172 Cup Rally Car project for BRC Challenge

[simoore]

Hi been meaning to put up a post on my progress to date on my Clio cup Group N rally project for some time and finally got round to it. Ive been building it for the last 6 months at home from a standard road car.

We will be competing this year in the British Rally Challenge Championship for two wheel drive cars up to 2000cc on a mixture of gravel and tarmac rally's.
I reckon on paper the Clio will be capable of winning but were up against the quick mk2 escort boys and theres some quick Novas, Corsas and also Fiesta ST's and Citroen C2's so theres lots of competition.

The car started off as a light damaged road car. Car was stripped of all interior parts and then seam welded. A custom cages T45 cage (50 individual pieces!) was permanently welded into the car which took over 40 man hours to fit.

Interior was then painted Diamond white including under bonnet and wheel arches

Engine was completely rebuilt to Group N regs, with new rings, shells bearings etc. ECU is renault sport remapped unit with higher rev limit.

Gearbox is standard ratios with gripper diff and different crown wheel and pinion for increased acceleration. Brakes are standard with Group N discs and Mintex pads. Suspension is AST one way adjustables with different springs for gravel and tarmac.

Interior wise there is a Flocked dash with sparco suede steering wheel. Fuel and brake lines are ran inside the car using Goodridge braided hoses and fittings. Corbeau pro series bucket seats are fitted along with and Saebelt 6 point harnesses.
Exhaust is Ktec stealth with perfomance cat. I hope to have it running this weekend fingers crossed

Exterior was painted in Seat Cupra R yellow

Hope to have more pictures to upload soon.

Simon

 

[GavC]

Looks great man Keep us posted!

 

[mark_sport172]

Rapid project...... Looks really good.

 

[adam172]

AMAZING..........

 

[maynard]

another one doing it the proper way, wicked to see

good luck with the competition your entering!

 

[not normal dan]

looks ace hope to see much more soon

 

[Daniel]

WOW!!!

 

[Hutchie]

looks smart,
we run the lpg clio rally car
and are only up the road from barnard castle
if your stuck for anything give us a call or have a ride up

www.mickleton.co.uk
01833640331

 

[GaryS]

Looks good Simon, will probably see you on the Bulldog.

 

[Jimmybs]

look forward to videos!

 

[Beef-Mc]

Good porject start.

 

[shiftspark]

Very nice, what diff ratio did you opt for?

Cheers

 

[RichCup]

Awesome!! That cage is p**n!

 

[Adam-o]

sweet!

 

[Chris205]

very nice this, chris at manic motors was telling me about it and the cage! looks fantastic, great work!

 

[simoore]

Thanks for the comments guys, got it running now just need to run the engine in and first event is in 3 weeks. Heres some more pictures

 

[pritchard182]

omg ausum

 

[GaryS]

Simon did his first event yesterday, 29th overall and first in class

He'll be out again next Saturday on the Bulldog Rally in Wales if anyone wants to see the car.

 

[GaryS]

Simon's press release from the rally:

Successful rally return for Moore

East Boldon based rally driver Simon Moore returned to competition after a break of nearly four years last Saturday (20th March) to take a class win on the Border Counties rally.

Moore, who was the 205 Scholarship champion in 2004 and 2005, used the event as a test for the newly built Renault Clio in which he will content the British Rally Championship (BRC) Challenge and Clio Challenge championships this year.

With a broken differential suffered while testing the weekend before the rally and new suspension not arriving until the day before the rally Moore and co-driver Emma Morrison were lucky to make it to the Jedburgh based event.

The rally opened with the Hyndlee stage and Moore made a steady start, completing the stage in 43rd place. As he got used to the Clio the pace increased and by the end of stage three he was up to 35th overall and first in class.

"After the last minute problems with the car it was a relief to get to the rally start," said Moore.

"We took it easy on the opening stage, with a new car, new co-driver and a ring-rusty driver we didn’t want to have an early retirement!"

"We had good runs in stages two and three though and we were pleased to find that we were leading the class."

Stage 4, Redesdale, saw Moore suffer his only problem of the day, a puncture costing some time. A good clear run through the final Wauchope stage moved Moore and Morrison up the leaderboard to 29th overall at the rally finish which, combined with their class win, was a brilliant debut result.

"I’m delighted with getting to the finish and winning our class. The car has taken me six months to build from a standard road going Clio and today has made all the effort worthwhile."

"We’ll be out again in the car again next weekend so there’s going to be a few late nights preparing the car this week I think!"

Moore and Morrison will contest the Bulldog Rally in Wales next weekend (27th March) which is the opening round of both the BRC Challenge and the single make Clio Challenge.

Image courtesy Chris Horner

 

[yellowbelly]

Nice, oh and its Onvi yellow btw

 

[AdamAnderton]

Car looks great and loving the yellow paint, different

 

[simoore]

Thanks for the comments guys, and info Gary kindly posted. We had a great run yesterday and Chris from Manic Motors was there to give a hand as well.

The clio ran without a hitch on what was a very rough rally especially with our low seeding running behind 80 previous cars. Im really chuffed as its a bit of a rarity on the rallying scene and i was wondering if i was missing something ! but it goes and stops well as i though it did on paper and i think its a competitive car. It was great mixing it and beating a lot of Evos and Subarus with the little yellow clio
We hope to develop and improve it (and me!) throughout this year so ill keep you posted on how we get on !

cheers

Simon

 

[shiftspark]

Excellent and what a great start.Good luck with the rest of the season.

Out of interest what was the diff problem you had?

Cheers

 

[RichCup]

Great start! Don't think the yellow does the car justice to be fair, but I guess it gets plastered in mud anyway!

 

[simoore]

the weekend before the output shaft from the gearbox on the passenger side sheared after 10 miles (the male end where the driveshaft goes over). Gripper copied the standard road car version which has a groove machined all way round ? and this is where it failed. The new one does not have this groove and it works !

 

[shiftspark]

^ ah thought it may have been a problem with the diff itself.I think there are some threads about the groove or circlip causing problems, I'll have a search around.

What do you think about the performance of the diff and what setting and final drive did you opt for?

Thanks

 

[simoore]

We have a 5.25:1 CWP so the acceleration is there and it keeps the revs up but tops out at 112mph which is perfect for rallying, gripper diff is set to drive on one shaft, think the plates are set to 90Nm which is quite high but it will drop off to around 70NM, it is a better diff than the Quaife in my opinion and does not pull to one side.

 

[shiftspark]

Thanks for the info and good luck with the car!

 

[Wobba]

lol so it was YOU GUYS holding up our group buy at Gripper then!

Great work I'll be in Wales next Saturday sorting out some ITB's, if we have time we will pop along

 

[EVOgone]

We have a 5.25:1 CWP so the acceleration is there and it keeps the revs up but tops out at 112mph which is perfect for rallying, gripper diff is set to drive on one shaft, think the plates are set to 90Nm which is quite high but it will drop off to around 70NM, it is a better diff than the Quaife in my opinion and does not pull to one side.

Exactly what i have, Best mod for my rallycar todate but they may change after the Alcons and 230bhp engines tested..!

 

[hissingsid]

the weekend before the output shaft from the gearbox on the passenger side sheared after 10 miles (the male end where the driveshaft goes over). Gripper copied the standard road car version which has a groove machined all way round ? and this is where it failed. The new one does not have this groove and it works !

I had that problem about 8 yr's ago lol god how time flie's

 

[GaryS]

A few pics from scrutineering at Welshpool this afternoon...

 

[maynard]

car looks great, is it tomorrow you are competing?

 

[GaryS]

is it tomorrow you are competing?

Yes, they start at Welshpool just after 10am.

 

[hissingsid]

Hope he has a good event, think he has some steep comp in his class by reading other forums.

 

[GaryS]

Finished 5th overall and 3rd in class... more details tomorrow, here's a couple of pics

 

[rapid86]

those pictures are epic!

 

[GaryS]

those pictures are epic!

Thanks!

Moore makes solid start to BRC Challenge campaign

Rally driver Simon Moore overcame a few car problems on the Bulldog Challenge Rally to claim fifth place overall and third in class in his Renault Clio as well as taking first place in the Hankook Renault Clio Challenge.

After debuting the car on the previous weekend’s Border Counties rally Moore, from East Boldon, and co-driver Emma Morrison were keen to claim a good points finish on the North Wales event which was round one of both the BRC Challenge and the Clio Challenge.

The first of the rally’s five competitive stages saw the crews head to the Sweet Lamb rally complex near Llanurig. Moore and Morrison successfully completed the 17 mile course in fifth overall and third in class.

“The opening stage was very testing, we were pleased to get to the end of it in fifth,” said Moore.

“We had a problem with the brakes, the pedal was going soft which meant we couldn’t push as hard as we’d like. Unfortunately the problem lasted all rally – we’re going to try some different brake fluid on the next event.”

After a service halt in Welshpool the rally moved to the forests around Corris for the remainder of the competitive mileage. Stage two saw Moore and Morrison maintain their fifth place before a good run through the nine miles of the Dyfi stage moved them up to fourth overall and second in class.

Some time was lost in the final Gartheiniog stage when the Clio’s engine started running on three cylinders but despite the problem the crew arrived at the rally finish in a creditable fifth overall and third in class. They also won the Clio Challenge.

“I’m happy with the result, it could’ve been better had we been able to rely on the brakes more but it’s a decent start to our championship campaign.”

“The car has finished two events in two weekends so I’m very pleased with the reliability. The performance is definitely there too, we need to do some development work on the suspension though as the handling could be better. We’re planning to test the car before the next event to try some different springs which will hopefully give us some improvements.”

“With better handling and reliable brakes I am confident we will be on the pace on the next round.”

Moore and Morrison will next be in action on the Carlisle-based Pirelli rally in April.

 

[bmgrallying]

Only managed to get 1 photo of you on Saturday, was servicing for Wilkesy so didnt get much chance to see too much action.

Ben

 

[Ollie82.]

Great stuff! Car looks superb. Best of luck on the next event.