Newbie after a 172/182 as track/sprint car

[steve_barrow]

Morning folks,

I've been a member here for a lot of years now but only over the past few days been coming back on here. I'm wanting to buy a car that I can use for some trackdays, maybe some local sprints and the occasional weekend blast. I want it to be cheap to buy (approx £2-3k budget), fairly cheap to run, as reliable as hell and reasonably quick and planted - haha is this even possibly, firstly?! Obviously the answer to this may be somewhat biased, but my thoughts are currently lying with a clio 172/182 as the ideal car to meet all these, would that be agreed with or are there others that could do the job better for the money?

So if going with a Clio - what would a simple setup consist of to be a decent little motor for this use please? Finally, is anyone selling something currently that would be a good starting point? It would be nice to get something that was at least already partially done and ready to go

Thanks

 

[coverman]

Remember that trackday tyres and brakepads might not be suitable for the roadgoing classes in sprints and hillclimbs;List 1A tyres and cold grab brakepads being de rigeur for these events.If competing for the first time, just prepare the car to pass scrutineering without initially tuning the engine or suspension: there is much to learn about the driving aspect without needing those extra horsepower for the first few events.

 

[steve_barrow]

Yeah fair enough that’s certainly something to think about. I don’t know a huge amount about the sprinting/hill climbing side of it yet so need to do a lot of reading anyway in regards to classes and guidelines to allowed mods. I was assuming R888’s would be allowed in most road going classes for sprint but I guess maybe not. I have done some sprinting before but it was all in Evo's through the MLRs Sprit Series, which has its own set of guidelines.


So just for a starting point for a decent track car then that should be sprintable; stripped, buckets, lowered on springs with decent geometry and maybe some uprated pads and fluid? Reliability wise and running costs, is the Clio a decent option then?

 

[Pauleds]

Don't forget to budget for a fireproof helmet, racesuit and gloves too if going the msa sprint and hillclimb route

Clios do tick the boxes
Personally and probably biased I would go for a 172 cup, decent suspension (I used koni dampers and eibach springs) , rear anti roll bar (whiteline), decent pads (yellowstuff work well for me), fresh brake fluid, good tyres, Dished steering wheel, bucket seat and harness

Some msa sprints and hillclimbs in road going classes have to use list 1a tyres. Some places allow 1b tyres.
The road going classes generally mean the car has to remain complete, ie full interior including the radio etc and other rules like no solid topmounts.
Stripped out etc means your into modified production which means ideally a cage (I ran without one as car was still roadgoing - taxed, mot and insured) but definitely a hans device and helmet now. Tyres are free in that class but basically a slightly tweaked clio will be outclassed.

 

[AlanWak]

What PaulEDS says regarding keeping the car standard - as soon as you remove the interior you're facing significant costs to be competitive in class in Sprints and Hillclimbs. You won't hit your budget and you'll probably have reliability issues as well. Bear in mind that even the roadgoing classes can allow the likes of throttle bodies and other significant mods. I'd recommend starting in the standard classes.

I'm mainly competing on Autosolos this year in my 172, currently leading the BTRDA, Welsh, South West and Cotswold Autosolo Championships. Consider doing Autosolos rather than Sprints, they're far better value. For example, I did a Sprint at Hullavington this year. For £110 (including £20 to charity) I had two slow convoy runs, two practice runs and four timed runs. That's a large number of runs for a Sprint. The timed runs were around 90 seconds each, the course was the same each time. The Bath MC Autosolo at Kemble last Sunday was £35 entry fee. For that I had twelve runs at four different courses with 60 to 85 seconds per test. You also don't have the long delays between runs - drivers are split in to three groups, one drives a test three times, another marshals the test, the third rests/prepares for their runs. Far better value in my book. OK speeds aren't as great as a Sprint, but you're turning all the time on an Autosolo, on some Sprints I'm just driving a straight line waiting to hit the turn.

If you want low cost on MSA events then keep it standard-ish.

 

[eon172]

The previous posts pretty much cover it. I started in sprinting last year and wanted to stay in road going (class a2 with list 1a tyres, class a4 with list 1b tyres), I could then mix it up if I wanted a bit of competition depending on the entrants as some of those in a4 were in Morgan's and were just too damn quick for me to be in the medals or for me to be competitive to keep it interesting :wink:. Great fun though.
I'm also think autosolos this year to build up experience across disciplines, maybe the odd race next year depending on financial situation.

Keep it simple and cheap and get in there and try it, then decide if you want to spend more later on the things you identify as limiting your capability.

 

[AlanWak]

I don't know where you are but I've just heard of the Bristol Clio Cup run by Bristol Motor Club. This will be a championship for next year for standard Clios with interiors, comprising of Sprints and Autosolos. Another reason to keep any potential Clio standard. Bristol Motor Club have been running a very successful chmpionship for MX5s for the last two years so I expect this will be similar.

 

[Digger90]

I'm selling this one but needs to go by next weekend as if not I'm spending big money on it.

£2,150. Car is currently in Swadlincote, Derbyshire.

http://www.cliosport.net/threads/track-monaco-172.791833/#post-11073284