This is is how the car itself is at the moment, after the mrs decided to give it a quick clean as it was dirty from being transported back (bonnet is off so she could clean in the bay as well).
Spec of it as Ive bought it is (i'll get some pics of the various bits in a few months when we start work on it as Ive got the blue clio, the red corsa and my mid engined nova all to do some work on before I get round to starting this project):
Suspension:
Gaz front coilovers and Gaz adjustable rear shocks (still retains torsion bar)
172 bottom arms to give greatly increased track (not just more than the standard valver but even more than the williams)
AST top mounts
Brakes:
Comb Brake pedal box with remote bias adjustment, im not particuarly happy with how this is fitted though in terms of how the pedals sit and im not convinced the adjuster is working correctly and there seems to be excess play in the brake pedal, so will remove inspect and refit but at least its fundamentally there and other than a couple of brake lines that need redoing (one looks like it will chaiffe at one point and one I'd like to reroute slghtly) its all a relatively tidy instalation.
172 front calipers
Engine:
No
Transmission:
No
Interior:
172 dash more or less fitted, just needs a bit of tidying up and things like a set of dials adding and a heater putting back into it
Rollcage
Some ridiculously over engineered seat mounts that appear to have been nicked from the forth bridge in an attempt to pay homage to the late Fred Dibnah.
Manual winder windows
Manual winder sunroof (currently minus the actual winder)
Some basic hardboard or similar door cards in black which look nice and tidy
Ive got old some corbaeu seats for it but I cant remember the name of them, not fitted these yet though
Exterior:
"Liquid gold" yellow paintjob, in reasonable condition, few stone chips and a couple of other marks, but more than tidy enough for its intended purpose as a trackday hack
Carbon bonnet, few marks on it and the resin has gone cloudy in places as is typical of this sort of thing, the car has now become effectionately known as "cloudy" for this reason, I guess that will kind of work on two levels if it does end up as a Clio powered by an Audi engine as is the current plan of attack engine wise, lol
Target will only be around 250-300bhp.
Im not interested in doing a big power build as I dont want to end up in a situation where the straightline speed is high enough that I start needing to move away from 15" wheels in order to fit big enough brakes to stop the thing for corners, partly because 15" tyres are cheaply available and partly just in terms of controlling the unspring weight and also because I like how mk1 clios drive on 15" wheels.
I dont like the clio gearboxes, and Im not a fan of the rod ratio in the engine either, not to mention that they arent really suited for revving due to the lack of solid lifters, so have decided to go for a honda vtec engine and box for this project.
This should lend itself well to the 8500rpm or so that I am looking for, and the power output that I want.
So I bought a Civic Vti to rip apart, I had put my back out recently at the time I wanted to get the donor apart (tax/mot running out and didnt want to renew them) so the lads from Michael Woodford Motorsport stepped in and yanked it apart with me barely having to lift a finger one evening in exchange for me buying the 3 of them dinner :top: So big thanks to Charles/Mike/Jack for that.
Blatant plug: www.michaelwoodfordmotorsport.com
Couple of pictures:
Then it was time to get the engine back to my workshop and try it onto a clio subframe for size, so I bought a spare one as I figure its useful to have one still in the car to be able to take reference point measurements from in situ to give me a hint of what bodywork I will need to chop about, and then one to work on mounting the engine onto.
From an initial trial, it does look like the engine and box is fundamentally going to fit in the hole, so hopefully the project is indeed possible.
One thing that happened which I didnt expect is that the exhaust manifold actually looks like it may fit inside the subframe, and it might be possible to therefore get the engine and box in and running in N/A form initially rather than having to do all the custom work to fit the turbo straight away.
If I can do this what I will do is make a 2.5" exhaust system up to fit the car, then join that to the standard honda N/A manifold for now, and then at a later date I'll have the exhaust in place ready and can get the exhaust downpipe and manifold etc made up later on with nothing other than the bit joining the exhuast to the standard manifold wasted.
That also means I can leave the standard (ie no spending required) clutch in place too, as it wont take the turbo power but will be fine on a standard engine initially.
So if I do it that way, there shouldnt be a lot of expense to just get it in and running (off the top of my head about 600 for driveshafts, 400 on exhaust parts, few hundred quid on engine mounts and oil etc, 400 ish for an inlet maniold, so probably only around 2K or so which seems a small investment to get a chance to test out the dynamics of the car before I start throwing money on a turbo and custom manifold etc), and then once I know the car fundamentally works, I can just whip the engine out and do all the turbo conversion bits to it, and if I think it doesnt work well enough, I'll put it in a mini instead and put a williams engine back in the clio and accept its just slow, lol
These pictures havent really worked, but basically this is it offered up to the subframe, at this stage the orientation of them isnt in its final position, effectively the frame needs to tip back a little, which will bring the front end of it up as the driveshaft to the subframe height is already in the correct position, so I need to rotate it about that point which means the front will come up slightly so I think my initial thoughts about the sump and the subframe clashing are going to be correct, but by a lot less than I had thought, and more importantly, not on the track control arm mounting points like I had feared, so hopefully I can just remake the subframe if there is an issue and leave the engine alone.
The inlet manifold is going to foul on the bulkhead as thats right back as far as the back of the frame but at the height it sits there isnt clearance in the bay at that point, but thats not an issue as I am planning on replacing that anyway with an eidelbrook one anyway which has much shorter runners so the plenum will sit further forward and hopefully wont need any metal taking out of the car at all, or at least a lot less than the standard intake would require.
This one is showing the width of the engine relative to the subframe, I took a look at where the centre line sits on Jason's integra type R which was over at our workshop too and I've based the positioning on that so its in roughly the same position, if anything Ive nudge it very slightly to the drivers side, but only by literally half an inch.
The bottom pulley actually has 3 belt sections on it, alternator is the furthest one in (lucky for me!) and then its the aircon and then power steering, I wont be using the aircon or power steering pumps though so the outer two belts can go, which means that the widest part of the engine will only sit about an inch to the right of the centreline of the subframe mounting points front and rear, and when I went and looked in the engine bay of the clio there is nothing in the way at all there which will need removing, so engine wise it looks ok for fitting.
With regards to the box, it looks like its going to clear the subframe just fine, but where it goes under the chassis rail i think I'll need to chop that rail out and remake it slightly further up, but that looks relatively straightforward to do.
Apologies for the crap light on the pictures, normally the light in the workshop is awesome but we've just taken all 64 foot of flourescant tube down to put different roof inslutation material up (was just reclaimed polystyrene before but we got a good deal on some thick loft insulation, buy one get 3 free! so are redoing it with that) and so its just got a lead light pointing at it at the moment.
Spec of it as Ive bought it is (i'll get some pics of the various bits in a few months when we start work on it as Ive got the blue clio, the red corsa and my mid engined nova all to do some work on before I get round to starting this project):
Suspension:
Gaz front coilovers and Gaz adjustable rear shocks (still retains torsion bar)
172 bottom arms to give greatly increased track (not just more than the standard valver but even more than the williams)
AST top mounts
Brakes:
Comb Brake pedal box with remote bias adjustment, im not particuarly happy with how this is fitted though in terms of how the pedals sit and im not convinced the adjuster is working correctly and there seems to be excess play in the brake pedal, so will remove inspect and refit but at least its fundamentally there and other than a couple of brake lines that need redoing (one looks like it will chaiffe at one point and one I'd like to reroute slghtly) its all a relatively tidy instalation.
172 front calipers
Engine:
No
Transmission:
No
Interior:
172 dash more or less fitted, just needs a bit of tidying up and things like a set of dials adding and a heater putting back into it
Rollcage
Some ridiculously over engineered seat mounts that appear to have been nicked from the forth bridge in an attempt to pay homage to the late Fred Dibnah.
Manual winder windows
Manual winder sunroof (currently minus the actual winder)
Some basic hardboard or similar door cards in black which look nice and tidy
Ive got old some corbaeu seats for it but I cant remember the name of them, not fitted these yet though
Exterior:
"Liquid gold" yellow paintjob, in reasonable condition, few stone chips and a couple of other marks, but more than tidy enough for its intended purpose as a trackday hack
Carbon bonnet, few marks on it and the resin has gone cloudy in places as is typical of this sort of thing, the car has now become effectionately known as "cloudy" for this reason, I guess that will kind of work on two levels if it does end up as a Clio powered by an Audi engine as is the current plan of attack engine wise, lol
Target will only be around 250-300bhp.
Im not interested in doing a big power build as I dont want to end up in a situation where the straightline speed is high enough that I start needing to move away from 15" wheels in order to fit big enough brakes to stop the thing for corners, partly because 15" tyres are cheaply available and partly just in terms of controlling the unspring weight and also because I like how mk1 clios drive on 15" wheels.
I dont like the clio gearboxes, and Im not a fan of the rod ratio in the engine either, not to mention that they arent really suited for revving due to the lack of solid lifters, so have decided to go for a honda vtec engine and box for this project.
This should lend itself well to the 8500rpm or so that I am looking for, and the power output that I want.
So I bought a Civic Vti to rip apart, I had put my back out recently at the time I wanted to get the donor apart (tax/mot running out and didnt want to renew them) so the lads from Michael Woodford Motorsport stepped in and yanked it apart with me barely having to lift a finger one evening in exchange for me buying the 3 of them dinner :top: So big thanks to Charles/Mike/Jack for that.
Blatant plug: www.michaelwoodfordmotorsport.com
Couple of pictures:
Then it was time to get the engine back to my workshop and try it onto a clio subframe for size, so I bought a spare one as I figure its useful to have one still in the car to be able to take reference point measurements from in situ to give me a hint of what bodywork I will need to chop about, and then one to work on mounting the engine onto.
From an initial trial, it does look like the engine and box is fundamentally going to fit in the hole, so hopefully the project is indeed possible.
One thing that happened which I didnt expect is that the exhaust manifold actually looks like it may fit inside the subframe, and it might be possible to therefore get the engine and box in and running in N/A form initially rather than having to do all the custom work to fit the turbo straight away.
If I can do this what I will do is make a 2.5" exhaust system up to fit the car, then join that to the standard honda N/A manifold for now, and then at a later date I'll have the exhaust in place ready and can get the exhaust downpipe and manifold etc made up later on with nothing other than the bit joining the exhuast to the standard manifold wasted.
That also means I can leave the standard (ie no spending required) clutch in place too, as it wont take the turbo power but will be fine on a standard engine initially.
So if I do it that way, there shouldnt be a lot of expense to just get it in and running (off the top of my head about 600 for driveshafts, 400 on exhaust parts, few hundred quid on engine mounts and oil etc, 400 ish for an inlet maniold, so probably only around 2K or so which seems a small investment to get a chance to test out the dynamics of the car before I start throwing money on a turbo and custom manifold etc), and then once I know the car fundamentally works, I can just whip the engine out and do all the turbo conversion bits to it, and if I think it doesnt work well enough, I'll put it in a mini instead and put a williams engine back in the clio and accept its just slow, lol
These pictures havent really worked, but basically this is it offered up to the subframe, at this stage the orientation of them isnt in its final position, effectively the frame needs to tip back a little, which will bring the front end of it up as the driveshaft to the subframe height is already in the correct position, so I need to rotate it about that point which means the front will come up slightly so I think my initial thoughts about the sump and the subframe clashing are going to be correct, but by a lot less than I had thought, and more importantly, not on the track control arm mounting points like I had feared, so hopefully I can just remake the subframe if there is an issue and leave the engine alone.
The inlet manifold is going to foul on the bulkhead as thats right back as far as the back of the frame but at the height it sits there isnt clearance in the bay at that point, but thats not an issue as I am planning on replacing that anyway with an eidelbrook one anyway which has much shorter runners so the plenum will sit further forward and hopefully wont need any metal taking out of the car at all, or at least a lot less than the standard intake would require.
This one is showing the width of the engine relative to the subframe, I took a look at where the centre line sits on Jason's integra type R which was over at our workshop too and I've based the positioning on that so its in roughly the same position, if anything Ive nudge it very slightly to the drivers side, but only by literally half an inch.
The bottom pulley actually has 3 belt sections on it, alternator is the furthest one in (lucky for me!) and then its the aircon and then power steering, I wont be using the aircon or power steering pumps though so the outer two belts can go, which means that the widest part of the engine will only sit about an inch to the right of the centreline of the subframe mounting points front and rear, and when I went and looked in the engine bay of the clio there is nothing in the way at all there which will need removing, so engine wise it looks ok for fitting.
With regards to the box, it looks like its going to clear the subframe just fine, but where it goes under the chassis rail i think I'll need to chop that rail out and remake it slightly further up, but that looks relatively straightforward to do.
Apologies for the crap light on the pictures, normally the light in the workshop is awesome but we've just taken all 64 foot of flourescant tube down to put different roof inslutation material up (was just reclaimed polystyrene before but we got a good deal on some thick loft insulation, buy one get 3 free! so are redoing it with that) and so its just got a lead light pointing at it at the moment.
vtec clio something i have always wanted to do (to a ph2 though) 
