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Nicks 172 Cup From The Start!



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Well thought it was about time that I actually got on with doing a project thread! So here we go. Bought the Cup in July last year completely standard on 73,000 miles with full Renault service history from new.

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Had it less than a week started hearing the whiring noise coming from the engine bay. Got the RAC out and the guy diagnosed it as a gearbox problem. Took it back to the garage where I bought it from to tell them to get it sorted. After they weren't willing to cooporate Trading Standards were called and amazingly the car went to a gearbox specialists to be sorted. £900 later for them I had a freshly rebuilt gearbox with new internal with a new clutch!

So with me I have a real problem with changing my mind and what I want to do, so coming from a completely stripped out one seat Mk1 Clio I wanted something more refined/comfy. So for the time being I had broken my cup splitter:mad: and it looked really bare without one so I purchased a Seat Leon Cupra splitter. Also fitted a set of Apex 40mm springs to sort the 4x4 stance and painted my front and rear diamonds as well as the bullets... Got some carbon fibre door pillars also with some new Cup badges for the side to tidy it up a little as the old badges were falling off!

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Up to this point really was just getting on with little niggles that the Cup had. As I was approching 80,000 miles the bushes and mounts had seen better days... So went out an spent an absolute mint on refreshing pretty much every mount, will put a list as its easier!

Ktec Racing group-N mounts
Powerflex dogbone mount/Arb bushes and lower arm bushes
New lower arms and balljoints
New track rods arms and ends
New top mounts.

Shortly after that I went for a bit more performance, managed to pick up a Yozzasport sports system for my car off Flan off here. Lovely bloke who even fitted it for me! Hadn't really looked into the Yozzasport before, so went up there not knowing what I was in for, lets just say I had a grin on my face the whole way home. :) The noise was perfect, i'm not a tart that gets headache from loud exhausts and it was the perfect note for me! Went to JMS for a map and that made a really bit difference, seemed to pull much harder throughout the rev range.

The next port of call for me was a getting a refurb on the wheels, had them done in anthracite as I wanted something different from what I had before. Tyres that came with the car were getting low, so I got a set of 4 Goodyear eagle F1's for the wheels whilst I was there. Reverted back to standard bullets and badges as it complemented the car better. Ditched the Leon Splitter for a 307 Splitter as it was abit more subtle and looked much better...

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Next thing to come was a V6 airbox, after going to Surrey Rolling Road and meeting a few new people, I looked at MarkCups car and decided that because his car perfomed well on the rollers with similar modifications to mine plus the V6 airbox it was time for me to get something else performance wise. Went to Renault and ordered new for the ease, that day ordered the ITG element for it also. Managed to get some 105mm ducting for it straight from the airbox to the front upper grill, and then go for a drive to see how it was. Was reasonably impressed with it, much smoother through the higher rev range and also pulled harder from lower revs. Also purchased front and rear OMP strut braces, in my mind the rear made a big difference, much less roll and stopped it c**king a wheel as easy!

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Whilst looking around the underside of the car, could tell something straight away wasn't right. Both rear shocks were leaking and one of the front was starting to do the same! So next for me was some Vmaxx coilovers, had been looking at them quite a lot just as they had just come out but wasn't sure about them as they were the cheapest coilover kit on the market and probably that way for a reason. Then Fred on here posted his views stating that they were a very capable coilover and for the money was amazing! So you know what happened next :)

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What a difference they made! Gave me so much more confidence driving than before, actually felt planted for the first time and I was loving it! Then an early morning Guildford to Brighton run was arranged on here, so I thought i'll come along and put the car through it paces. With all the bushes/suspension/steering components replaced it was an absolute joy to drive and the car loved it (other than a little bit of brake fade)!

There was a couple of things that still weren't quite right... The seats weren't supporting me at all, so trying to stay in the seat whilst driving spiritedly was turning into a chore as well as disrupting me from enjoying the car. The steering wheel had seen better days also so I went ahead and bought myself a set of Cobra Daytonas off Icarus, and Sparco 'ring' steering wheel for mini-valver. This was probably the best £400 I had spent on the car, it just gave it that sporty and more purposeful look and feel not to mention giving me much more confidence behind the wheel! Also purchased some Luke blue 3 point harness' but havent got any pictures of them in...

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Then left any major things for the time being as I had spent quite a bit of money and needed to calm down a bit. The front disks and pads needed changing, so I got a set of Brembo HC's and standard ferodo pads for it. But me being me got some new Dot 4 brake fluid and Goodrich braided hoses for the front and rears. This made a huge difference, firm pedal and made it a lot harder to get brake fade. Also did an inbetween service, so new oil and filter and changed the gearbox oil as it had been rebuilt just over a year ago, so needed to check there wasn't a pool of metal filings!

A couple of months later it was time for a little more power! Matched inlets had been the in thing to get so went back to JMS for a set of there inlets. My cup being an early had a shocking set of inlets on it, comparing the normal with the matched, you could tell that there was some gains to be had! Whilst I was there I got new set of genuine Renault spark plugs and some magnecore KV85 leads seeing as the inlets were off the car. The inlets made a really big difference on the car, it pulled now really hard from around 3000 rpm with the the limiter! Probably the best bang for buck modification you can get for the RS.

The Yozzasport unfortunately had given up, the bracket on the centre section had cracked and fallen off and the baffles had gone. So was in need of an exhaust and quick! Went to Longlife where they made me an exhaust up next day. Had a few problems at first, but they were resolved and now very happy with the exhaust I have! I relocated the battery to the boot so I could play with my induction setup, as on the rolling road the guys said that my car was overfueling slightly. I now have an open cone induction kit with a homemade heatshield that I made for less than a £100 all in, so hopefully the engine can take in as much air as it wants and hopefully part sort out the air/fuel ratio. Painted bits of the engine bay also to make it look a bit better as it looked a bit neglected.

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Now on just gone 95,000 miles, At this present time now I had the rear interior out and it looked a bit messy so i'm in the process on painting the rear satin black to neaten it up a little bit. Also sold the turinis as I was getting bored of them, atm i'm running some Renault 19 16v wheels until I find a set I like. Will get some pictures tomorrow of the whole car and some interior shots.

Nick
 
Well here it stands atm, need to go over parts that are a bit dull, but all in all looks much better than it did! Just need to start shopping around for cages within the next couple of months.

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And a funny one whilst we were masking up, didn't even realise we had done it til we had almost finished painting yesterday!

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  Petrol Blue 182.
£100 and the P's and you have a deal? ;) lol only need em for a month atm mate as I dont really want to drive on the p's anymore in the wet lol
 

Matt_90

ClioSport Club Member
  Sprint/climb 106 gti
Utterly jealous! Hope you do show at the meet next week i want to see this :approve:
 
  133, 182, Kangoo 182
Every time I see this round Ladymead it looks better :)

Never actually thought of masking out the back to spray the inside.. Might have to give that a go! How many cans did you use? Just colour spray or did you primer/lacquer too?
 
Can't tell your off work at all Nick :rasp:

Cars looking great, didnt realise you could take photos as well as drink black sambuca 'til your eyes bulge ... i've been keeping my eyes out for some seats for you actually!!

Go here: http://www.saxperience.com/forum/showthread.php?t=260949

2 x Cobra Imolas including mounts. £200.

Lol, well you know i've gotta do something whilst im off and I get bored easy with cars! Most of the pictures weren't taken by me, got a couple of mates handy with a camera!
Well I must admit on the black sambuca front that you guys are a bunch of lightweights :)

Do need some fixed back buckets in my life.

Cheers all for the lovely comments btw :)

Nick
 
  Mini JCW
A VERY smart 172 cup you have there mate, loving the anthracite look, shame you got rid of them - keep the updates coming!

I would strip my cup out but I have to get it past the OH yet:dapprove:, i'll get a progress thread up when I cba lol
 
What are the v-maxx coilovers like now its stripped out, Mines got the same sort of mods as yours, but got koins on. JMS last week said my inlets was like yours s**t ;).
 

@rt

  Veccy 1.9 cdti
Great progress mate, Looks as a cup should!

Ps. Oh how I love the turinis,lol, they're all spaced now, just waiting on the cyclone blue center cap diamonds and they'll be sorted :)
 
Some updates finally! Been slacking putting it all on here but quite a bit has changed since I posted last time... Finished off painting the rear, sorted all the loom out and put it into copex to make it look much neater.

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Also purchased some new fixed bucket seats, Autosytle BS1's which were incredibly cheap and hold you far better than the Cobra Daytonas! At £240 for a pair including delivery, and being less than half the weight of the Daytonas with subframes on you cant really do much better without spending loads of ££££!

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After selling the Turinis I was on the look for some lightweight wheels. I wanted a brand new set of wheels but couldn't justify spending silly amounts and wasn't happy with some of the cheaper options, so when some decent second hand Oz Ultraleggeras came up here I snapped at the chance! Weighting just over 6kg per alloy in 16" I was pretty pleased and don't look too bad either!

Also got rid of the plate surrounds and trimmed down the front plate to match the recess, looks far better than it did and makes the car look less cluttered with things. Here's a few pictures I grabbed earlier after some 'fun' roads around the shere area...

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So the Cups pretty much done now, not really much else I want to do with it tbh. Just waiting on a Whiteline rear arb and some JMS brake ducts, and then spend the rest of the money on tracking the thing!
 
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  TrackCar & F30 330d
Looks really nice, I've just read the whole thread.

Did you spray the interour with spary cans? how many did you use if you did?
 
  CLIO PH1 172
really nice looking motor think this is what i want to do to mine? do u ever miss having the rear seats? is this ur daily car ?

sorry for gay question btw ;)
 
  Golf GTD Mk7
you'll only miss them if you use them. Road noise increases though.

Nice work Nick. Nice progress.
 
Looks really nice, I've just read the whole thread.

Did you spray the interour with spary cans? how many did you use if you did?

Yeah just spray cans matey! Gave the interior a quick rinse with a damp cloth, keyed it up with some 1200 grit them primer and paint! Think I used 2 large halfords primer and 4 large satin black cans.

Nice write up mate. When is the arb going to be fitted?

Still waiting for it mate, been a while now... :rolleyes:

really nice looking motor think this is what i want to do to mine? do u ever miss having the rear seats? is this ur daily car ?

sorry for gay question btw ;)

No worries! Never missed the rear seats and its a 3 minute walk to work with a company van to drive during work time so the cups just a fun toy really ;) It is really loud but its all good!

Good work Nick..

Where did you get the front plate from???

As Tim said, just marked out an 11mm border around the top and bottom of the plate and trimmed it, not a very good job as I didnt cut it very straight but still looks alright. Still retains the BS number and postcode within the rules and regs. :)
 
So got the Whiteline ARB about a couple of weeks ago, but finding a time to get it fitted and with it getting dark so quickly and rubbish weather was making it hard. Got it on yesterday, took about an hour and a half as I was on here asking questions about all sorts of things like adjusting the droplinks and setting it on soft so that I can get used to it.

Heres a picture of it on, looks sweet :)

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Also gave it a quick clean, was hanging as i've been 'enjoying' my car ;)
Before...

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After

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Sorry for the rubbish clean pictures, was only on some small digicam and im no good at adjusting settings. :eek:

Nick
 
  BG V6 IL V6 172cup
Nick, Great write up. Seats looking cool last staines meet. Interesting to hear how the ARB changes the feel of the car. Roll on the spring for some track days :cool:
 
Nick, Great write up. Seats looking cool last staines meet. Interesting to hear how the ARB changes the feel of the car. Roll on the spring for some track days :cool:

Cheers buddy! So far with the ARB I haven't seen a major difference but I haven't really put the car through it paces due to the weather. I had a few corners that I turned in to and the turn in itself felt almost instant in comparison to a slight delay, so I guess hopefully when I push the car slightly harder that there will be a bigger difference. At the moment its only on the soft setting so once i've got 100% used to it, ill re-adjust a play again! :)

Cant wait for next year, the cars going to see a lot of the track!
 
So a small update, car turned over 97,000 miles last month so it went to JMS for the Aux belt, oil and oil filter to keep the service history up... Was getting a bit fed up of the current bucket seats as they were getting a bit much to drive around in all the time, so I here from a friend that he is selling a set of carbon bucket seats so went to have a look... Some money later they were bought and now in the car! :)

Suede with carbon backs, there Porsche GT3 replica seats. They hold you better than the previous Autostyle seats, are slightly lighter and much comfier and for the money paid for them I couldnt really turn them down... I know they wont be to everyones taste being a replica seat, but seeing as they tick all the boxes above they are an improvement on what I had! Plus the carbon is quite addictive!

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