R8, Clio172, 172cup
I've been lurking around on here for a bit but not had time to start a post on my project!
So here it all is in one go up to date and starts with a bit of history...
I've always wanted to do a bit of racing, but wanted to be sure I could
a) give it the required attention and time
b) do it "properly" and not on a tight tight budget
c) learn about the mods to the car as I progressed
d) get into a "tame" race series and give it a decent go.
I am lucky enough to have an RS6 (C5) saloon (V8tt 550PS), and took that on a brief track session at Castle Combe last year
- made me want to do more, but not in a 2.5 tonne barge!! - even if it did make a damn good noise and handle the bendy bits way better than I had expected. (With tyres at £350+ each, I wasnt really keen on scrubbing them out!)
So, last year I started tracking my pretty mint 172 daily(cup springs etc but full fat aircon and leather), and took on an instructor from day one to get going as effectively as possible. It was completely standard first run out, pilot tyres, standard brakes, everything.
My local track is Brands, so MSV have had a decent investment from me over the past year!
Here's a few pics from my first session.
The car handled really well considering its standard-ness. The gearbox was nice and tight, brakes worked (they did get a bit smoky by the end of the session, but it drove home fine!) and it all just went really well, though you could feel the engine jumping about a lot, especially at the end of the start-finish heading into Paddock, making gearchange... interesting!
So, the mods started.
The engine jumped about like a pogo-ing punk, so I fitted the KTec upper mounts, powerflex dogbone bush, and changed all the tired old rubber for powerflex - ARB, wishbones etc.
Good old fleabay provided a nearly new Ktec Stealth - so on that went - What a lovely noise!!
And Ktec also provided braided lines, Brembo disks and DS2500 pads - I left the rears, as they really dont do a lot and mine still worked ok.
Back to the track.. this time sporting a matt black and flourescent detail wrap to advertise our company colours a bit and please the accountants.. :clown:
The mods certainly helped and it made everything just that bit tighter, so I could concentrate on lines and brake points rather than "where's the f***ing gears?!"
A few more sessions later and I discovered that a wet Brands in a Clio is fantastic, the porsches, Elises and BMW drivers generally tip-toe around the track in the wet, but the little clio (still on road rubber!) would muller them in the bends - so I learned some new lines round clearways - superb!
Nest step for me was to do my ARDS (race licence) - Track time was great, but I wanted more - and my instructor was very positive on what I should be able to achieve - he recorded my laptime at 1:01 in my (almost) standard clio and suggested that I looked at the Team Trophy and that he'd happily be my co-driver if I wanted!
ARDS was fun - the instructor who did the driver assessment seemed to be happy by Druids that I was ok, then gave me a load of grief for not driving the RCZ like I stole it!! he was great and sat with me for a few more laps to show me some of his tips (instructors vary and their approach to each corner does too - not massively usually, but always worth a second opinion)
So - there I was with a shiny new licence, but a standard car... It really was too good to strip in my opinion, and, besidesm surely cheaper to buy something that someone else has paid out for....
After a short bit of searching, I found what looked ideal:
Clio Cup 172 - 48k miles, caged, race seats, 4 point harnesses, AVO coilies, stripped, cams, remap, two sets wheels, HiSpec brakes, race battery relocated, and loads of other bits, but the clincher was it also had a Quaife LSD fitted.. All the original work was carried out by Mark Fish and it had been a track car from nearly new with ongoing mods by the last owner.
The deal was done, the plan was to sell off my old clio and "upgrade" to this, but the sale fell through and I still have my old clio as a works runabout (minus most of the upgrades!)
I picked the new one up from Devon and had an absolute hoot driving it back to Sussex!
Next to my old one it looked tiny!
On the scales it was 1001Kg, with cage, and still had the radio (!!) and front carpets etc. so more weight could be lost for sure.
The diff made a huge difference, though the gear linkage wasnt as positive as my old clio, it was certainly quicker. With amateur recording (a stopwatch) it was a second quicker to 60 and 2 seconds quicker 30-60.
Anyway, a few more mods were added to get it race ready (oil change, electric cutoff, solid top mounts, plumbed in fire extinguisher, 5 point harnesses and sticky set of A048 rubber) and off I went to Snetterton to try it out and pop my racing cherry..
The car was great! I did a full session on the Friday testing, with no real problems other than the sodding gearchange - sometimes it just wouldnt go into gear!, then the race proper on the Saturday. It was eventful as Motors TV happened to be filming the whole thing and decided to focus on me and another newbiw driver, and the start involved a three car prang at the end of the first corner! but the car was superb overall and I posted a best time of 2:27 for many of my laps - nice and consistent. (My co-driver, instructor did 2:25) Still needed to fix the gear linkage / box and make some improvements to the suspension but I was chuffed.
It seemed a little tail happy under trail braking, and tramped a bit on hard lefts, but overall worked. (And I brought it home complete too! :approve
I made the decision then that I would skip the next two races and make the November Brands one my target. It should give me time to make some changes, set the car up and do some more track time on the target circuit too.
I got the car home and had a good look over it, and found the front left strut was jammed! This could explain the tramping on track! Also, the rear dampers were tired and a bit leaky, so I invested in a set of Spax RSx on recommendation from namakubi on here and after chatting to the very helpful lads at Ktec.
These were duly fitted, with camber bolts and I sourced a short-shifter kit for the gear linkage to see if that helped the gears (though was suspecting a gearbox rebuild was on the cards really..) A quick pop to BubbleandKick racing got the setup sorted and it was corner weighted too - all spot on.
So, time to try the beasty out again and an opportunity arose last week at Brands where a bunch of mates were going in various cars including namakubi in his throttle-bodied stripped track car.
The car was good, though I found it wasnt behaving as I liked on right handers (suspected tyre pressures and damper settings were perhaps at fault) but it was an enjoyable session overall..
Everything was fine, until the last session, when I was in front of a mate in his Seat Ibiza, giving it about 80-90% thinking about the settings changes I wanted to make, when, on braking for the approach to Druids for what was supposed to be the last time..
MY BRAKES FAILED!
There I was, at 80+ mph, stamping on the brake pedal like a nutter, pumping it, trying to get a lower gear, anything I could to slow, but nothing seemed to happen... apart from a brief moment of "this is going to hurt, its jut how much!" and BAM! the tyre wall and gravel stopped me.
I can vouch for harnesses, they did a superb job, as did the cage - I saw the screen pop and realised that I had hit the wall at around 60mph (poss more). The front left wheel had the wheel arch liner embedded between the tyre and rim!
Amazingly, no fluid loss, and the car still steered and ran. I was towed back to the pits in the "tow of shame" with a sore neck!
Oddly, the brakes now worked to a degree, but the car was a mess:
It was also showing a crease to the roof. write off for sure.
Amazingly, the plastic wings and bumper seem to have bounced back into shape, as underneath, the chassis leg is bent like a banana, the subframe is twisted and the seam of the shell has popped open! It does still drive though!
I've resolved to re-shell it as the quickest and easiest way to get back on track, and have had some success in locating possible shells or donor cars - so watch this space!
So here it all is in one go up to date and starts with a bit of history...
I've always wanted to do a bit of racing, but wanted to be sure I could
a) give it the required attention and time
b) do it "properly" and not on a tight tight budget
c) learn about the mods to the car as I progressed
d) get into a "tame" race series and give it a decent go.
I am lucky enough to have an RS6 (C5) saloon (V8tt 550PS), and took that on a brief track session at Castle Combe last year
- made me want to do more, but not in a 2.5 tonne barge!! - even if it did make a damn good noise and handle the bendy bits way better than I had expected. (With tyres at £350+ each, I wasnt really keen on scrubbing them out!)So, last year I started tracking my pretty mint 172 daily(cup springs etc but full fat aircon and leather), and took on an instructor from day one to get going as effectively as possible. It was completely standard first run out, pilot tyres, standard brakes, everything.
My local track is Brands, so MSV have had a decent investment from me over the past year!
Here's a few pics from my first session.
The car handled really well considering its standard-ness. The gearbox was nice and tight, brakes worked (they did get a bit smoky by the end of the session, but it drove home fine!) and it all just went really well, though you could feel the engine jumping about a lot, especially at the end of the start-finish heading into Paddock, making gearchange... interesting!
So, the mods started.
The engine jumped about like a pogo-ing punk, so I fitted the KTec upper mounts, powerflex dogbone bush, and changed all the tired old rubber for powerflex - ARB, wishbones etc.
Good old fleabay provided a nearly new Ktec Stealth - so on that went - What a lovely noise!!
And Ktec also provided braided lines, Brembo disks and DS2500 pads - I left the rears, as they really dont do a lot and mine still worked ok.
Back to the track.. this time sporting a matt black and flourescent detail wrap to advertise our company colours a bit and please the accountants.. :clown:
The mods certainly helped and it made everything just that bit tighter, so I could concentrate on lines and brake points rather than "where's the f***ing gears?!"
A few more sessions later and I discovered that a wet Brands in a Clio is fantastic, the porsches, Elises and BMW drivers generally tip-toe around the track in the wet, but the little clio (still on road rubber!) would muller them in the bends - so I learned some new lines round clearways - superb!
Nest step for me was to do my ARDS (race licence) - Track time was great, but I wanted more - and my instructor was very positive on what I should be able to achieve - he recorded my laptime at 1:01 in my (almost) standard clio and suggested that I looked at the Team Trophy and that he'd happily be my co-driver if I wanted!
ARDS was fun - the instructor who did the driver assessment seemed to be happy by Druids that I was ok, then gave me a load of grief for not driving the RCZ like I stole it!!
he was great and sat with me for a few more laps to show me some of his tips (instructors vary and their approach to each corner does too - not massively usually, but always worth a second opinion)So - there I was with a shiny new licence, but a standard car... It really was too good to strip in my opinion, and, besidesm surely cheaper to buy something that someone else has paid out for....
After a short bit of searching, I found what looked ideal:
Clio Cup 172 - 48k miles, caged, race seats, 4 point harnesses, AVO coilies, stripped, cams, remap, two sets wheels, HiSpec brakes, race battery relocated, and loads of other bits, but the clincher was it also had a Quaife LSD fitted.. All the original work was carried out by Mark Fish and it had been a track car from nearly new with ongoing mods by the last owner.
The deal was done, the plan was to sell off my old clio and "upgrade" to this, but the sale fell through and I still have my old clio as a works runabout (minus most of the upgrades!)
I picked the new one up from Devon and had an absolute hoot driving it back to Sussex!
Next to my old one it looked tiny!
On the scales it was 1001Kg, with cage, and still had the radio (!!) and front carpets etc. so more weight could be lost for sure.
The diff made a huge difference, though the gear linkage wasnt as positive as my old clio, it was certainly quicker. With amateur recording (a stopwatch) it was a second quicker to 60 and 2 seconds quicker 30-60.
Anyway, a few more mods were added to get it race ready (oil change, electric cutoff, solid top mounts, plumbed in fire extinguisher, 5 point harnesses and sticky set of A048 rubber) and off I went to Snetterton to try it out and pop my racing cherry..
The car was great! I did a full session on the Friday testing, with no real problems other than the sodding gearchange - sometimes it just wouldnt go into gear!, then the race proper on the Saturday. It was eventful as Motors TV happened to be filming the whole thing and decided to focus on me and another newbiw driver, and the start involved a three car prang at the end of the first corner! but the car was superb overall and I posted a best time of 2:27 for many of my laps - nice and consistent. (My co-driver, instructor did 2:25) Still needed to fix the gear linkage / box and make some improvements to the suspension but I was chuffed.
It seemed a little tail happy under trail braking, and tramped a bit on hard lefts, but overall worked. (And I brought it home complete too! :approve
I made the decision then that I would skip the next two races and make the November Brands one my target. It should give me time to make some changes, set the car up and do some more track time on the target circuit too.
I got the car home and had a good look over it, and found the front left strut was jammed! This could explain the tramping on track! Also, the rear dampers were tired and a bit leaky, so I invested in a set of Spax RSx on recommendation from namakubi on here and after chatting to the very helpful lads at Ktec.
These were duly fitted, with camber bolts and I sourced a short-shifter kit for the gear linkage to see if that helped the gears (though was suspecting a gearbox rebuild was on the cards really..) A quick pop to BubbleandKick racing got the setup sorted and it was corner weighted too - all spot on.
So, time to try the beasty out again and an opportunity arose last week at Brands where a bunch of mates were going in various cars including namakubi in his throttle-bodied stripped track car.
The car was good, though I found it wasnt behaving as I liked on right handers (suspected tyre pressures and damper settings were perhaps at fault) but it was an enjoyable session overall..
Everything was fine, until the last session, when I was in front of a mate in his Seat Ibiza, giving it about 80-90% thinking about the settings changes I wanted to make, when, on braking for the approach to Druids for what was supposed to be the last time..
MY BRAKES FAILED!
There I was, at 80+ mph, stamping on the brake pedal like a nutter, pumping it, trying to get a lower gear, anything I could to slow, but nothing seemed to happen... apart from a brief moment of "this is going to hurt, its jut how much!" and BAM! the tyre wall and gravel stopped me.
I can vouch for harnesses, they did a superb job, as did the cage - I saw the screen pop and realised that I had hit the wall at around 60mph (poss more). The front left wheel had the wheel arch liner embedded between the tyre and rim!
Amazingly, no fluid loss, and the car still steered and ran. I was towed back to the pits in the "tow of shame" with a sore neck!
Oddly, the brakes now worked to a degree, but the car was a mess:
It was also showing a crease to the roof. write off for sure.
Amazingly, the plastic wings and bumper seem to have bounced back into shape, as underneath, the chassis leg is bent like a banana, the subframe is twisted and the seam of the shell has popped open! It does still drive though!
I've resolved to re-shell it as the quickest and easiest way to get back on track, and have had some success in locating possible shells or donor cars - so watch this space!
