The trials & tribulations of racing a Clio

[colesy]

Yes BRSCC. it's worth a look, the top class is 230hp per tonne and weirdly it's done at the fly. There's a couple of PMS engined cars running in class A. I was right at the top end of B.

Grids were generally decent but could have been bigger at some rounds. At Oulton we were 30 cars but at Cadwell only 12.

As above. The preliminary calendar is out now if you want to have a look.

Regs are very open but as it's power to weight it means you don't have to go totally crazy. I'm 216 atf at 1046kg to be at the top of B and it's definitely the biggest class

Cool I’ll check it out. My car is built to class B of hot hatch which is 175 bhp/tonne limit. Mine makes 182bhp and is 1070kg with me in it.

 

[robzracing]

Yes BRSCC. it's worth a look, the top class is 230hp per tonne and weirdly it's done at the fly. There's a couple of PMS engined cars running in class A. I was right at the top end of B.

Grids were generally decent but could have been bigger at some rounds. At Oulton we were 30 cars but at Cadwell only 12.

As above. The preliminary calendar is out now if you want to have a look.

Regs are very open but as it's power to weight it means you don't have to go totally crazy. I'm 216 atf at 1046kg to be at the top of B and it's definitely the biggest class

Yeah, mine is only 850kg so I’d struggle to get into class B even with a standard engine and definitely not with my race engine at 230bhp. Unless I ballast it up. We’ve got a calendar meeting in the next few weeks to decide what to do next year but with a couple of 2 hour races on the calendar next year, if anything we’re going longer rather than shorter!

 

[Hollidog]

Cool I’ll check it out. My car is built to class B of hot hatch which is 175 bhp/tonne limit. Mine makes 182bhp and is 1070kg with me in it.

I think that would be class c for us but that's all good

Yeah, mine is only 850kg so I’d struggle to get into class B even with a standard engine and definitely not with my race engine at 230bhp. Unless I ballast it up. We’ve got a calendar meeting in the next few weeks to decide what to do next year but with a couple of 2 hour races on the calendar next year, if anything we’re going longer rather than shorter!

850kg is wild! Is that with you at race fuel? My 1046 is ballasted up to get me to the class limit.

 

[robzracing]

I think that would be class c for us but that's all good

850kg is wild! Is that with you at race fuel? My 1046 is ballasted up to get me to the class limit.

Fueled but without me in it.

 

[Nafoff]

Interesting catching up on this, and then learning about the power to weight considerations in different championships/classes.
Worth knowing for if/when I come to sell the phase 1...
Surprised @robzracing that yours is 850kg with the carbon roof... Feel like I could lose so much more weight from the phase 1 based on that.


Good to see that the 'grey shell' went to a good home. Look to see that coming along/being developed at some point.

 

[robzracing]

So, continuing from my last update...
At the end of September we returned one final time to Snetterton. Feeling confident we went into the weekend to round off our season with the CSCC Tin Tops once again.

We qualified P12 on the road and P2 in class, just 9 tenths off pole in class. So with all to play for it was decided that I start the race and with a rolling start this time it seemed that the pressure would be slightly less.

And that’s where I was starkly reminded that, a: a race isn’t won at the first corner and b: motorsport is dangerous.

Coming up to the end of the start/finish straight I had made a good start, making up a few places but I was on the outside. Two cars a little way in front touched - no drama there but I stayed out wide in anticipation of something more happening. They continued but I found myself coming in a little too hot and heavier on the brakes than I would normally. Cold tires and out on the marbles, I very quickly found the back end coming around faster than i could catch it. With right foot buried and opposite lock applied I did my best to try and save the slide.

What actually happened though was that the tires bit when I was already over 90 degrees turned which then led me darting across the track amongst all the traffic until the inevitable collection by one car on the inside with three quarter to three quarter connection that span me around and spat me back off the outside edge of the track to roll into the barriers. Race over and car done…

worst start ever



Thankfully of course these race cars are build strong and neither I or the driver that collected me were hurt. I spoke to him afterwards and naturally he wasn’t happy but I’ve known him for many years and we both know what one signs up for when you go racing.

Equally Rob, (who’s car it is) was cool with the situation and again, we all know the risks and he knows that we are in it together and i will play a major part in building him a new car. (more on that later)

So we headed home already making plans for QB3. (this is his second Clio already)

The last race of the season for many in club racing in the UK is the Birkett 6 hour endurance race at Silverstone. Entered in teams it is effectively a relay race usually with teams having a minimum of 3 cars in which you could have potentially 6 drivers.

teams can be bigger but of course the more changes you make, the harder it is to do well.

So, with no race engine yet I quickly put together a spare engine with standard internals. A look over revealed it hadn’t been terribly well put together before so I ordered some new big end bearings and ARP bolts and booked a session on the dyno.

The dyno session was long. Being a new dyno there were some teething problems but we spent a good 5 hours building a map and doing some runs. Strangely, the engine didn’t seem to want to make the power I expected though. More on that later…

The Birkett came…and went disappointingly quickly. After being held for almost an hour in the assembly area, once we headed out onto track for qualifying the engine immediately started to play up. By lap three it was done, with the cabin filling with smoke and noises coming from the engine that were not good.

All very odd after it surviving the dyno but maybe the low power was the tell-tale.

Returned to the paddock after engine failure, just as friends arrived to watch!
Onwards and upwards…

 

[robzracing]

Plans for '26
So, with another engine failure Rob Q and I came up with a plan.
Since the Birkett we took the engine from his "Darth Vader" and installed it in my car. Although a standard engine it means we have a working car to start a 2026 campaign.
With the engine installed, it started after a few attempts and then the car rolled under its own steam. Out of the garage and on to the road. Leaving a nice trail of fuel!
Sure enough, the tank appeared to be leaking and further investigation seemed to show it was the joint between the rubber flexi from the filler neck and the tank. But no amount of tightening of the pipe clip seemed to cure it. Even after doubling up the clips - nothing.
It was difficult to see clearly but we figured that it was possible that there was a break in the tank around the neck of the flexi. Replacement tank ordered.
This seemed like an opportunity to sort out the fuel level sender too. As the tank is baffled with foam cubes the traditional float style sender doesn't work so I purchased a "dip tube" style sender to install somewhere in the tank.

Which needed some modification. I thought it would come with its own shroud but sadly not.

40mm waste pipe fitted perfectly!

...and a few holes drilled to try and keep the sensor as accurate as possible.

location found that seems to work

Calibrating this with the Aim dash will be the next challenge.
So in the meantime I started to prepare to build a new race engine. Taking 2 spare blocks over to Gosnays Engineering to have them bored to 83mm and ordering all the parts required.

With these now back and everything for the bottom end now acquired these have gone off to my engine builder who will select the best block to build with and we'll keep the other one for the next engine.
So while that's being assembled I'll start work on the top end and in between that we'll book the car onto the dyno with RobQ's engine so we can be ready for the opening round at Donington in March.

 

[robzracing]

With the first race of the season booked. Donington on the 29th March, it's much easier to feel motivated! We also have a shakedown booked for Snetterton on Monday 9th March and before that a dyno session on the 25th Feb. So a bit to get on with before then.
With the blocks now machined they went off to my engine builder with a box of new seals and bearings. He'll be checking through everything and will start the build soon but it won't be a quick job, so for the opening race at least we'll be running the stock engine.

Along with the new engine I was going to send my Helix clutch off to be re-padded but after speaking to them and doing a few checks that they asked me to do it beame apparent that the clutch isn't serviceabe. So a new clutch was duly delivered by Kam Racing along with a release bearing. That will now wait for the new engine.

So, a few things more immediate to be getting on with, the first being getting the fuel tank back in the car. I'm not sure I'll have time to calibrate the new fuel sender before March but we'll see how it goes.
An access hole needed to be drilled through the floor for the new sender, so that was this weekend's job.

And then I bought some black acrylic to make a removable cover and heated it to mould into the correct shape.

Which came out ok..

I'll probably drill this and fit a grommet for the cable to come through if I can't feed it through with the lift pump wiring. We'll see.

And finally, in other news this week I've been working towards doing the ARDS Instructor course. Something I've been planning to do for a few years and now regret not doing sooner as the requirements now are considerably more than a couple of years ago.
To qualify I now need to upgrade my National license to an International C which means a full medical with Stress ECG. This has proved to be very expensive although not as much as the £1000 the local private hospital quoted!
I also have had to do an FIA online course on safety, provide 5 race results in the last 2 years, a Motorsport UK course called the Accelerator, aimed at become a motorsport embassador and finally a DBS check.
So, I'm nearly all done. The ECG and medical will be in March as well as the actual ARDS course so next month is going to be busy, motorsport wise. Not a bad thing!

My haul of race licenses (missing a couple!) so the instructor course is overdue!

 

[robzracing]

A couple more arrivals for the new engine. My builder is concerned about the centra main cap on one of the blocks in that its showing signs of being a little loose. So he's going to make some repairs and then line bore the bottom end. He recommended usng some ARP studs for this once done, so had some delivered yesterday alond with some new standard bolts for the other block which we're going to build up first.

So, yesterday's mission was to make progress with the fuel tank. We got it installed over the weekend, confirming that the hole drilled for the sender access is in the right place.
Following that I've spent a few hours reading up about wiring in and calibrating a custom fuel sender in the Aim dash. So, firstly I ran an Aim patch lead from the tank to the dash and then pinned it into the 2nd analogue input on the rear auxilliary plug.
Wiring in the other end was a little more tricky. It requires a resistor to be connected in line to allow the resistance on the float position to be read using a 5mV supply that the dash uses.
Following that it's al about calibration in the software. Lastnight I got as far as setting up the display on the dash and began a table to convert the millivolt reading into ltrs.
So, today's mission is to start filling the tank in 500ml increments and log the readings to build a table. As the tank isn't an even shape this is the best way to create an accurate conversion table. Then there's a bit of jiggerypokery to allow for slosh, although with the baffles in the tank I'm hoping that will be minimal.
Watch this space!

 

[robzracing]

An overdue wash yesterday and today made a start on updating the livery slightly. Finally moving away from the traditional white number squares on the dors and bonnet and continuing from the Birkett with the more popular, these days - Yellow window numbers.
I've turned the car around so I can get to the near side wing and cill to re-wrap those to complete the tidy up.

 

[robzracing]

More cosmetic work this weekend. Removed the last couple of parts that still had the original wrap on from 10 years ago. They've weathered well in fairness but the wing still had some gravel rash on it from the roll at Craners 9 years ago!
Equally the side skirt was pretty rough under the wrap and as a lot of the paint came off with the wrap it lookslike it had been painted in the past. So that needed a bit of attention before I could wrap it.

Anyway, a few hours later both were done along with sanding down the side repeater and spraying satin black the same as the other side.
Sunday will be completing applying some more stickers and finishing the cover for the lift pump.
The wrap on the skirt isn't perfect but enough for a race car!

 

[robzracing]

Stickers finished, pump cover finished. Just a bit more prpgramming of the dash and its ready for the dyno on Wednesday. Keeping everything crossed!

 

[robzracing]

Off to the dyno in the morning. 🤞

 

[robzracing]

A successful visit today. 212bhp from a pretty much stock engine is more than expected but more importantly its safe. (we hope)

 

[robzracing]

So, just to expand a little on the video posted previously. Dyno day was a success!
Being just a 20 minute drive away meant a fairly leisurely start as they didn't want me there until 10am and knowing the setup there now made getting the car off the trailer and into the dyno pretty plain sailing. By 11:30 we were strapped in and sipping coffee.

In fact this may have been the smoothest running dyno session I've ever experienced. No delays from a car on the rollers before me; no software or dyno issues and no gremlins with the car.
So we went right through pretty much without stopping. Building up the site maps from 1000rpm up to 3500rpm afterwhich you can set the software learning the nature of the engine and it populates the whole map ready to be tested.
Once the power runs started there was very little tweaking to do. The first full power run yielded 205bhp which I would have been happy with but Steve could see that the engine wanted more, so a bit more adjustment and we went again. This time 212.4bhp. Much more like it and almost identical to the same spec we ran back in the day and with 158lbft of torque it should be nice in an 850kg car.
I do wonder whether the race engine is worth the effort!

 

[PerthRS]

Decent numbers with a nice usable torque curve!
Internally stock just with some Jenvey ITB's and ECU? (Manifold/Cams?)

 

[robzracing]

Decent numbers with a nice usable torque curve!
Internally stock just with some Jenvey ITB's and ECU? (Manifold/Cams?)

Yeah, this engine has stock internals and standard cams. Everything else is the same as when I run the race engine. ITBs with high pressure pump and fuel return, 182 manifold and Yozza system and of course the Emerald ECU.

 

[robzracing]

Its always a sign of a good day at the track when you can drive the car on to the trailer at the end of the day.

Weather wise, we couln't have asked for more and with a rare private trackday at Snetterton the day promised some good, clear track time.
If only the car behaves...
Not off to a great start when the car cuts out completely exiting turn 2 on the sighting laps! A strange one and a quick reset and it goes again and behaves for the rest of the laps.
Back in and swap the drive with Rob Q and he experiences the same thing. And again the car is fine after that.
So, we get sighting laps out of the way and the 3 of us begin a rotation of 1-3-1. (one out lap, 3 hot laps and 1 in lap). The car cuts out again on a acouple of occasions but other than that it behaves and we all start to get comfortable.

Despite a private day there are still 60 cars there (about half a normal track day) but they are mostly road cars and mostly novice track drivers which makes for some rather hairy closing speeds and unpredictable behaviour. All good but just needing to be alert and only Rob Q got a couple of clear laps and started making some progress.
Late morning we encountered our second issue. Fuel surge.
As I was monitoring the accuracy of the new fuel sender I was expecting the fuel surge as we wanted to run the tank down so that the low fuel warning would come on. But it wasn't working entirely as planned as the level strated to become a little erratic, pointing to a sticking float. Not a huge issue though and we decided to drop another 20ltrs in the tank and carry on.
Strangely though, the car continued to surge. And the high pressure pump was getting noisy and fuel pressure had dropped half a bar.
AFter some investigation, we adjusted the fuel pressure on the regulator and cleaned out the fuel filter, (it wasn't too bad) and then sent it again.
It ran nicely for a couple more laps and then started losing power and surging again.
More investigation needed so we moved on to the engine bay. Injector wiring has been the cause of issues in the past so we stripped and checked all this. Nothing doing, except for a pin in one of the injector plugs wasn't engaged properly inside the body of the plug so we don't think it was properly connected to the injector. A quick adjustment and then out again.
Again, it ran great for a few laps and then... it cut out again!
Back in the garage we banged heads and turned our thoughts to the electrics. We had the car idling while we all vigorously wiggled wires and pushed connectors. Nothing doing....., until we turned the steering. With EPAS we noticed each time we turned the wheel the fuel pump note changed. and also the variable steering adjuster seemed to be working intermittently. So we concluded that either this adjuster is failing or the steering rack is getting stiff and putting tto much load on the motor or the actual steerng column motor itself is failing.
We turned it all off and went back on track. The car ran faultlessley. The humans, however did not. With so much camber and castor the steering is incredibly heavy. The tight turns need an immense amount of effort to get the car around and this amount of effort prevents any kind of accuracy. Even Rob Q, who is a ranked british Cross Fit competitor was struggling after 3 laps.
So, some attention needed and then some more seat time before the 29th March. Hopefully we can sort the issue and find space on a track day.

 

[Brigsy]

Alternator voltage ok? If its on its last legs, that could cause the epas to cut ign if volts dropping too low.

 

[robzracing]

Alternator voltage ok? If its on its last legs, that could cause the epas to cut ign if volts dropping too low.

Alternator is fine I think. Producing way over 13v while running but you can see voltage drop below 12 as the steering is turned. Might be worth investigating. Its a new alternator too.

 

[HemiHusky]

Thought i knew this car it appeared on videos from our track day group all saying "man that clios fast" and its pretty distinctive!

So do you know Richard or was it freind of a freind advertisement. I would have had my 172 there if it hadnt decided that having a working uch wasn't for peseants and died on that weekend just before.

Super small world!

 

[robzracing]

Thought i knew this car it appeared on videos from our track day group all saying "man that clios fast" and its pretty distinctive!

So do you know Richard or was it freind of a freind advertisement. I would have had my 172 there if it hadnt decided that having a working uch wasn't for peseants and died on that weekend just before.

Super small world!

Yes, I know Richard. We've raced together for over 10 years. Would have been nice to have another clio out. Be good to see the videos!

 

[Klumpy Dumpy]

The EPAS is quite sapping on the electrical side which is why I haven't put it on my track car

You need the 110A alternator to be able to run it without issues, the 75A cup alternator will struggle to keep everything alive, especially if you've got a bigger fuel pump

 

[robzracing]

The EPAS is quite sapping on the electrical side which is why I haven't put it on my track car

You need the 110A alternator to be able to run it without issues, the 75A cup alternator will struggle to keep everything alive, especially if you've got a bigger fuel pump

Except that the car has been runing in this configuration for 5 years. Nothing has changed which suggests something is breaking down in some way. The most draw from the EPAS is normally when moving the car around at slow speed/stationary when it needs to make the most effort so I'd say something is definitely wrong.
I'll report back soon.