Clio 182 Track Toy
Discussion
Those that followed my journey with the EP3 Civic Type R were probably expecting to see a FK2 thread from me, unfortunately while the car drove superbly there was a noise on the test drive that bugged me, sounded like a loose hose somewhere so I asked them to investigate. Rather naively I paid the dealership my money and the collection day couldn’t come soon enough. The day before I was due to collect the car I received a phone call from the Honda dealership to advise that the gearbox needs to come out for inspection, and then parts would be ordered, replaced and put back together again, they couldn’t give me a timescale but suggested that I could be waiting a while. To cut a long story short I rejected the car and it’s since been sold to a young lad with a broken gearbox.
Moving swiftly on, I was at a lost end as to what to buy. The whole experience and fight to get my money back from Honda put me off another FK2. I test drove a Meg RS 250 Cup, great car just lacked the space I require, tried a 135i coupe, fast but nothing like practical enough and not exactly thrilling to pedal.
I was using the wife’s spare work car to get around and while it’s borderline useless to drive, it’s comfortable, practical and perfectly acceptable daily transport so I made them an offer. It’s now my daily and is superb for lugging the kids and labrador around in.
I was now scratching my head as to what to get that could satisfy my need to get out for the occasional hoon and track day, couldn’t think of anything better than a Clio 172/182 cup for my budget so started searching. I sort of felt like I had unfinished business with these little cars and missed my previous one quite a bit, it looked well on the Turini’s but it was just a bit too much to use as a daily.
I found a nice looking low boost turbo Clio with plenty of nice parts but on contacting the owner, someone had already left a deposit. Then a Black Gold one popped up on the Cliosport Facebook group but it was over three hours away in Kent, it had everything I was looking for and the owner seemed really honest about it’s condition. Viewing arranged and train tickets booked the Saturday morning couldn’t come round quickly enough. Some photos from the advert.
Moving swiftly on, I was at a lost end as to what to buy. The whole experience and fight to get my money back from Honda put me off another FK2. I test drove a Meg RS 250 Cup, great car just lacked the space I require, tried a 135i coupe, fast but nothing like practical enough and not exactly thrilling to pedal.
I was using the wife’s spare work car to get around and while it’s borderline useless to drive, it’s comfortable, practical and perfectly acceptable daily transport so I made them an offer. It’s now my daily and is superb for lugging the kids and labrador around in.
I was now scratching my head as to what to get that could satisfy my need to get out for the occasional hoon and track day, couldn’t think of anything better than a Clio 172/182 cup for my budget so started searching. I sort of felt like I had unfinished business with these little cars and missed my previous one quite a bit, it looked well on the Turini’s but it was just a bit too much to use as a daily.
I found a nice looking low boost turbo Clio with plenty of nice parts but on contacting the owner, someone had already left a deposit. Then a Black Gold one popped up on the Cliosport Facebook group but it was over three hours away in Kent, it had everything I was looking for and the owner seemed really honest about it’s condition. Viewing arranged and train tickets booked the Saturday morning couldn’t come round quickly enough. Some photos from the advert.
Edited by MRobbins1987 on Friday 20th July 20:22
After checking the car over and taking it for a test drive I decided it was the car for me, a deal was done.
The spec is as follows
Matched and ported inlets
Speedline 2118’s
Michelin PS3’s
Speedina carbon clocks
Ktec coilovers
Ktec exhaust
Polybushed exhaust mounts
Braided lines
Yellow stuff pads
BMS shifter
Bimarco Futura bucket seats
Omp subframe
Oreca four point harnesses
Half cage
Omp boss
Kode steering wheel
It also came with these
Jenvey throttle bodies and cat cams, I need an aftermarket ecu before I can fit the ITB’s but I’m hoping to achieve in the region of 200 bhp with these and the cams. Ktec claim the bodies are good for 30 bhp so I’m sure with the cams it’s going to be close to that.
With a track day booked at Oulton on the 17th August I was keen to put the car through it’s paces. The first job when home was to order some new pads for the front, the pedal with yellow stuff pads just wasn’t good enough so a set of trusty PBS pads were ordered.
There was also a rather distasteful Renaultsport badge on the boot that I set about removing.
I would like to remove the tints from the rear glass so that’s on my list of things to do along with removing some weight, the whole interior is still in place along with sound deadening.
Some more photos including a proper first wash.
![](https://thumbsnap.com/sc/vHfB9jz2.jpg[/img]</a> <a href="https://thumbsnap.com/7JX53mVp" Target="_blank" rel="nofollow">[img]https://thumbsnap.com/sc/7JX53mVp.jpg[/img]</a> <a href="https://thumbsnap.com/Kk7x8JUN" Target="_blank" rel="nofollow">[img]https://thumbsnap.com/sc/Kk7x8JUN.jpg[/img]</a> <a href="https://thumbsnap.com/wmGOmtFp" Target="_blank" rel="nofollow">[img]https://thumbsnap.com/sc/wmGOmtFp.jpg)
And finally one alongside the comfortable but hateful daily.
All that was left to do before Oulton Park was to check all fluids and get the pads in, ideally I would of liked a set of track spec tyres but time was against me unfortunately, I will get a full report of how the Clio got on tomorrow.
The spec is as follows
Matched and ported inlets
Speedline 2118’s
Michelin PS3’s
Speedina carbon clocks
Ktec coilovers
Ktec exhaust
Polybushed exhaust mounts
Braided lines
Yellow stuff pads
BMS shifter
Bimarco Futura bucket seats
Omp subframe
Oreca four point harnesses
Half cage
Omp boss
Kode steering wheel
It also came with these
Jenvey throttle bodies and cat cams, I need an aftermarket ecu before I can fit the ITB’s but I’m hoping to achieve in the region of 200 bhp with these and the cams. Ktec claim the bodies are good for 30 bhp so I’m sure with the cams it’s going to be close to that.
With a track day booked at Oulton on the 17th August I was keen to put the car through it’s paces. The first job when home was to order some new pads for the front, the pedal with yellow stuff pads just wasn’t good enough so a set of trusty PBS pads were ordered.
There was also a rather distasteful Renaultsport badge on the boot that I set about removing.
I would like to remove the tints from the rear glass so that’s on my list of things to do along with removing some weight, the whole interior is still in place along with sound deadening.
Some more photos including a proper first wash.
And finally one alongside the comfortable but hateful daily.
All that was left to do before Oulton Park was to check all fluids and get the pads in, ideally I would of liked a set of track spec tyres but time was against me unfortunately, I will get a full report of how the Clio got on tomorrow.
That looks absolutely awesome. Omex 600 ECU is the go with these I believe, think K-TEC will be able to help with mapping; cams will affect low-end driveability but will get you an extra 10 or so bhp.
If that were mine I'd consider powdercoating the cage the same gunmetal as the wheels.
If you ever decide to sell the ITBs please bear me in mind as I'm picking this up tomorrow:
If that were mine I'd consider powdercoating the cage the same gunmetal as the wheels.
If you ever decide to sell the ITBs please bear me in mind as I'm picking this up tomorrow:
Nutty9000 said:
That looks absolutely awesome. Omex 600 ECU is the go with these I believe, think K-TEC will be able to help with mapping; cams will affect low-end driveability but will get you an extra 10 or so bhp.
If that were mine I'd consider powdercoating the cage the same gunmetal as the wheels.
If you ever decide to sell the ITBs please bear me in mind as I'm picking this up tomorrow:
That looks a nice car.If that were mine I'd consider powdercoating the cage the same gunmetal as the wheels.
If you ever decide to sell the ITBs please bear me in mind as I'm picking this up tomorrow:
There’s a few things that aren’t to my tastes so I will slowly make it more subtle from an appearance point of view, the blue cage will be one of them. Gunmetal could work well.
The tyre sidewall’s are practically back to black after the track day so that’s de cluttered it to a degree but they will be getting replaced in the not so distant future.
I will bare you in mind if I decide to part with the throttle bodies, the other option I’m considering is a low boost turbo conversion, which should raise power to over 230 bhp but totally change the characteristics of the car.
I had booked Oulton Park with a mate about three months ago originally planning to take my EP3 it’s amazing how quickly things can change. My younger sister decided to join me as passenger which made for some interesting moments, brave girl. I was excited to see how the Clio performed in comparison to the Civic with less power, less weight and on less than ideal tyres for the conditions.
Sat in the garage alongside Adam’s DC5
Out for the first session and the car felt extremely lacking in pace and it lasted all of three laps before I had to return to the garage to check the car over and evaluate how to get the best from it. The feel of the brake pedal had changed and on inspection the problem became apparent, both rear discs had cracked all the way through, I was tempted to throw in the towel and go home. I didn’t and risked it knowing how little the rear brakes do on these it sort of made sense.
The second session went far better and pace improved dramatically, the Clio is longer geared than the Civic was so I was now reaching for third in bends that used to be good in fourth and dropped to second out of the first chicane. The difference was notable and I was now keeping pace with cars of a similar nature and it was fun, boy was it fun. I don’t think I’ve driven a car so hard in my life but this thing just eggs you on. The PS3’s were the only thing slowing down progress and they are now fit for nothing but the bin but they allowed me to play around safely with the cars limits throughout the day.
The car made it through the day without any real issues, I had to cut the last session short due to a loud banging noise from the front passenger side but that turned out to be loose caliper bolts. My sister had a whale of a time and she’s now off searching the classifieds for something that she can use for the occasional track day.
A few things will require attention before my next track day, Brembo HC front and rear discs, fresh fluids and some track based tyres but I can’t wait to get back out.
Sat in the garage alongside Adam’s DC5
Out for the first session and the car felt extremely lacking in pace and it lasted all of three laps before I had to return to the garage to check the car over and evaluate how to get the best from it. The feel of the brake pedal had changed and on inspection the problem became apparent, both rear discs had cracked all the way through, I was tempted to throw in the towel and go home. I didn’t and risked it knowing how little the rear brakes do on these it sort of made sense.
The second session went far better and pace improved dramatically, the Clio is longer geared than the Civic was so I was now reaching for third in bends that used to be good in fourth and dropped to second out of the first chicane. The difference was notable and I was now keeping pace with cars of a similar nature and it was fun, boy was it fun. I don’t think I’ve driven a car so hard in my life but this thing just eggs you on. The PS3’s were the only thing slowing down progress and they are now fit for nothing but the bin but they allowed me to play around safely with the cars limits throughout the day.
The car made it through the day without any real issues, I had to cut the last session short due to a loud banging noise from the front passenger side but that turned out to be loose caliper bolts. My sister had a whale of a time and she’s now off searching the classifieds for something that she can use for the occasional track day.
A few things will require attention before my next track day, Brembo HC front and rear discs, fresh fluids and some track based tyres but I can’t wait to get back out.
Fantastic! These are great little cars, I run a mint RB 182 with only 52k miles as my daily driver and I love it.
The spec of your car looks great for the track. My only suggestions would be to look at removing the front fogs to fit brake cooling ducts and maybe a Whiteline rear ARB to tighten up the handling a touch.
Keep the updates coming
The spec of your car looks great for the track. My only suggestions would be to look at removing the front fogs to fit brake cooling ducts and maybe a Whiteline rear ARB to tighten up the handling a touch.
Keep the updates coming
Cheers, they just make me happy when I drive them to be honest, hard to find that in a car but it reminds me of a slightly more modern 205 gti.
I’ve got a massive list of things I would like to do a rarb is certainly on that, I was leaning towards the PMS one but that requires dropping the subframe, do you have any experience with the whiteline one?
I’ve got a massive list of things I would like to do a rarb is certainly on that, I was leaning towards the PMS one but that requires dropping the subframe, do you have any experience with the whiteline one?
Starting issues have been diagnosed as a faulty starter motor, after trying to jump start it I removed and cleaned the TDC sensor from above the gearbox and checked all fuses, loose connectors etc with no joy.
The starter is a pig to get too on these tucked behind the exhaust manifold so I called a mechanic to come and diagnose it, thirty minutes later and it’s running again. It will be getting a new starter motor tomorrow.
The starter is a pig to get too on these tucked behind the exhaust manifold so I called a mechanic to come and diagnose it, thirty minutes later and it’s running again. It will be getting a new starter motor tomorrow.
Good news. These cars are generally reliable so hopefully you'll have no more niggles.
MRobbins1987 said:
do you have any experience with the whiteline one?
I don't as mine is a road car only, but I've heard nothing but good things about them. If you search on ClioSport you should be able to get an idea of what people think of them.The Clio’s had a new starter motor and it’s starting at the first turn of the key now.
I’ve started removing the interior, well I say started it’s all practically gone now, carpets, plastic trim, stereo, speakers etc. The plan is to remove the sound deadening and tidy up the wiring then paint the interior a light grey colour, the cage is coming out and will be powder coated either in black or red, the blue really doesn’t suit the rest of the car so it’s going.
I’ve started removing the interior, well I say started it’s all practically gone now, carpets, plastic trim, stereo, speakers etc. The plan is to remove the sound deadening and tidy up the wiring then paint the interior a light grey colour, the cage is coming out and will be powder coated either in black or red, the blue really doesn’t suit the rest of the car so it’s going.
VTECMFR said:
Love seeing so many people enjoying 1*2s on here. They are just so good at doing what they do.
Get the tints off that, paint the roll cage, get a cup splitter on it, and then that thing is perfect.
Great aren’t they.Get the tints off that, paint the roll cage, get a cup splitter on it, and then that thing is perfect.
The tints will be going along with the Kode steering wheel. There’s quite a few distasteful things that need addressing but it shouldn’t take much to make it less Barry.
I took the Clio for a run out over some local B roads, removing the interior’s definitely made a difference to the way that it picks up. It feels lighter on it’s toes and it’s even more willing to change direction than it already was.
A parcel arrived yesterday from Kam Racing, brilliant service as usual.
Brembo HC discs for the front and rear with new ABS rings, I’m down in Cornwall for the next week or so with my Wife and kids so the fitting of brakes and finishing the interior will have to wait until my return.
Already eyeing up it’s next track outing with Oulton, Cadwell and Anglesey on the list as possibilities for sometime in September.
A parcel arrived yesterday from Kam Racing, brilliant service as usual.
Brembo HC discs for the front and rear with new ABS rings, I’m down in Cornwall for the next week or so with my Wife and kids so the fitting of brakes and finishing the interior will have to wait until my return.
Already eyeing up it’s next track outing with Oulton, Cadwell and Anglesey on the list as possibilities for sometime in September.
MRobbins1987 said:
the other option I’m considering is a low boost turbo conversion, which should raise power to over 230 bhp but totally change the characteristics of the car.
I’m not sure if it was yourself that had a conversation about this on eBay but if not the turbo conversion doesn’t really change the characteristics of the car at all.You must have just missed mine for sale in your recent search, I’ve just put mine up for sale to fund next seasons racing.
R8Steve said:
I’m not sure if it was yourself that had a conversation about this on eBay but if not the turbo conversion doesn’t really change the characteristics of the car at all.
You must have just missed mine for sale in your recent search, I’ve just put mine up for sale to fund next seasons racing.
It wasn’t me Steve, I did contact someone about a low boost turbo Clio on eBay but someone had already placed a deposit on it.You must have just missed mine for sale in your recent search, I’ve just put mine up for sale to fund next seasons racing.
Good to know that it doesn’t really affect the characteristics, I’m fairly sure that I will go with the throttle body set up at the moment even though the gains are minimal for the expense.
MRobbins1987 said:
R8Steve said:
I’m not sure if it was yourself that had a conversation about this on eBay but if not the turbo conversion doesn’t really change the characteristics of the car at all.
You must have just missed mine for sale in your recent search, I’ve just put mine up for sale to fund next seasons racing.
It wasn’t me Steve, I did contact someone about a low boost turbo Clio on eBay but someone had already placed a deposit on it.You must have just missed mine for sale in your recent search, I’ve just put mine up for sale to fund next seasons racing.
Good to know that it doesn’t really affect the characteristics, I’m fairly sure that I will go with the throttle body set up at the moment even though the gains are minimal for the expense.
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