320Touring's Hill climbing Clio

[320touring]

Cambs_Stuart said:

Good to see you're enjoying it. And I'll go and give my bonnet latch a good clean and grease!

Thanks! Aye was good to get out in it.

Think my time was not told bad, as my mate with a 182 engine in his Kangoo was about 1/10th behind me.

So they are both either in decent fettle or equally buggered🤣

[Gtom]

I must admit I was quite aggressive with the car to get the 14.7 time, I snapped the gear linkage doing full throttle shifts.

Also as far as I know, Crails surface isn’t anywhere near as good as Santa Pods?

Good time still, how did it compare to other cars?

[320touring]

Gtom said:

I must admit I was quite aggressive with the car to get the 14.7 time, I snapped the gear linkage doing full throttle shifts.

Also as far as I know, Crails surface isn’t anywhere near as good as Santa Pods?

Good time still, how did it compare to other cars?

Yeah I didn't want a broken car 70miles form home

I was lifting when shifting as didn't want to bugger the clutch or linkage .

Crail's surface is a wartime air strip, so mainly concrete. No compound down.


There was a turbo's ph1 172 there running low 14s, but most in my class were in the 15s.

Some mates ran the following

Ep3 type R 15.3
Kangoo 182 15.7
Toyota MR2 MK3 with a Corrola vvtli lump 14.7
Ssangyong Rexton 20.2
Volvo v70 T6 14.1

The Volvo surprised everyone. 4wd, 2 tonnes, 304bhp and a turbo'd 3.0straight 6.

It just fked off. Vented seats on, Aircon on. No discernable noise, just gone.

[320touring]

Surprising news on the fuel consumption front...

55.47L used for 488.5 miles (Inc the 20L top up before drag racing)

40.04mpg

That's it's second best tank I've had out it.

[The Bearded Tit]

Looking good! I recently sold my partner's ph1 1.4 automatic. Stupidly comfy compared to the Vauxhalls I've always owned. Bit curious though, the first post said the Toyo Proxes tyres is a negative. How come?

[320touring]

The Bearded Tit said:

Looking good! I recently sold my partner's ph1 1.4 automatic. Stupidly comfy compared to the Vauxhalls I've always owned. Bit curious though, the first post said the Toyo Proxes tyres is a negative. How come?

They're very soft sidewalled, and I find them squirrelly in the rain when pressing on.

Much prefer Rainsports, but these tyres have good tread so going to get a wearing out them first.

As always with tyres, it's generally down to personal preference and experience.

To their credit they held up well to drag racing

Edited by 320touring on Tuesday 17th May 08:42

[LordHaveMurci]

320touring said:

The Bearded Tit said:

Looking good! I recently sold my partner's ph1 1.4 automatic. Stupidly comfy compared to the Vauxhalls I've always owned. Bit curious though, the first post said the Toyo Proxes tyres is a negative. How come?

They're very soft sidewalled, and I find them squirrelly in the rain when pressing on.

Much prefer Rainsports, but these tyres have good tread so going to get a wearing out them first.

As always with tyres, it's generally down to personal preference and experience.

To their credit they held up well to drag racing

Edited by 320touring on Tuesday 17th May 08:42

I had a few good results with Proxes on wet hillclimbs, just up the pressures to offset the soft sidewalls.

I run PS3’s now but still not convinced they’re much better.

[320touring]

After managing to slice my thumb open working on my '59 Morris Oxford ( narrowly missing the tendons and the nerve), on Wednesday,

I've had to pull out the hillclimb tomorrow as the wound has not healed enough to be able to drive..

bd

[320touring]

This car was supposed to be on a hill climb on Sunday 5th of June and a track evening on the 6th of June.

Obviously, on Monday 30th May, I heard a telltale tinkle of a clutch release bearing any time the clutch pedal was depressed.

I fear this thing is as workshy as me.

Over the next week, the noises got louder, and the car more juddery on takeoff.

Luckily, I'd not booked with the trackday or hillclimb.

Now the car shakes like a dog stting razorblades as you pull away and each gearchange is accompanied by a thud.

The aforementioned booking money is now going towards a new clutch being fitted. I've asked Clio Stu to give the whole front end a check over whilst it's up in the air.

Suffice to say, I have an answer to the question "Why is there a clutch set in the boot"?

To be fair to it, i got it at 168999 miles, and got 5700 miles out the clutch. Wonder what state the friction pad is in?

Photos to follow once stripped!

[Cambs_Stuart]

To be fair, 168,000 miles is a good innings for a clutch.

[320touring]

Cambs_Stuart said:

To be fair, 168,000 miles is a good innings for a clutch.

That's the thing. I dunno if its the original - will need to see.

If it is, then yep, 183k is a fair innings!

[320touring]

Prepare for Carnage...

From initially noticing the rattle of the release bearing until it was parked at Clio Stu's last night, the car has done about 600 miles..

Initially it doesn't look great ..



Peel back for more buggeredness



I'd say that is forked..



Zoom and enhance on the release bearing:




there was at least some friction material left.



It's now all back together with the following:

New LUK clutch kit

Good second hand fork

2L of new gearbox oil

Good second hand polybushed 'dogbone' lower engine mount





and apparently driving well.



I collect it on Monday hopefully..

[Cambs_Stuart]

That was properly knackered!
Only 2l of new oil? Any reason not to empty and refill? They take 3.1 L to fill from empty.

[320touring]

Cambs_Stuart said:

That was properly knackered!
Only 2l of new oil? Any reason not to empty and refill? They take 3.1 L to fill from empty.

Eh I dunno. I may have misheard.. no doubt the right amount is in it regardless:-)

[320touring]

It's now back and driving lovely😀

Of course, the fuel light just came on...

[Cambs_Stuart]

That's going to be expensive! Good to hear it's running well. Any more hill climbs or sprints booked?

[320touring]

Cambs_Stuart said:

That's going to be expensive! Good to hear it's running well. Any more hill climbs or sprints booked?

Indeed!

At the moment no, but the track I was supposed to be going to at the start of June has another day planned for the 27th, so that may be a goer

[320touring]

A whole week.

That's how long I got between the clutch being done and the car needing more work.

Right rear bearing is howling like a banshee, so it's new discs time (rear discs have the bearings pressed in).

Not the worst job but as usual, time n money..

[320touring]

Rear bearing still howling, still no time.

In other news, the last two tanks have been pretty good!

[Cambs_Stuart]

25 years ago, in a mk3 ford escort I had a front wheel bearing utterly fail while I was overtaking a lorry on the M25. I nearly lost control and would have ended up spread all over the carriage way near the M4 junction.
Ever since then I've been paranoid about wheel bearing noises.