Renault Clio 197 - Racing Blue

Renault Clio 197 - Racing Blue

Author
Discussion

CallorFold

Original Poster:

831 posts

132 months

Saturday 28th February 2015
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I'm just about 1 week into ClioSport ownership now and it's safe to say I'm still smiling! Coming from a boggo standard family hatch, this puts a smile on my face just pressing the Start button!

Spent the day cleaning, tidying, back-to-blacking and generally giving the car a good going over. The seats still need a good steam clean, but I'm happy with it for now until the weather brightens up biggrin

Team HEKO wind deflectors and a PH smilie are on order!

My commute to work is fairly short, stop-start, and with no good roads in my immediate area I'm waiting to give her a proper drive! Off to Cannock in a couple of weekends time, and then early April is a trip to Snowdonia which should be absolutely perfect!

I'll try and keep this thread fairly up-to-date with various bits I do to the car, no immediate "mods" are planned as my wallet has taken a rather large hit sorting the purchase, tax and insurance out!









Edited by CallorFold on Saturday 28th February 18:32

Martin_M

2,071 posts

226 months

Saturday 28th February 2015
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I had a nimbus 197 back in 2007 - a lot of fun - let us know how you enjoy it.

NFox

184 posts

168 months

Saturday 28th February 2015
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Looks great mate, I was very close to buying one of these but I have had two 182s and fancied the type r!

pollysmate

50 posts

160 months

Saturday 28th February 2015
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they are great cars, i've had mine nearly 2 years now and love it, i would only sell to buy a younger car


CallorFold

Original Poster:

831 posts

132 months

Saturday 28th February 2015
quotequote all
NFox said:
Looks great mate, I was very close to buying one of these but I have had two 182s and fancied the type r!
I looked at a couple of EP3's myself before moving onto the 197's smile

They're fantastic cars but after seeing a couple, they all looked rather worn and tired with pretty high mileage.

197 has always been on my watch list - this was one of the first I went to look at, and after seeing 5-6 more it was quite easily the nicest biggrin

CallorFold

Original Poster:

831 posts

132 months

Saturday 28th February 2015
quotequote all
pollysmate said:
they are great cars, i've had mine nearly 2 years now and love it, i would only sell to buy a younger car
Looks tidy! Not a fan personally of the decals but I do love the cup spoiler! Taken me a little while to get used to 1st and 2nd when the car is cold, it's a bit jumpy but with the TC turned off and a tank of V-Power, it seems considerably better.

NFox

184 posts

168 months

Saturday 28th February 2015
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Yeah it did take a while to find one in an acceptable condition. Managed to get a premier with 60k on the clock and its in pretty good nick all round. Few marks etc as you'd expect on a 9 year old car but I am to restore it to its former glory over time smile

I will always have a soft spot for 182, 197 and 200s though. Absolutely adore them all!

CallorFold

Original Poster:

831 posts

132 months

Saturday 28th February 2015
quotequote all
NFox said:
Yeah it did take a while to find one in an acceptable condition. Managed to get a premier with 60k on the clock and its in pretty good nick all round. Few marks etc as you'd expect on a 9 year old car but I am to restore it to its former glory over time smile
Sounds like a good find! I really like the Premier seats over the standard ones. I was trying to find something below 100K and it was the lack of/"missing" service history that let most of them down. Keep it looking good, keep up with the maintenance and keep those receipts!

NFox

184 posts

168 months

Saturday 28th February 2015
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Without a doubt, so easy to do and when it does come to resale you can get top money for having a decent example!

pollysmate

50 posts

160 months

Saturday 28th February 2015
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haha they do like to 'kangaroo' laugh i'm surprised there are not more with the spoiler, makes the back end more animal like hehe

Medic-one

3,105 posts

202 months

Sunday 1st March 2015
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Great looking car!

Racing blue is definitely the fastest colour ;-)


S10GTA

12,645 posts

166 months

Sunday 1st March 2015
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Nice. I'm a fan of the rear.

CallorFold

Original Poster:

831 posts

132 months

Sunday 1st March 2015
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Medic-one said:
Great looking car!

Racing blue is definitely the fastest colour ;-)
Haha yeah 😊 need some better weather so I can spend some time doing a proper clay bar and wax to really bring out the colour

Nickbrapp

5,277 posts

129 months

Sunday 1st March 2015
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Did you buy it from the nailsea / clevedon area?

CallorFold

Original Poster:

831 posts

132 months

Sunday 1st March 2015
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Nickbrapp said:
Did you buy it from the nailsea / clevedon area?
Quite a distance from Clevedon - picked it up in Kidderminster, it seems to have lived much of its life in Stoke-on-Trent

CallorFold

Original Poster:

831 posts

132 months

Sunday 1st March 2015
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So the car looked nice and clean from a few feet away, but up close almost the entire bottom half of the car, especially down the sides, were plagued with tar spots.

In between the bouts of rain, I grabbed myself some AutoGlym Intensive Tar remover and set to work - it was far from wipe on-wipe off but well worth the effort! There was even a couple of small black scratches that I assumed were where paint had been scratched off, but in fact were marks on top of the paint which have now also been removed! Bonus!


Martin_M

2,071 posts

226 months

Sunday 1st March 2015
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For future reference, a clay bar should make the process of tar removal much easier. I finish off with the tar remover for bigger spots.

CallorFold

Original Poster:

831 posts

132 months

Sunday 1st March 2015
quotequote all
Martin_M said:
For future reference, a clay bar should make the process of tar removal much easier. I finish off with the tar remover for bigger spots.
Cheers for the tip Martin! I would like to clay the entire car at some point, it seems like a worthwhile process

CallorFold

Original Poster:

831 posts

132 months

Wednesday 4th March 2015
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PH Sticker arrived and HEKO Wind Deflectors have been fitted;








CallorFold

Original Poster:

831 posts

132 months

Friday 13th March 2015
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Couple more little bits done -

Swapped out the front Wiper Blades for some decent Aero Blades;

Valeo Silencio X.TRM Flat - can immediately tell the difference with these, they clean the screen considerably better than the previous blades.



I don't often use the rear blade so I figured I'd save a few ££ on the Bosch blades and try a Lucas branded one - definitely not the best idea I've had, the colour mismatch is awful so I've had to return this!



Next up was an idea I got from the 197 Forums, an aluminium foot rest plate - there is already a carpet rest over to the left of the clutch but so save getting this all tatty and worn, for £10 a proper footplate seemed a good idea and it was just a case of sticking it down -