the rego documents and plates from the rta and even allow us to use it on the road to drive to the track!
we use all that to get a carnet de passage which allows international temporary import without duties payable.
bit of a faff but worth it and will pay dividends when selling.
Oh no, you misunderstand, I wasnt saying a guy you bribe, he is just a facilitator, he knew managed the whole process for me and everytime there was an issue he knew how to overcome the problem.first we need a certificate of ownership, then have it inspected by the EMSF. they'll then issue a letter so we can get the rego documents and plates from the rta and even allow us to use it on the road to drive to the track!
we use all that to get a carnet de passage which allows international temporary import without duties payable.
bit of a faff but worth it and will pay dividends when selling.
If you ever need help with the QMMF side of things or Lusail side of things let me know, I'm at your disposal (can you tell we're keen to get visitors with cars over much?!)
i wasn't implying he had to be bribed. we had to bribe the tasjeel guys before and if we want to being the car to quatar for the odd session we need to ensure the paperwork is tip top for the border crossing.
we planned to do very little after the first weekend. the jobs list comprised:
- fitting the headlight blanks.
- moving the seat up and back a little.
- investigate tyre rubbing on full lock [highlighted on the auto-x].
- eliminate play in gear linkage.
first two were easy, the third highlighted the need to hammer the arches as there were telltales all over. the rears especially worried me as the cage bolts protrude quite far down.
the linkage caused further headaches. basically the pivot on the box is loose and so rocks side to side quite markedly instead of fore/aft for gear selection. we tightened it the best we could but have plans to go oversize and machine a bronze bush. more to follow on this one.
so, with that all done we brimmed the tank..............and found fuel to be pissing all over the floor!
we have a boot tank filling the oem tank to give approx. 80litres total [to be confirmed]. it appears the oem breather has been fudged to stop fuel leaking from it when the top one is brimmed. this had failed. we patched it as best we could using a bit of fuel hose and jubilees but this meant about half a litre of fuel still escaped and we both got fuel burns to our backs, arms and head as we sorted it all out. not the best at midnight and the panic meant we did not take pics of anything else we had done upto that point!
so anyway, we arrived to the autodrome last friday with the car seemingly sorted. a couple of snaps of the typical thing we get on a trackday. caterhams are popular with all, there's a few ex touring cars [clio 3 and a mk5 golf in shot] and plenty of tuned jap metal. supercars tend to be visitors from other gulf countries and are almost always badly driven. the mclaren almost got a side full of nicole.
oh yeah, we have christened the car nicole.....
sadly our day ended before the car had even got properly warmed up. jase lost the brakes going into the last turn, pumped the pedal hard to avoid the wall and locked up/flatted the front tyres. with no spares we were relegated to playing mechanic for our friends and wondering how much this was all going to cost....
back at HQ, we got a good look at the tyres, which are fooked...
and found a very simple explanation for the brake failure:
the car has been sat for 18mths and so this has to be taken as just one of those things. the intact pads are glazed from overheating and the left front disc [the one the pad failed on] is scored.
problem now is that we have no idea what the calipers are. searching for the casting marks is drawing too many conclusions. our best guess is that the rears are std. 172 and the fronts are used on the mk1 megane coupe, scenic and mk2 laguna. currently asking around on cliosport and other sources for info.
also looking for pad options. performance friction or carbon lorraine endurance pads are coming out tops so far for a trade off between stopping power and longevity. what do you guys use??
we do need to find out what the calipers are from before proceeding as the seals are also shot. given as we need to import this stuff and there's another trackday on the 14th we need to get it right first time.
the search is also on for new tyres that don't cost the earth. got a lead on a set of enkeis with scantly used slicks but unfortunately the tyres are 185's so no good on their own and the inner rim fouls the caliper. shame as they look damn good imo!
also had a rear brake change to do on my jeep. loved the tyre size comparison!
so that's where we are for now. focus has switched from initial jubilence to making sure we are safe on track with a car that hasn't been run for a while. i noticed some of the studs have a little wiggle in them so we may replace the lot and also buy new nuts. calipers need servicing and we will look to sort the arch clearance.
other short term upgrades will be a silicon hose kit for the coolant side and an oil cooler. we also want to investigate a bigger rad. temps are starting to creep and it'll not be long before we're running in 30deg+ ambients. also having done 2 track sessions we need to change the gearbox oil.
we planned to do very little after the first weekend. the jobs list comprised:
- fitting the headlight blanks.
- moving the seat up and back a little.
- investigate tyre rubbing on full lock [highlighted on the auto-x].
- eliminate play in gear linkage.
first two were easy, the third highlighted the need to hammer the arches as there were telltales all over. the rears especially worried me as the cage bolts protrude quite far down.
the linkage caused further headaches. basically the pivot on the box is loose and so rocks side to side quite markedly instead of fore/aft for gear selection. we tightened it the best we could but have plans to go oversize and machine a bronze bush. more to follow on this one.
so, with that all done we brimmed the tank..............and found fuel to be pissing all over the floor!
we have a boot tank filling the oem tank to give approx. 80litres total [to be confirmed]. it appears the oem breather has been fudged to stop fuel leaking from it when the top one is brimmed. this had failed. we patched it as best we could using a bit of fuel hose and jubilees but this meant about half a litre of fuel still escaped and we both got fuel burns to our backs, arms and head as we sorted it all out. not the best at midnight and the panic meant we did not take pics of anything else we had done upto that point!
so anyway, we arrived to the autodrome last friday with the car seemingly sorted. a couple of snaps of the typical thing we get on a trackday. caterhams are popular with all, there's a few ex touring cars [clio 3 and a mk5 golf in shot] and plenty of tuned jap metal. supercars tend to be visitors from other gulf countries and are almost always badly driven. the mclaren almost got a side full of nicole.
oh yeah, we have christened the car nicole.....
sadly our day ended before the car had even got properly warmed up. jase lost the brakes going into the last turn, pumped the pedal hard to avoid the wall and locked up/flatted the front tyres. with no spares we were relegated to playing mechanic for our friends and wondering how much this was all going to cost....
back at HQ, we got a good look at the tyres, which are fooked...
and found a very simple explanation for the brake failure:
the car has been sat for 18mths and so this has to be taken as just one of those things. the intact pads are glazed from overheating and the left front disc [the one the pad failed on] is scored.
problem now is that we have no idea what the calipers are. searching for the casting marks is drawing too many conclusions. our best guess is that the rears are std. 172 and the fronts are used on the mk1 megane coupe, scenic and mk2 laguna. currently asking around on cliosport and other sources for info.
also looking for pad options. performance friction or carbon lorraine endurance pads are coming out tops so far for a trade off between stopping power and longevity. what do you guys use??
we do need to find out what the calipers are from before proceeding as the seals are also shot. given as we need to import this stuff and there's another trackday on the 14th we need to get it right first time.
the search is also on for new tyres that don't cost the earth. got a lead on a set of enkeis with scantly used slicks but unfortunately the tyres are 185's so no good on their own and the inner rim fouls the caliper. shame as they look damn good imo!
also had a rear brake change to do on my jeep. loved the tyre size comparison!
so that's where we are for now. focus has switched from initial jubilence to making sure we are safe on track with a car that hasn't been run for a while. i noticed some of the studs have a little wiggle in them so we may replace the lot and also buy new nuts. calipers need servicing and we will look to sort the arch clearance.
other short term upgrades will be a silicon hose kit for the coolant side and an oil cooler. we also want to investigate a bigger rad. temps are starting to creep and it'll not be long before we're running in 30deg+ ambients. also having done 2 track sessions we need to change the gearbox oil.
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