Ash’s Clio 182 Trophy

[Ash J]

Hi guys,

I'm back in a Clio again! Just can’t seem to stay away!

I sold the Liquid Yellow 265 Trophy back in December, so I only had it for about 2 months or so (yes I know, I never keep any car more than 2 minutes!).

Must admit, I just feel more at home in a Clio. I’m a pretty capable driver, and the Meg was a very capable car, but I don’t really see what all the fuss is about with the Megane’s. In fairness mine was probably a bit too extreme for comparison as it was basically built for track (which I would barely have ever used it for), and hands down it would show a Clio a clean pair of heels on a twisty B road or around a track, but a Clio 182 (particularly in Trophy guise) is just a better and dare I say more enjoyable “road” car for me, and you don’t need to be going break neck speeds to get a buzz. Plus I felt like I would very quickly get on the wrong side of the law with the Meg so capable was it; obviously not helped by being Liquid Yellow either! Perhaps my opinion would change if I drove a Megane in standard trim (not stripped and setup for track like mine was) but who knows.

Anyway, picked up a 182 Trophy today. At last I have one (you may remember I built a Black Gold 182 up to full Trophy spec a number of years ago, it was documented on here).

This one is number 368.

It has been very, very well cared for, and is in extremely good condition. Mileage pretty low at circa 65k too. Also had a full engine rebuild very recently (within last 6 months) with no expense spared; all this documented over on the Trophy register. A quick search on the MOT history also shows there has never been a single advisory either!

@SharkyUK will no doubt be able to vouch for the condition of this car, as the previous owner (Alan) is a very good friend of his, and knows the car pretty well. This Trophy is very much a credit to Alan, a thoroughly nice chap he is too, and he also owns a very rare 1 of 500 RS Limited MX-5/Eunos which is absolutely gorgeous.

It is pretty much standard to my knowledge apart from a few things:

Scorpion Cat-back Exhaust
Fatty Induction Kit
K-Tec Engine Mounts
Forge Motorsport Silicone Coolant Hoses

Below are a couple of pics I managed to take today just before I arrived home with it, when I stopped to fill up with some of Shell’s finest. Last pic just shows it came with a boot full of goodies too!

Will get some better daytime pictures later in the week.

Plans are to keep it pretty much original, but there are a few things I would like to do over the coming months which will keep to an OEM/OEM+ theme; basically in typical Ash fashion (you all know the level of my work by now as enough of my cars have been documented on here!).

First job to do straight away is to adjust how the exhaust is sitting - no need to mention it; my OCD literally can’t cope with looking at it!

Glad to announce that I have already booked accommodation for the annual Trophy Welsh Weekender road trip… hope to see some other Trophy owners in September!

Keep an eye on this thread as I will document progress/updates as and when they happen.

Ash

 

[mossyv6]

Awesome mate - great buy.

 

[Paul172sport]

Well done mate look forward to seeing it.

You really are a serial clio nightmare but spot on buddy

 

[Louis]

Looking forward to seeing the build on this.

 

[2slow]

looks awesome! I just bought #366 for when I arrive back in the UK around april time, can't wait to drive it.

I'll have to check out this Welsh weekend road trip! Where can I find info on it?

 

[SharkyUK]

@SharkyUK will no doubt be able to vouch for the condition of this car, as the previous owner (Alan) is a very good friend of his, and knows the car pretty well.

Congratulations, Ash - I'm glad #368 has gone to a good home! It is indeed a car I know very well and a car I have enjoyed many miles in with Alan. I know how much love and money has been poured into it and I honestly think this is one of the best used examples out there ('used' as in it's not a static garage queen yet is still in fantastic condition). I was seriously considering buying it myself but, unfortunately, the ongoing trials and tribulations of my own Trophy meant I couldn't really justify the expenditure of another example of Renaultsport's finest.

Looking forward to the future updates and, of course, the Welsh Weekender! All the best!

 

[SharkyUK]

looks awesome! I just bought #366 for when I arrive back in the UK around april time, can't wait to drive it.

I'll have to check out this Welsh weekend road trip! Where can I find info on it?

The Welsh Weekender is coordinated and organised over on the ClioTrophy.co.uk website.

I don't think I uploaded my pics from the 2019 event but here are a few links to previous years...

Trophy Welsh Weekender 2018

Last weekend saw the running of the 2018 Trophy Welsh Weekender, an event exclusively for owners of the RS 182 Clio Trophy. It was the biggest turnout yet with some 24 Trophys in attendance (it would have been more but sadly a few had to drop out). The weather was good for the first few hours on...

cliosport.net

182 Trophy Welsh Weekender 2017

Sadly the weather wasn't so good this year, and the roads were quite a bit busier than we'd experienced in previous years, but the turnout was better than ever! It's not everyday you see a Trophy on the roads so to see 18 of them travelling around Wales was quite... well, epic! :) Thanks to...

cliosport.net

182 Trophy Welsh Weekender 2016 (pic heavy)

(Some of you may already have seen some of these photos if you are active on social media such as facetwit snapgram...) What an absolutely fantastic weekend that has been with respect to the Trophy Welsh Weekender 2016! A fantastic and friendly bunch of people, a collection of the finest...

cliosport.net

A couple of vids I put together for previous years...

 

[Chris V6 255]

Seems that there has been a few of us who have jumped on the Trophy bandwagon recently!

I picked up #151 just after Christmas.

Only spent limited time with mine but can already see what all the fuss is about.

Awesome little cars [emoji1303]


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[Crybert]

Looks nice mate. I remember a few years ago when I had mine there was a lot of hate for them on here! Now it seems it’s the opposite as prices increase. They’re good wee cars

 

[imprezaworks]

What's the going rate for a tidy one these days

 

[Ash J]

Well done mate look forward to seeing it.

You really are a serial clio nightmare but spot on buddy

Thanks mate. You’re absolutely right I am a nightmare, but I plan on keeping this one!

What's the going rate for a tidy one these days

They can be picked up for about £5-6k for higher mileage examples which need some work/tlc.

Lower mileage and best examples can range anywhere between £8-12k, perhaps even a little higher for concours garage queens.

 

[2slow]

Hi mate, how are you enjoying the trophy? I cant wait to get back and go for an early country road blast. 2 months is going to feel like forever.

I just wanted to get your opinion on the scorpion cat back as ill be upgrading the oem box. The drone is my biggest concern...

 

[Ash J]

Hi mate, how are you enjoying the trophy? I cant wait to get back and go for an early country road blast. 2 months is going to feel like forever.

I just wanted to get your opinion on the scorpion cat back as ill be upgrading the oem box. The drone is my biggest concern...

Absolutely love it mate. Not had much time to enjoy driving it yet mind. It’s a second car as I have a TDI Golf for the daily commute to work and back, but makes it feel even more special when I do have get round to driving it.

Have you driven #366 yet then, as I see you mentioned you’ve not long bought it for when you get back to UK?

As for the Scorpion, I believe I have the non RS192 system. Mine has one backbox with two pipes coming out of it, the RS192 has two back boxes like the standard system. You wouldn’t almost never know I’ve got an aftermarket exhaust fitted. No drone at all and really sounds nice on the car. I think mine is resonated though (with a central silencer), you can buy with a central straight pipe instead.

I’m potentially going to be changing mine soon though, just because I have my eye on something else, not because anything wrong with the system, so it will be for sale should you be interested nearer the time.

 

[Ash J]

Small update on the Trophy.

Not driven it that much, but that has been nice because on the odd occasion I do, it always feels really special.

So, main thing I wanted to do over this weekend was fit a bluetooth headunit so I could play my own tunes!

As most Trophy owners know, the heater control panel is prone to peeling. At first, I thought my car had escaped this, but after switching the headlights on to drive home one evening, this was revealed...

Something my OCD just could not cope with! Luckily enough, I just happened to stumble across a brand new one being sold. Not cheap, but buying a second hand would just be pot luck and most are going to be in similar condition, so I jumped on the new one. Thanks to @ashtons99 for selling me his boxed, new control panel!

Unboxing when it arrived...

So back a few steps, I decided to start fitting the headunit yesterday. Was not planning on replacing the control panel until a later date, but then looking at the dash with the standard radio removed, I thought I may as well replace it at the same time.

I got the old one removed before it got dark yesterday, and left it there. What a ballache of a job, hardest part is disconnecting the heater cables at the back of the panel as you are going in blind. Left it like this...

Back at it today, and again hardest part was connecting the heater cables up, mainly because there is not much room to play with, and I didn’t want to scratch the new panel!

Lots of swearing and some scratched knuckles, then voila...

Then I continued to install the Alpine Bluetooth radio I bought, pretty straightforward job. Now looking much better!

Whilst I was in the mood, I decided to fit some replacement dash strips I recently bought.

Not normally a carbon fan, but I went for these as they are real carbon as opposed to the fake stuff which I really don’t like. They weren’t cheap.

Obviously a very easy job to swap over.

Before pic (was not a fan of the big Trophy decal anyway)...

And after...

As I say, not normally a big carbon fan, but I am really happy with these. Look much better than the photos suggest. And it should tie in with another plan I have for the interior which will be revealed in due course.

After I had purchased the dash strips, I thought it would be a nice touch to have a couple of decals made up, just so it isn’t quite as plain looking.

These are what I thought would work...

And once they were fitted. Again, very happy with the result, I really like it.

That is it for now!

 

[Ash J]

Just a few more pics of the fruits of this weekend’s labour, as I couldn’t get them all in the last post!

 

[Chris V6 255]

I’ve got a new heater panel for mine.
Getting it done by garage whilst it’s in for a few other bits.

Looks like a right ball ache [emoji23]


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[Stuflac]

Mimes got a bulb out behind the heater panel. Is it a radio out job to change it?

 

[MarcB]

Must be good to have a new heater control panel.

I have been saving them up as they are rare and £175 from renault

 

[BaileyWolves]

Those dash trims with decals look loads better 👍

 

[Ash J]

I’ve got a new heater panel for mine.
Getting it done by garage whilst it’s in for a few other bits.

Looks like a right ball ache [emoji23]


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Now I have done it once, I think I could do it in about an hour to hour and a half. Not particularly hard, just a pain getting to the cables behind! Don’t be surprised if your garage hates you afterwards

Mimes got a bulb out behind the heater panel. Is it a radio out job to change it?

Yes, you can’t get your hands behind otherwise to disconnect the plugs and heater cables.

Those dash trims with decals look loads better 👍

Thanks mate. Pics don’t do it justice actually, looks really smart (in my opinion of course!).

 

[ashtons99]

Glad it all went ok and I was able to help with the new panel.
As you say once you fitted one once it’s easier the second time.
The only other advice I would give to anyone fitting a “used” one is change the bulbs.
It’s easier than discovering one doesn’t work after you’ve fitted it....I speak from experience


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[Ash J]

So a little bit of an update on the Trophy.

Bought a seat cover for the driver’s side. Normally only me in the car if I take it out, but am thinking of getting another for the passenger side.

Also bought an outdoor cover from Classic Additions. Instead of getting one tailor made for the Clio, I opted for the “Small” universal one which is what they said was suitable for my car, and it was a bit cheaper.

Really nice quality cover, but I would probably pay the extra for a tailored one if I had the choice again, as there are just a couple of places where it is a bit tight, but on the whole I am pleased with it and protects the car in bad weather.

This weekend, I decided to get round to a job I have been wanting to do for ages, getting rid of all the stickers that were on the car when I bought it...

No after pictures, but all these have now been removed and it looks a lot better!

 

[Ash J]

Few weeks back, I got hold of a Sabelt steering wheel...

...and then sent it off to Royal Steering Wheels to be retrimmed in alcantara with red stitching. Arrived a week or two ago...

Also had my steering wheel boss arrived from K-Tec, and managed to source a brand new Ph1 indicator stalk with horn push on the end for a very reasonable price on eBay. So set about fitting all this yesterday...

And finished results..

Oh yeah, and finished off with an audio stalk blank from RPD...

 

[Ash J]

And then onto today’s job.

I bought some Jon Foz lowered Recaro adapters just before I actually purchased the Trophy!

No pictures of the adapters, but made a start on fitting them.

Got the car on axle stands so I could get to all the bolts underneath...

Before picture from the boot...

Got the passenger side out (seats are heavy!) and took the opportunity to hoover...

Swapped the adapters over and refitted the Recaro, voila...

You can see the difference from behind...

You can tell by looking at the line/groove at the bottom of the passenger seat, against where it is on the drivers side (just below where the seat cover ends).

Came across a problem though. The seat would not lock into the sliders, so it was just going backward and forward on the rails. Ended up taking the seat out again; turns out I hadn’t properly modified the handle slider bar first time around. So I adjusted it and went to fit the seat again.

Second attempt of fitting the seat, and I just could not get the studs on the rails to line up with the grommets/rubber bungs on the interior. The furthest away one kept coming out of its slot every time I got the stud near. This was really starting to p**s me off! Especially as it is hard work constantly picking up the seats, bloody heavy for what they are.

In the end I decided to remove all 4 rubber grommet/spacers which has probably given me another 5-10mm over what the adapters give. Sure I have read before that others have simply just removed these to get the seats a tad lower.

If you don’t know what I mean by the grommets/spacers, it’s these things...

With them removed, I got the seat back in and nipped up from underneath the car. This time round, the slider mechanism was working as it should do, hooray!

Another picture to show how they fit, even lower now those grommets have been removed...

I’d had enough by the time the passenger seat was fitted properly. So I will do the drivers side during the week or next weekend. Definitely very happy with how they are going to sit though!

Massive thanks to @JON FOZ for your help today on the phone, giving tips and info during fitting on a Sunday afternoon!

That is it for now.

Got some fairly big plans for the Trophy coming up (currently hoarding parts!), hopefully I can get it all completed sooner rather than later with everything going on right now. I will of course keep this thread updated.

 

[JON FOZ]

That Trophy looks very nice 😎

glad you sorted it in the end Ash 👍

 

[Ash J]

Bit of an update from the last few days…

First up, changing the clock/dials surround. Never been a particularly big fan of the silver surround/bezel.
Found some dials from a Dci going cheap, which come with a matt black surround instead of silver.

Here they are…

Set about stripping these down…

Then removed upper dash from the car so I could get the clocks in the car out…

And then set about swapping the surrounds over. Pretty easy job, and you end up with this…

How they look back in the car. For me, makes a big difference and looks much better. I also like the fact it is OEM finish and not painted.

Whilst the upper dash was off, thought I would take a look at the centre heater vents, because the slats are all over the place and not connected up.

Turns out the little bars that the slats pop into have snapped. Definitely not able to get hold of new slider bars, so I was going to source a pair of single vents (ones furthest ends of the dash) and take them apart and use the parts from those. But a chap on the Facebook group reached out to me, and send if I send him the bars (one of them is still in tact), he will 3D print some for me – result!
Now just waiting to receive them back from him so I can sort the vents out. So the upper dash remains off for now until they arrive.

 

[Ash J]

Next up, headlights!
I recently bought a pair of brand new black insert Hella headlights (halogen not xenon) to replace the grey ones on the car. Mine are actually in great condition, just prefer the black ones.

I bought both headlights separately – after a bit of an eBay search, stumbled upon the correct headlight for each side, not advertised in the best way, but I managed to confirm part numbers so I went for it.

One of them a perfect when it arrived, the other was fine in terms of condition but had the common issue when being sent via courier… the adjust had snapped, so the internals were moving about freely. Brilliant!

Picture of the problem below; there Is a mount/clip which should pop into that white socket on the left, but it had snapped and was moving about in the headlight.

All was not lost though, as I managed to order this kit for all of £2.49 which included a new one.

New item against old item…

Then set about fitting the new adjuster mount. Was a bit fiddly, but I got there!

Voila! One brand new working headlight…

I’ll get a photo of the other side too when I get round to fitting them!

 

[Ash J]

Finally, the fruits of today’s labours.

Last weekend, I got round to fitting the lowered seat adapter onto the passenger side Recaro (details above).

So I set about doing the same to the driver side today.

I actually ended up taking both seats back out, because when I was doing the passenger side last week, I decided to remove the spacers/grommets that the seat rails rest on. But I wasn’t overly happy that it was essentially metal on metal with nothing in between. I bought some rubber washers during the week so that I could rectify this, so out they both came, along with the rear bench!

The pictures make it seem reasonably clean, but it was actually filthy in here! The passenger side looks cleaner because I started hoovering this last weekend when the seat was out, but under the driver seat was horrible, and there was all kinds of crud/dust under the rear bench!

Spent the next 2 hours hoovering, taking the opportunity to get it as clean as possible before putting the seats back in.

Once I was happy, I gave all the interior plastics a clean with Poorboys Natural Look Dressing. The really nice part was that I could clean all the nooks and crannies that would otherwise be covered by the upper dash. A surprising amount of dust gets underneath the upper dash, so it was nice to clean all that up.

Then sprayed some Autoglym Autofresh and left it at that whilst I swapped the adapter over on the driver side Recaro.

This is how it was looking. Much, much better!

This gives a much better idea of what the drop is like on the new adapters…

These are the rubbers washers for mounting the seats back in the car, given the spacers (pictures of these in an earlier post) have been removed.

View from behind now both seats are fitted and bolted up…

 

[Ash J]

Finally, to finish off the interior, binned the horrible mats that were in the car, and fitted my new custom ones!

Old…

And new…

And just some photos of how the interior is now looking after all the jobs from last couple of days (ignore the fact the upper dash is not fitted, waiting for the vents to be sorted first!).

 

[Stefan.]

Great updates Ash 👍

 

[Tim.]

As always it’s the attention to detail that makes your cars and ownership updates, nicely done 👍

 

[mossyv6]

Finally, to finish off the interior, binned the horrible mats that were in the car, and fitted my new custom ones!

Old…

View attachment 1461867

And new…

View attachment 1461868


And just some photos of how the interior is now looking after all the jobs from last couple of days (ignore the fact the upper dash is not fitted, waiting for the vents to be sorted first!).

View attachment 1461874

View attachment 1461869

View attachment 1461870

View attachment 1461871

View attachment 1461872

Where did you get the mats from mate?

 

[MarcB]

Looking good @Ash J

One of the first mods I done with the Dci surround on the clocks. Very easy job and so effective.

Only thing im not sure about is the mats, For me Its too much red, Possibly if you got the pipping black but for me its OE Mats

 

[MLB]

Nice updates! How difficult was it to remove the upper dash? A lot of clips to potentially break?

 

[Ash J]

Great updates Ash 👍

Thanks mate

As always it’s the attention to detail that makes your cars and ownership updates, nicely done 👍

Appreciate the comments Tim

Where did you get the mats from mate?

Got them from Autostyle. If you ring them and say you want mats for a Clio Trophy with the Trophy logo and number, they will know what you mean. You can customise them with any colour etc. Not sure if they will be open at the moment obviously.

Looking good @Ash J

One of the first mods I done with the Dci surround on the clocks. Very easy job and so effective.

Only thing im not sure about is the mats, For me Its too much red, Possibly if you got the pipping black but for me its OE Mats

Thanks Marc.

Yep the clocks make a big difference I think.

Not a fan of the OE mats personally, because of the silver. All down to personal preference, I was thinking black piping, but went for red and I actually like it! Appreciate it might be too much for some though!

Nice updates! How difficult was it to remove the upper dash? A lot of clips to potentially break?

You can have the upper dash out in 10-15 minutes. Really not a difficult job; 11 screws to move, and then you just pull the whole upper dash towards you and lift off.

There is a guide here: https://cliosport.net/content/guides/fubar/ph2_dashboard.pdf

One tip from that guide... you don’t need to remove the screws at Step Six; the panel on top of steering wheel just pops off

 

[mossyv6]

Thanks @Ash J

What was the cost of the mats please?

 

[MLB]

Ah I should've known there was a Fubar guide, another thing on the to do list then, thank you!

 

[Ash J]

So I have been tidying up the engine bay over the last two weekends.

Some pics of how it was looking before.

Silver inlets
Fatty (I think?) induction
Broken fuse box
Broken positive battery terminal
Small battery cover

Parts ready to be fitted…

Painted upper inlet (port matched etc)
Painted RS lower inlet (port matched etc)
Painted throttle body
Painted engine mount bracket/cover
Painted alternator support bracket
KTR PTFE inlet gasket
OE inlet manifold breather gasket
Magnecor red ignition leads
KTR induction kit
Battery cover

Made a start last weekend, and got to the point of removing everything apart from the lower inlet, leaving it like this…

Headlights also removed as I am swapping these over too.

The KTR induction hose I bought second hand, so I gave it a bath to clean it up. The filter and fitting kit are brand new from KTR.

The fuse box clip was broken as shown above, so I set about looking for a replacement and found a brand new genuine one which I snapped up. Also found a brand new genuine cover so I bought that too.

The cover was being held on by a screw behind the headlight…

I removed the old fuse box, then took the opportunity to give everything I could see in the area a good clean up…

Then is was time to fit the new fuse box and fuse box cover…

Much tidier, couldn’t be happier with the outcome.

 

[Ash J]

The pics with the fuse box above shows the new battery terminal too. Couple of additional pictures…

Decided to then have a clean behind both headlights whilst they were out. No before pics, but these are after cleaning. Honestly is so much cleaner than it was!

It was then time to get my pair of brand new headlights ready to put on the car. Went for a pair of genuine new black insert ones to replace the standard grey inserts, just personal preference. I bought brand new uprated bulbs to fit at the same time, and just had to swap the headlight levelling motors over from the old units.

 

[Ash J]

And then today I finally got round to continuing with fitting all the engine components.

Eventually got the lower inlet off (very tight fit!) and swapped over for the new one straight away…

I then set about fitting all the rest of the parts (no in between pics) and this was the end result…

Finishing touch was a new genuine oil cap…

Got both new headlights fitted up, looking much nice in my opinion with the black inserts (and the fact they are brand new!).

Final job was to fit my new door bullets I had made. I know these will be marmite, and I wasn’t sure they would work myself, but I’m actually really happy with how they have turned out! I appreciate some people won’t like them and that is fine! Also cleaned up behind them before fitting as it was filthy!

I have left the front bumper off as I am going to take the opportunity to have a clean of everything else at the front end before putting it back on, so please ignore anything at the front end which has not been cleaned yet, and the filthy arch liners too as these will be coming off to be properly cleaned!