MarkCup
ClioSport Club Member
The First Week…
Well, the Cup finally arrived last Friday, but true to form I had to wait at work, in the freezing cold until 6:30pm before the delivery driver finally showed up (it was meant to arrive in the morning…but then it was meant to have arrived during the second week of September originally…the New-Car-Discount.com experience…what a joy eh?). The handover went smoothly, and everything I was expecting, missing splitter/wonky Cup badges etc. was all present and correct…what a relief.
It had 300 miles on it when delivered having been driven from Stockport down to the south coast, and by the end of the (very late) night I was 50 miles from it being fully run in. I managed to resist the temptation to rag the hell out of it and to be honest, there was no need. The light weight meant that even though it’s not over endowed with torque, it’s in gear pull was way better, at any revs, that I was used to with my V6 Mondeo.
Commuting into work has never been so much fun as it has this last week (now that it’s run in nicely)…I’ve been leaving 30 mins earlier in the morning so I can double back on myself on a stretch of the A27 which is several half mile lengths of dual carriageway and roundabouts. On several occasions I’ve found myself laughing out loud (is that normal for Cup owners?) at how much speed I can carry round corners. The top end between 5-7k rpm is to die for, and the noise is superb! I’ve been a biker for many years and I never thought you could get a “four wheeled bike”, but this thing is the closest I’ve ever come to it.
What I love most is how it responds to the tiniest things…the throttle response is amazing, the lift-off oversteer is so gradual and predictable that I lapped one particular roundabout 3 or 4 times on my way in one morning…lift-off, wind off some lock, balance on the throttle, repeat ad infinitum. The turn in is sharp as hell, and I can place it where I want it in a way that just wasn’t possible in my Dagenham barge.
Fuel consumption…is this thing on a f***ing diet or what? Driving gently in the Mondeo I’d get 320 miles at best from a 60 litre tank…if the trip computer is to be believed I’m heading for 380 miles from it’s 50 litre tank. *mental note to self…must try harder, must try harder!*
I’ve got a few squeaks and rattles already, but thanks to this site and all of you I was prepared for and expecting that as part of the ownership experience so I’m really not that fussed about it…if I was after a creak free interior I’d have bought an A3 or something, and spent the rest of my mortal life wishing I hadn’t.
I spent Wednesday afternoon on the phone to R-Sport and this morning my replacement ECU turned up…Jonathon at R-Sport recommended getting at least 1,000 miles on the clock before fitting it so for now, I’ve locked it away in the safe at work for another week. I can’t wait to get it fitted though…I’ve a real problem catching it before it hits the limiter when going for it…I’m just so not used to everything happening as quickly as it does that I’m banging off it before I know what’s happening. Apart from that I’m only planning on a panel filter and nothing else. I think they look superb just the way they are and want to keep it as original as possible.
So that’s about it, one week, 500 miles, and aching cheeks from smiling so much…does it get any better than this?!
Mark
