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The trials & tribulations of racing a Clio
- Thread starter robzracing
- Start date
robzracing
ClioSport Club Member
Was definitely a fun race! Not sure on the fueling issue yet. Possibly fuel vapourisation due to the heat, or possibly more crap in the system. I've got a Walboro uprated lift pump to fit in the tank which I'll do in the next couple of weeks in the run up to Donington on the 21st. Someone has also suggested checking the mesh filter on the fuel regulator which is worth a look. We'll see.
robzracing
ClioSport Club Member
More to come soon!
robzracing
ClioSport Club Member
No GoPros for the Brands Hatch race. They hate the heat! So I cobbled together the VBox footage. If you can stomach the poor quality the racing gets more interesting about 15 minutes in.
colesy
ClioSport Club Member
172 182 197 E61 530D
That’s a watch for when I get to work 😎
robzracing
ClioSport Club Member
Messing around with AI today. Don't look too closely!
robzracing
ClioSport Club Member
Preparations for Donington 2 hour race started this week starting with retrieving the car from its new storage space. A mate of mine has just had a storage unit built for his car collection so I had to ask if he might have room for one more! A Clio takes up very little space after all! And in return I offered to keep an eye on things for him while he's not around. (he spends time between London and Melbourne) He's started filling it already and there's more to come!
Once back at its more humble home I started with the easy stuff.
Not happy with the new wheel bearing which has a small amount of movement in it, the hub is off again to have another bearing pressed in. this time a better quality SNR one.
I also collected 2 wheels from the powder coaters one from the crash at the end of 2024 that will stay as a spare and the other a new one that replaced it at the end of 2024 but was only available in Bronze at the time so had had a rattle can finish until now.
Tyre will be fitted this week too.
After this I turned my attention to the fuel system yet again, starting with the filter which after stripping (yet again) proved to be clean as a whistle. So then it was on to the tank.
The symptoms at the end of the Brands race was fuel starvation, so the best result here would have been a near empty tank and we could chalk it down to human error. Alas, still plenty of fuel in the tank!
So, the lift pump came out again and that's where things started going to s**t.
All my own doing mind. I had a Walboro uprated pump sitting on the shelf so decided to swap this out with the existing one incase the pump was on its way out.
Unfortunately though it's not so easy to swap these pumps. the Walboro needs some adaption to the housing to fit and the flexi hose needs to be attached. But this did not come off the exisiting unit without a fight. In fact, it wouldn't come off at all without cutting it! And that left me wthout a hose. The Walboro comes with a small piece of rubber hose in the kit but it is no where near flexible enough. I had to can the whole idea and pulled all my spare pumps out to try and find a good one. It was getting messy.
None of the pumps are the same with one probably from a phase 1 with an integrated regulator and the other without a fuel return line but had been adapted. (this was the one in the car when i bought it back in 2013) So all I could do for now was try one of these.
After testing the pumps which seemed to work I reassembled everything and tried it. Nothing! I wanted to run the lift pump without the high pressure pump so i could empty the tank, but the one I put in didn't seem to have the strength to pump anything.
So in the true spirit of, "F***k it, I've only got a week and I really can't be doing with this" the parts cannon was wheeled out. New lift pump ordered and also some new flexible hose to try again with the Walboro. I have to wait for these to arrive before tackling it again.
So, with that headach shelved I moved on to some cosmetics.
the front bumper was looking a little tired and the rubber lip has been bothering me for a while, so recently I ordered some 50mm lawn edging which I've seen used before to replace the lip and also add a little more protection to the oil cooler which sits slightly lower than the bumper.
I had to tidy the chipped black strip first by wrapping it.
We'll see how long this lasts!
And finally, while I had the vinyl out, I added the valve markers back on the refurbished wheels.
more to come in the week as we prepare for a tricky weekend.
Once back at its more humble home I started with the easy stuff.
Not happy with the new wheel bearing which has a small amount of movement in it, the hub is off again to have another bearing pressed in. this time a better quality SNR one.
I also collected 2 wheels from the powder coaters one from the crash at the end of 2024 that will stay as a spare and the other a new one that replaced it at the end of 2024 but was only available in Bronze at the time so had had a rattle can finish until now.
Tyre will be fitted this week too.
After this I turned my attention to the fuel system yet again, starting with the filter which after stripping (yet again) proved to be clean as a whistle. So then it was on to the tank.
The symptoms at the end of the Brands race was fuel starvation, so the best result here would have been a near empty tank and we could chalk it down to human error. Alas, still plenty of fuel in the tank!
So, the lift pump came out again and that's where things started going to s**t.
All my own doing mind. I had a Walboro uprated pump sitting on the shelf so decided to swap this out with the existing one incase the pump was on its way out.
Unfortunately though it's not so easy to swap these pumps. the Walboro needs some adaption to the housing to fit and the flexi hose needs to be attached. But this did not come off the exisiting unit without a fight. In fact, it wouldn't come off at all without cutting it! And that left me wthout a hose. The Walboro comes with a small piece of rubber hose in the kit but it is no where near flexible enough. I had to can the whole idea and pulled all my spare pumps out to try and find a good one. It was getting messy.
None of the pumps are the same with one probably from a phase 1 with an integrated regulator and the other without a fuel return line but had been adapted. (this was the one in the car when i bought it back in 2013) So all I could do for now was try one of these.
After testing the pumps which seemed to work I reassembled everything and tried it. Nothing! I wanted to run the lift pump without the high pressure pump so i could empty the tank, but the one I put in didn't seem to have the strength to pump anything.
So in the true spirit of, "F***k it, I've only got a week and I really can't be doing with this" the parts cannon was wheeled out. New lift pump ordered and also some new flexible hose to try again with the Walboro. I have to wait for these to arrive before tackling it again.
So, with that headach shelved I moved on to some cosmetics.
the front bumper was looking a little tired and the rubber lip has been bothering me for a while, so recently I ordered some 50mm lawn edging which I've seen used before to replace the lip and also add a little more protection to the oil cooler which sits slightly lower than the bumper.
I had to tidy the chipped black strip first by wrapping it.
We'll see how long this lasts!
And finally, while I had the vinyl out, I added the valve markers back on the refurbished wheels.
more to come in the week as we prepare for a tricky weekend.
robzracing
ClioSport Club Member
The weekend has arrived and we're about ready. (I think)
New lift pump assembly arrived in the week along with the front hub with a far better quality SNR bearing from PMS pressed into it. Feels much tighter.
Need to check the camber setting once on some level ground but much happier now.
With the new pump installed it immediately sounded much healthier and I was able to quickly pump all the fuel out of the tank. So with that companent replaced, the only remaining part not replaced is the fuel pressure regulator.
it was suggested that these can get clogged inside but as mine is at least 13 years ols and never been opened I didn't want to try it without having some new gaskets ready to go back in. no time for that this week. So instead, i ordered a replacement regulator that will come with us to Donington. If the problem returns in qualifying, this can be swapped out, along with a new set of injectors. After that I cannot think what else could be the problem. So lets hope there is no problem anyway!
On Tuesday evening Rob Q came over to give a hand and with him he brought his VP Racing fuel jugs. These deliver fuel quicker than jerry cans and so we'll be using them to refuel during the race.
With a mandatory minimum 6 minute pit stop we wanted to time filling the tank from empty so we had some idea how much of the 6 minutes will be used refueling, as while the car is being fueled nothing else can happen and the drivers must be out of the car.
The result was 4 minutes to dump 40 litres.
We won't be putting that much fuel in at each stop but it was a surprising amount of time and its not going to give us much time to do anything else other than swap drivers.
The pit entry for the race is incredibly complicated; with the Melbourne loop being used as the pit entry and pit lane speed limit coming in to play half way down the straight before we are fed out into the paddock and past the petrol station (where people can choose to fuel if they wish) and then back into the pit lane to stop infornt of your allocated garage to fuel up and change drivers.
To add to the fun the speed limit drops from 60 kmh to 30kmh once we enter the paddock and then goes back up to 60 when in the pit lane. Plenty of opportunity to slip up and incur penalties!
but all this means that another good chunk of our 6 minute stop will be taken up with travelling to the garage!
So with all this being the case, I've prepped the inside of the car with 2 timers and some key time and speed information as reminders while we're in the hot seat.
All we have to do is remember to hit the start button on the 6 minute timer as we enter the pit lane and then watch the speed.
As radios are not allowed at Donington unless you have a proper license we are having to rely solely on the pit board which isnt ideal but we're going to have to work out some clear signalling code!
With most jobs done, the front bumper was reinstalled properly and in doing so, noticed a flat spot on one of the tyres that I had completely missed!
So a quick change over for now but we still need to pick our 4 best tyres before the race.
And so with everything back together, I collected the trailer this evening and tomorrow morning will be spent packing and loading ready to set off around 3pm Saturday afternoon.
New lift pump assembly arrived in the week along with the front hub with a far better quality SNR bearing from PMS pressed into it. Feels much tighter.
Need to check the camber setting once on some level ground but much happier now.
With the new pump installed it immediately sounded much healthier and I was able to quickly pump all the fuel out of the tank. So with that companent replaced, the only remaining part not replaced is the fuel pressure regulator.
it was suggested that these can get clogged inside but as mine is at least 13 years ols and never been opened I didn't want to try it without having some new gaskets ready to go back in. no time for that this week. So instead, i ordered a replacement regulator that will come with us to Donington. If the problem returns in qualifying, this can be swapped out, along with a new set of injectors. After that I cannot think what else could be the problem. So lets hope there is no problem anyway!
On Tuesday evening Rob Q came over to give a hand and with him he brought his VP Racing fuel jugs. These deliver fuel quicker than jerry cans and so we'll be using them to refuel during the race.
With a mandatory minimum 6 minute pit stop we wanted to time filling the tank from empty so we had some idea how much of the 6 minutes will be used refueling, as while the car is being fueled nothing else can happen and the drivers must be out of the car.
The result was 4 minutes to dump 40 litres.
We won't be putting that much fuel in at each stop but it was a surprising amount of time and its not going to give us much time to do anything else other than swap drivers.
The pit entry for the race is incredibly complicated; with the Melbourne loop being used as the pit entry and pit lane speed limit coming in to play half way down the straight before we are fed out into the paddock and past the petrol station (where people can choose to fuel if they wish) and then back into the pit lane to stop infornt of your allocated garage to fuel up and change drivers.
To add to the fun the speed limit drops from 60 kmh to 30kmh once we enter the paddock and then goes back up to 60 when in the pit lane. Plenty of opportunity to slip up and incur penalties!
but all this means that another good chunk of our 6 minute stop will be taken up with travelling to the garage!
So with all this being the case, I've prepped the inside of the car with 2 timers and some key time and speed information as reminders while we're in the hot seat.
All we have to do is remember to hit the start button on the 6 minute timer as we enter the pit lane and then watch the speed.
As radios are not allowed at Donington unless you have a proper license we are having to rely solely on the pit board which isnt ideal but we're going to have to work out some clear signalling code!
With most jobs done, the front bumper was reinstalled properly and in doing so, noticed a flat spot on one of the tyres that I had completely missed!
So a quick change over for now but we still need to pick our 4 best tyres before the race.
And so with everything back together, I collected the trailer this evening and tomorrow morning will be spent packing and loading ready to set off around 3pm Saturday afternoon.
robzracing
ClioSport Club Member
Race report to come. It was not without its drama!
