Gris Eclipse Phase 1

Hi all,

Let me present you something unique, let's head back to 2008 when birth of this car started

It was rainy day in May of 2008. in Croatia and faithfull to BMW driver stereotype, E36 M3 was speeding through the town carrying too much speed and crashed 2 or 3 cars, and one of them was a parked silver phase 1.








If you think this looks bad, take a glance at the M3.. And yes, the driver tried to escape with the car in this state..





And then, the sad owner of the phase 1 got to thinking, what to do next, he just couldnt bare the fact he has lost his loved car and that was the end of that era..

Lucky for him, it was still 2008. and clio 2 was still kinda newish, and he had an splendid idea. Contact Renault and check if they have new chassis avaliable.. Few weeks later this showed up on pallet from Slovenia.

Since this was all on forum, the members went wild when they saw this project 😂

This meant a bare chassis, brand new, and everything had to be reassembled from the old car, and the bad bits had to be bought new.

He then decided the want's to paint the car in a colour that Clio 2 never recieved, but it was a new Renault colour back then.

Gris eclipse B66.

Painting the interior




New Phase 1 front subframe



Stripping the old car

Starting to look like something from the inside




The state of old shock





On it's wheels, kinda

New bits from Renault



Engine in, and everything on front end was wrapped in powerflex




Ready for lick of new paint

Shell painted, new wheels







Assembly

Assembled finally

Thats amazing, out of curiosity, what did Renault charge for the chassis back then?

Optimista said:

Assembled finally

View attachment 1668756

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Well that’s just f**king beautiful 😍

AS the years went on and owners changed, the car got updates..

aluminum pulleys



in 2010. New engine





Ligthened flywheel



Pipercams BP270





And then the same owner went ahead and designed cyclops intake manifold on this car, some of you may remember this..

State of the car in 2015.



And here you can see a clip from the setup of the car at the time.. Check out the channel, he has lots of videos of it



And that was last reply to that thread all the way to year 2020. when car was found it this state.


And bought by a mechanic.



Engine out and rebuild, i think it had spun a bearing or something like that, dont remember anymore

Bascially he threw a lots of money in it..





New koni shocks



And the car was slowy getting to it's former glory







Diff plate..

And the luck was going on strong with this car, it changed the owner in 2020. and returned back to Split and got a shiltload of care and money spent on it..

Ported intake, silicone hoses, new injectors, carbon bits, interior damping, and whole interior painted to refresh the old plastic and leather seats

Thermosticker for the seats ( like you have prints on t shirts ), painted fenders, tessa intake







CS 197 Brembo on front

I know the car for last 3 years, been in contact with previous owner from Split, and always admired this example...
And 2 months ago, he sent me a message with an offer I couldnt refuse.. I sold my phase 1, and waited for him to return from overseas

Basically he is a proper gearhead, but kinda leaning to Italy

And finally when I arrived in Split to pickup the car, this was what waited for me.





Alcantara wheel with renault sport colours stiches




And a bit of cleaning at home

Bit rude but how much did you hand over for it ?

That’s bloody lovely.

And write up after a while of owning it.

The colour wasnt growing on me on the pictures on forum, but in person, it's very unique colour and suits the car very well, i'm in love..
It still has the cams, and a remap. The car pulls like a train in comparation to my old oem phase 1, goes really well.

The koni shocks are amazing, powerflex is still on the car and no change in clearance even after 15 years. The light parts ( flywheel, pulleys ) are making a unbeliveable difference, the throttle is responsive like 2 stroke!

Interior feels almost like new, and the car isnt showing it's age.

So the current setup would be
I'm just in love with the car, this is what a clio sport should feel like, asking you to floor it.

And of course, no car is perfect, so i changed the bits that I could, at first

Bare in mind, the powerflex on wishbones and arb is in great condition but dog bone is shot!




Replaced with hard mount for now, I have strongflex insert laying around

Got an wheel aligment




Rear right ( for UK drivers the drivers rear ) scrubs sometimes, especially is somebody is in the rear seats.. As the car has rear shim spacers, I thought it needs a camber, but it already has 2 degree of camber.. Rear beam bushes are OEM and I hope the polyurethane bushes will solve this, before I do anything else

And a new plastic for gear selector, as old one is shot and has tons of play



Rear caliper is new but the pad is not catching the disc on all the surface, which is strange.. I lubed the sliders but the problem stays the same.. Bare in mind on this side there was a faulty caliper before and I think it maybe wore the disc or the pad in the strange way.. we'll see with the mileage if this problem still persists..



And payed a visit to my buddy, also renault sport enthusiast




And thats about it for now.. I have a lots of things in plan for it, but the important thing is , it's mine now, so I'll take it easy

Weighted the car with 1 dot above half tank of fuel


Custom plate

The Chubby Pirate said:

Thats amazing, out of curiosity, what did Renault charge for the chassis back then?

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TBH would know that

Whisker biscuit said:

Well that’s just f**king beautiful 😍

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I agree!

G. Brzęczyszczykiewicz said:

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LOL, it's funny cause this is the sad truth.. I cant get syncros from Renault anymore, they stopped all their production for older cars.. They went to s***s

Whisker biscuit said:

Bit rude but how much did you hand over for it ?

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It was a friendly price, 6000 euros

Daz... said:

That’s bloody lovely.

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yep!

Optimista said:

It was a friendly price, 6000 euros

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Massive bargain 😵

Catching the sunset

Bought Sabelt steering wheel. Although oem one is fresh and has renautl sport colors stiching, the siting position is very bad and I cant get used to it whatever I try.. Maybe if I had longer hands it would be good 😂






Also bought RS floor mats, but what I didn't know, aparrently there's a difference between PH1 and PH2 pedals, because when i press the clutch pedal fully, it catches the floor mat.. THe solution is to pull the mat as back as possible.. Just standard renault thing with PH1 and PH2 difference.. f**k me lol




Also switched the switch for passenger window as the one in the car was requering strong pull to work.. Replaced the bulb also..








Cheers

Lovely!

Went on a drive today on a mountain top to strech it's leg from sitting in garage

After 5 years of searching, managed to find OEM almost perfect state, blue carpets... Thought I'd never find them




New wheels bolted

Ronal 16" x 8J

Shame the brembos are hiding behing now 😂

Haven't posted long time here..

Pre cat section cracked

16/7/2024



and it got a oil & oil filter, and fuel filter
What was worrying that after a hard uphill drive ( in hot summer day) when coming to stop, since it's idle is below 800rpm, the light for oil pressure would blink at me, very fast.. I continued driving, assuming the oil got cooked ( didnt do an oil change in my possesion, it was castrol 5w40 ) as it was over 1year old but not so many km.

Went witl elf 5w40 as I dont want to throw random oil at it, untill i know how does it behaves with oil temp and pressure ( but cant know yet as I dont have installed any gauges )
Anyways, when removing the old oil, it splashed everywhere and consistency was water like.. nice...

Since the oil change I didnt have any more case of that oil light coming up, but keep in mind I didnt have the oportunity to drive it in the same conditions.






21/9/2024

Preparing for Track Day

Since i wasnt sure about all fluids in this car, decided to replace gearbox oil, although it was replaced not so long ago. Another thing that bothered me, when driving in gear but with no load, the diff would whine, no so loud, but enough for me to notice it.
Went with Yacco oil, only I could find that's near me and only GL4( because of jc5 syncro ), and it has much higher lubrication on 100C compared to elf 75w80, plus VRX additive. All I can say, the noise was gone and shifting is great.



Stock seat out


Have zync plated nuts ( oem ) from my megane build ( need to open a thread for that ) that came in handy to throw on


Bucket seat & harness in



steel braided brake lines for the front ( it already has rear's), middle exhaust hanger and motul rbf 660 brake oil.

Cleaned TB, replaced leaky PS sensor





Also measured oil pressure as I wasnt sure if oil pump was bad, the engine was toast or what.. But it's okay(ish), at 4000 rpm at 4.5 bar but warm idle is at around 1 bar ( when hot slightly below )



On the gas station night before with my brother



Just renault things.. I was checking for leaking oil pressure sensor, and brother snapped his abs sensor cable.
It was a full fight to complete brothers car in time, 1 week prior, wrenching long into the night and last few days went full mental.. as it goes, why would we have ready on time?



The day

So to give you some insight into this.
Every year in 9th month, INA ( very big fuel company on EX YU teritory, now under ownership of Hungary, sold from us, Croats, lots of corumption involved etc.. ) organises Ina powered Track day, where almost all petrol heads from country gather for a full day of speeding on Grobnik racetrack in Croatia. This year there were 180 participants, and luckly it's organised on Thursday, bcs if it was on Saturday, that number would be crazy bigger.

Arrived morning, lots of cars, many different cars and thats always nice to see.

I went with my "daily" setup, 16" ultra leggeras and continental conti sport contact 2, to learn the car and the track. Bear in mind I only drove on this truck once in my previous PH1, so took it easy, as the track day was from 09 - 17h.



First few laps I was going slow, cautious of many cars around me and just trying to relax. Went out to adjust tire pressure as it was way up and car was understeering, set it around 2.3 hot and went out and had a lots of fun.
The tires held up suprisingly good, I mean they arent the right tyre for this car and this kind of driving, but they are good for the street.
Best time with this tyres 1:57, early braking and lots of traffic.

After lunch it was time to get more serious

Mounted 15" oz superleggera with nankang AR1

Talk about tight fit




Went out on the track, and boy this was the biggest difference I have ever noticed on a car, and was I glad that I first went out with road tyres.
Did some laps to heat them up and immediately noticed huge difference to steering responce ( because of stiffer sidewall ) and improved grip.
Went out, set the tyre pressure ( hot 2.4 bar all around ), and went out for lapping.
I couldnt believe what transformation this car had all because of tyres. I was really enjoying it. Lap after lap, braking later, and trying to get a better lap time. As the day went by, there were unfortunatelly few crashes and thy track was getting less crowded, so it was a good time to make good and clean laps.
At the end of the day, my best time with AR1 was 1:52, I was impressed.
Car held up great, brakes didnt show any signs of failure( brembo + ds2500 ) ( they saved me 2 times from code brown ), only thing that isnt up to task it the suspension ( koni yellow and eibach sportline ).
On the last 2 laps, was chasing with my brother when my throttle got stuck, for a second I thoguht I did something wrong, did a cooldown lap and went for the last lap full on, and then the throttle got stuck right after finish straight ( around 190 km/h) and luckly nothing happened, I managed to slow down, had brake pressure, and that was a sign, time to finish the day.. It happened few more times when driving to the box, when I "tested" it.. Dont know what happened, maybe the TB expanded? Dunno..
Regarding the oil pressure, after few hard laps, when driving through pits, the oil pressure light would blink again.. It seems like either bad fuel pump or too low idle ( the car is mapped )

All in all very fun day, lots of learning and sharing info with my friends, seeing what I can do, what my car can do. Very contagious.
Did over 50 laps, and around 230 km on the track, hands down to the car.






25/10/2024
Finally! Managed to find a set of OEM Renault F1 16" 4x100, after I gave up on searching them, friend sent me a link, price was really good.
The lips are bit bashed up, but they are straight and with all the centre caps! Have to refurb them, but happy to have them finally.




Thanks all for now, the car is sleeping for the winter,

Cheers

Ivan

Optimista said:

Hi all,

Let me present you something unique, let's head back to 2008 when birth of this car started

It was rainy day in May of 2008. in Croatia and faithfull to BMW driver stereotype, E36 M3 was speeding through the town carrying too much speed and crashed 2 or 3 cars, and one of them was a parked silver phase 1.

View attachment 1668714
View attachment 1668715
View attachment 1668716
View attachment 1668717
View attachment 1668718


If you think this looks bad, take a glance at the M3.. And yes, the driver tried to escape with the car in this state..

View attachment 1668719
View attachment 1668720


And then, the sad owner of the phase 1 got to thinking, what to do next, he just couldnt bare the fact he has lost his loved car and that was the end of that era..

Lucky for him, it was still 2008. and clio 2 was still kinda newish, and he had an splendid idea. Contact Renault and check if they have new chassis avaliable.. Few weeks later this showed up on pallet from Slovenia.

View attachment 1668721
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The perfect bedtime story to my newborn

Glad you liked it.
I find it kinda special, although many say it isnt' "original" sport, because the chassis doesnt have it's number from the factory ( it came un numbered, and had to be stamped at technical inspection - the numbers dont match renault numbers, but are numbers matching to Croatian type of this things), i think it's a unique and maybe more special then a regular one.

It went throught many phases, good and bad, but thankfully it didnt end it's life on that junkyard where it got saved from, and it's getting loved more than ever

Awsome !

Great update. The trackday sounds awesome