Clio 172 cup

[TITWONK]

Hi, thought I would do a thread on my beloved clio 172 cup.

After a few beers one night on eBay I had some how placed a bid on this Chav machine! I had bid 1400 quid and to be honest was hopeful I would get out bid, but no, I won!
I like reading threads where people just buy blind and then go on a bit of a journey so this is what I did
A few pics off the eBay ad

|http://thumbsnap.com/BROXYjDS[/url]

So as you can see she had a carbon bonnet, 17" black alloys, a bloody loud straight through exhaust, some Chav rear lights and the key was snapped in the barrel

I think the first thing I did was fish the snapped bit of the key out of the ignition and waited anxiously while the shoe mender guy tried his best to recreate my key on an eBay blank! He had to guess the last bit and so I was quite nervous when I got home to try it! It worked now the clio had a proper key again and at a cost of only 20 quid

Next step was to fix the electric window switch on the drivers side as it only worked when it wanted and there was always that chance of not being able to close the window at the end of the journey, about 10 quid off eBay and all was well.

By this point I was getting desperate to de Chav the car and found a cool kid in chorley who said we could arrange to swap my Chav bits for standard items at no cost to me this I though was amazing and set about the 5 hour round trip!

She came home looking like this



I then chilled out a bit doing all of the above in about a week!

At this time some guy in a 4x4 shogun reversed in to my newly acquired bonnet he gave me 100 quid for the privalege and I had a bit of dent removal work done, it wasn't really worth it though and I do need a new bonnet at some point!

You can just make it out here


I just enjoyed the car for a bit then and just went on a few Sunday drives as I have a work car too.




I then booked up a track day at Donnington, it was a good if not wet day and I soon killed the old brakes on the clio but I had fun, only thing I did to the car for this was put four new Yokohama parada 2 tyres on!
Got black flagged though towards the end because of noise, so I knew this power flow thing would have to go!
Pics from donnington




So as I said, I killed a few things on that track day so fitted the following:
Drilled and grooved disks
Brembo pads
Braided brake lines
New rear caliper as old one was leaking.

The difference was unbelievable, these things really do have great brakes for a fairly standard set up!

At this point I changed the exhaust to standard as the engine light was on, It wouldn't pass an MOT and it was too loud for track work so I have just stuck a standard setup back on until I can find a nice bargain cat back system!

The only other thing I forgot to mention was I had a brand new sump fitted as the car had an oil leak and it was just getting worse!

I have recently ordered a few bits and bobs, quick shift, TRS tow strap and a few service parts. The next big thing to do is all the belts and the dephaser makes a bit of noise too so unfortunately I will have to part with 500 quid soon

Great car though and I really do love it to bits, I'm 28 and had some fast cars before now but this little clio really does shine through and is amazing fun even though its a fair bit slower than some cars I've had. I will update as thing happen, may get to do the tow strap tomorrow I know they are a bit love or hate but it is kind of a track car/Sunday blaster so sod it!
All hail the beast!

Edited by TITWONK on Wednesday 2nd January 00:51

Edited by TITWONK on Wednesday 2nd January 00:54

Edited by TITWONK on Wednesday 2nd January 01:01

[GrumpyTwig]

Looks nice, much better after the de-chaving

[philmots]

It'd look even better on standard issue Turinis.

Great cars I loved mine.

[DC]

Excellent bargain fun there. I had a phase 1 172 and they are brilliant cars. As the previous poster said it would look better with the original 16" Turini's on. Keep enjoying it.

[wackojacko]

Love the PH1 O.Z wheels.

Glad the de chavving took place promptly

[TITWONK]

Cheers guys, I would like turinis but i do like the way these look, tyres are cheap as hell for these 15" rims and she handles well! So I'm happy enough! I hadn't seen a 172 cup on ph1 wheels before either
Just as long as it wasn't those bloody wide Renault 5 spoke things.

[p4cks]

Superb little cars and I'm glad you're using it as a bit of a 'slag'. When pushed, these are superb little cars. I'd have one again tomorrow!

[TITWONK]

Lol I think that's the way they want to be treated! As soon as you get in to the seat it's like being 17 again

Been busy this morning actually, fitted the powerflex dog bone bushes

A few seconds of head scratching before I realised that centre flange has to be hammered out!

And then I stuck the tow strap on, I realise they are not to everyone's taste but I like it and if I go off track it should come in useful?
Everything seams to be going great at the moment, fingers crossed!

Edited by TITWONK on Wednesday 2nd January 13:33

[url/|http://thumbsnap.com/2WsSFweW[/url]

Edited by TITWONK on Wednesday 2nd January 13:35

Don't know why that happened so sorry for the twisted neck

Edited by TITWONK on Wednesday 2nd January 13:36

[Porkie]

Fab car! love em.

Weirdly I've only been out for one 'fun' drive in the last month.... my sofa has just been sucking me onto it 24hours a day!

But when I fancied a blast out... first keys I grabbed were my Clio 172cups. I totally love it.

By the way, next time you change your brake discs. Forget the drilled and grooved ones. Go for Brembo HC.

Thanks for posting. Hope you have fun. Renaultsport do some good trackdays by the way.

[TITWONK]

Porkie said:

Fab car! love em.

Weirdly I've only been out for one 'fun' drive in the last month.... my sofa has just been sucking me onto it 24hours a day!

But when I fancied a blast out... first keys I grabbed were my Clio 172cups. I totally love it.

By the way, next time you change your brake discs. Forget the drilled and grooved ones. Go for Brembo HC.

Thanks for posting. Hope you have fun. Renaultsport do some good trackdays by the way.

Lol and you have a Ferrari! I kind of thought I had ordered the brembo discs but just fitted these when they turned up instead.
Love all your cars matey, awesome!
I see your clio is 200bhp I bet that goes well then, and you have 15" wheels too, do you prefer 15's on track?

Edited by TITWONK on Wednesday 2nd January 16:10

[Ben__7]

Ha, that takes me back - my first new car. I preferred to run it on 15' for ride and handling. Very tempting again at £1400!

[RacingBlue]

Glad to see most of the chav additions have gone - it just needs some Turini alloys now and it'll look cracking

[TITWONK]

Nice car Ben, would be cool to own one from new, they were well out my league ten years ago though!

Hi racing blue,
I would love turini's but at 4-500 quid with tyres it's not something I don't think I will get around to doing and as already said 15" for the win on track and I need all the belts done within the next couple of months.
If anyone has any turinis lying around though I will stick um on just so they get some use

[Porkie]

TITWONK said:

Lol and you have a Ferrari! I kind of thought I had ordered the brembo discs but just fitted these when they turned up instead.
Love all your cars matey, awesome!
I see your clio is 200bhp I bet that goes well then, and you have 15" wheels too, do you prefer 15's on track?

Edited by TITWONK on Wednesday 2nd January 16:10

Thats out of date now. The old engine cracked a piston....

So went a bit crazy and went for new whole new built race spec engine. Steel Rods, high comp pistons. Ph1 ported head with supertec Valves. Cams etc etc...

was after reliability rather than outright power. Do it once.. do it right etc...

made an easy 212bhp with very conservative map and should be able to take plenty of abuse.

[TITWONK]

Looks great fun, can't even imagine how that sort of power would feel in the clio

[greggy50]

TITWONK said:

Looks great fun, can't even imagine how that sort of power would feel in the clio

Plus a standard 172 is more like a 160 so talking a 50bhp increase must be mental

[RS16i]

I'm on the hunt for another one of these just now.

Should never have got rid of my 182,bloody women and kids

[Porkie]

TITWONK said:

Looks great fun, can't even imagine how that sort of power would feel in the clio

Well I normally drive it back to back with my Westfield which weighs about half as much as the Clio and has 500bhp... so pretty gutless!

but AWESOME fun. My Clios like a little terrier! never fails to make me smile on road or track.

[TITWONK]

Porkie said:

Well I normally drive it back to back with my Westfield which weighs about half as much as the Clio and has 500bhp... so pretty gutless!

but AWESOME fun. My Clios like a little terrier! never fails to make me smile on road or track.

Lol yeah that Westfield looks frightening

Been busy this morning fitting a short shift link!

15 quid off eBay


Came with nothing else so bit of head scratching and I could see it went here!


A bit more messing around and a fight with a c clip got me the old one out!


The new one is quite a bit shorter! So round two with the c clip and job done. It does feel much better when you change gear however, you have to be really carful with these gearboxes and ramming it in to gear with this link in place is not a good idea at all! I don't do any miles in this car and I will take my time on the gear changes so I'm not too concerned my self!