e92 + E46 M3 + Cup
Stone Automotives PH1 172 Mile Eater - 127,000 currently!!!
Well as most of you know I sold the ever so freshly restored mint PH1 172 just before Christmas as I was driving to the French Alps and didn't fancy loosing it on the drive there! Mountain climbs + Snow/Ice - Clio fail likely!
So she was sold :dapprove:
And replaced with another PH1 172 but with almost double the miles under its belt, Providing there looked after the F4R really is solid little unit! So the car in question which was purchased from a fellow CS member -
Granted it was in very good condition body work & interior wise for the age/miles but the engine was in need of some love, Nothing terminal after investigation but would require cambelt/rocker cover re-seal so all parts were ordered from Renault SMC to get it back up to fighting form, Couple of "its in bits" pictures -
Rocker cover re-sealed & new genuine Renault Cambelt kit fitted along with the rest of the full 72k/ 5 year major service, the plan was just to get every thing done so that it could be a reliable daily driver!
Race logic traction control completely removed
So a few weeks of commuting it didn't miss a beat so I took the leap of faith and decided to book it in for the 1,500 mile round trip to the Alps!
Looking filthy even with silver hiding the worst of it -
Transformed into the Clio Van for the road trip!
After the other half had packed "her stuff" :dapprove:
Set-off mileage
Getting ready to board the train, fooking cold!
Set route on the Iphone Tomtom app
So along this journey the Clio ran faultlessly for hours just sitting between 80-110 (kph obviously
) untill about mid way through I hear a thud, car seems to be driving okay but on coming cars are flashing me, so pull into the lay by to be greeted by the bonnet on the second latch! thats a feel sick moment as if it had failed she would have been a write off! so clip it back down give it a good pull by hand and all seems fine so I do what any man does & blames the misses "you must of caught the handle without knowing" etc etc so on we go and 20 minutes later the same happens.. at this point i'm half way through the journey so I pull over and assemble a make shift bodge which cure's the problem for the rest of journey but was still in the back of my mind it could "go"Apart from the bonnet it ran faultless for hours on end & climbed the last half a mile of the mountain in reverse
Far from ideal snow tyres & going with out chains was a big fail on my half, 10 mph if that when climbing the mountain!
So all parked up in the under ground I enjoyed 2 weeks of snowboarding with the family, couple of days of good weather but mostly flat light with all the snow
2 weeks up it was time to leave but I had left the interior light :dapprove: flllllaaaaaattttt
The Clio was the smallest car in the car park lol - Hero/mega fail points earned here
The conditions on the departure morning, no chains + no snow tyres = slow drive down - shall invest next time!
Drove home fine & finally found a new formed friendship/trust with the high miler! the salted lower half of the mountain drive was skechy but so much fun!
So a few weeks past by and the wheels were looking worse and worse so I decide to give them some much needed TLC, few rattle cans of Matt black + Oz stickers I got to work one afternoon
Shiny new wheel bolts I found in the shed!
Finished item
After the bonnet I fitted some aero's plus they look boss
New Stickers complete
Suede giving up on life but still such an epic steering wheel compared too the standard PH1
One bored Sunday morning I decided to give the car a decent detail & get some pictures
Treated the car to new ball joints & track rod ends up front given the miles the standard stuff had covered! Spent the next few weeks just really enjoying the car until one evening last week I follow a Mercedes jeep and as he passes along a brick is spotted underneath his motor, less than two car lengths I clip the dam thing with no where to turn.. I hear/feel the bang and can see what looks like is something leaking from behind, switch off & coast, fortunately into a petrol station less than 50 meters from the death spot
Mike from Michael Woodford Motorsport came to the recovery rescue, Who needs the AA
Fortunatly I got it switched off before any real oil loss occured, once at the petrol station it dripped a good 3-4 litres of oil on the forecourt
Once towed back I decided to spend the evening changine the sump, Nothing like a 3am finish!
A spare Mike had, Spent some time in the part washer
So now really just enjoying it again till the summer returns where it can come off the road and hopefully some fun can begin! the current specification details
http://www.stone-automotive.com/index.php/development-cars/current-phase-1-172
Hope it was an enjoyable read, comments welcome
James
