The Best ///M/Barge/General Rant/Look at this/O/T(Vol XVIII)

[Fast Bug]

So via my boys Beavers group I've had an invite to have a tour round William Medcalf Bentley who are just up the road from me. Expect some photos afterwards

[L100NYY]

Fast Bug said:

So via my boys Beavers group I've had an invite to have a tour round William Medcalf Bentley who are just up the road from me. Expect some photos afterwards

Good stuff chap, almost needed to go there a few months back.........look forward too seeing the pictures

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Fi_Oe-54Ac

[ferrisbueller]

Rocket. said:

Today I want this



3.6 996 turbo lump with 648bhp, it did 310kmh at Nardo, central driving position with 4 passenger seats ! Small issue of £136k however...

https://m.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C980403

I like.

[Gruber]

Cheburator mk2 said:

Gruber said:

Yep. Not helping. They really did nail the design.

What's the view on this generation quick Clio? Any good?



https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...

I'll be turning 40 later this year and all our cash will be going into a house purchase, so cheap thrills are the order of the day...

Edited by Gruber on Wednesday 11th April 21:19

I haven't driven the road car, but I have a lot of mileage in the Full Fat Renault Sport Cup car which spawned off it - Brands, Nurburgring, Snetterton and Spa.

If I wasn't such a stupid badge snob and if I was a bit smarter with my money, I would have never gotten involved with racing classic Porsches. That Clio, which belonged to a mate, who was kind enough to let me drive the wheels of it on my own for probably more miles than half the miles he did overall, was all the car a budding club racer could want. In terms of £ spent/miles of fun the Clio was an utter delight. Reliable and so biddable. Also, I cannot quite put a finger on it, but I have driven several Motorsport cars, and they just feel different. Better, real, well put together with no compromises. Simple non-adjustable dampers, but somehow I was going as quickly around Spa as in my 500bhp Porsche. Maybe because RS built the dampers on the Clio, while the dampers on the 928 were build by a bloke called Gaz in Essex...

Actually, I dare say it, the only car that I have owned that have come close to the Clio in terms of driving fun has been the GT3, with bills/worries 3x higher.

If the road car is just 1/2 of the full fat racer, it would still be worth it...

I'm sold!!

[L100NYY]

Would have to be a Cup/F1 if I was going 197. With Recaros.

[Gruber]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

I'll be coming from a Defender - it'll feel like I'm sitting on the floor.

I've seen a couple of ads mentioning gearbox rebuilts - are they a bit chocolatey on these?

[Chris Stott]

Drove a Clio Cup race car at Bedford some years ago... fabulous little things!

Edited by Chris Stott on Thursday 12th April 13:46

[Patrick Bateman]

If the 182 is anything to go buy, it's easy to forgive a crap driving position in a car that makes up for it elsewhere.

[ferrisbueller]

L100NYY said:

Would have to be a Cup/F1 if I was going 197. With Recaros.

The 200 is appreciably better.

By at least 3.

[ferrisbueller]

Patrick Bateman said:

If the 182 is anything to go buy, it's easy to forgive a crap driving position in a car that makes up for it elsewhere.

I found the 200 much better on that front than the 172, though the seats may have been a big part of that. 200 feels, and is, a much bigger and heavier car. Not much in it balls out on track. I've had Cup derivatives of both ( at the same time for a while).

[Patrick Bateman]

ferrisbueller said:

I found the 200 much better on that front than the 172, though the seats may have been a big part of that. 200 feels, and is, a much bigger and heavier car. Not much in it balls out on track. I've had Cup derivatives of both ( at the same time for a while).

How did you find the ride on the 200 Cup on typical B-roads?

I briefly toyed with the idea of replacing the Trophy with one but many I spoke to said the damping on the Trophy suited our bumpy B-roads better, as well as being a rare car and all that malarky.

[J8 SVG]

I've got a 197 FF with cup pack and recaros and it rides pretty damn well as long as you're going quick enough

And ignore anyone saying it doesn't have enough torque, you'll be having too much fun making it scream to the redline to care about how fast you're actually going and the speed it can take through corners makes me giggle.

[ferrisbueller]

Patrick Bateman said:

ferrisbueller said:

I found the 200 much better on that front than the 172, though the seats may have been a big part of that. 200 feels, and is, a much bigger and heavier car. Not much in it balls out on track. I've had Cup derivatives of both ( at the same time for a while).

How did you find the ride on the 200 Cup on typical B-roads?

I briefly toyed with the idea of replacing the Trophy with one but many I spoke to said the damping on the Trophy suited our bumpy B-roads better, as well as being a rare car and all that malarky.

Stiff. Very well sorted but there's no denying it's hard and they fidget a bit. Depending on your mindset they can be too harsh but I never found my overly annoying and every drive I had in it was fun one way or another.

If I had a trophy I wouldn't swap into a 197/200 purely because of future values. The limited numbers and the regard the trophy is held in will make it a sound investment IMO.

And the 197/200 will feel gutless next to a 172/182 until you get it wound up. The 200 is more flexible than the 197 but you're cannon fodder to modern TDis until you've got 4.5k on the tacho. They're great cars but they definitely have their compromises.

[L100NYY]

Agree with Ferris' sentiments above.

I'd certainly have another 197/200 Cup, the shortcomings are far outweighed by the good bits imo

[Patrick Bateman]

To be fair on the TDI comment, the 182 is much the same. Not that it's an issue though, the engine suits the car.

[L100NYY]

I've had a few now....

Phase 1 172 - absolute hoot, felt very light and showed up various Lotus' at Brands on a trackday

Williams 3 - Sublime. Purely and utterly sublime. Should never have sold it

197 F1 Edition - felt much bigger (obviously) but still brilliant fun and cross country pace was ridiculous. Had it alongside the Boxster and V6 Exige and 9 times out of 10 it was the Clio I took for smiles per gallon

[ferrisbueller]

Patrick Bateman said:

To be fair on the TDI comment, the 182 is much the same. Not that it's an issue though, the engine suits the car.

The 200 is worse.....similar torque with 200 kg extra to pull. Hence the ridiculously short gearing, without which the earlier car is quicker against the clock.

[dom9]

L100NYY said:

I've had a few now....

Phase 1 172 - absolute hoot, felt very light and showed up various Lotus' at Brands on a trackday

Williams 3 - Sublime. Purely and utterly sublime. Should never have sold it

Don't

Sold my 40k miles Williams 3yrs back, when Mrs9 moved in...No room for the Clio V6, dog car, her car and the Williams.

We moved within 3 months and had tonnes of room. Would probably cost me another £5k or more to get the Williams back!

You also can't seem to find a nice Phase 1 172 for love nor money. I think that would make a good stable mate for the V6.

Sold my one with a few (minor-ish) issues for £500 or so when I moved to Singapore in 2010

Must finish the 106 XSi!!!!

[Rocket.]

If there is one thing I have learned from this thread and my own experiences looking back, if you have a car really like don't sell it unless you really have to !

It's easy to think about the next best thing / grass is greener etc. and nice to try new stuff, but the list of cars id like to own again versus stuff I've yet to try is heavily weighted towards 'own again', perhaps it's rose tinted specs but unless needs must I'm hanging onto stuff from now on, bar a lottery win for serious toys (older stuff obvs) there isn't much built within the last 10 years I really desire anyway, peak drivers car has long passed for me.

God I sound old.

[Fast Bug]

Probably not in keeping with the thread, but I really want this

www.oldbug.com/61sanchez.htm

For some reason I can't link a photo?