Clio 172 cup run around turned B road blasted

[David James]

Hi
I thought I would start a project thread for my old nail.
I got it from my brother who had kept it 5 years and covered 20k in it but didn’t believe in condoms so child number 3 meant he could have a grand scenic instead ?

£2000 later I had a FSH 54k cup ?
Anyway here is what it looked like before he was completely broke so in its prime

 

[David James]

First up was to remove the horrible broken thumb inserts

Really helped the feel of the car.
I then started to really like the car!

 

[David James]

I then started to try and clean it up a bit and sort out stuff that had been not sorted as financial issues for my brother.

First up was the induction kit that was in a bit of a state.

The filter was destroyed inside and glad I caught it before my engine decided to eat it.

Painted it up and stuck a new filter on but plans will be to change it when I done the engine works planned

 

[David James]

Next up the brakes

Ever since I got it I found the brakes rubbish
Decided to get a fast road setup as mainly what I’m using it for at the moment .

Evora slotted discs
Mintex m1144 pads front
Standard rear pads
ATE super 2000 fluid
New seals in calipers

Old disks where completely shot

Pads aren’t any better

Where the sliders where seized it had wear on one pad only

Rears where to the metal.

And the new ones

Degreased and painted in vht

New seals and painted marine blue and new sliders

Same for the rear

Brakes now on the road are very good. Bite hard from cold and can lock the tyres up if over doing it . Great road setup that’s well priced

 

[David James]

I didn’t get on with the cup front seats as they dug in my back and actually still pretty heavy.
Swapped them out for corbeau boss recliner seats as I had them sitting around.
Drivers seat on a Jon z xlow seat base and passenger on a sparco base as I didn’t like the sparco base on the drivers side.

Saved a lot of weight with these and there comfortable and allows access to the rear when I take the kids out

 

[David James]

Been through various steering wheels now
Started off with a OMP suade wheel with omp boss

Turned out to be fake and soft as shut so as it was dangerous it went in the bin and put a momo race wheel in I had in the garage

Didn’t like the feel so I got a genuine OMP 300mm steering wheel this was 300mm though

Decided that 300mm was to small for my club hands
Also wanted another suade wheel
Now I have a motamech 350mm semi dish suade wheel, tiny bit big but feels great and excellent quality

 

[David James]

Gave the engine bay a clean up
Odessey pc680 battery in the boot in a box I made up

Gave the engine a clean up and paint in the left over marine blue paint I used on my calipers.
Got 8mm yellow leads which are great quality.
Painted the inlet manifolds and fuel rail guard in Matt vht paint.
New header tank.
Removed the Ecu cage and laid it flat.
New carbon fibre pipework and huge K&N filter fitted. Sounds the nuts

 

[David James]

Gave the engine bay a clean up
Odessey pc680 battery in the boot in a box I made up
View attachment 1412506

Gave the engine a clean up and paint in the left over marine blue paint I used on my calipers.
Got 8mm yellow leads which are great quality.
Painted the inlet manifolds and fuel rail guard in Matt vht paint.
New header tank.
Removed the Ecu cage and laid it flat.
New carbon fibre pipework and huge K&N filter fitted. Sounds the nuts
View attachment 1412507
View attachment 1412526
View attachment 1412527

 

[David James]

Built up a rear beam as the bushes are original, only 55k on them but 16 years old!

Looked and found the 182 rear beams have a thicker torsen bar and extra bracing to the spring plates.

Sourced a rear beam but was a tad rusty

All cleaned up, wire brushed, por 15 then black enamel paint and whiteline bushes as very well priced and excellent quality

 

[David James]

One of the key things I want to do with the cup is keeping it as a lightweight practical road car.
So I have made a list of what I have removed and rough weights as well just as I like the idea of every little helps .

Boot area

• Isofix bar. - 2.5kg
• Isofix bolts .02kg
• Tool kit -3.0kg
• Parcel shelf -2kg
• Boot trim
• Boot carpet
• Rear wiper arm
• Rear wiper motor
• Tailgate trim
• Top mount covers
• Isofix cover
• Wheel mount bolt
• Boot carpet

The boot area gives quite a decent saving and as I have no need for isofix or it being practical it all came out.
I put my oddessy battery in the boot with a battery box but this is going to be removed for a lithium battery.

It also had a large bit of 18mm plywood stuck down to it so all ripped out.
The side trim and battery box has since gone

 

[David James]

Boot Carpet - 2.2
Toolkit - 3.5
Rear speaker panels - 1.75 each
Tailgate trim - 0.85
Trim covering rear seat belts - 0.7 each
lower boot trim - 0.7
Rear Strut cover carpets - 0.3 each

 

[mossyv6]

Coming on great mate - good work.

But a cup with 54k I would have returned back to original.

 

[David James]

Coming on great mate - good work.

But a cup with 54k I would have returned back to original.

Yeah it has crossed my mind a lot but I want something I can tinker with and not worth ridiculous money but is fun and good condition so seams good idea.

My other toy I am trying not to ruin

 

[David James]

got Atlease 56kg out of it so far and not made anything impractical at all

 

[David James]

Clio





Engine


- Oil catch tank


- Rs tuner 171.4 bhp


-unknown 2.5” exhaust


-2.25” decat


-carbon induction kit








About to be fitted


- 2.5” centre silencer


-2.5” ktec stealth back box


-182 manifold de flanged and slip coupled


-miltek 200 cell sports cat








Front suspension


- Pure motorsport top mounts


- Pure motorsport strutbrace


- Eibach camber bolts


- Gas gha coilovers





About to be fitted


- Powerflex purple wishbone bushes


- Powerflex black steering bushes


-powerflex purple arb bushes











Rear suspension


- whiteline arb


- Gaz gha shock and springs


- Powerflex shock mounts





Waiting to be fitted


-182 rear beam / bigger torsion bar braced


-whiteline rear beam bushes





4w alignment done fast road





Drivetrain


- Powerflex dog bone mount.


- Weighted gear knob





Waiting to be fitted


-vibratec engine mount


-vibratec gearbox mount





WHEELS


- Cades ecos 15 x6.5j et30 . 7.5kg per wheel


- 195/50/15 Michelin pilot sport 3 wet





Awaiting to be fitted


-extreme vr2 s3 dry tyres





Interior


- corbeau boss passenger seat


-sparco evo2 drivers seat


- Xtra low drivers subframe


- Sparco passenger mount


-JVC Bluetooth headunit


-OMP steering wheel boss


-Motamech semi dished 350mm suede wheel





Brakes


- Mintex M1144 front pads


- Evora 6 grooved front discs


- Rebuilt calipers


- Rebuilt brake bias valve


- Renault rear disks


- Calipers painted marine blue


- Brembo rear pads


- ATE Super2000 4.1dot fluid





Exterior


- sprayshack 172 cup rear wiper delete


- Sprayshack 172 cup bullets


- Fabia splitter


- 16v decals

 

[David James]

Not sure why it came out like that sorry

 

[David James]

I had lots of movement in my engine mounts and got a vibratec top mount cheap so that went on! I paid Nearly the price of a standard mount

 

[David James]

Changed the headlights as they where terrible.
Tried polishing them twice but wasn't good enough.

Got some for £52 from renparts brand new they transform the freshness of the car

You can see she is still in the air as I'm doing a front end refresh at the moment ?

 

[David James]

Spent a little bit more time on her today.
Painted the bare parts after I removed the front rad support bar.

Had a clean up under the bumper

Gave the front grill a couple of coats of satin paint.
Before

During

Done

Then I decided I didn't want the whole blue/back theme anymore and going more oem+

Definitely liking the freshen up a lot.

 

[David James]

Continued with the OEM+ theme and decided a 172 ph1 air box was more what I wanted than a induction kit.

I wasn't keen on the wiper blank, although a custom sprayshack item I want more OEM
So

 

[David James]

Had a swap of wheels and tyres.
Was on Cades eros stealth 15 x 6.5j et30 wheels with 195 50 15 pilot sport 3 tyres

My brother had a issue with fitment of his new wheels on his ph1 172 and also a road car used for commuting down the m25 so the toyo r888r wasn't ideal, so a trial fit of my wheels on his car and we decided to swap
Mine old wheels coming off

And now fitted on his car

And now team dynamic pro race 1.2 15x7j et35 with 195 50 15 toyo r888r, 3.1mm on the front and 2mm on the rear so need changing soon.

 

[David James]

Been a while since I have updated this and its had some progress.

I decided I was going to fit some parts I have collected and had sitting around.
182 manifold
182 miltek sport cat
Modify the existing exhaust system.

Well this meant removing the subframe to fit the manifold.

So I decided I would also fit new powerflex black series steering rack bushes, purple anti roll bar inner and outer bushes while I was at it.

Long story short it all took much longer than it should have and I lost enthusiasm for it.

I also wiped all the photos off my new phone so lost all the pictures I was building up for a update.

Well I then get a random call from my brother Stevej and our clios are booked on a trackday to Bedford autodrome!

This gives me 4 weeks to sort the clio out!

OK so fired it up and the exhaust was a bag of nails 🙄
In its current state it was a ktec stealth system. 4"x18" universal silencer chopped in, miltek sports cat and a slip coupling to the 182 manifold as the flange had been cut off both!

Moving the car around resulted in the exhaust twisting and leaking.

So given the short amount of time I had I swapped to u bolts clamps and made a extra bracket for the back box.

It wasn't the best at all but I hoped it would be quite enough for the track day and solid enough.

Then I came out one morning to find the passenger carpet mouldy and the seat belts mouldy 😭

So I decided a full strip down to find out what as going on.

After it was all clean, carpet had been sanitised etc I decided I might as well put my sparco evo 2 seat in, Alot of faffing and it was in place

 

[David James]

I took out all the foam again and rear under carpet mat and put the carpet back in as I wanted a little comfort, I also put my passenger seat back in.

The rear seats where taken down the tip as where in poor condition due to the mould and all other trim put in the loft.
Swapped over steering wheels as you might of noticed as I felt the motamec wasn't good enough so I got a OMP targa 330mm wheel.

 

[David James]

Now I moved on to stop the water returning so I had to remove the scuttle panels.
It was pretty dirty under there

Bit of a scrub up and the drains checked

The wipers where absolutely shot to bits

New bosch aero twins fitted.

Then new plugs fitted
Old ones where cheap denso tt plugs so swapped out to genuine renualt ngk plugs.

 

[David James]

Checked the oil too which had only done 500 miles so that was left

Had to do a alighment using my camber guage and string alighment technique. Wasn't perfect but OK.

I was running - 2 deg front and about -1 deg rear.


Then it was mot'ed and passed which was a relief.

 

[David James]

Back on the road and hopefully ready for its first track day
All loaded up and washed ready to roll.

 

[David James]

Now for the drive up to Bedford, with my brother in his ph1.
Filling up

And we drove the 80 miles to Bedford without to much of a issue, I was getting understeer on acceleration even on the road but put this down to how much weight was in the back of my car as I went overboard in bringing tools etc.

Then on the track 😊😎
The car felt pretty fast and was quicker in the straights than my brothers 172 and quite a few cars on the trackday, except the meclaren 😂.

It was greasy so still being cautious inthe corners and locked up on braking a few times.
Having fun

Few of my brother

The just before lunch BANG, 🙄

M exhaust spectacularly fell off at the manifold as I was coming out the pits on to the first corner!

Limped it off to the closest exit point and tried to get to the pits on the normal roads in Bedford autodrome.
About 100 yards and the car died 😭.

Got my jack and tools and fitted the exhaust the best I could but the car wouldn't start!

Toed back to the main car park and had lunch and tried to fix it!
No fuel or spark.
Eventually found a 30 amp fuse blown in the engine fuse box, replaced it and the car fired but misfiring like a bag of spanners!

The I limped it to the pits and all my tools and fitted the exhaust a bit better, found the lambda sensor post cat and lost insulation on some wires so repaired that as best as I could.
Dropped it back to the floor, fired it and the cough cough and a huge bang (backfire). Everyone in the pits needed new underpants at this point, it was so forceful it blew the exhaust off again which was on quite tight!

Ended up on a AA truck on its first trackday 😭🚚 bugger.


So it's now home and I need to investigate what's happened, sort a new exhaust system as I can't have this bodge 😁. But valuable lessons learnt!
I enjoyed myself so more trackdays are happening but it's going to be a proper, well executed maintance, modification route from now on! Trackdays fine weak spots that's for sure

 

[Djw Dave]

Nice little write up. Keep developing it and enjoy it.

 

[David James]

Thanks, I felt bad about doing it to such a low milage cup but sod it 😊

 

[Djw Dave]

Thanks, I felt bad about doing it to such a low milage cup but sod it 😊

I 'd rather do all this work to a good base car than a rot box.

 

[David James]

I 'd rather do all this work to a good base car than a rot box.

This is very true 👍. Rather a decent base

 

[David James]

So the strip down to see what is wrong begins.
First off to take the manifold off and check the leads, plugs and compression just to make sure nothing really bad has happened.

Plugs are pretty dirty for 100 miles and 1 trackday!

So compression test
Cly 1 =180psi two min letby test and still at 180psi

Cyl 2 = 195 psi Two min let by test still 195psi

Cyl 3 195 psi two min letby still 195 psi

Cyl 4 = 190 psi two min letby still 190 psi

So thankfully all good on the compression front, plugs where cleaned up and put back in but I put that down to running pretty rich due to the lambda wires dying.
So now I know I don't need a new engine I will sort the exhaust and update from there 😁

 

[David James]

A little progress.
I noticed the pain on my cam cover was flaking and the was a oil leak from the breather plate.

It was a long job picking and scraping all the old paint off the cam cover.

Degreased and then preped for paint.

Three coats of Etch primer

Hammerite smooth blue used as a base paint

 

[David James]

I wanted the breather plate a different colour to help identify any leaks later on.

I decided to block off the tiny breather condense hole as it's pretty pointless as it's near identical location to the main breather hose port, I made a blank using 1.5mm gasket paper.

Bonded it down with locktite copper gasket maker.

Then installed the plate back on the cam cover using the same stuff.

As you can see I removed all the tape etc and put the leads back in and found one wasn't going on the plug properly so might of been the misfire cause, we will see.

Next I will move on to the exhaust manifold and sort the exhaust properly. Also looking into properly porting the Inlet's using ms motorsport.

 

[David James]

Hi
Finally got it all back together,
I stupidly booked another trackday at Bedford this Sat 28th feb.
First thing was to replace the broken 182 manifold etc
I decided instead of dropping the subframe it would be easier to cut it out! Wrong that's was a ballache.
But swapped over to my 172 manifold, my brothers 172 sports cat, and a flanged 250mm pipe extension with new ngk lambda sensors as mine where toast.
I used high tensile stainless bolts and nuts for this.

All together, inlets etc needs paint now.

Took it to get the alignment done and the exhaust straightened out as was now a but crap fit. All back perfect and sounds great.
Alignment went wrong as the guy set the toe straight as I wanted but the beam jack died so couldnt do camber and is - 3 on the left and - 2 right 😭. Didn't have time to sort this so will end up doing the trackday with crap alighment.

 

[Usr117063]

Just put more on the right side yourself then take it back to re do toe free of charge since they only did half the job?

 

[David James]

It's more down to time unfortunately. I'm working all over the country all week and head off for the hotel Friday night 😔

 

[David James]

Well this is due a update I'd say.
I took the car too Bedford on the 27th of Feb and was hoping for a better result than being recovered home by the AA. Well. It went a bit better, came off at high speed and now my exhaust is hanging off again.
Car was driving horribly, under steer and just not planted at all. But it did make it home just and my ears ringing to prove it.

Basically due to some little pandemic and playing with my m3 I haven't touched this really since Feb!
I took the bucket seats out for them to go in my m3 so sourced a set of really nice 172 cup seats

Got these for a good price and rear seats too. Not sure if they will be put in the loft or used but good cup seats are hard to find now so bought them while still cheap.

I decided as well that I miss the induction noise and wanted a tried and tested top notch kit so got a ktec pipe and new ram air alloy filter. Nice kit

 

[David James]

While I was at it I managed to get a 172 cup bulkhead plate as I threw mine out years ago to save weight but the sticky heatshied. I made was horrible so when one came up on ebay cheap I snapped it up as these again are getting more expensive and harder to find, I used zinc coated bolts to secure it as with most things I do now.
Excuse the dirt it really really needs a clean

Next up i will be sorting the exhaust out properly this time and then going over every suspension component to find out why it handles so badly.

 

[David James]

Today I changed out the steering wheel as although the OMP wheel felt nice after seeing how my brothers looks after light use and the fact i couldn't see the speedo at all I decided a more subtle wheel was required. Picked up a megane r26 steering wheel which feels good and can use the airbag again and horn which is nice. It's not bad condition but later on may get a retrimned one. Definitely a upgrade over the standard clio wheels.

Going to spend time getting the car up to a good condition, road use able nice low milage cup. Definitely oem+ approach and some new stuff ordered and will be updating soon 😎