The 182 Diaries

[Tom__182]

Picked up the 182 last Friday and have already got the bug, after owning a diesel Focus for 6 months its a revelation. I plan to use the Clio as my daily driver and also a little track work so will be documenting the updates along the way.

After picking up the car last Friday it got put to work on a trip to the Ring, most enjoyable road trip i've taken if you ignore France and can hopefully make it an annual trip. Didn't take a huge amount of photos but managed to find a few from the Ring photographers:

Departing Sunny GB

Spot of Lunch

In Car Ring Shots

Photographer Ring Shots

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Nurburgring Info Center

Had a bit of free time today to sort out the headlights as they are the only part letting the exterior down, still a little work to do on the right headlight but may need a harsher compound as it seems more affected than the left. I used Meguiar's paint cleaner and clay to prepare the headlights and a range of Meguiar's cutting compunds and polish applied with a rotary polisher to get some life back into the headlights. Still need to seal the headlights with some UV protection but that can be done next week:

Before

After

Only 2 problems im currently noticing with the car is the brake fade and weak engine mounts, have ordered some bits to resolve both issues and this is the first to arrive:

 

[Tom__182]

Couple more bits arrived in the post today so spent a couple of hours this afternoon fitting the new top engine mount and dog bone bush kit from Powerflex. Still need to order the gearbox engine mount but that can wait till next month, I just hope the stiffness of the new mounts doesn't kill it off before that:

Found a spanner when removing the old top engine mount, no idea how it got in there but on the plus side there's now 1 less rattle

 

[Tom__182]

May as well bring this thread back from the dead and up to date. Since the last update I have bought a cheap daily drive which means the Clio now just gets used for trackdays and pleasure drives. Fitted a pair of Brembo HC discs and DS2500 pads to sort out the stopping issues and picked up a set of Ultralite wheels from a member on here.

Had an epic weekend driving up Yorkshire in the winter months, sadly I only got 1 photo of the car:

Had my first trackday at Blyton Park which is a hugely impressive circuit for its size and more recently enjoyed a Friday off work to tear up the local track (Mallory), took a few clips from different sessions and stitched them together:



Next on the list is Anglesey at the end of the month but before that I need to replace the front tyres, discs and pads. I don't know what happened to the offside outer pad but it seemingly broke down during my last session at Mallory, separating from the pad base and damaging the disc surface in the process. Will be trying the Brembo drilled/grooved discs & Brembo pads this time around, they are cheaper but will hopefully still be suitable. I guess ill find out at the end of the emonth!