Building a track car

[Alex_225]

Ok so I bought my 172 mega cheap so I'm not as fussy about it as my other cars. I want to make this as purposeful as possible ideally to set it up for track use.

What I was hoping for was some info from those who've done just this and what modifications make the most difference and are worth doing.

I've seen plenty of track cars but not really sure where to start with it. I was thinking handling and braking is probably a good start rather than adding more power.

Just after some advice from people with experience.

 

[Bluebeard]

How many track days have you done in it? Which areas did you feel need attention first?

If you just want to build a generic clio track car, just look in the project section, there's loads.

If you want to build something that suits you and your driving, then first, you need to drive it.

In my personal opinion, they don't need more power. Its pretty pointless when 90% of people will never reach the cars limits with a standard engine.

 

[Alex_225]

Thanks for the info mate, I haven't done any track driving as yet so sounds like I should probably give this a try first.

To be honest, from my thoughts of driving at any kind of speed on the road it's the tyres and suspension I'd probably consider first.

I just wanted some advise on what is and isn't worth doing. For example strut braces don't seem to benefit especially even though I was under the impression they did.

Must agree, in terms of power, they have plenty of it for a small car so it would probably be the last thing I'd do. Admittely 200bhp and a well set up chassis does appeal to me.

 

[Concept]

Looking at doing the same.

What kind of money did you pay?

There's a few around the £1500 mark, and I'm not bothered what it looks like, as long as belts have been done and mechanically ok.

Going to buy one and take it to an airfield track day, then see what I need.

I am thinking tyres and brakes will be first off, then take it from there.

 

[Bluebeard]

I have done lots of trackdays and in all sorts of cars.

My current track car is running standard cup suspension and is by far the most fun track car i've had. I've had £200 coilovers, £3000 race coilovers, had a standard M3 track car, A stripped out clio on lowering springs.... Still without doubt the most fun was/is the standard set up. Its just so playful.

I would look at fitting a decent set of discs and pads (I run Brembo discs, DS2500 pads) braided brake lines and some good brake fluid. Fit some decent matching tyres (not 888's!) and then go from there.

Depending on your size, look at changing the seats. I find the standard seats hideous and for track use i'd rather run with bucket seats as they are alot more supportive.

 

[Chip-mk1]

Get out and use it before you spunk loads of money on it.

Personally to turn a 172 into a good cheap trackday car I would do only the following:
Bloody good service including things like track rods and rod ends if required
New cup shocks
Set of decent brake pads
Decent tyres on 15" rims

Anything else is going to give you only a slightly improvement for a much bigger spend IMHO


My mrs 172 is exactly as I just described (other than she has an RS2 inlet as well) and its just totally EPIC on track, I absolutely love driving it, its just so confidence inspiring that it means you can really drive it hard and enjoy it.

 

[Alex_225]

Some great info there mate, so effectively a decent set of springs is recommended?

I'm not out for sheer speed but I want it to be enjoyable to drive and obviously be practical for the road as well. Scraping the tarmac wouldn't be ideal.

I'd like to swap out the seats and steering wheel as well, remove the rear seats. Not sure on bucket seats in terms of size. I'm not exactly a little fella! lol

What kind of money did you pay?

Paid £800 for the car, spent £600 tidying it up with regard to a dent and some spraying needed.

Get out and use it before you spunk loads of money on it.

Don't worry about that I'm not going to plough a tonne of cash into it. I want to do this fairly slowly which means thinking things through rather than trying one set up, spending a load of wedge then realising I want it set up another way.

 

[ben_r1]

Whiteline rear ARB really is an excellent mod and makes a massive difference for sub £200.

Well worth a thought IMO.

 

[Bluebeard]

Get out and use it before you spunk loads of money on it.

Personally to turn a 172 into a good cheap trackday car I would do only the following:
Bloody good service including things like track rods and rod ends if required
New cup shocks
Set of decent brake pads
Decent tyres on 15" rims

Anything else is going to give you only a slightly improvement for a much bigger spend IMHO


My mrs 172 is exactly as I just described (other than she has an RS2 inlet as well) and its just totally EPIC on track, I absolutely love driving it, its just so confidence inspiring that it means you can really drive it hard and enjoy it.

Some great info there mate, so effectively a decent set of springs is recommended?

I'm not out for sheer speed but I want it to be enjoyable to drive and obviously be practical for the road as well. Scraping the tarmac wouldn't be ideal.

I'd like to swap out the seats and steering wheel as well, remove the rear seats. Not sure on bucket seats in terms of size. I'm not exactly a little fella! lol



Paid £800 for the car, spent £600 tidying it up with regard to a dent and some spraying needed.

This is a shock:

This is a spring:

 

[Alex_225]

I actually misread that and saw springs rather than shocks. I do know the difference between the two hahaha.

 

[Bluebeard]

Ahh, sorry. I didn't know if you were a complete noob or not.

 

[Alex_225]

No just me not reading properly haha.

But hey I'm not complaining the info is all good. Like I say I'd rather read up and pick things from people's own experience than buy something and wasting money.

 

[Bluebeard]

Then listen to me, i've wasted Well over £10,000 on 'track cars'. LOL!!

 

[Alex_225]

I'm all ears mate hahaha.

 

[Bluebeard]

This is the order of what i'd do now if I was starting out again.

1) Do a track day as it is. See how you get on. If you enjoyed it...
2) Renew brakes and perishables. So fluid, lines, discs, pads, bushes etc With good kit. (not Euro car parts crap)
3) 4 new quality tyres.
5) Do another track day to appreciate improvements.
6) Fit a (good quality!) set of seats, Rear cage with harness bar and a decent set of harnesses. (3 inch ones)
7) Fit a smaller steering wheel.
8) Thats probably £2000 worth of bits there, so now do more trackdays and spend money on tuition to make you faster.
9) Once you're a good driver, spend £millions on turbo booster nutter conversion and go mental.

 

[Fletcher]

This is the order of what i'd do now if I was starting out again.

1) Do a track day as it is. See how you get on. If you enjoyed it...
2) Renew brakes and perishables. So fluid, lines, discs, pads, bushes etc With good kit. (not Euro car parts crap)
3) 4 new quality tyres.
5) Do another track day to appreciate improvements.
6) Fit a (good quality!) set of seats, Rear cage with harness bar and a decent set of harnesses. (3 inch ones)
7) Fit a smaller steering wheel.
8) Thats probably £2000 worth of bits there, so now do more trackdays and spend money on tuition to make you faster.
9) Once you're a good driver, spend £millions on turbo booster nutter conversion and go mental.

^^^This.

 

[Alex_225]

Excellent, that's exactly what I was after.

Would you say that list of things still keeps the car useable on the road as well? I want to keep it so it can be used as a runabout as well should I want to pop to the shops in it.

Also with regard to stripping out, I'm guessing just remove the parcel shelf and back seats? Worth binning loads of other trim?

 

[Fletcher]

Excellent, that's exactly what I was after.

Would you say that list of things still keeps the car useable on the road as well? I want to keep it so it can be used as a runabout as well should I want to pop to the shops in it.

Also with regard to stripping out, I'm guessing just remove the parcel shelf and back seats? Worth binning loads of other trim?

ATM my 172 is totally stripped one, bucket seat harnesses etc.. and is still fine for road use.

 

[Alex_225]

Thanks.

I'm thinking I'll leave the passenger seat, purely so I can cart the Mrs round with me haha.

Fast road/track use is probably a better description of what I'm after. I don't want to be struggling with speed bumps but don't want to be flailing at the first corner.

Thing is I'd still like the rear of the car to look neat as I'm still an OCD type at heart so would intend on carpeting it in the rear.

 

[Bluebeard]

Excellent, that's exactly what I was after.

Would you say that list of things still keeps the car useable on the road as well? I want to keep it so it can be used as a runabout as well should I want to pop to the shops in it.

Also with regard to stripping out, I'm guessing just remove the parcel shelf and back seats? Worth binning loads of other trim?

If you keep the original belts in it as well as the harnesses, it will make a perfectly fine daily too. Belts for daily, harnesses for track. Winner.

As for stripping, if you're going to keep the car forever then rip out as much as you can. If you plan on selling it, even if its in 3 years time, just remove the heavy stuff. The plasctics weigh nothing. In fact, if you weighed the lot it would probably weigh less than a healthy turd so just make sure you have a good turn out before you get on track and you'll be in the same position.

 

[Christopher]

Clio Media?

Moved.

 

[Russ_16v]

Id make sure the brakes and tyres have plenty of meat on them, make sure shocks are ok (not leaking) then do 3 or 4 track days - wait until you are used to the car - upgrades are only required once the car is the weak link, I have been doing track days since I passed my test in 1997, but when I got my first Ph1 I would say it took me a good few track days before I felt like I had got to know how it properly felt - before that I was the weak link as I was not getting the full potential out of it.

Once the car becomes the weak link, then look at a small upgrades, as listed above

 

[2Damnsly Andy]

Pretty much as Dan said, my only change would be to get the front brakes uprated before a track day as standard setup can get bad fade after a few heavy laps of braking (I found this out at Donington). Then enjoy your car.

 

[Chip-mk1]

This is the order of what i'd do now if I was starting out again.

1) Do a track day as it is. See how you get on. If you enjoyed it...
2) Renew brakes and perishables. So fluid, lines, discs, pads, bushes etc With good kit. (not Euro car parts crap)
3) 4 new quality tyres.
5) Do another track day to appreciate improvements.
6) Fit a (good quality!) set of seats, Rear cage with harness bar and a decent set of harnesses. (3 inch ones)
7) Fit a smaller steering wheel.
8) Thats probably £2000 worth of bits there, so now do more trackdays and spend money on tuition to make you faster.
9) Once you're a good driver, spend £millions on turbo booster nutter conversion and go mental.

Assuming that 2) on that list includes things like steering rods and track rod ends and balljoints and shock absorbers to get the thing handling back how it does to begin with, I agree (other than I would also upgrade the brake pads, its cheap insurance)

Standard they are excellent on track, the trick is just doing all the bits to get them back to standard as most of them are now very much SUB standard.

Thats what people miss a lot of the time when they fit upgraded bushes and shocks etc, the difference they are seeing they would have seen most of from new standard bits too.

 

[Alex_225]

Thats what people miss a lot of the time when they fit upgraded bushes and shocks etc, the difference they are seeing they would have seen most of from new standard bits too.

That's a very good point, this car has 56k on the clock now, bound to have certain parts more worn than if it had just rolled off the production line.

Clio Media?

Moved.

Thanks for moving, I thought I was posting in here intially so was in media by mistake.

 

[alex-avfc]

If it was me, I'd just make sure everything is spot on and well serviced and then go for:

Eibach sportlines
DS2500 pads and Brembo HC discs
Decent tyres.

 

[Martin.]

If it was me.

Full Service
DS2500 Pads & Brembo HC Discs
Decent brake fluid
Braided lines
Whiteline ARB - such a good bit of kit
Decent tyres.

 

[Concept]

Interesting points, looking forward to finding the right car now, and getting it on the track!

 

[mantis946]

They are very capable track cars in standard guise, just keep on top of parts as they are quite high maintenance (Specially when it comes to servicing).

 

[Jamie86]

This is a shock:

Technically a Damper actually Dan

 

[mark123]

This would be a great track day to get you started if you're free

http://www.cliosport.net/forum/show...andow-trackday-Wednesday-26th-September-%A385!!!!

 

[Chip-mk1]

Technically a Damper actually Dan

Shock absorber is just another name for damper so I have no idea why you would think it's specifically called one not the other tbh. Is that just a cs clique thing or something?

 

[Jamie86]

Shock absorber is just another name for damper so I have no idea why you would think it's specifically called one not the other tbh. Is that just a cs clique thing or something?

Nope don't think i'm part of any Clique, well not had any formal membership card.. I just got nagged repeatedly by someone for calling them "shocks" so now share my pain.. thanks

 

[Chip-mk1]

They are known as shock absorbers or dampers because they absorb/damp out shock loads from being transmitted from the road wheel to the car, there is no right or wrong between those two, both perfectly acceptable industry standard terms.

 

[JoshOm3]

I havnt long done my first trackday. Was brilliant by the way lol.

Before I went I gave the car a good looking over. I've already got brakes and mounts sorted but got myself some grippy tires, better spec brake fluid and added a ArB.

As a lot have mentioned you don't need all of this to have fun. Their brilliant out the box. Aslong as your car is up for the job your be fine.

Enjoy.

 

[LiamR172]

They are known as shock absorbers or dampers because they absorb/damp out shock loads from being transmitted from the road wheel to the car, there is no right or wrong between those two, both perfectly acceptable industry standard terms.

Owned!

Anyways.. Ive got a question too, Does a rear strut brace actually do any good at all? i remember reading on here that they dont do anything..

 

[Chip-mk1]

Owned!

Anyways.. Ive got a question too, Does a rear strut brace actually do any good at all? i remember reading on here that they dont do anything..

Nothing at all on a clio realistically as the strut tops movin won't effect wheel position like it does on the front, because the beam alone controls rear toe and camber. The shock top moving slightly won't be a problem like on the front and it's under no real load anyway so would have no reason to move.