Hostler's 172 ph1 track/weekend toy

[hostler]

To protect the B14 coilovers I got some nice covers, sadly only the red ones were still in stock but you can't see them anyway so its all good. I'll remove them in about a month time to check if they don't trap any moisture but since i don't really drive the car in bad weather anyway it shouldn't be too big of a concern.

I had also noticed that my brake pedal felt a bit softer than it should and after bleeding every caliper it turned out that there was a TINY bit of air in the right rear caliper. Pedal feels perfect now.

Because the current alignment has been done pretty poorly I'll have the car aligned again this coming monday. It's a shame that most alignment places only understand to bring values back to 0 and don't take into account the camber and toe required for a good setup... Also got some new Eibach camber bolts that hopefully allow me to go a bit further than my current H&R ones. They'll also be installed monday.

 

[hostler]

Alright so I got another alignment which was slightly better. I tried the Eibach bolts to possibly get more camber out of my setup but it didn't do anything for me. So I'm getting some BC racing top mounts that allow for camber/caster adjustment from KAM. If that doesn't give me at least 2 degrees of negative camber I'll just have to resort to making a slot in the B14 front dampers. I just don't prefer to do that in case I ever want to sell them.

I had a really fun day at the Dutch track Assen today. I finally got to really test out the car (and myself). It's been about 3 years since I had last driven on track so it was a bit of a learning curve to find the ideal line and braking zones but I got the hang of it again after a little while.
The car did really good and never missed a beat. It did understeer more than I would like and was used to but I'll be able to get rid of most of it using the BC racing top mounts.
To further improve handling I'm also considering getting these as theres quite a bit of bump steer and those wishbones sit at a really shitty angle:

CLIO 2 FRONT GEOMETRY CORRECTION KIT | PRO-AM Racing

Designed to adjust and correct both the front Roll Centre Height, and Bump Steer geometry on all lowered Clio mk2 RS models.

www.proamracing.co.uk

Oh, and I've also ordered the PMS shifter kit through KAM so that should be fun too.

 

[hostler]

Not much to update at the moment. Life is kinda taking over so I haven't really had a whole lot of free time to spend on the Clio. Did get some parts in and gave it a bit of a clean.

 

[scullyg40]

Will there be a trackday this year?

 

[hostler]

Will there be a trackday this year?

Hell yes. I’ve been to Assen a few weeks ago and planning to go the 3rd of august again. Might go to Zandvoort somewhere in July as well.

 

[scullyg40]

Hell yes. I’ve been to Assen a few weeks ago and planning to go the 3rd of august again. Might go to Zandvoort somewhere in July as well.

Go to Zandvoort the 30th of June, I'll be there. 😝 But I will be at Assen the 3rd of August as well. 😉

 

[hostler]

BC Racing topmounts in and also fitted the PMS shifter. Shifts are so nice but my god this rattle.... Did pack everything full of grease but it didnt help. I know of another method which is putting some tension on the shifter shaft with either a spring or something elastic. If that doesn't work ill probably replace the bearing like a few others on here also have done.

Cant really upload a second pic as this forum seems to have some issues but you already know what those topmounts look like. Sadly I couldnt achieve the alignment specs I was after so next step is probably to fit a 172 subframe and potentially switch to BC racing coilovers too.

 

[hostler]

I couldn't deal with the rattle the PMS shifter gave me. I opted to just renew the entire shifter assembly for new parts from Renault along with some other parts. I'll try to put in all the part numbers in case anyone ever needs it.

The shifter assembly without knob or reverse mechanism 341040289R

Replaced the new stock bushings with brass ones from someone on the forum.

https://cliosport.net/threads/brass-gear-shifter-bushes.838380

(not my pic)


The other new bits:
pivot bush thingy 7700872205 (with circlip 8200328305)

Dust boot as mine ripped 7700718856

New metal sleeve 7705010093

New gear lever selector 7700875584 (note that this is an updated version where you no longer need a small ruber piece that goes over the part where the above sleeve sits)

So fitting all of this was kind of a pain. Obviously I couldn't get the ph1 gear knob off as its pressed on but I had to remove the reverse selector mechanism from the shaft.
So off it goes...

Managed to transfer everything over and after some adjusting it all fit very well. This only leaves me without a gear knob. I might be able to drill the ph1 knob out or I'll have to find a replacement. At least my shifter is now rattle free. Al though it does hurt to shift now so I'm not sure if thats an improvement

Shifts extremely nice and tight. No play at all. My old one was all over the place (before the PMS shifter) so I'm very happy.