if this is in the wrong section please feel free to move.
bought my Clio 172 ph2 3 years ago for £400, cam belt had snapped. never even done an oil change before never mind putting an engine in a car! 3 years later, with a years break to work on my house, I've done my first ever track day at Oultan with open track days in the Clio I've "built" i'll say loosely
£1650 into this build so far having done everything myself including fighting the french electrical gremlins that were lurking I've probably spent more then it would have cost to buy a working 172 but I've learnt so much.
the track day was awesome. i was the only one in the safety briefing who was on their first track day! it was fully booked out so was busy and the organiser made plenty of digs at Clio drivers. he seems to hate them with a passion lol.
plenty of clios about including turbo'd 197's and some race cars, mclaren , porsche.
unfortunately i had to end the day sooner then i would have hoped as my alternator died at some point in the day and my battery completely died at 15:00 and i had to drive the car home. bump started the clio but it was in limp mode, couldn't accelerate at all, fortunately my friend who came in an mr2 who's cars exhaust decided to break in 2 at 11:30 so couldn't drive on the track anymore let me swap batteries with him to get home.
I was definitely the slowest car out there, I didn't sign up for tuition which i regret but will definitely be signing up for tuition next track day which i'm hoping will be late august and having reviewed my action camera footage i can see how i can definitely have more speed coming out of corners. turning in too soon for most corners. My friend came also as a driver who has driven at oultan a few times, i seemed to have scared him out of the car as a passenger though with me because of my late braking lol but the clio seemed to have some really good stopping power so i thought it could definitely handle the harsh braking. i didn't get any brake fade but i never did more then 6-7 laps per run.
i only had 2 gripe's with the car :
The back end seemed very squirrely, no idea if the right word. it was so shaky at the back which knocked my confidence keeping my speed up for fast gradual corners. it only seemed to be like that at speed though. it was either one of 2 things i think.
1 - the car was unbalanced as i was braking just before accelerating slightly, back end moving on acceleration.
2 - a few days before the track i had a wheel alignment done and was told the offside rear wheel was 3 degrees out. i've no idea if this would affect the rear as bad as it was?
the tyres were very squeely. mainly down to me accelerating when the wheels weren't straight but they also squeeled under a slight turn with slight acceleration. obviously struggling to get traction.
I've just ordered 2 new rear discs so this should eliminate the rear camber issue hopefully but no idea if this will resolve the back end problem? is this known for the 172's?
what tyres do you guys recommend for track/road use, mainly track and not too expensive. i have the 182 8 spoke alloys, 16"
bought my Clio 172 ph2 3 years ago for £400, cam belt had snapped. never even done an oil change before never mind putting an engine in a car! 3 years later, with a years break to work on my house, I've done my first ever track day at Oultan with open track days in the Clio I've "built" i'll say loosely
£1650 into this build so far having done everything myself including fighting the french electrical gremlins that were lurking I've probably spent more then it would have cost to buy a working 172 but I've learnt so much.
the track day was awesome. i was the only one in the safety briefing who was on their first track day! it was fully booked out so was busy and the organiser made plenty of digs at Clio drivers. he seems to hate them with a passion lol.
plenty of clios about including turbo'd 197's and some race cars, mclaren , porsche.
unfortunately i had to end the day sooner then i would have hoped as my alternator died at some point in the day and my battery completely died at 15:00 and i had to drive the car home. bump started the clio but it was in limp mode, couldn't accelerate at all, fortunately my friend who came in an mr2 who's cars exhaust decided to break in 2 at 11:30 so couldn't drive on the track anymore let me swap batteries with him to get home.
I was definitely the slowest car out there, I didn't sign up for tuition which i regret but will definitely be signing up for tuition next track day which i'm hoping will be late august and having reviewed my action camera footage i can see how i can definitely have more speed coming out of corners. turning in too soon for most corners. My friend came also as a driver who has driven at oultan a few times, i seemed to have scared him out of the car as a passenger though with me because of my late braking lol but the clio seemed to have some really good stopping power so i thought it could definitely handle the harsh braking. i didn't get any brake fade but i never did more then 6-7 laps per run.
i only had 2 gripe's with the car :
The back end seemed very squirrely, no idea if the right word. it was so shaky at the back which knocked my confidence keeping my speed up for fast gradual corners. it only seemed to be like that at speed though. it was either one of 2 things i think.
1 - the car was unbalanced as i was braking just before accelerating slightly, back end moving on acceleration.
2 - a few days before the track i had a wheel alignment done and was told the offside rear wheel was 3 degrees out. i've no idea if this would affect the rear as bad as it was?
the tyres were very squeely. mainly down to me accelerating when the wheels weren't straight but they also squeeled under a slight turn with slight acceleration. obviously struggling to get traction.
I've just ordered 2 new rear discs so this should eliminate the rear camber issue hopefully but no idea if this will resolve the back end problem? is this known for the 172's?
what tyres do you guys recommend for track/road use, mainly track and not too expensive. i have the 182 8 spoke alloys, 16"
