Ph1 Clio 172

[Ph1listine]

Having ran a couple of fast Saabs (340 bhp 9-5 and 480 bhp 9k) I was getting fed up with constant niggles, horrendous fuel consumption and impending financial doom. I also needed to sell the 9-5 to go towards a house deposit in a couple of years and to do more travelling, but in the meantime I wanted a car that ticked the following boxes: Small, cheap, nimble, a bit retro, potential future classic, practical, 30+ mpg when enjoying it (rather than 17 mpg when enjoying the Saabs) and 0-60 mph in under 7 seconds. Quite a lot to ask of a car, but having test driven a Phase 1 'Ph1' Renaultsport Clio 172 back in 2012 I remembered how raw it felt and like such a great drivers' car. It needed to be black as I just think they look awesome in black; very purposeful and full of charisma/aggression.



I picked this example up with no MOT but in rust-free, cosmetically spot on and mechanically sound working order for £1500, with the following spec:
109,000 miles - cambelt/aux/dephaser done at 107,000 but been off the road for 2 YEARS! (not sure if this is a cause for concern?)
Pearl Black
Stock interior (besides a Sabelt Renaultsport steering wheel)



TOYO Proxes T1-R all round
K-Tec Stealth exhaust system with decat
K-Tec coilover suspension
Full and extensive service history




New mini hot hatch briefly encounters the big turbo 9k and housemate's w210 E55:




..the intention being to restore it to roadworthy daily duties for in time the 9-5 had sold (it since has sold).

First job was to take it to be MOT'd and it failed on emissions (surprise surprise), numberplate light, abs sensor, suspension ball joint, new washer fluid motor and also the driver's side window had popped out. At least I knew what was required to get it roadworthy, so I sourced a cat and the required parts, in addition to a full service with all genuine parts i.e. Elf oil, fuel filter, air filter, spark plugs, cabin filter and oil filter) and it was roadworthy.

Roll on a couple of weeks of cheap and cheerful yet evocative motoring and the alarm started to go off like crazy, not sure if it's a stock alarm but it's absolutely mental and wholly unnecessary. Back to the garage it went where it had some work done to the immobiliser and now it has a separate key fob to complement the key.

..and a couple of weeks after that it suffered from a rear wheel bearing failure; again another relatively cheap fix.

While the decat exhaust sounded pretty good - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNUlfEdwU0c - I ended up reinstalling the cat as I was worried about getting slowly poisoned when at a standstill. However since reinstalling the cat it has developed an annoying knocking sound which turns out to be caused by a knackered lower engine mount (gearbox to subframe) - so I have ordered this from K-Tec in the hope of remedying this: Uprated Inline Type Lower Engine Mount Bushes (ph1) http://k-tecracing.com/show_product.asp?id=2517&am...

Additionally the rear brakes are ready for the knacker's yard so I've ordered a set of rear brake discs and mintex pads, which come with bearings. Annoying as I might as well have installed these instead of ordering the bearing on its own.

While I had aspirations to get a full ITB kit for this, I really can't justify the expense and because it would ultimately be to enhance the sound. Luckily I came across the K-Tec induction kit which sounds epic (mini M3 CSL anyone? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_BbQzqGAx0 ) so I am currently on the lookout for either a used one or will wait and see if K-Tec have any Black Friday deals on theirs - http://www.k-tecracing.com/show_product.asp?id=441...

A couple of weeks back an old friend offered to perform a headlight restoration (£15) and a week later a full machine polish for the princely sum of £70, not bad for 5 hours of hard graft. The results speak for themselves and anyone in the East Midlands I can strongly recommend Shiny Lights - Headlight Restoration https://www.facebook.com/shinyheadlights1/

Headlight restoration before and after:




Before and during:
















The final result - could do with a wheel refurb and some 3D printed centre caps:














Other than the above it has developed some electrical faults - speedometer stops working; £5 for a new sensor which is on its way, and the heater fan has stopped working, as has the interior light and I couldn't unlock the radio and since trying to install an aftermarket head unit it's blown a fuse.

Oh and some annoying rattles have appeared such as the boot latch - another little job.

Once all of the above work is complete the Clio will stand me at a whisker under £3k, which I feel isn't too bad considering what minters are changing hands for nowadays. While it was never as highly regarded as the Williams, it is a cult classic and I feel it should be depreciation-proof as long as I stay on top of things.

Edited by Ph1listine on Saturday 24th November 09:17

[Xcore]

Lovely that! Very Jealous, I couldn’t find one in budget when I was buying mine so ended up with a 172 cup. I made a “fatty” induction kit for mine for circa 40 quid which sounds similar to a ktec but without the price tag.

[Ph1listine]

Xcore said:

Lovely that! Very Jealous, I couldn’t find one in budget when I was buying mine so ended up with a 172 cup. I made a “fatty” induction kit for mine for circa 40 quid which sounds similar to a ktec but without the price tag.

Thanks! Sounds great that, got any pics of it / vids of the noise?

[Xcore]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gFJss0GZwuc
Skip to near the end for sound. The guys used the smallest k&n known to man, iv got a bigger ramair on mine

[MikeGoodwin]

Really nice glad to see you are taking care of it. The ph1 seem few and far between these days.

[chrismc1977]

I reckon some new tyres would work wonders. T1-Rs are old hat nowadays. Sidewalls are too soft for a decent chassis too.

They are well known to absolutely ruin a DC2 Integra so doubtless won’t be great on the Clio either.

AD08 Yokohamas on my ITR. Fantastic!

[Ph1listine]

chrismc1977 said:

I reckon some new tyres would work wonders. T1-Rs are old hat nowadays. Sidewalls are too soft for a decent chassis too.

They are well known to absolutely ruin a DC2 Integra so doubtless won’t be great on the Clio either.

AD08 Yokohamas on my ITR. Fantastic!

Good shout, it does seem to lack steering feel and gives you no idea of how much grip is available. Wow a DC2 must be amazing, best handling FWD car ever according to Evo mag.

[Ph1listine]

Xcore said:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gFJss0GZwuc
Skip to near the end for sound. The guys used the smallest k&n known to man, iv got a bigger ramair on mine

Cool thanks might give that a go, tempted by the K-Tec still though.

[Ph1listine]

MikeGoodwin said:

Really nice glad to see you are taking care of it. The ph1 seem few and far between these days.

Thanks yeh not many left now, probably about 100 or so in this colour.

[griffin dai]

Nice

[Ph1listine]

griffin dai said:

Nice

Alright ain't it

Back to basics compared to the Saab but more fun at legal speeds and uses half the fuel when enjoying it for what it's built to do. How's the VXR project going?

To drive the Clio will definitely benefit from a proper induction roar and some ADO8Rs.

Picked this up to complement the service history - got to love an Evo mag. In this review Richard Meaden, while impressed with the engine which at the time was class-leading (until the EP3 came along), the steering lacked feel. Not sure which tyres these had fitted out the factory but I reckon a lot of that was down to the stock suspension and tyres. The Ph1 'lacked the intensity' of the Williams so perhaps the subtle modifications will bring it closer to being a worthy Williams successor.

[chrismc1977]

Ph1listine said:

Good shout, it does seem to lack steering feel and gives you no idea of how much grip is available. Wow a DC2 must be amazing, best handling FWD car ever according to Evo mag.

Yes quite a special car indeed! The tyres are something else. A real step forward from the OEM Bridgestones even in skinny (compared to modern) 195/55 form

You won’t be disappointed!

[FRA53R]

Great cars, I ran a ph1 for a while and loved it even though there always seemed to be something niggling.

When you are doing the rear brakes, make sure to check the calipers, they fail quite often so may be worth giving them a refurb. Other than that sounds like you are well on track for getting this one back to great condition.

Looks great after that polish!

[Ph1listine]

FRA53R said:

Great cars, I ran a ph1 for a while and loved it even though there always seemed to be something niggling.

When you are doing the rear brakes, make sure to check the calipers, they fail quite often so may be worth giving them a refurb. Other than that sounds like you are well on track for getting this one back to great condition.

Looks great after that polish!

Good shout thanks, they do look worse for wear. Big job to refurb?

Edited by Ph1listine on Monday 19th November 15:26

[avenger286]

Looks like a lovely example, get youself on Clio sport.net lots of knowledge and parts for sale.
Its fun having a small car that you can have fun in.

[andymc]

Ph1listine said:

griffin dai said:

Nice

Alright ain't it

Back to basics compared to the Saab but more fun at legal speeds and uses half the fuel when enjoying it for what it's built to do. How's the VXR project going?

To drive the Clio will definitely benefit from a proper induction roar and some ADO8Rs.

Picked this up to complement the service history - got to love an Evo mag. In this review Richard Meaden, while impressed with the engine which at the time was class-leading (until the EP3 came along), the steering lacked feel. Not sure which tyres these had fitted out the factory but I reckon a lot of that was down to the stock suspension and tyres. The Ph1 'lacked the intensity' of the Williams so perhaps the subtle modifications will bring it closer to being a worthy Williams successor.

When Evo was good

[Ph1listine]

avenger286 said:

Looks like a lovely example, get youself on Clio sport.net lots of knowledge and parts for sale.
Its fun having a small car that you can have fun in.

Thanks will have a look.

Well just ordered a K-Tec induction kit:



..which sounds promising:



.. and Uprated Inline Type Lower Engine Mount Bushes:

"Uprated Gearbox to Subframe mount bushes. Notorious for causing gearstick jump and knocking of exhausts against subframes, the troublesome OE Renault bushes can be pressed out and replaced with these Powerflex Poly Bushes. This version is for cars fitted with the inline style mount (not the mount with a twist in it). This is more often fitted to the Phase 1 172 and earlier Clio 1 16v models."

[avenger286]

If your replacing the standard airbox with the ktec system and the box is in good nic and you want to sell it let me know.

[amstrange1]

chrismc1977 said:

I reckon some new tyres would work wonders. T1-Rs are old hat nowadays. Sidewalls are too soft for a decent chassis too.

This ^^^. They fold over really easily. Our Ph2 172 track car had these on to start with, we had to bin the tyres with loads of tread still on them because the sidewalls were wearing out...

[davebem]

Great cars, arguably the best and least known Renaultsport clio. I miss mine and the cliosport.net community.