“It's just a daily” - Renaultsport Clio 182

[frayz]

Rome was not built in a day my friend.

[frayz]

chrismc1977 said:

Nice idea with the cold air feed

The only thing that would bug me is the strengthening webs on the feed not lining up with your grille.

They do line up with the grille. But if i took that photo, you wouldnt see it. Ha

[frayz]

PhillipM said:

No, no, he's right, you've buggered it up. Better give that one to me and start again.

Ha, everything's for sale Phil, she still wearing the printed polymer dogbone you made too.

Hope you're keeping well mate

[frayz]

Not much going on with WZD over the winter. Wife gave birth to our little boy in January so had plenty to be occupied with.
Clio got hit (parked at petrol pump & revered into) the day before Christmas Eve which means the front bumper has a healthy scuff in it that I need to sort too.
Yesterday I carried out my yearly clean/check over of my dampers. My custom set of AST5100s have been on the car for 2 years and completed 23,000 road/track miles in all weathers and conditions.

They do 250 miles a week as my car is my daily driver. They were liberally coated in ACF50 and covered in Motamec damper covers from new.

Cleaned and ACF50 reapplied, they look as mint as the day they were fitted.

Just shows how nice they stay if you look after your investment. 🙂

In other news I’ve been collecting parts for a substantial brake overhaul soon so that should be nice. 🙂

[frayz]

Mogsmex said:

Cambs_Stuart said:

Any updates @Frayz? Always intrigued to see what you do next?

he's eyeing up 10 year old Zafira's now

I’d rather just a night in a cheap hotel and 12 hours sleep.

[frayz]

Been collecting some upgrades for WZD over the winter. One of which was an improved brake package in the form of the following:

PMS 285mm Brembo 4 pot caliper package.
PMS 285mm x 28mm 2 piece rotors
New rear brake calipers with red powder coated carriers.
EBC Racing RP1 front pads (Interested to try these before going back to Pagid RSL29s)
Pagid RS4-2 rear pads.
Mr Pink stainless steel pin kit.
PureTrack titanium shim kit.
Castrol SRF Racing fluid.
Genuine Renault Clio 197/200 Master Cylinder.



All fitted up perfectly as always by Alex @ AW Motorworks.

To anyone interested the Evo Corse X3MAs fit without the need for spacers (My 5mm spacers were left in place in the photos)
To be honest i really liked my previous setup with the 29s but i found at Snetterton i was never 100% confident in standing on the brakes at the end of the back straight after a few laps. The pedal never went on me and the brakes were always there . But they were nearing their limit and psychologically they used to spook me a bit.

Also dumped 1.5kg from the disc and 5kg from the calipers/carriers so 6.5kg of unsprung mass.


Big brakes and Toyo R888Rs in time for the snow. haha

Edited by frayz on Friday 1st April 14:40

Edited by frayz on Friday 1st April 14:52

[frayz]

B'stard Child said:

Might want a few more lug nuts on that wheel

Weight saving innit!

[frayz]

Well I’ve driven it home and initial impressions which I was fully prepared for was they were initially far from earth shattering, as you would expect from an all new setup.
The whole system has been off including a master cylinder swap so I’m well aware that they will want a good bedding in and another bleed, probably a few bleeds to get them 100%.
i know Alex bled them multiple times and with clip and we both knew it would take a while to get them fully bled out.
The pedal travel is at the moment slightly long as you can feel some squish in the system. However, after about 10 miles of steady medium breaking you could feel the whole lot biting up very very hard. The new rears have made a huge improvement to how planted and stable the car feels now. The biggest change is how stable the car is, you can brake from big numbers and the car is arrow straight and the feel you get back from the pedal now is very impressive. Even with the fresh setup and the need for further bleeding, the difference is significant.

So I’ll drive her for a few days and do another bleed of which hopefully will remove the squish I have at the moment.
I was worried about the colour clash of the new red calipers (only available in red when new) with the inferno paint. But now they’re on, I think they look okay.

[frayz]

Cambs_Stuart said:

WZD is looking fantastic! I'm sure after a hundred miles and some enthusiastic braking the new set up will feel incredible.

Driven it to work today and now covered about 50 miles all in. Still some squish at the top of the pedal due to some air in the system but Christ they are mighty. The way it scrubs speed, and the pedal feedback is impressive and the whole car almost sucks itself to the road under braking now is very confidence inspiring.

[frayz]

The Rotrex Kid said:

They look great. Are they Megane RS/Clio RS calipers? They did do them in silver as well on the non cup pack cars.

Correct but the silver ones are totally bare and unpainted. I wanted them properly finished so chose the red. Im pretty happy with them now ive had time to get used to them a little.

[frayz]

Batch 7.5R said:

I’ve not been on PH forums since the autumn - been mega busy - so was very pleased to find this topic still going strong. Car’s looking fantastic Frayz - loving the BBK!
Did you manage to get to BRHC before it had to pack up?

Thanks man, much appreciated. The cars getting there.

BRHC, i didn't. We had planned to and i was supposed to go with a friend and he still went but came back less than enthused. So i must admit i haven't felt the need to rush down there. I cant help but think a lot of these places aren't worth the effort if they're far away, as they're all basically the same, and I'm very lucky to have some amazing quality breakfast meets on my doorstep.

Edited by frayz on Sunday 3rd April 11:05

[frayz]

trails said:

Looking good as always my friend, glad you didn’t go with matching orange callipers!

How is the brake balance now…I was expecting some lightweight 2 pot rears to match

Balance is honestly fine, although still needs a bleed to sort the pedal out. I think the OEM rears will have to do for now. Although I did have them colour matched to the Brembos

[frayz]

Popped back to Alex on Friday after work to give the brakes another bleed after a week of driving. Hooked up to Clip with the ABS module priming and another healthy dose of Castrol SRF, he proceeded to bleed the whole system again twice.
I'd have to drive a drive a stock car back to back but i think the dead zone is now near as dammit the same as stock but with significantly improved power and feedback through the pedal. The pedal was significantly improved and now we are back to almost OEM levels of travel. I don't think it will get any better from further bleeding either.
I would like to see if possible to re drill a pedal to move the leverage point on the pedal to reduce the travel even further but I'm not sure yet if this can be done.

All in, very pleased with the overall improvement, lets just hope they hold up on track.

[frayz]

Cambs_Stuart said:

Looking at that set up I'd say you're going to have to work very hard to overheat that on track!
Have you got a track day booked?

Donnington Park in November but i'll be booking some more beforehand.

[frayz]

Ben Lowden said:

I'd have absolutely no concerns whatsoever about track work with this set up – I ran 200 Brembos on my last 172 Cup (albeit without an uprated master cylinder, doh!) and never had any issues on track. Having said that, I'm late and heavy on the brakes and never had any issues with the standard setup either.

Looks fantastic Frayz, looking forward to hearing how you get on with it once it has bedded in a bit more.

Thanks Ben, they feel good but not sure i like the RP1 pads that much. They feel a bit in consistent to me, so i'll probably swap them out for RSL29 again as i had in the old calipers. 29s just feel right all the time to me.

[frayz]

I've caved and literally just ordered some Pagids. This time trying the RSL2 as opposed to the 29.
Basically a 29 but a bit more. Cost more than most Clios but theres a reason ive been running Pagids all these years, as soon as i tried to save some cash, i wasnt happy.
Never run the PBS myself, but i hear plenty of folk like them, glad they're working for you.

[frayz]

PhillipM said:

The newer siloxanes are a step above the old pads in *everything* - don't think you'll regret it, the siloxane based Ferodo's are the same, I don't know why they even bother still selling the old 2500/3000, etc.

I had similar with Bluestuff, I liked them, until the one time I got them a bit too warm - after that no matter what I did with them it was a lottery if they were there or not, no matter what temperature they were at.

That’s exactly how these feel Phillip. I don’t feel confident in them being there at all.

[frayz]

For anyone confused at the thread title change, I thought it was about time I aligned this with the WZDs Instagram account.

If anyones into that sort of thing, you can follow the life of WZD on Instagram @its_just_a_daily.

Thank you Ben

[frayz]

Alex_225 said:

Great car and a great thread.

These RS Clios do get under your skin. I bought a new Clio 172 back in 2003 and I just thought it was the best thing. I didn't quite appreciate how good a car it was I just liked it being quick, well spec'd and a bit different.

I've had a number of cars since, faster, I suppose more capable etc. I actually ended up buying an identical 172, 10 years later for £500, spent a load of money on it but loved it. If I had the money and the space to spare, I'd have another one in a heartbeat.

Also, great colour Inferno. I have a Megane 225 in the same colour.

Thanks Alex, they certainly do get under your skin. It often crosses my mind i should maybe drive something newer, quieter, more refined etc but there just isnt anything modern within a budget id want to spend that interests me. Sure id love a Megane and go down a similar path, (Poles, CAE, light engine tune, dampers/brake package etc). But in reality i'll be going faster, spending more money and using more fuel for what i know would be no extra enjoyment over what i have.

Even my Cayman R, yes its in a different performance league to the little Clio, but i never drive the Clio and feel like ive been short changed.
In fact, every time i drive the Clio, i feel like its still so exciting and fun. Now its getting on a bit, people notice it too and i often get people compliment it or stop me at a shop/fuel station.

Nobody ever does that in the Cayman R. Lol.

[frayz]

Gilhooligan said:

Great thread. Went to test drive a black 182 yesterday that was described as ‘one of the best’. Didn’t have any rust on it but every panel had a ding and a wheel arch was scuffed. Engine idled rough and the EML kept coming on sporadically. It also drove pretty poorly.

Getting hard to find a nice one it seems.

Yeah I'm afraid to say you're right there. So many have been trashed and mistreated that good ones really are like hens teeth now. All id say is don't pay attention to mileage on them, purely buy on condition and history with all the right service parts done.
Dings can mostly be sorted by a good PDR guy. EMLs are usually due to the cars being de-catted without being remapped to suit and the rough idle is pretty standard I'm afraid. My cars idle is grumpier since the light weight flywheel too lol.

I keep planning on getting mine remapped but never seem to get around to it. They do drive a heap better ie cleaner and smoother with a map, even if they make little to no more power.