Clio 172 Road Rally Car

[agriff]

There is no such thing as cheap motorsport.

But like many before me, I convinced myself I could at least keep it affordable and within something resembling a budget.

I've enjoyed reading a lot of the other project threads on the forum over the past couple of years, so I thought I'd finally get around to sharing what I've been working on since the start of 2023.

For a number of years I've been competing as a navigator on road rallies. For those not familiar with road rallying, it is a discipline governed by Motorsport UK for competition which can be held entirely on the public road. There are a variety of different styles of events, but the main two I am interested in are night rallies, where the competitors need to maintain an average speed along a pre-determined route whilst not getting lost in the deepest darkest countryside; and targa rallies, which use the same timing principles as a night rally but applied to special tests held on private land.

Although I have no plans to stop navigating, after a few years in the sport I was starting to think I'd like to have a go in the drivers seat, but that meant I'd need a suitable car. Many years ago a friend let me have a drive in his blue 182, and ever since then I'd fancied having a 172/182 as a weekend toy anyway. It seemed like a good opportunity to bring the two things together.

Now the general consensus in the road rally community is that the Clio is a bad choice, its too delicate, there aren't many off the shelf rally bits without spending a fortune, and you'd do better if you just bought a Fiesta, Satria, 106 etc. But for me this project isn't to try and build a winning car (I'll never be a better driver than I am a navigator). It is to build something I can use on a range of events, maybe do the odd trackday, but mainly just ENJOY owning and building.

With that in mind, I set out to find a reasonably tidy but standard car which possibly needed work anyway and take it from there.

After a few months or so of browsing I became the owner of this 53 plate 172 with 100k on the clock:

The car was a very long way from my house, but the price was right and it sounded like the perfect starting point. It was advertised as spares or repairs due to having the engine warning light on and a few bits of body damage, but it was in daily use and had an MOT. I noticed the power steering was squealing during the viewing but the rest of the car was tidier than described so a deal was done. The chap I bought it off seemed pleased that I was going to do something with it, as all the other enquiries he'd had were from people wanting to break it.

It drove the 250+ miles home without incident, and thought about the next steps for my 'cheap' rally car.....

 

[agriff]

PART 2

First things first, I wanted to make sure the car was a good'un before I started spending too much money on it, and I wasn't going to take it out competing unless I had at least done the fundamentals.

Problem number one was the engine warning light, the previous owner had told me it was the carbon canister but hadn't ever got around to dealing with it himself, so off it came and into the bin it went. Engine warning light sorted.

Next up was the power steering pump, I didn't fancy sorting it myself (the belts scare me) so I booked it in at a local Renault Sport specialist who confirmed the bearings were knackered and the hoses were leaking. A slightly larger than expected bill later, and the power steering pump was sorted.

Now came the first significant decision... I knew that long term I wanted to run 15" wheels as having the option for a much deeper sidewall is good news when you're dodging potholes and rocks (or not), and good quality 15" tyres are generally noticeably cheaper than their 16" equivalents. The problem was that the tyres on the car were rubbish and I didn't even want to potter around on them whilst I assessed whether the car was fundamentally sound, but I didn't want to shell out for some 16" tyres I wouldn't keep.

Inevitably, I decided I should just go straight into the 15"s. Originally I was considering some turinis, but I was advised that I would possibly find myself breaking them if they took a hard hit. I therefore decided 2118's would be the better option, and after a few weeks not finding any for sale second hand at a reasonable price, I had a moment of weakness and....

I would have preferred them in silver but the 15's are only available in white or gold, and I wasn't going to have them resprayed - this is a CHEAP rally car remember...! My logic was that the wheels would still be worth good money if I bailed out of the project early anyway. A set of Michelin Pilot Sport 3's later and we're back on the road.

Brakes were next on the agenda, discs were replaced all around with some normal pads in the back, and on recommendation from a friend some DS2500 pads in the front. I also changed the hoses for a set of KTR braided ones all round. I was somewhat unimpressed by the DS2500's at first, they didn't seem to grab like I thought they might and didn't seem any different to any other set of quality pads during 'normal' driving, it was only the first time I got the opportunity to repeatedly step on them hard I accepted they are worth the extra cost.

I then turned my attention to the suspension, I had decided that I wanted some more ride height to deal with the rough stuff but wasn't going to shell out on some mega expensive suspension. A lot of the usual coilover kits (Bilstein etc.) for the Clio 2RS actually give you a ride height drop even at their maximum extent, so I was limited to standard damper options to begin with. A quick and dirty solution seemed to be to get something from another Clio, so £30 later I had a set of big boy springs from a 1.5 DCi, they are shown below next to a standard sport spring.

After compressing the springs into the struts with my basic spring compressors (which felt like arming a bomb), I had some ride height.

A quick job with the string kit got everything back in alignment as far as possible for a job done in the street (I have very understanding neighbors).

Rather unsurprisingly the new springs did have a significant impact on the feel of the car, certainly the ability to absorb big bumps was improved, but it spoiled the feel of the handling, which is such an important fact of the Clio experience. Most noticeably the car car felt unsettled during compressions in bends, I suspected that because it was tracked up at a neutral position, but with the wishbones now sitting far from horizontal, when the suspension compressed it effectively just gave it super bump steer. I considered camber bolts to try and correct the problem I had created, but decided to leave it for the time being and see if I could get used to it (spoiler alert - I couldn't).

I wanted to give more of an update in this one, but I've run out of time for now. Thanks for reading!

 

[massiveCoRbyn]

Following with interest! I'd really like to have a go at a targa at some point. Have a few friends that do them and they look a lot of fun.