Search results

Shopping cars are worth the most when bog standard. Learn some skills keeping it tidy and as said saving some money for your next car. You can fit an induction kit but the noise won't be particularly awesome and it may cost you some power and mpg depending on what the ECU will cope with. If...

The brakes do actually have to work but the MOT testers have to take into account the way the cup's rear brakes are setup before failing the car. That's basically what the vosa document is saying. Even a completely sorted rear brake setup on a cup isn't going to show an impressive reading hence...

ABS is definitely useful but you can manage without it. I did yesterday at hallavington airfield when I was still happily making my own ABS when the organisers called time due to surface water. It's the EBD you want which comes with ABS. Rear discs can actually get hot! Or even rear drums...

Good work :) I'd go with a 182FF for a daily. We did track days in it and my Dad did 15,000miles a year in it to and from work with no complaints. Really impressed with Renaults efforts to combine a 172 sport and a cup. I think they nailed it but that's just my opinion. Even with your wife...

My dad's was keyed :( You can catch your average driver in many things but the Clio doesn't have particularly great traction or sheer grunt as I found recently following an S5 on track. The difference in the gap he pulled out of a clear corner to the gap when we exited through traffic and we...

Other Mounts and check under gear lever. Basically if you can move the engine significantly with one hand they've gone soft. Also they don't cope with fast and furious gear changes at all well. A quick roll as opposed to a stomp on the throttle means you can use standard mounts.

195/45/16 is the size my Cup's Speedo is calibrated for and what it came with from the factory with. You can fit 205/45/16 with no issue if you want a bigger footprint. A lot of the track regulars drop to 15inch to get cheaper track day tyres.

All the premium tyres are good enough for the road. It's only when you start chucking a load of lock on at a warm track day that they call time.

Have tracked a completely standard 172 cup and a ff182 both tidy sorted examples. There is nothing in it on the track. I've hit very similar speeds at the end of the straights. The 172 cup is a nostalgia car and comes with more squeaks, noise and a made of paper feel. I really enjoy mine. The...

I haven't been to McDonald's in years. Too lazy. Just eat is far too convenient. The Clio's failing as a dual carriageway weapon these days means it's just not worth the fuel to look really lame. Probably why they're in the car parks!

Indeed but you do need to be a true helmet to be crowned king of the hero's. The Clio's are just the first step! I surely get a few hero points for never shutting up about my track car being bog standard and on road rubber!

That's not what track days are about :P you have to claim some scalps or your not driving! On a serious note I totally agree!

Making the standard car good is all you really need to do for track days. I just listed the common upgrades that are worth a go. It's worth taking these cars out and seeing how you get on with them and how much you cook everything to decide where to go from there. The main reason people go for...

Yes almost certainly but making sure the geometry is right is a big part of it. Lots of these cars have rear axles that have been bashed about. The non-cup is even less likely to bite than a cup while cornering. The Cup needs some provacation from high speeds, braking and steering input to...

The castor difference is worth having an new wishbones are always a nice thing to have. Cup wishbones, cup shocks, cooksport or eibach springs (as Renault ones are pretty expensive), some spacers or different offset wheels for the wider track if you want it and if you do occasional track days...

Part numbers if they haven't rusted away to nowt. The stickers will have most likely come off but worth looking for. Doesn't change ride height.

Sums the job up pretty well! My dad lost a thumb nail with KYB springs which had to be compressed to almost half their length. What's worse is they were wrong and had to come back out. Really needs a big proper lower arm bar to use on raised ramps and a unit to compress the spring, shock and top...

I used a six foot bar. Minimum effort and plenty of control so no chance of anything going twang and the bolts just slid in. Used to Peugeots where standing on the end of a 4 foot bar still doesn't leave enough ruddy room to get the bottom ball joint in so the Clio was much easier.

I used to worry about suspension levering but as long as you stick a piece of wood where you going to put the end of the lever to spread the load a little and pick a sturdy looking area a weedy human with a few feet of bar is not gonna do much. A really determined idiot however....... Glad you...

Eibach do a smaller drop if 35 is too much.

What a great video. You were patient and didn't get all excited and ragged closing the gap. Really nice to watch. Me, I get all excited and drive worse than I already do :P

I had the older pointy noise sprinters. The transit was like a massage by comparison. Good job the older sprinter went well so they were a good crack down the lanes. My favourite was the vivaro's after driving a 3.5 ton van they actually felt really small and nimble! Newer sprinter was better...

Sadly Cup springs along with Cup drive shafts are just unnecessarily expensive. Peugeot springs are horribly expensive and a total sod to fit as well. At least if you can get the top nut undone on the front the Clios are a piece of wee to change.

Cool down laps are key. It's amazing how much the standard stuff will take if you take the time to warm them up and cool them down. If you really toast them and there is a really long pit then potter round for a bit when you come back in. I also roll mine back a little a few times when I've...

A front cup spring will set you back 90 quid each. Have white and yellow paint marks on and are slightly lower and a bit stiffer than sport ones. They work well on bad roads though and I wouldn't go stiffer unless the local roads were in good Nick. The Cup ones cope with sudden bumps when your...

I shared a seat position with my dad who is 3 inches shorter than me for years as we only had a fixed seat position in our track car at the time. I also drive in a slightly hunched position to make sure my son's seat doesn't touch mine and my wife is comfortable on longer journeys. Bigger car...

Depends on the engines cooling ability as well. Some engines have little in reserve. My HDI on a stage 1 re-map has a heat exchanger between oil and coolant. It's useless above standard and actually makes things worse.

Ford ran the humble CVH at full throttle for hours when testing the exhaust box material on the mk2 XR2 as it could be defeated at sustained high speed. They tested them for much longer than that before deciding on the turbo version's bearings. If you can keep the engine happy it'll be fine...

Practice makes perfect. Even my poor attempts are still noticeably smoother (passengers comments not mine) and so worth persevering with until I get it right. Driving a older turbo diesel with it's awful throttle response means I get little practice so it's gonna take a while. It costs no money...

Also gives you something to do other than chasing badly driven supercars as most of us will never get enough track time to claim to be a master of track driving. The original poster has previous track time but it's still valid as I had plenty of Sprint and track day time before the Clio and I...