Gris Eclipse Phase 1

[Optimista]

Hi all,

Let me present you something unique, let's head back to 2008 when birth of this car started

It was rainy day in May of 2008. in Croatia and faithfull to BMW driver stereotype, E36 M3 was speeding through the town carrying too much speed and crashed 2 or 3 cars, and one of them was a parked silver phase 1.

If you think this looks bad, take a glance at the M3.. And yes, the driver tried to escape with the car in this state..

And then, the sad owner of the phase 1 got to thinking, what to do next, he just couldnt bare the fact he has lost his loved car and that was the end of that era..

Lucky for him, it was still 2008. and clio 2 was still kinda newish, and he had an splendid idea. Contact Renault and check if they have new chassis avaliable.. Few weeks later this showed up on pallet from Slovenia.

 

[Optimista]

Since this was all on forum, the members went wild when they saw this project 😂

This meant a bare chassis, brand new, and everything had to be reassembled from the old car, and the bad bits had to be bought new.

He then decided the want's to paint the car in a colour that Clio 2 never recieved, but it was a new Renault colour back then.

Gris eclipse B66.

Painting the interior

New Phase 1 front subframe

Stripping the old car

 

[Optimista]

Starting to look like something from the inside

The state of old shock

On it's wheels, kinda

 

[Optimista]

New bits from Renault

Engine in, and everything on front end was wrapped in powerflex

Ready for lick of new paint

 

[Optimista]

Shell painted, new wheels

Assembly

 

[Optimista]

Assembled finally

 

[Poopensharten]

Thats amazing, out of curiosity, what did Renault charge for the chassis back then?

 

[TC.]

Assembled finally

View attachment 1668756

View attachment 1668757
View attachment 1668758

Well that’s just f**king beautiful 😍

 

[Mr Squashie]

 

[Optimista]

AS the years went on and owners changed, the car got updates..

aluminum pulleys

in 2010. New engine

Ligthened flywheel

Pipercams BP270

And then the same owner went ahead and designed cyclops intake manifold on this car, some of you may remember this..

 

[Optimista]

State of the car in 2015.

And here you can see a clip from the setup of the car at the time.. Check out the channel, he has lots of videos of it



And that was last reply to that thread all the way to year 2020. when car was found it this state.

And bought by a mechanic.

Engine out and rebuild, i think it had spun a bearing or something like that, dont remember anymore

 

[Optimista]

Bascially he threw a lots of money in it..

New koni shocks

And the car was slowy getting to it's former glory

Diff plate..

 

[Optimista]

And the luck was going on strong with this car, it changed the owner in 2020. and returned back to Split and got a shiltload of care and money spent on it..

Ported intake, silicone hoses, new injectors, carbon bits, interior damping, and whole interior painted to refresh the old plastic and leather seats

 

[Optimista]

Thermosticker for the seats ( like you have prints on t shirts ), painted fenders, tessa intake

CS 197 Brembo on front

 

[Optimista]

I know the car for last 3 years, been in contact with previous owner from Split, and always admired this example...
And 2 months ago, he sent me a message with an offer I couldnt refuse.. I sold my phase 1, and waited for him to return from overseas

Basically he is a proper gearhead, but kinda leaning to Italy

And finally when I arrived in Split to pickup the car, this was what waited for me.

Alcantara wheel with renault sport colours stiches

And a bit of cleaning at home

 

[TC.]

Bit rude but how much did you hand over for it ?

 

[Daz...]

That’s bloody lovely.

 

[Optimista]

And write up after a while of owning it.

The colour wasnt growing on me on the pictures on forum, but in person, it's very unique colour and suits the car very well, i'm in love..
It still has the cams, and a remap. The car pulls like a train in comparation to my old oem phase 1, goes really well.

The koni shocks are amazing, powerflex is still on the car and no change in clearance even after 15 years. The light parts ( flywheel, pulleys ) are making a unbeliveable difference, the throttle is responsive like 2 stroke!

Interior feels almost like new, and the car isnt showing it's age.

So the current setup would be

• Rebuild engine 10 000 km ago
• Pipercams BP270
• Tessa larger throttle body
• Silicone hoses
• Ported intake
• Lightened flywheel and aluminum pulleys ( crank and water pump )
• Remap
• K&N filter in standard box
• Belts done
• Koni yellows with eibach sportline
• Brembo at front with brembo maxx discs
• DS 2500 pads all around
• Ultraleggeras 16" with continental contisport3
• 172 mani, sport cat, middle and rear muffler, I think 2.25" diameter
• Rear shim spacers, 10mm

I'm just in love with the car, this is what a clio sport should feel like, asking you to floor it.

And of course, no car is perfect, so i changed the bits that I could, at first

Bare in mind, the powerflex on wishbones and arb is in great condition but dog bone is shot!

Replaced with hard mount for now, I have strongflex insert laying around

Got an wheel aligment

Rear right ( for UK drivers the drivers rear ) scrubs sometimes, especially is somebody is in the rear seats.. As the car has rear shim spacers, I thought it needs a camber, but it already has 2 degree of camber.. Rear beam bushes are OEM and I hope the polyurethane bushes will solve this, before I do anything else

And a new plastic for gear selector, as old one is shot and has tons of play

Rear caliper is new but the pad is not catching the disc on all the surface, which is strange.. I lubed the sliders but the problem stays the same.. Bare in mind on this side there was a faulty caliper before and I think it maybe wore the disc or the pad in the strange way.. we'll see with the mileage if this problem still persists..

And payed a visit to my buddy, also renault sport enthusiast

And thats about it for now.. I have a lots of things in plan for it, but the important thing is , it's mine now, so I'll take it easy

Weighted the car with 1 dot above half tank of fuel

Custom plate

 

[Optimista]

Thats amazing, out of curiosity, what did Renault charge for the chassis back then?

TBH would know that

Well that’s just f**king beautiful 😍

I agree!

View attachment 1668767

LOL, it's funny cause this is the sad truth.. I cant get syncros from Renault anymore, they stopped all their production for older cars.. They went to s***s

Bit rude but how much did you hand over for it ?

It was a friendly price, 6000 euros

That’s bloody lovely.

yep!

 

[TC.]

It was a friendly price, 6000 euros

Massive bargain 😵

 

[Optimista]

Catching the sunset

 

[Optimista]

Bought Sabelt steering wheel. Although oem one is fresh and has renautl sport colors stiching, the siting position is very bad and I cant get used to it whatever I try.. Maybe if I had longer hands it would be good 😂

Also bought RS floor mats, but what I didn't know, aparrently there's a difference between PH1 and PH2 pedals, because when i press the clutch pedal fully, it catches the floor mat.. THe solution is to pull the mat as back as possible.. Just standard renault thing with PH1 and PH2 difference.. f**k me lol

Also switched the switch for passenger window as the one in the car was requering strong pull to work.. Replaced the bulb also..

Cheers

 

[Filipe Dias]

Lovely!

 

[Optimista]

Went on a drive today on a mountain top to strech it's leg from sitting in garage

 

[Optimista]

After 5 years of searching, managed to find OEM almost perfect state, blue carpets... Thought I'd never find them

New wheels bolted

Ronal 16" x 8J

Shame the brembos are hiding behing now 😂

 

[Optimista]

Haven't posted long time here..

Pre cat section cracked

16/7/2024

and it got a oil & oil filter, and fuel filter
What was worrying that after a hard uphill drive ( in hot summer day) when coming to stop, since it's idle is below 800rpm, the light for oil pressure would blink at me, very fast.. I continued driving, assuming the oil got cooked ( didnt do an oil change in my possesion, it was castrol 5w40 ) as it was over 1year old but not so many km.

Went witl elf 5w40 as I dont want to throw random oil at it, untill i know how does it behaves with oil temp and pressure ( but cant know yet as I dont have installed any gauges )
Anyways, when removing the old oil, it splashed everywhere and consistency was water like.. nice...

Since the oil change I didnt have any more case of that oil light coming up, but keep in mind I didnt have the oportunity to drive it in the same conditions.

21/9/2024

Preparing for Track Day

Since i wasnt sure about all fluids in this car, decided to replace gearbox oil, although it was replaced not so long ago. Another thing that bothered me, when driving in gear but with no load, the diff would whine, no so loud, but enough for me to notice it.
Went with Yacco oil, only I could find that's near me and only GL4( because of jc5 syncro ), and it has much higher lubrication on 100C compared to elf 75w80, plus VRX additive. All I can say, the noise was gone and shifting is great.

Stock seat out

Have zync plated nuts ( oem ) from my megane build ( need to open a thread for that ) that came in handy to throw on

Bucket seat & harness in

steel braided brake lines for the front ( it already has rear's), middle exhaust hanger and motul rbf 660 brake oil.

 

[Optimista]

Cleaned TB, replaced leaky PS sensor

Also measured oil pressure as I wasnt sure if oil pump was bad, the engine was toast or what.. But it's okay(ish), at 4000 rpm at 4.5 bar but warm idle is at around 1 bar ( when hot slightly below )

On the gas station night before with my brother

Just renault things.. I was checking for leaking oil pressure sensor, and brother snapped his abs sensor cable.
It was a full fight to complete brothers car in time, 1 week prior, wrenching long into the night and last few days went full mental.. as it goes, why would we have ready on time?

The day

So to give you some insight into this.
Every year in 9th month, INA ( very big fuel company on EX YU teritory, now under ownership of Hungary, sold from us, Croats, lots of corumption involved etc.. ) organises Ina powered Track day, where almost all petrol heads from country gather for a full day of speeding on Grobnik racetrack in Croatia. This year there were 180 participants, and luckly it's organised on Thursday, bcs if it was on Saturday, that number would be crazy bigger.

Arrived morning, lots of cars, many different cars and thats always nice to see.

I went with my "daily" setup, 16" ultra leggeras and continental conti sport contact 2, to learn the car and the track. Bear in mind I only drove on this truck once in my previous PH1, so took it easy, as the track day was from 09 - 17h.

First few laps I was going slow, cautious of many cars around me and just trying to relax. Went out to adjust tire pressure as it was way up and car was understeering, set it around 2.3 hot and went out and had a lots of fun.
The tires held up suprisingly good, I mean they arent the right tyre for this car and this kind of driving, but they are good for the street.
Best time with this tyres 1:57, early braking and lots of traffic.

 

[Optimista]

After lunch it was time to get more serious

Mounted 15" oz superleggera with nankang AR1

Talk about tight fit

Went out on the track, and boy this was the biggest difference I have ever noticed on a car, and was I glad that I first went out with road tyres.
Did some laps to heat them up and immediately noticed huge difference to steering responce ( because of stiffer sidewall ) and improved grip.
Went out, set the tyre pressure ( hot 2.4 bar all around ), and went out for lapping.
I couldnt believe what transformation this car had all because of tyres. I was really enjoying it. Lap after lap, braking later, and trying to get a better lap time. As the day went by, there were unfortunatelly few crashes and thy track was getting less crowded, so it was a good time to make good and clean laps.
At the end of the day, my best time with AR1 was 1:52, I was impressed.
Car held up great, brakes didnt show any signs of failure( brembo + ds2500 ) ( they saved me 2 times from code brown ), only thing that isnt up to task it the suspension ( koni yellow and eibach sportline ).
On the last 2 laps, was chasing with my brother when my throttle got stuck, for a second I thoguht I did something wrong, did a cooldown lap and went for the last lap full on, and then the throttle got stuck right after finish straight ( around 190 km/h) and luckly nothing happened, I managed to slow down, had brake pressure, and that was a sign, time to finish the day.. It happened few more times when driving to the box, when I "tested" it.. Dont know what happened, maybe the TB expanded? Dunno..
Regarding the oil pressure, after few hard laps, when driving through pits, the oil pressure light would blink again.. It seems like either bad fuel pump or too low idle ( the car is mapped )

All in all very fun day, lots of learning and sharing info with my friends, seeing what I can do, what my car can do. Very contagious.
Did over 50 laps, and around 230 km on the track, hands down to the car.

25/10/2024
Finally! Managed to find a set of OEM Renault F1 16" 4x100, after I gave up on searching them, friend sent me a link, price was really good.
The lips are bit bashed up, but they are straight and with all the centre caps! Have to refurb them, but happy to have them finally.

Thanks all for now, the car is sleeping for the winter,

Cheers

Ivan

 

[Tin.tin]

Hi all,

Let me present you something unique, let's head back to 2008 when birth of this car started

It was rainy day in May of 2008. in Croatia and faithfull to BMW driver stereotype, E36 M3 was speeding through the town carrying too much speed and crashed 2 or 3 cars, and one of them was a parked silver phase 1.

View attachment 1668714
View attachment 1668715
View attachment 1668716
View attachment 1668717
View attachment 1668718


If you think this looks bad, take a glance at the M3.. And yes, the driver tried to escape with the car in this state..

View attachment 1668719
View attachment 1668720


And then, the sad owner of the phase 1 got to thinking, what to do next, he just couldnt bare the fact he has lost his loved car and that was the end of that era..

Lucky for him, it was still 2008. and clio 2 was still kinda newish, and he had an splendid idea. Contact Renault and check if they have new chassis avaliable.. Few weeks later this showed up on pallet from Slovenia.

View attachment 1668721
View attachment 1668722
View attachment 1668724

The perfect bedtime story to my newborn

 

[Optimista]

Glad you liked it.
I find it kinda special, although many say it isnt' "original" sport, because the chassis doesnt have it's number from the factory ( it came un numbered, and had to be stamped at technical inspection - the numbers dont match renault numbers, but are numbers matching to Croatian type of this things), i think it's a unique and maybe more special then a regular one.

It went throught many phases, good and bad, but thankfully it didnt end it's life on that junkyard where it got saved from, and it's getting loved more than ever

 

[Filipe Dias]

Awsome !

 

[Brigsy]

Great update. The trackday sounds awesome

 

[Optimista]

Renault sport spider web?

 

[Optimista]

C/P from Croatian renault forum;

"Half the job done

Removed the front bumper, subframe, gearbox..

The arch liners were mostly screwed on with self-tapping screws 🥲. They are not the original liners, some thin plastic that I have never seen before, but bent like an OEM liner.. strange

Drained all fluids except antifreeze, the gearbox oil will be recycled because it is fresh, and the engine oil is burnt again (elf 5w40) so this year we will put something higher grade.

And the ATF smelled quite a bit, who knows how long it's been in there, although the TD takes its toll..

As for disassembly, everything went more or less ok, except for one screw on the reinforcement of the 3rd engine mount, which was obviously put in before the exhaust manifold was installed so I had to cut it.. and what wasn't done well, the exhaust from the exhaust flange to the rear beam has no connection anywhere, so it's all one piece, which is not very desirable.. but okay, we'll see what we do with it in the future..

Considering how many people have worked on this car in the past, everything is more or less ok. 2 nuts (out of 4) where they go from the subframe don't have their own, let's call them housings that prevent them from turning, so you have to hold the counter with a wrench, and we just threw 3 Renaults in the trash... if only I had known before and removed them 😅

The transmission will be inspected, to be replaced if anything needs to be replaced, as far as I've had a chance to see, the engine installation is not very good, so I'll take a look at that, and in the meantime I've washed the subframe, transmission, various brackets and the alternator.. the engine compartment is also quite dirty, now that everything is removed you can see it, so that will be the next thing..

Oh yeah, I'm not sure if it's just the crankcase or the oil seal that's leaking, but it's better to replace it when everything is already down and so on..

Track day is 18.9. For now, everything is going as it should "

mark these words.. lol

 

[Optimista]

starter housing cleaned

 

[Optimista]

It continued as it started, optimistically and bravely, one might say optimistic.. 🤣

The gearbox was taken for repair, all the seals and the bushing on the selector and 2 bearings were replaced.. the 1st and 2nd speed fork was worn out and had no plastic on the ends of the "hand".. the pictures were deleted by my phone.. tecnologia..

Since I had wanted to fix the front and rear axle (read paint), so that the chassis would be in a better and more beautiful (! ) condition than when the car left the factory, I thought that since it's already going well, when everything is down, why not take the opportunity and paint it all nicely... That's that syndrome, so while I'm doing this, I might as well do this..

I remember the picture from the topic when the front axle was bought new and how it almost shone and I was amazed at how that look was actually ruined.. I washed the entire chassis, axle and everything accompanying it on a miniwash, but it didn't it cleared as much as I expected..

The plan was as follows; prepare the frame, wishbones,ARB , driver's driveshaft (the passenger's is new), and some brackets for painting, as well as the gearbox, to make it all bling bling..

Went to buy materials, paint and parts..

The rack washed quite well

Bought new flywheel screws purely as a precaution and for peace of mind.. admittedly they are not exactly cheap..

And the brushing began..

To my pleasant surprise, everything went down, all the way to the zinc, in fact the frame was covered in dirt from many years.. It was cleaned very nicely and the pictures don't really give a true impression of how good it looks in real life, the zinc is like when a new protective fence is put up on the road.. I almost regret repainting it..

all brushed, about 1 hour on a drill and wire brush

 

[Optimista]

And I almost painted that day, but it was windy and got a call that the gearbox was ready so I got to make a trip of ccy 340km to get the gearbox (it was Monday). Everything was prepared but not painted.

Since track day was on Thursday, and nothing was painted on Tuesday, I decided that I would not paint anything now but that everything would go back in place and one day it would be taken down again and painted, because there was not enough time to paint, let it dry, put everything back in place and make wheel alighment .. So that was all put aside and the focus went to the engine.

Since everything indicated that the sump seal was leaking and not the oil seal, I was glad that I would remove the sump for 2 reasons;

1. to measure the clearance of the rod bearins with a plastigauge

2. the most important reason is that when I drained the oil, I saw a lot of glitter, not huge amounts, but you could see it if you looked with a flashlight, and my intuition immediately told me that something was wrong.. A movie started playing in my head about how my engine would screw up on track day, the worst case scenario.. But, I told myself that I was imagining it, that I didn't need to remove the sump and look at the rod bearings, especially since the engine was "freshly assembled", that something else must be at issue.. It also didn't help that the last 2 oils that were in the car (5w40) literally burned out, i.e. overcooked, and that sometimes the oil pressure light on my idle would flicker (sometimes from low idle and sometimes from really burnt oil) after very harsh driving..

I had a bit of a trauma from the last clio regarding the screws holding the sump, and I was skeptical about loosening these, but the boys were tight.. Of course the head got screwed on once, but thank God in a better place than on the last clio..

Anyways, sump down, I immediately felt the stench of that oil that had taken its toll, and the urge to remove the rod caps so I could see the bearings...

First up was the 3rd cylinder

 

[Optimista]

Well now.. my knowledge and experience with engines is quite limited, so I called the guy who built this engine and he helped me alot!

anyways, compared to my previous clio, where they looked like new at around 140k km on clock, these looked quite questionable, and then I removed the bearings from the 2nd cylinder

Upper

That's where THANK GOD my suspicion that something was not right was justified.. and that maybe the thought that the car would screw up on track day would come true.. I was really happy that I caught this "in time" and that nothing happened.. The crankshaft is good, there are no scratches or damage under the nail, so only the bearings.. now the only question is how and why.. I suspect that "regular" oil is not realistically for this type of engine and method of use, maybe something was there before me, who knows..

The guys advised me to remove the crank caps too, but for tightenim them at that moment, I didn't have the torque wrench for the degrees that I needed, so I didn't even touch them. It was Tuesday and I immediately had my cell phone, a calculator, and the shop catalog in my hands. Mahle bearings were in stock, and Glyco, which I was aiming for, was only for the next day. I didn't want to rush this, but do it properly, I ordered Glyco and the plan was to go to the garage on Wednesday morning when they arrived and assemble the car so that it could be driven on Thursday. However, they didn't arrive on Wednesday morning and that was just confirmation for me that something like this shouldn't be done on the spur of the moment and the decision was made that i wont be driving track day with the Clio, and I was glad about that, because I wanted to do everything in peace and slowly, as I usually like.. sometimes even too slowly 😅

Btw if anyone can explain to me why bearings like Mahle, Kolbenschmidt, etc. cost 10-15 euros, and Glyco costs 58 euros? Does more expensive mean better?

I spent the track day in the company of friends, helped a little, advised a little, rode a lot as a passenger. I never thought it would be so good experience.. I dare to say Iit was better than last year when I was driving.. lol

Anyways, the car has been in this condition ever since and is waiting for its turn.. I got all the tools needed and all sorts of things, just to wait for its turn..

Maybe I'll take the opportunity to fix something else while the car is already in the air... there's no help for me 😂