Yet another race car build...

[mark123]

I picked this up today from JMS.



I've been thinking about a project thread for ages so here goes. It'll take a while to get to the new manifold so bear with me...

I bought my 172 cup in June 2004, 18 months old 23k miles.

Around when I bought it. My old 205 GTI in the background.



It was my daily driver until Jan 2009. I took her from 23k, now at 135k. I've done virtually all the work and servicing myself. Including the belts...

Up until mid 2008 when I started to modify her at about 125k miles it had only needed:

3 rear shocks
new disks and pads all round
new throttle body under warranty early on
2 lambda sensors
new exhaust - Ktec stealth

Mid 2008 I started to get back into some motorsport. I used to do autograss racing when I was younger http://www.national-autograss.co.uk/ in minis to start with and then a mk1 escort with a 2.0l pinto in, with head work and cams.

On my second track day I had a little accident... Spun under braking from 95 into Tower corner at Castle Combe. The rears locked, went onto the grass. First impact took the front bumper off and that spun me around so I could reverse into the tyre wall at the end of the straight.

Luckily damage was all superficial. Just bumpers, boot, rear light and some scratches on the rear quarter.



Note my blanking of the plates in the pics lasted a long time lol!

Someone on here pointed me at a cup being broken at Cit-Ren and I had a new bumpers, boot and light for 600 quid all in the correct colour even if the front bumper as a bit tatty.

I also decided about now that tracking the daily driver wasn't the best idea I'd ever had when I needed it to get to work.

So I bought a 182 as the daily driver in December 2008 and did the 5 year service then made that my daily driver so I could start making some changes to the cup...

 

[mark123]

Re: 172 cup sprint/track car - soon to be RS2'd

I got into a few group buys and made some for sale section/ebay purchases.

Some DS2500 pads.
Braided hoses.
AST coilovers, stiff setup.
Jam sport matched inlets.
Cat cam 428s.
Decat.
Part worn 195/50R16 Yokohama A048s, plus spare set of turinis.
Ktec panel filter
PTFE inlet manifold gaskets.
Ktec uprated mounts all round.

Fitted it all myself around Jan 2009.

I also had to fit a new driveshaft after the off side one started to make some unpleasant noises.

Re-furbed the wheels in charcoal grey.



I never got around to getting it mapped with the cams and other mods, was waiting to make other mods first. I liked the idea of the new inlet manifold being developed by Icarus but that never came to fruition and then the JMS RS2 manifold came along...

I had a power run at Jam sport with just the ktec stealth as the only modification.



Good result 174bhp 150lbft , would have been nice to get a run at RS Tuning as that is where I'll be getting it mapped once I've fitted the new manifold and I know Paul's RR is more conservative than others.

Next round of mods:

Uprated front ARB and wishbone bushes.
Custom rear ARB from the group buy
JMS RS2 manifold
Custom-map from RS tuning
ARP big end bolts and new big end shells
Sports cat - you're supposed to have a cat in MSA regulated motorsport but no one has checked yet...
Oil temp and pressure gauges

 

[shiftspark]

Re: 172 cup sprint/track car - soon to be RS2'd

Looks very good although you can't use rear coilovers as you can't move the position of springs or a rear anti roll bar.
I wanted to run these mods but they are not allowed :dapprove:

 

[mark123]

Re: 172 cup sprint/track car - soon to be RS2'd

I've only done 1 sprint so far and they didn't seem worried about the suspension changes when I mentioned them. I've read the regs you're referring too though so it is a worry. I got the ASTs before I planned to do sprinting. I guess it depends on the club running the event. There was a Cooper S in the same category as me and he had a Whileline ARB. I could always move up to the modified classes if necessary were much more freedom is allowed in the suspension area, although I'd have to have a cage and a whole load of other safety equipment but I'll probably get most of that anyway.

 

[shiftspark]

Re: 172 cup sprint/track car - soon to be RS2'd

Ast's (not jealous !) very nice, I spoke to Curtis last week about somefor mine but just the fronts as I have rear platform adjusters.
The msa look like they are tightening up regs for next year on suspension esp top mounts there are a few protests from competitors so we will have to see where that goes.the problem with clio's is you need 200 bhp and a diff to be right on the pace which isn't cheap!
I am at Harewood tomorrow and Aintree next sat , where are you based?

 

[sprintcup]

Re: 172 cup sprint/track car - soon to be RS2'd

What's the problem with the rear ARB? is it the drop links or a none standard item, good luck at Harewood and Aintree.

 

[shiftspark]

Re: 172 cup sprint/track car - soon to be RS2'd

Hi I got this reply when I asked about rear antiroll bars

I have spoken with our eligibility scrutineer and the answer is no they are not allowed if not already fitted by the manufacturer. Blue Book does say that if it does not say you can do something then you can not do it J5.1 page 152.

Have you got the rs2 inlet fitted yet ? JMS were going to use my ph1 to develop it for the ph1's but we could sort a suitable time out, it looks ideal and the right sort of money as itb's cost way too much !

 

[shiftspark]

Re: 172 cup sprint/track car - soon to be RS2'd

Hey Russell didn't realise the last post was you! What are you upto sprint wise ? Russell ( old ) was asking about you on uphillracers

 

[mark123]

Re: 172 cup sprint/track car - soon to be RS2'd

shiftspark what category under S10.10 do you compete under?

J5.1 and S10.10 para 2 kind on contradict each other.

Not fitted the RS2 yet. I'll probably run in the new big end shells first, not sure how much they need running in though.

 

[mark123]

Re: 172 cup sprint/track car - soon to be RS2'd

Got the ARP con rod bolts fitted along with some new big end shells.

Old bearings and journals look pretty good considering they've completed 135k miles.

 

[mark123]

Re: 172 cup sprint/track car - soon to be RS2'd

Front ARB poly bushes fitted. That was fun! Glad I had the sub-frame slightly lowered from doing the ARP bolts.



Switched the decat for a sports cat, again having the sub-frame lowered made it a 1 man job. Still a b*****d though lol.

 

[Tom@JMS]

Re: 172 cup sprint/track car - soon to be RS2'd

Good to see a project thread mark, keep me in the loop.

 

[shiftspark]

Re: 172 cup sprint/track car - soon to be RS2'd

shiftspark what category under S10.10 do you compete under?

J5.1 and S10.10 para 2 kind on contradict each other.

Not fitted the RS2 yet. I'll probably run in the new big end shells first, not sure how much they need running in though.

I run in 1b usually, road modified 1400-2000.

 

[sprintcup]

Re: 172 cup sprint/track car - soon to be RS2'd

Hello mark123
Sorry to jump in on your project thread, just like to say looks like you've got some nice mods there and the correct balance between a rd car/ track/ sprint hill climb car for competition, I'm running the Clio 172 cup in standard SB class which means I have to run the car as it comes out of the box, will be keeping an eye on this project to see how the JMS mod goes as it looks ideal, good luck with it all.

Regards Russ..............

 

[gogsie]

Good work mate. Good to see another sprinter/ hillclimber on the go.

 

[mark123]

Re: 172 cup sprint/track car - soon to be RS2'd

Finally got it all back together tonight and took her for a spin after doing the ARP bolts and big ends. All seems fine. I tried to take it easy but it was difficult Don't think I went of 6500rpm, is that taking it easy?

Do big end bearings alone need running in?

I want to get it MOT'd next week, put a couple of hundred miles on it by way of running the new bearings in and maybe a quick cambelt change after a year of constant abuse I thought I might as well get everything perfect ready for the new manifold and a trip to RS tuning for mapping.

I seem to have bought some Cobra Evolution Pro seats as well. I think I'll be looking into a roll cage as well.

Mileage was 135151 when I took her out of the garage this evening.

No noticeable difference between the new sports cat and the decat, doesn't seem any quieter either.


Just to be clear I'm not planning on fitting the RS2 manifold for a couple of weeks.

 

[mark123]

Well it's been a while! 18 months lol.

I decided that racing was what I really wanted to do as I really enjoyed the wheel to wheel aspect of the grass track racing when I was younger. So I figured that I may as well get straight to it rather than building up to it so here goes.

I think this was July 2011 ish. I was originally planning on Track Day Trophy but their race calendar and venues for this year didn't really suit me so I decided on the Tin Tops instead. Which obviously has the added benefit of several CS members cars already taking part.

My objective is to get the car to blue book standard with as minimal changes as possible, apart from the odd things that I wanted - like fancy winged seats and cross door bars.

So I bought a roll cage, OMP 6 point bolt in job. Nice and easy to fit I thought as it was a dash dodger...




I was a bit concerned about the cross in the middle of the main hoop as that didn't match the OMP part number diagrams. Also I expected the back stays to go to the arches but they didn't look like they were going to. I chatted with Demon Tweeks about it and they spoke to OMP who assured us it was correct. So I started stripping ready to fit it.




The usual OMP stuff but when I tried to fit the front half there was no way it was going to dodge the dash. I spoke to Tweeks and OMP again and again they assured me it was right so I figured they must have changed the design. So I resigned myself to having to remove the dash etc.




So I welded in the floor plates and fitted the cage, ready to measure up for the door and harness bars.




My garage is starting to get a bit cramped by this point...




So I started preping the cage and car for painting

 

[mark123]

Got it all back in the car tonight, just second door bar to do.

Still got my ARDS test to do as well as loads of other bits and pieces.

Hoping to be ready for Silverstone on the 26th of May, planning on bringing to car to Brands on the 7th to let the scrutineers take a look.

 

[Jay Payne]

Looks like u have the latest omp cage same as Toast.

 

[mark123]

Looking at plumbed in extinguisher and cut off/battery relocation to behind front passenger seat next.

What have you guys used to get the positive feed inside the car? A hole and gromet or something like this http://www.demon-tweeks.co.uk/motorsport/wiring-connectors/longacre-battery-through-panel.

Also the access panel to the fuel tank above the rear bench - how have you sealed that up if you have?

 

[mark123]

Looks like u have the latest omp cage same as Toast.

Thanks Jay. Yeah looks like it. Initially looking at the way OMP codes work and the fact it didn't dodge the dash I was thinking it was for the mk3 shell.

 

[Jay Payne]

They look quite nice those through panel things. we used a grommet and fed a cable through.

To cover fuel pump access hole just cut a bit of tin to shap and screwed down with self tappers

 

[DAR]

For safety's sake and for a £10, do the job properly. Buy a through panel connector. Also fuse the power cable near the battery.

 

[Toastfrenzy]

Same cage as mine....I have used the rubber grommet and hole that the bonnet release cable went through for the live power feed.

Check my project for the extinguisher\power cut off switches used cost around £100 - £120 each, cheapest out there...

Take it the plastic standard cover for fuel pump won't do? Left it on mine...

 

[shiftspark]

The MSA are clamping down on firewalls this year so I would fit a proper through the bulk head fitting.

 

[mark123]

Take it the plastic standard cover for fuel pump won't do? Left it on mine...

I just figured it was another firewall thing and the plastic one wouldn't be acceptable, I don't know though.

 

[mark123]

What is this square thing? Some sort of fuse?

 

[Jay Payne]

Yes, starter cable fuse

 

[2Damnsly Andy]

Looks good Mark I'll be following your progress, love the look of that cage looks like a right beefy bit of kit.

 

[mark123]

Little update.

Got the cage finished. Trimmed the dash down and got that all back together and wired up.

Wouldn't start though and it took me ages before I realised the fuel pump earths via the earth in the off side rear quarter and I hadn't connected that back up as I figured it was just for the lights!

Got the bonnet catches fitted - made a right mess of the paint work lol!

Started looking at fitting the cutoff and fire extinguisher next. Hoping to bring it along on Monday for the scrutineers to take a look at.

 

[James105]

Nice little update! Your right though...definitely isn't a dash dodger!haha
When you hoping to get out in it?

 

[Toastfrenzy]

LOL...twins.....

nice build, how have you attached your TRS so it's all outside the car, long M16 bolt with a rather large spacer? I can see damage happening on mine should I be towed at any angle other than straight ahead.

2 extinguishers? Only need one.

 

[mark123]

Yes it's just a long M16 bolt. I have two nuts on it - one to hold it in the chassis and another to keep the strap in the right place.

I'm thinking I'll try some stage rallying as well, that's why I have two extinguishers.

 

[sonny172cup]

Nice project mate, love the cage.

What length M16 bolts did you use? I have just orders M16 X 50mm...

 

[Toastfrenzy]

What length M16 bolts did you use? I have just orders M16 X 50mm...

50mm will be long enough, though the TRS bracket will be buried against the frame, not outside as this one...looking for longer bolts myself now....15CM\150mm should be enough to get the TRS bracket outside(bit of a guess mind).

 

[sonny172cup]

Will 150mm bolts be weaker, as they may shear off if being towed?

 

[mark123]

My bolt is 100mm looking at my invoice. Strength wise I don't see it being any different to the std tow eye - it is basically a long bolt with a hoop on the end.

 

[Toastfrenzy]

Will 150mm bolts be weaker, as they may shear off if being towed?

High tensile..shouldn't think so...same thickness as astd tow eye.

My bolt is 100mm looking at my invoice. Strength wise I don't see it being any different to the std tow eye - it is basically a long bolt with a hoop on the end.

OK- my guess wa way out...

namakubi - I'm getting these Ebay link -- if you want one I'll send one if you cover postage...

 

[2Damnsly Andy]

Would these bolts fit a PH1? I need to fit my tow strap and I'm concerned about bumper carnage should I get beached.

 

[Jay Payne]

Funny how one person gets their bumper damaged and everyone panics