My LB Clio 172 turbo

[iw_laurence]

Hello,

Just signed up to be a paid member and just become the owner of a Clio 172 turbo, pretty decent spec and main focus will be fast road/ track use.
This is the spec i have found put up by a previous owner:
Clio 172 low boost turbo

T28 / T25 Hybrid Turbo Charger
Forge dv
Turbo Oil Feed pipe
Turbo Oil Drain Pipe
Turbo Exhaust Manifold
Turbo Exhaust Downpipe Kit
Turbo Intercooler kit with Black Alloy Pipes / silicone hoses
K&N Air Filter with AEM FIC ECU and Custom file for OEM ECU
Larger Fuel Injectors
High Volume Fuel Pump
Alloy Turbo Heatshield
Ktec solid engine mounts with uprated gearbox dogbone mount
Aircon delete kit
Carbon cannister deleted
Cambelt, depasher pulley and aux belt was done at same time as turbo conversion. Conversion was done at 68k.
Had new power steering pump and water pump as well.
Ktec coilovers
Ktec 2.5" bore exhaust system
Drilled and grooved disc's on front with mintex pads all round
Polybushed anti roll bar bushes

Corbeau bucket seats
Sparco 4 point harness's
Omp deep dish steering wheel
Flocked dash with boost gauages custom made in centre consol
Suede gear gaitor
Cup spoiler painted in vw united grey along with roof
Rear wiper delete with gloss black blanking plate
Gloss black scuttle panel
Gloss black fuse cover and battery cover in engine bay
All bumper trims/grills gloss black
Cm composites splitter
Slightly tinted front headlights, properly done out of the gun(tinted 2k lacquer) no rattle can paint on this car at all!
Custom side bullet trims

Running 232 bhp and 237 torque with print out,

Plans are to look at suspension and geo set ups then just use it really, need to find out the best plugs/oil that are reccomended for these, i have emailed Engine dynamics but no response as of yet.

 

[Martin.]

Looks very smart and bet it goes lovely.

Looks like an Engine Dynamics turbo kit?

 

[mossyv6]

Nice

 

[Jimbob 2705]

Looks awesome, always fancied a silver one as they look really smart on dark wheels

Made even better by the fact it's Turbo'd!

 

[iw_laurence]

Yes its an Engine Dynamics kit, I drove a clioturbo 182 before this and the engine dynamics kit seems to blow this one out of the water, might just have been the car but te power delivery is lovely

 

[jamesycc]

Nice car. Love the splitter..:smiley:

 

[JKING3008]

Lovely! Looks great:tongueout:

 

[Jekyll]

Looks great!!

Saw this on FB and commented too!

 

[Mr Plums]

Yes its an Engine Dynamics kit, I drove a clioturbo 182 before this and the engine dynamics kit seems to blow this one out of the water, might just have been the car but te power delivery is lovely

Thats weird because clioturbo use proper garrett units and adapteonic ecu's, unless it was the new style module low boost version that efi use.

 

[cs_dave]

^ was thinking the same lol ED has become the shepard

Car looks mint mate very smart

Really starting to love silver clios

 

[iw_laurence]

Thats weird because clioturbo use proper garrett units and adapteonic ecu's, unless it was the new style module low boost version that efi use.

Like i said may have been the car, the CT was over 100k miliage.

 

[ParisPeach]

Nothing wrong with high mileage as long as they are looked after, BTW the attachment has an easter egg.

 

[Mr Plums]

Nothing wrong with high mileage as long as they are looked after, BTW the attachment has an easter egg.

Lol, just noticed the titties at the bottom of the attachment.

 

[Jekyll]

Haha, busted!!

 

[iw_laurence]

Was on the original post too but was edited out. I messaged the previous owner and let him know so it's all cool lol.

Bought some track wheels today. Just need to put a set of slicks on them.

 

[Callum Jack]

I recognise this car! just saw it Jamie_FYD's channel and the car is absolutely mint, definitely one of my favourites

 

[Mr Plums]

I recognise this car! just saw it Jamie_FYD's channel and the car is absolutely mint, definitely one of my favourites

http://www.cliosport.net/threads/clio-172-turbo-review.800137/

 

[Callum Jack]

http://www.cliosport.net/threads/clio-172-turbo-review.800137/

Thanks mate didnt see that!

 

[Mr Plums]

Thanks mate didnt see that!

No worries mate, i didnt realise it was this car until today

 

[iw_laurence]

Small update:

Trackday went well, didn't get a huge amount of track time due to weather etc but was a good shakedown of what the car could do. The one thing that was apparent was the need for a LSD. Mid-corner in cold damp conditions I was constantly battling with one wheel spinning and where there is very little lag trying to modulate the throttle to reduce the wheels spinning was proving difficult.

I ditched the ktec coilovers for a brand new set of cup shocks and grams springs and they feel alot better on the road. They are still stiff but if feels like the dampers are doing something now as before they were a bit crashy. And I have bought a heel and toe accelertor pedal I need to fit soon.

I am taking the car to EFI Parts this coming Thursday to get the map tweaked and a few bits added; and then the next few weeks I will remove the gearbox and fit a M-factory Diff an get the gearbox inspected and replace what it needs. I want to buy a cage at the same time as this so when the box comes back it is ready to go. Unsure of what cage I want yet but I'm thinking a full cage through dash is my best bet. As the cost is not a huge amount more for a full cage.
I also am going to get a PMS shifter and a flat steering wheel to replace the dished omp as I feel a flatter wheel will be more comfortable.

 

[iw_laurence]

Went to EFI yesterday. Chris was awesome, car was running 215bhp to start with as Chris said the fuelling had been tweaked after 5.5k to drop all of the power off. He did a bit of fettling and it is up to 232bhp with decent power all the way to redline. Not that it needs any more power but it feels alot smoother.

I have purchased a safety devices full cage (dash dodger) and will be fitting in the next coming weeks hopefully. Just need to get some footplates welded to the car.

And I also ditched the seat runners as they were pretty bodged together! Will be glad when the cage is in and I can get the harnesses mounted more safely!

 

[iw_laurence]

Cage is here

Going to try and get it all in this saturday weather permitting.

 

[Stay Puft]

Love the splitter, car must go well too!

 

[imprezaworks]

 

[iw_laurence]

So I have been busy with the clio over the last month.
Just after purchasing the roll cage I put a wanted post for an LSD gearbox, this was my last effort sourcing one before sending my own box away to be refurbished and a quaife/m-factory diff fitted. I managed to get hold of a freshly rebuilt phase 1 gearbox with a quaife lsd fitted, also managed to purchase a rear anti roll bar, as new clutch and some dynamat sound insulation.

The roll cage is pretty much complete now, I had to make some base plates up and had a good friend weld them in for me. We managed to retain the rear doorcards and not hack too much of the interior to pieces as I didn't want to strip it completely.
I have dynamatted the rear wheel well and rear of vehicle. It has done really well to dull the exhaust noise in the cabin, I am tempted to get some extra panels to do the inside of the boot itself.

Gave the car a wash today and it has surprised me how well it comes up. The wheels will need a refurb soon and either get them painted in the same colour or paint them silver. LSD has transformed the car and feels so much nicer not to be spinning one wheel all the time, its wet weather performance has surprised me as wet weather with the open diff and the turbo was pointless with the wheels spinning all the time.

Some photos i have remembered to take along the way...

Next stop is the black forest in Germany, Switzerland and Austria. Cannot wait!!!

 

[182_steve]

Looks very smart indeed in those last photos, beadage

Great car with an even better spec, must be so much fun to drive!

 

[iw_laurence]

T

Looks very smart indeed in those last photos, beadage

Great car with an even better spec, must be so much fun to drive!

Thanks mate, just needs a nice set of suspension then I think it's all done

 

[182_steve]

Sounds good, BUT... these cars are never done are they! 😂

 

[iw_laurence]

So, I have just come back from a 2000 mile round trip in the clio; it was epic!
Thought i would do a little write up on it for all those who are interested.
I have done a similar roadtrip to this about three years ago in my old golf tdi, I travelled down to monaco and did a bit of alps driving but not a huge amount. From coming back I started looking at different driving roads and different locations. The route and hotels were left vague as I didn't know how hard the driving would be. But I did book the first night in Baden Baden - Germany.

Day 1:
I live on the Isle of Wight so had two stretches of water to cover. We (Me and the G.F) left home at around half 7, and jumped on the 8am ferry to Portsmouth. From there it was a quick blat up the A3 then M25-M20 to the tunnel, this was effortless as we decided to do this on a Sunday, we then made the 11am Eurotunnel and started to make our way to Baden-Baden in Germany. I had decided to take a route through Belgium and Luxembourg as the previous trip the French tolls sapped a lot of cash. The weather was a bit grey but fortunately we escaped any rain and got to the hotel for 8pm. I did a little stretch on the autobahn but to be honest the clio wasn't a huge fan as it has a comfortable cruise speed of around 75mph. Didn't take many photos along this route as it was pretty uneventful.

Day 2:
This is where the driving roads begin for me, I had chosen Baden-Baden as a good stopping point as the road that leads directly south from it (B500) is a great fast paced road that winds through the black forest. These roads really suprised me as they are so fluid to drive, the traffic was not overly busy either which was nice. And some amazing scenery!

After we had driven the B500 we were headed down into Switzerland, we wanted to only drive the local roads as you need a Vignette to travel on Swiss and Austrian moterways and unfortunately you can only buy an annual pass, so hardly seemed worth it. At border control I wanted to check with one of the police officers that we could travel on the local roads without a vignette; this resulted in us having the car inspected for drug smuggling haha!
The two guys doing the search were really nice and we were on our way after around 40mins; they found it peculiar why my glovebox was full but I couldnt open it (stupid cage, i meant to trim the glovebox before I went but ran out of time).

I had a chance to have a quick look underneath to check everything was in order too as I have a slight weep from a power steering hose and was worried it would get worse, but all looked good.

We carried on into Switzerland and this was the most dramatic scenery I have ever driven in. Was amazing to see the alps from this close. We poodled through the local roads until we got to our second stop for the night which was in a small town called Malters. Only downside was their church bell was bloody loud and went off every hour through the night! But i suppose that is whats called embracing the local culture.

Day 3:
We set off early as I wanted to drive a couple of passes then head up and over into Italy, the destination for today was Milan in Italy. The two passes I wanted to drive are the Gattannen pass and the Susten pass (I cocked up and ended up missing this and driving the Furka pass, still an awesome road to drive). These were the highlight of the trip for me, there was hardly any traffic and the weather was perfect with the sun coming out as we hit the roads (apart from a bit of snow at the top!). They are definitely ones to drive if you get the opportunity.

Once we got to the end of these passes it was time to start the climb toward Italy, as we climbed from this one time we were stopped by the police as they had closed the road. Not knowing what was going on I got out of the car and heard a nice engine note bouncing off the hills. It was three guys in supercars having a private blat up and down the pass, have a guess who...

It was The Grand Tour filming, I only found this out yesterday when Hammond binned the Rimac. I did have a suspicion as the number of cameras and equipment was a big budget thing. I did the standard clio drop down a gear and rag it when I went past them, I don't know why but I cannot stop myself doing this!!

We carried on driving and were faced with the thickest fog I have ever driven in, to be honest I'm pretty sure it was just a cloud; then came the rain and the poor clio didn't like this. There was so much rainfall and the clio really struggled at one point. I pulled over and let the car get a grip of itself and then proceeded onto the Swiss Italian border. No search this time!

We arrived in Milan at about 6pm and it was HOT! Dumped the clio at the hotel and went for an explore via public transport, ended up getting lost at 10pm in a sketchy suburb waiting for a train but was all good fun.

Day 4:
This was our final overnight stop before heading back to the tunnel so I picked the French town of Dijon to stay in, we decided to take the toll roads this time which saved 5 hours off the travel time. The tolls wound down in between the mountains before entering tunnel after tunnel; the longest being the Mont Blanc tunnel. The toll for this tunnel on its own was 45euros!

We then had a few hours motorway slog to Dijon. The Corbeau seats I have in the clio held up really well to the miles and the only niggle I have was that the padding on my elbow from the doorcard wasn't padded enough lol.

Day 5:
The final day started off lovely, again we avoided all tolls to keep the cost down. The old roads heading north out of Dijon are AWESOME lovely pin straight road that has crest after crest with sweeping corners thrown in, I really enjoyed this part ofthe drive. The rest was pretty dull if im honest, long slog back up to calais. The clio was faultless throughout, it started running a bit lumpy toward the end of day 5 but I have since put fresh oil and plugs and its back fighting fit ready for the next adventure.

If you have the time to do a roadtrip, do it. I booked all hotels the day before on booking.com so didn't need to know all the languages and probably used a tank and a half worth of fuel a day on average.

 

[182_steve]

That's a really good write up, enjoyed reading that :up::up: some beautiful scenery too. Can't believe the cost of those tolls though, ouch!! Apart from seeing more scenery and being on more quieter/chilled roads, can see the appeal of steering clear of these tolls that's for sure. Small world seeing the grand tour!!

 

[iw_laurence]

So much better avoiding the tolls. Unless you need to get somewhere then they are perfect for that.