2004 Renaultsport Clio 182 Cup - Racing Blue

[Somnambulist]

After saying goodbye to my Megane 250 a couple of months ago, there has been a very big Renaultsport void in my life. I got hooked three years ago when I started working at PistonHeads and in that time I've had a 182 Trophy, 172 Cup, R26 Megane 230 F1 and most recently my 321hp Megane 250.

After handing back a 208 GTI I'd had for six months, I stupidly bought an extremely dull Skoda Fabia Monte Carlo 1.6TDI which I sold within two months after I found this beauty of a 182 Cup. Obviously, a 14-year old Clio with a stiff clutch is very sensible for covering motorway miles and sitting in traffic on the M25.

Now my third Clio and fifth Renaultsport, I had always wanted a Racing Blue 182 Cup from the start so I just couldn't resist when this came up. 70K miles, completely original and had been with its previous lady owner for 12 years.

I've got it to use as a daily, but also a project to tweak and refresh and I'm sure it'll slowly become more track focused. It had the Gordini stripes from the factory, but they were very tired and cracked so that was my first job. Took about two hours to get them off the boot and bonnet with the roof still to go, with a hair dryer, old credit card and tar remover. As expected the paint discolouration is fairly obvious but I'm hoping this will detail out, otherwise I'll be putting a fresh set of stripes back on.

To start I've ordered new rear discs/pads as one of the rear bearings is quite noisy, new OEM suspension dampers, top mounts and Cooksport lowering springs. Amazingly it's still on the original exhaust which has cleaned up fairly well, although it's knackered as the internals have fallen apart and are rattling around like a piggy bank so that needs to go too.

 

[Somnambulist]

Bit late with that first post (copied over from my Readers' Car thread on PH) so here's a bit more! Few photos from its first clean. I still haven't taken the stripes off the roof yet as they were so much hard work on the bonnet/boot. But after a snow foam, quick wash and spray of quick detailer, it was looking much better.

Before/during:

After:

If anyone has any tips for detailing out the faded marks from the stripes I'd really appreciate it. Absolutely loving having this as a little project to tinker with when I have time, but still works perfectly for my daily too.

 

[Somnambulist]

Picked up a Fabia splitter from my local Skoda dealership after reading about them on here and looks great for the price. Got a bargain RS192 system so that's now on, along with fresh OEM rear discs/pads.

 

[Somnambulist]

While the Cup seats are probably the comfiest out of the lot, I really wanted a set of Trendlines from when I had my Trophy. Picked up a set with leather/alcantara rears from a lad on here, so those are in now too. Another before and after! Much better, although I forgot how high these sit on standard subframes. New set of Renaultsport mats in too.

And finally, I snapped up an unused Renaultsport Sparco wheel off another lad on here and got Volantech to make me a carbon fibre cruise control panel. It's a thing of beauty and works like a dream! Blue buttons are for the horn so I could keep the standard stalk. I was going to attempt to make one myself, but for £60 it was a no brainer. Frustratingly bought an OMP boss to start with but the aperture is too small for the cruise control connector to fit through, so I had to send that back and replace it with a Momo boss instead.

That's me all caught up for now. It's booked in with Two Techs (Dartford) next week for a service, so will be reassuring once the team there have had a good look over it. All of my cars have gone to them, brilliant service and thoroughly recommend them to anyone!

 

[Mbeau]

About time you started a thread on this!!! Saw this this other day and really nice original example(will only get better).

 

[imprezaworks]

Really nice.

 

[Clio_fool]

That can't be a scorpion exhaust, it's sat nearly perfect in the bumper! Rest is the car should come up great if that's the level of attention it's getting[emoji23][emoji106].

 

[Somnambulist]

That can't be a scorpion exhaust, it's sat nearly perfect in the bumper! Rest is the car should come up great if that's the level of attention it's getting[emoji23][emoji106].

Haha thanks. The hangers are knackered so I got it near perfect with cable ties, but I've now got Powerflex mounts to go in so hopefully it'll still look good (and stop rattling!) once that's done.

 

[182_steve]

Looks a fantastic base for a project this, nice mods and changes so far - the car looks so much better for the stripes being taken off!

Fair play to the lady having it for 12 years too!!

 

[Tim.]

RB is a fantastic colour and the interior looks so smart with the seats/wheel/carbon cruise bracket - nicely done, mate!

 

[Somnambulist]

RB is a fantastic colour and the interior looks so smart with the seats/wheel/carbon cruise bracket - nicely done, mate!

Thanks Tim! Maybe I'll paint it red so I can come to Wales again next year... ?

 

[Darren61]

Looks like a great little car. Are you on instagram?

 

[Somnambulist]

Looks like a great little car. Are you on instagram?

Thanks! Yep, ben_lowden ?

 

[Darren61]

Thanks! Yep, ben_lowden ?

Mines a more track focussed build but you should take a look at my 182 Cup’s progress on Insta @clio182cup

 

[Somnambulist]

I picked up a broken set of Xenons off @H2MRK and fixed them for a fiver with the BMW adjusters. Another handy thread on here! Cleaned them up with the Autoglym headlight restorer kit – not perfect but pretty decent for a cordless drill job.

Was in at Two Techs in Dartford for a service on Friday and given a clean bill of health. Always reassuring getting the team there to have a good look over my cars, I've taken all five of my Renaultsport's to them. After loads of reading I decided to go for Fuchs Titan Race Pro S 5W-40 ester fully synthetic oil from Opie Oils and it's running lovely now. Just need to finish sorting the brakes/suspension and I'll be ready for a track day!

 

[Darren61]

Xenons on a Cup! Sacrilege! ?

 

[Somnambulist]

Xenons on a Cup! Sacrilege! ?

Normally I'd stick with the halogens, but as this is my daily and 'winter is coming', I'd rather not have to put up with candlelight when I'm driving in the dark! Plus I think with the new MOT regs you don't need headlight washers on anything pre-2008.

 

[R-Sport.]

nice thread

you cannot machine polish out faded lines & the lines arent faded - its the bonnet thats faded - needs painting..