Clio 172 Road Rally Car

There is no such thing as cheap motorsport.

But like many before me, I convinced myself I could at least keep it affordable and within something resembling a budget.

I've enjoyed reading a lot of the other project threads on the forum over the past couple of years, so I thought I'd finally get around to sharing what I've been working on since the start of 2023.

For a number of years I've been competing as a navigator on road rallies. For those not familiar with road rallying, it is a discipline governed by Motorsport UK for competition which can be held entirely on the public road. There are a variety of different styles of events, but the main two I am interested in are night rallies, where the competitors need to maintain an average speed along a pre-determined route whilst not getting lost in the deepest darkest countryside; and targa rallies, which use the same timing principles as a night rally but applied to special tests held on private land.

Although I have no plans to stop navigating, after a few years in the sport I was starting to think I'd like to have a go in the drivers seat, but that meant I'd need a suitable car. Many years ago a friend let me have a drive in his blue 182, and ever since then I'd fancied having a 172/182 as a weekend toy anyway. It seemed like a good opportunity to bring the two things together.

Now the general consensus in the road rally community is that the Clio is a bad choice, its too delicate, there aren't many off the shelf rally bits without spending a fortune, and you'd do better if you just bought a Fiesta, Satria, 106 etc. But for me this project isn't to try and build a winning car (I'll never be a better driver than I am a navigator). It is to build something I can use on a range of events, maybe do the odd trackday, but mainly just ENJOY owning and building.

With that in mind, I set out to find a reasonably tidy but standard car which possibly needed work anyway and take it from there.

After a few months or so of browsing I became the owner of this 53 plate 172 with 100k on the clock:





The car was a very long way from my house, but the price was right and it sounded like the perfect starting point. It was advertised as spares or repairs due to having the engine warning light on and a few bits of body damage, but it was in daily use and had an MOT. I noticed the power steering was squealing during the viewing but the rest of the car was tidier than described so a deal was done. The chap I bought it off seemed pleased that I was going to do something with it, as all the other enquiries he'd had were from people wanting to break it.

It drove the 250+ miles home without incident, and thought about the next steps for my 'cheap' rally car.....

PART 2

First things first, I wanted to make sure the car was a good'un before I started spending too much money on it, and I wasn't going to take it out competing unless I had at least done the fundamentals.

Problem number one was the engine warning light, the previous owner had told me it was the carbon canister but hadn't ever got around to dealing with it himself, so off it came and into the bin it went. Engine warning light sorted.

Next up was the power steering pump, I didn't fancy sorting it myself (the belts scare me) so I booked it in at a local Renault Sport specialist who confirmed the bearings were knackered and the hoses were leaking. A slightly larger than expected bill later, and the power steering pump was sorted.

Now came the first significant decision... I knew that long term I wanted to run 15" wheels as having the option for a much deeper sidewall is good news when you're dodging potholes and rocks (or not), and good quality 15" tyres are generally noticeably cheaper than their 16" equivalents. The problem was that the tyres on the car were rubbish and I didn't even want to potter around on them whilst I assessed whether the car was fundamentally sound, but I didn't want to shell out for some 16" tyres I wouldn't keep.

Inevitably, I decided I should just go straight into the 15"s. Originally I was considering some turinis, but I was advised that I would possibly find myself breaking them if they took a hard hit. I therefore decided 2118's would be the better option, and after a few weeks not finding any for sale second hand at a reasonable price, I had a moment of weakness and....



I would have preferred them in silver but the 15's are only available in white or gold, and I wasn't going to have them resprayed - this is a CHEAP rally car remember...! My logic was that the wheels would still be worth good money if I bailed out of the project early anyway. A set of Michelin Pilot Sport 3's later and we're back on the road.

Brakes were next on the agenda, discs were replaced all around with some normal pads in the back, and on recommendation from a friend some DS2500 pads in the front. I also changed the hoses for a set of KTR braided ones all round. I was somewhat unimpressed by the DS2500's at first, they didn't seem to grab like I thought they might and didn't seem any different to any other set of quality pads during 'normal' driving, it was only the first time I got the opportunity to repeatedly step on them hard I accepted they are worth the extra cost.

I then turned my attention to the suspension, I had decided that I wanted some more ride height to deal with the rough stuff but wasn't going to shell out on some mega expensive suspension. A lot of the usual coilover kits (Bilstein etc.) for the Clio 2RS actually give you a ride height drop even at their maximum extent, so I was limited to standard damper options to begin with. A quick and dirty solution seemed to be to get something from another Clio, so £30 later I had a set of big boy springs from a 1.5 DCi, they are shown below next to a standard sport spring.



After compressing the springs into the struts with my basic spring compressors (which felt like arming a bomb), I had some ride height.



A quick job with the string kit got everything back in alignment as far as possible for a job done in the street (I have very understanding neighbors).



Rather unsurprisingly the new springs did have a significant impact on the feel of the car, certainly the ability to absorb big bumps was improved, but it spoiled the feel of the handling, which is such an important fact of the Clio experience. Most noticeably the car car felt unsettled during compressions in bends, I suspected that because it was tracked up at a neutral position, but with the wishbones now sitting far from horizontal, when the suspension compressed it effectively just gave it super bump steer. I considered camber bolts to try and correct the problem I had created, but decided to leave it for the time being and see if I could get used to it (spoiler alert - I couldn't).

I wanted to give more of an update in this one, but I've run out of time for now. Thanks for reading!

Following with interest! I'd really like to have a go at a targa at some point. Have a few friends that do them and they look a lot of fun.

Awesome,

Love this. Keep up the great work.


I suspect you’ll end up shelling out on suspension ….

Good project. I started road rallying back in the '70's and we were out at the weekend watching the Wyedean. Looking forward to the next installment

PART 3

Thanks for the feedback so far, much appreciated!

Now, probably the the most important thing you can do to a road rally car is fit a set of decent spot lights as there is no point in having a quick car if you can't see where you're pointing it. The regulations state that you are allowed no more than four forward facing beams (an OEM headlight unit counts as one beam), lamp pods aren't allowed (boo), and neither are LEDs, so it limits you to quite a traditional auxiliary lighting setup.

First things first, I secured a pair of second hand quality Hella spotlights from a friend, and set about thinking how to mount them. Some road rally cars you see on events have really been thrown together and although functional, can look pretty rough. Now as this is a hobby car not just a pure competition machine, I knew I couldn't tolerate something which didn't also look right as well. The vision I have in my head is that it ends up looking like a 'clubsport' style car, i.e. almost OEM in its fit and finish where possible.

With that in mind I didn't want to go cutting big holes in the front bumper, but I did look at that useful slot Renault put right across the whole thing. The challenge was now to get some angle bar (the L shape giving strength) to protrude through, mounted on something solid enough behind. Now I also can't weld, so it needed to be a mechanical solution. After a bit of pondering, I came up with:



And with the bumper fitted:



The eagle eyed amongst you will notice the rust proofing all over the place, I had taken the bumpers and sill covers off previously and given everything a good seeing to with Bilt Hamber Dynax.

Lights need electric, so I dropped a relay into the main beam circuit which triggers the switched permanent live straight off the battery. This means that the spots turn on and off with main beam, but also you can have main beam without the spots on (for daily use). To aid easier removal of the bumper in the future, I put some IP65 rated quick release connectors between the car wiring and the spots.

Inside the car I set about making a switch panel, disposing of the cup holder and fag lighter gave a great place for an extra fuse box and switches I'll want long term. The panel itself is a piece of painted aluminium. Long term the switches will control the spots, the interior lighting, and marshal lights.



Those with their thinking caps on might have realised that adding spot lights actually takes the number of forward facing beams up to 6, because of the fog lights fitted to a 172. Although some scrutineers would turn a blind to a set of poxy fogs, I would prefer everything to be above board.

That meant taking out the lenses and doing something with the holes that remained. I thought about just blanking them off but it made sense to go for some brake cooling ducts instead, the impact they have is probably negligible but a bit of airflow flying around the wheel arch can't do any harm. What I wasn't prepared to do was pay the £100+ for a pair of 3D printed bits though!

So I bough a length of proper automotive ducting for circa £20, and went for a nosey around my local hardware store. I came away with some 4" flanged inlet pipes (£3), and a pair of 4" to 3" inch stepped drainpipe reducers (£7). A bit of fettling later and it was done:





And the look from the front:



It was then about time for a bit of a shakedown run, so an entry into a 12 car rally up in Cumbria was just the right sort of thing to give it a brief competitive outing. Here we are still in one piece the morning after the night before:



Despite enjoying the run around and having a good time, I couldn't help but noticing a couple of things: there was a tell tale whir from the thrust bearing, and 3rd gear didn't always seem to be where you'd left it.

It was time for a big job to break out....

Good luck with the build, I have done lots of road rallying in the past with some good results in cars that were not the usual road rally cars in the northeast. It's just so hard to find a good navi these days for road rallys.
Regards the suspension, an old boys trick to raise the front end was to make a spacer that sits on your top mounts between them and the inner wing and put longer bolts through so maybe a possibility if it's not to your liking on the deisel springs.