Discussion
Right decided to have a go at one of these build threads for my car, i'm only 2 years late in starting so plenty to catch up on :')
Thought i'd start at the beginning of my car ownership, the clio is my second car and took the place of my KA. Picture the scene i had just started my first real job as an apprentice who hasn't been working long, i had got a driving licence but very little money towards a car to commute in when my neighbor asked if I'd be interested in buying her daughters car that had sat for a couple of years on their drive, i was told it had no mot and wont start then handed the keys to have a look around. My brother was a mechanic at the time so 10 minutes after having the keys we had it running and moving, had a poke around the car and couldn't find anything to stop me purchasing it so a few weeks later and it was taxed insured and mot'd and my car. The original plans were to keep the car for a year and flog it on once i had gained my 1 years ncb. now this is where i started fettling and i know it wont be to many peoples taste on here but i very much enjoyed the car, it finished up on gaz coilovers with a side exit exhaust sat on some weller wheels as shown below.
so around 18 month into the ka and i'd started earning a bit more and doing the usual scanning of pistonheads, autotrader and ebay i started doing a few insurance quotes on hot hatches and realised i could insure a mini cooper s for not a lot more than the ka so a few weekends later and i had a number of minis lined up for viewing. As the title suggests the mini didn't happen, i test drove a couple and found them to be not for me. another scroll through the sale pages and i found a corsa vxr locally so popped over to have a look, test drove it and was very impressed, the car pulled like a train as you would imagine coming from a 1.3 ka but after having a poke around it had mayo in the coolant bottle and didnt look the best kept, at this point i was about to leave the garage and continue my search when i stumbled across the clio tucked away inside their garage had a look and was impressed. A week later i returned for a test drive and that was it deposit was placed and i was to be the owner of a clio 197. It was a low mileage car with belts history with minimal issues although having the standard steering wheel peel and the alloys had a few knocks in them. another week past and i went to collect the car.
as you can see it was as it left the factory looks wise, at this point my plan was to just tidy the car up and enjoy it, keep things low cost and use the car. as you'll see that plan lasted all of 10 minutes
Thought i'd start at the beginning of my car ownership, the clio is my second car and took the place of my KA. Picture the scene i had just started my first real job as an apprentice who hasn't been working long, i had got a driving licence but very little money towards a car to commute in when my neighbor asked if I'd be interested in buying her daughters car that had sat for a couple of years on their drive, i was told it had no mot and wont start then handed the keys to have a look around. My brother was a mechanic at the time so 10 minutes after having the keys we had it running and moving, had a poke around the car and couldn't find anything to stop me purchasing it so a few weeks later and it was taxed insured and mot'd and my car. The original plans were to keep the car for a year and flog it on once i had gained my 1 years ncb. now this is where i started fettling and i know it wont be to many peoples taste on here but i very much enjoyed the car, it finished up on gaz coilovers with a side exit exhaust sat on some weller wheels as shown below.
so around 18 month into the ka and i'd started earning a bit more and doing the usual scanning of pistonheads, autotrader and ebay i started doing a few insurance quotes on hot hatches and realised i could insure a mini cooper s for not a lot more than the ka so a few weekends later and i had a number of minis lined up for viewing. As the title suggests the mini didn't happen, i test drove a couple and found them to be not for me. another scroll through the sale pages and i found a corsa vxr locally so popped over to have a look, test drove it and was very impressed, the car pulled like a train as you would imagine coming from a 1.3 ka but after having a poke around it had mayo in the coolant bottle and didnt look the best kept, at this point i was about to leave the garage and continue my search when i stumbled across the clio tucked away inside their garage had a look and was impressed. A week later i returned for a test drive and that was it deposit was placed and i was to be the owner of a clio 197. It was a low mileage car with belts history with minimal issues although having the standard steering wheel peel and the alloys had a few knocks in them. another week past and i went to collect the car.
as you can see it was as it left the factory looks wise, at this point my plan was to just tidy the car up and enjoy it, keep things low cost and use the car. as you'll see that plan lasted all of 10 minutes
so with the car still being in warranty i decided to make sure it was still pulling the power as it should so had it strapped onto a local dyno for a quick power run where it pulled a strong 190bhp, i'm not all about power figures as they can vary so much dyno to dyno, so i look more power curve as this gives a better idea to the health of the car, the car was running a very smooth curve and i enjoyed it for a few months.
then one of the common clio issues reared its head in the form of blowing manifold flexis, i opted to for a toyosport manifold and some powerflex engine bushes to be fitted at the same time. this completely changed the car making it much more responsive but you get a lot of the engine vibration transferred to the car. Next item to be sorted on my list of niggles was the wheels, i originally wanted anthracite but the powder coater talked me into a bronze colour. I left the car with him for the week to sort the alloys and paint the brembos yellow. After collecting the car i decided that it would be worthwhile doing the door bullets and the front and rear renault diamond in the same colour hence why they are missing on the image.
this pretty much takes me up to the point of owning the car for a year barring a couple of small bits, i debadged the rear as it no longer matched the bronze/black theme and continued with general maintenance. I had joined a club and attended one of their meets at blyton park where i had the chance to be a passenger with a few people on track, this is where the track bug started with the clio and i had a direction i wanted to head with it.
(one of the pictures from that weekend)
then one of the common clio issues reared its head in the form of blowing manifold flexis, i opted to for a toyosport manifold and some powerflex engine bushes to be fitted at the same time. this completely changed the car making it much more responsive but you get a lot of the engine vibration transferred to the car. Next item to be sorted on my list of niggles was the wheels, i originally wanted anthracite but the powder coater talked me into a bronze colour. I left the car with him for the week to sort the alloys and paint the brembos yellow. After collecting the car i decided that it would be worthwhile doing the door bullets and the front and rear renault diamond in the same colour hence why they are missing on the image.
this pretty much takes me up to the point of owning the car for a year barring a couple of small bits, i debadged the rear as it no longer matched the bronze/black theme and continued with general maintenance. I had joined a club and attended one of their meets at blyton park where i had the chance to be a passenger with a few people on track, this is where the track bug started with the clio and i had a direction i wanted to head with it.
(one of the pictures from that weekend)
so the build continues,
after the weekend at blyton i decided to go for a more track focused car (although it still needs to be used daily), after reading good reviews and being offered a set from a trader at a sensible price i ordered some bilstein b14 coilovers. as suggested the quality of these is impeccable especially for the money, they are on the soft side for track work (i'd want something with damping adjustment and stiffer springs for out and out track) but as a road track compromise they're perfect.
this got the car sitting a lot nicer and handling a lot better.
with track being the focus i booked in my first day which was to be a sprint at curborough, a circuit local to me that would be good for learning the car and how i should handle it. After a quick scan of ebay i found a set of laguna silverstone wheels which share the same pcd as the clio locally so purchased those and sent them off to be powdercoated in a very bright green. a few weeks later i stumbled across a cheap set of part work ad08 tyres that would suffice for a while and collected those, this meant that everything was in place for the clio ready for my first outing. so the day came and it was september last year, i thoroughly enjoyed the day and learned an awful lot.
But i found the back end of the car to be unsteady throughout the day so opted to purchase a cup spoiler. many will say these do nothing on a fwd car but there is an image showing a simulation the effect of the cup spoiler and rear diffuser have on the air movement around the car. they also look pretty good, i opted to have it hydro dipped in carbon fiber effect and a few weeks after the curborough day it was on the car.
after the weekend at blyton i decided to go for a more track focused car (although it still needs to be used daily), after reading good reviews and being offered a set from a trader at a sensible price i ordered some bilstein b14 coilovers. as suggested the quality of these is impeccable especially for the money, they are on the soft side for track work (i'd want something with damping adjustment and stiffer springs for out and out track) but as a road track compromise they're perfect.
this got the car sitting a lot nicer and handling a lot better.
with track being the focus i booked in my first day which was to be a sprint at curborough, a circuit local to me that would be good for learning the car and how i should handle it. After a quick scan of ebay i found a set of laguna silverstone wheels which share the same pcd as the clio locally so purchased those and sent them off to be powdercoated in a very bright green. a few weeks later i stumbled across a cheap set of part work ad08 tyres that would suffice for a while and collected those, this meant that everything was in place for the clio ready for my first outing. so the day came and it was september last year, i thoroughly enjoyed the day and learned an awful lot.
But i found the back end of the car to be unsteady throughout the day so opted to purchase a cup spoiler. many will say these do nothing on a fwd car but there is an image showing a simulation the effect of the cup spoiler and rear diffuser have on the air movement around the car. they also look pretty good, i opted to have it hydro dipped in carbon fiber effect and a few weeks after the curborough day it was on the car.
The car sat as shown for a while and i enjoyed driving it and visiting events such as goodwood and WRC wales. As im sure anyone who attended WRC wales will be aware the track there and back meant the car turned into a half and half paint job
fast forward a few months and Performance french car expo was closing in and i fancied changing the car a little, i am lucky to have a great vinyl cutting company local to me who listen to my thoughts and give their views. so popped in after work and we discussed my ideas, the following saturday i left the car with them to have the vinyl fitted and on collection i was more than impressed with the results, the design set the car right off. the eagle eyed may also notice i sprayed the handles from the failing silver to gloss black.
next on the list was the exhaust. i noticed the center box on the original system had taken a big hit from behind somehow leaving quite a big split in the system. i opted for a scorpion resonated system so as not to deafen myself on a long drive and minimize the upset to my neighbors.
fast forward a few months and Performance french car expo was closing in and i fancied changing the car a little, i am lucky to have a great vinyl cutting company local to me who listen to my thoughts and give their views. so popped in after work and we discussed my ideas, the following saturday i left the car with them to have the vinyl fitted and on collection i was more than impressed with the results, the design set the car right off. the eagle eyed may also notice i sprayed the handles from the failing silver to gloss black.
next on the list was the exhaust. i noticed the center box on the original system had taken a big hit from behind somehow leaving quite a big split in the system. i opted for a scorpion resonated system so as not to deafen myself on a long drive and minimize the upset to my neighbors.
I've always wondered what the meg sports are like i had a look at a few 250s a couple of months ago but decided against it before test driving. The meg swapped clios seem to be growing rapidly in popularity they seem to be the best of both worlds
as for the KA It was still only a KA it was more a case of chance than choice although i did grow fond of the car it would be difficult to make it worse
as for the KA It was still only a KA it was more a case of chance than choice although i did grow fond of the car it would be difficult to make it worse
yeah i have no qualms in using the car for most things :') i have a couple from goodwood last year which between commuting and parking in the mud bath of a field the car looked much the same.
from that point the cars stayed very much the same in looks for a long time. Since then i did a couple more days at curborough before upping my game so to speak and purchasing a set of ar-1 to replace the dated ad08's, these have been an ace tyre the grip levels are high from the start. i have played around with the suspension and found a leveling i'm happy with. And had a braking overhall fitting ds1.11 pads to the front with mtec front disks and r26 megane rear disks
My first outing on the ar-1 was at blyton with a video link below to anyone interested (i'm still very new so any constructive criticism is welcome).
blyton
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5WiO1Wa6Wg&t=...
and a link to a curborough lap
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmwwFmQGnZI&t=...
the car was very loose at the rear on the curborough day hence the little off road excursion. My plans from here are to tidy up the engine bay (i made a little carbon plenum badge)
the car is also booked in for a re-map to smooth the power delivery and sort the cold start issues. i would like a bucket seat as you may see in the videos i'm quite thin in build so move around a lot in the seat when driving, but without a half cage and harnesses i would't feel this a safe option which then makes for a lot of work and big spend. but for now im happy with the car. Today i attended donnington for the french car show and this week have fitted a stud and nut conversion along with some 21mm spacers for the road setup (better arch fitment) which i will add pictures of when i take some.
from that point the cars stayed very much the same in looks for a long time. Since then i did a couple more days at curborough before upping my game so to speak and purchasing a set of ar-1 to replace the dated ad08's, these have been an ace tyre the grip levels are high from the start. i have played around with the suspension and found a leveling i'm happy with. And had a braking overhall fitting ds1.11 pads to the front with mtec front disks and r26 megane rear disks
My first outing on the ar-1 was at blyton with a video link below to anyone interested (i'm still very new so any constructive criticism is welcome).
blyton
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5WiO1Wa6Wg&t=...
and a link to a curborough lap
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmwwFmQGnZI&t=...
the car was very loose at the rear on the curborough day hence the little off road excursion. My plans from here are to tidy up the engine bay (i made a little carbon plenum badge)
the car is also booked in for a re-map to smooth the power delivery and sort the cold start issues. i would like a bucket seat as you may see in the videos i'm quite thin in build so move around a lot in the seat when driving, but without a half cage and harnesses i would't feel this a safe option which then makes for a lot of work and big spend. but for now im happy with the car. Today i attended donnington for the french car show and this week have fitted a stud and nut conversion along with some 21mm spacers for the road setup (better arch fitment) which i will add pictures of when i take some.
I’d definitely suggest some tuition to help get the best from you & the car.
Best thing I ever did was go out with someone who could really pedal to give an idea of lines & just how hard it’s possible to push in comparison to road driving....
Clearly not ‘that’ many folk do as the amount of capable machines I’ve seen being driven very sedately on track continues to surprise me...
Best thing I ever did was go out with someone who could really pedal to give an idea of lines & just how hard it’s possible to push in comparison to road driving....
Clearly not ‘that’ many folk do as the amount of capable machines I’ve seen being driven very sedately on track continues to surprise me...
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