ClioSport.net
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ORRRR.... buy a car from an experienced tuner? or get them to inspect any potential purchase first?
Mark fish motorsport looks after mine. Does an AWESOME job!
and I know he has a few for sale normally.
I'd also try Fred at BTM. he has given me some awesome no bull5hit advice and PROPERLY knows his stuff!!!
If you wanna see what Clios are all about. I am at Brands hatch on monday. Welcome to come out for some passenger laps and have a look over the car
Pretty much exactly what I'm looking at! Maybe squeezing seats in there somewhere too.
Hadn't really thought of that, but I'll definitely give them a look once I've got some money saved up. So far it's just been fairly idle browsing of Pistonheads and the for sale forum in here.
Would love to get out to Brands Hatch on Monday, but I'm a bit snowed under at work (with only just enough time to post here
). Thanks for the offer though, it would be great to see them on track prior to buying. A lot more informative than the usual up and down the road test drive in the passenger seat.
Maxi Megane and 182
I have done shed loads of trackdays but I have only done one trackday in my part prepped 172 and unfortunately the aux belt came off and made the cam belt jump which mashed all 16 valves.
Do a full nut and bolt check of everything every time to prevent things like this happening, mine was a loose power steering pump.
I suggest stripping all the free weight out the car straight away as this will reduce wear on components, increase speed and handling and reduce fuel usage. All of which save money. Things like sound deadening are a lot heavier than you would think. My old R5 GTT had over 10kg of tar like sound deadening and 20kg of foam and rubber which I removed. I also saved over 20kg by removing rear seats and changing fronts to lightweight buckets. Another weight saver is removing the rear wiper mechanism as this saves a couple of kg. All adds up to more power to weight ratio.
I only have a set of Apex lowering springs on std shocks and it handled well. I know coilovers are better but a LOT more expensive for a novice and setting up can cause more hassle than the gain you will get from them. R888's also make massive difference imho.
Brakes are important and my biggest advice is to change the brake fluid to a good quality dot 4 or even dot 5 as this may never have been done on the car you buy and brake fade can be lethal.
You can either go cheap and cheerfull and expect to change pads every trackday or two or spend the money on decent stuff and it will last longer. A mate of mine has a new set of £10 pads every trackday on his lightweight R5GTT but has never changed the rears or the discs.
Do a full nut and bolt check of everything every time to prevent things like this happening, mine was a loose power steering pump.
I suggest stripping all the free weight out the car straight away as this will reduce wear on components, increase speed and handling and reduce fuel usage. All of which save money. Things like sound deadening are a lot heavier than you would think. My old R5 GTT had over 10kg of tar like sound deadening and 20kg of foam and rubber which I removed. I also saved over 20kg by removing rear seats and changing fronts to lightweight buckets. Another weight saver is removing the rear wiper mechanism as this saves a couple of kg. All adds up to more power to weight ratio.
I only have a set of Apex lowering springs on std shocks and it handled well. I know coilovers are better but a LOT more expensive for a novice and setting up can cause more hassle than the gain you will get from them. R888's also make massive difference imho.
Brakes are important and my biggest advice is to change the brake fluid to a good quality dot 4 or even dot 5 as this may never have been done on the car you buy and brake fade can be lethal.
You can either go cheap and cheerfull and expect to change pads every trackday or two or spend the money on decent stuff and it will last longer. A mate of mine has a new set of £10 pads every trackday on his lightweight R5GTT but has never changed the rears or the discs.
