Trophy #185's story

[Keith185]

Seeing as my Trophy is slowly getting tweeked here and there thought I’d start a project thread here. Will have owned the car 5 years this summer. I’ll start with a write up from the previous years up to how little red stands now.

August 2007

Having had a ride in a mate’s-mate’s Trophy I knew that the next car I wanted was a Trophy. After looking around for a good few months and a few Trophies I saw this one.

Wasn’t by any means local but looked tidy, right price and by some coincidence my brother wanted me to go with him to pick up a new car he’d bought in Swansea so made deal to drive him down to South Wales if we could detour over to Cheltenham.

A 170 mile drive down to Swansea, then 100 miles to Cheltenham to Auto Village Garage to see little Red.

It was in the showroom parked next to a ph1 V6, not exactly best way to sell a little 2.0l Clio

The Sales people were really open and didn’t try to do the usual ‘sales pitch’, “you probably know more about the Clio Trophy than I do” the salesman said after we chatted a bit. Had spoken and questioned them on phone few days before.

So go the keys for a test drive and just fell in love with it on the test drive over A and B roads. Did the usual checks and then to the table to talk price.

Couple of cosmetic things I picked up on were a cracked front fog lamp lens and lack of front splitter which I managed to get them to fix and fit along with a £500 drop in price seeing as I had ‘cash’, a deal was done. Then 270 miles back home. Brother had left his new car at Swansea (got home at around 11 exhausted, to get up Monday at 4:30am for work lol)

Couple of weeks later I was back to collect the keys to my little red car. Back home parked next to my previous car.

Thanks to cliotrophy.co.uk I was able to make contact with previous owner to confirm it had a Blue Flame S/S exhaust, Brembo HC discs, Ferodo DS2500 pads and braided brake lines.

March 2008 – 1st Track Day

Had bought the car fully intending to take it on track so as soon as the winter was somewhat over I booked myself onto a trackday with Circuit-days at the newly rebuilt ‘Ty Croes’ circuit on Anglesey.Circuit-Days ran an awesome day, never did I feel intimidated or out of my depth even on my first time on track.Had an amazing day.

May 2008 2nd Trackday

After getting home knew there were a few things I needed doing before the next trackday.
1. Look into harnesses/CG lock.
2. A larger Jerry can.
3. Another set of wheels/tyres, save me worrying about wearing them out.

So out with the Demon Tweeks catalogue and these were ordered

Kept my eye open for some ph1 OZ F1’s but were either too far away to pick up or too expensive.

Then some luck. A group buy on here by Dave (D4ve) for at the time a batch of one off anthracite 2118’s in ET43 Palmer sport heavy duty spec. They were exactly what I wanted and kept the Trophy looking standard-ish (I know they’ve become a Sheep wheel now, but I had them before they were

4-6 weeks later and I had them along with a set of Toyo R888’s to wrap around them.

Decided to run these on the car the short distance to Anglesey Circuit from my house.

Fitted after work the night before in the pouring rain so excuse the awful 1[SUP]st[/SUP] photo.

Oh and picked this up, couldn’t resist buying it even though I had another helmet.

By some miracle next day was gorgeous sunshine. Didn’t fancy learning how the R888 handled in the wet 1[SUP]st[/SUP] time out on them.

Photo with one of my brothers Nova GSi that had a decent specced 1600cc 8v engine . Larger valves, headwork, carbs, quaiffe diff, bilsteins etc.

Unfortunately there wasn’t a photographer there this time so this is all I have from that day.

August 2008 – 3rd Trackday

Didn’t do much to the car other than take out the back seats and parcel shelf for the next track day and brought the track wheels in the back with tools this time. But did add a little sticker.

Day didn’t stay dry as the usual Welsh summer weather came in. The R888’s were awesome in the wet. The new surface at Anglesey must allow water to run off quickly. Once the rain fell the little Clio came to life.

Could not believe how much grip there was on the R888’s neither could a guy in an Impreza when he came up to me in paddock having gone off the track several times when I was behind and then infront of him while on road normal road tyres.

September 2008
This came up for sale 2[SUP]nd[/SUP] hand and like new, I could not say no to it.

December 2008

Fitting end to a year of workmanship by the Trophy, covered in good old Welsh mud.

2009-present to follow, will be slightly more detailed . Thanks for reading.

 

[Will.]

good read. Looking forward to the next chapter.

 

[aucky]

Nice write up mate

 

[Sam@NP]

Trophys are awesome!

 

[Keith185]

Febuary 2009

Nice start to the year to test the Clio’s snow capabilities lol. Never had I seen this much snow. At least Mam’s dogs were at home in it.

Cleared little red of snow and went for an exploration down the farm track. Needless to say I didn’t get very far even after Dad ploughed the track with a JCB so called my boss and booked day off work.

March 2009- Maxogen

Finally got my a** into gear and got my Maxogen fitted. Know people put these down about the cost of them (I saved buying mine 2[SUP]nd[/SUP] and) but the quality of the whole kit is amazing. Everything’s there down to a blanking plate and a rubber rubbing strip.
Got car up and wheel off, arch liner off and went to work on firstly removing the acoustic valve. The Kit comes with a plug to pop in end of the vacuum pipe from the valve.

Then got everything tidied up and liner and wheel back on and car on ground. Few minuites later got the airbox and hoses off.

Saved the most difficult task until last, shoehorning the airbox into place.

Combination of removing the acoustic valve and fitting the Maxogen gave the car a nice induction noise and I was more than happy with it.

March 2009- Trackday

Week later I was onto my 1[SUP]st[/SUP] trackday of the year at my local Anglesey Circuit. Beautiful weather and some awesome machines out. Gave me chance to see if the work done previous weekend had done anything. Car felt like it pulled bit stronger especially after around 4,500rpm from having the maxogen fitted. Could be just noise though lol. Got the opportunity to give my friend who got me into the Trophy a ride around the track and even he commented how much more responsive and harder my car pulled through the rev range than his. His being 100% standard. Might do more than just noise.

April 2009- New Brakes

After the last trackday the brakes needed changing. After reading on here and asking around decided to go for Brembo Max discs and Pagid RS2-4 pads. Having previously ran Brembo HC discs and Ferodo DS2500 pads.

Pad material was past its best, original person who fitted them had left the shims in and not really taken much material off the backing plate. Hence reason why they had been heating up so much for me on track.

Made sure the new pads had plenty of space not to seize when used.

All done, went for a run to bed them in as per Pagid’s instructions.

May 2009

Time to get all the Alignment checked and extra camber dialled in with Eibach camber bolts.

Booked the car into Demon Tweeks to get it done. Wanted around 1.5 degrees negative camber on front and standard on rest of alignment to try.

June 2009

Detailing time, didn’t think I only drove my Trophy did you?

Put some masking tape over it, because it looks professional

Also set about giving the inlet and aluminium parts a clean with Race glazes AluBright Deoxidiser and polished up the Renault Sport lettering.

June 2009 –Brake ducting Mk1

1[SUP]st[/SUP] task was to get the carbon canister removed. Blocked the vacuum pipe off, secured the solenoid valve to the body shell and pulled the tank breather pipe off and back to the tank where I coiled it up and blocked off.

For the ducting I decided on some 114mm hose against the standard fog lamp surround but didn’t want to chop up the liners too much so drilled a 76mm hole in them which was as large as I could go without destroying them. Cable tied the ducting along the inside and up against the hole in the liners.

July 2009- Rear Tow Eye

Lack of rear tow eye on the 182’s was always something that got to me. Visions of my running straight into gravel trap on track and marshals having to drag me out via the rear beam scared me lol. Looked into the Cup race car rear tow eyes where they are fixed onto the rear chassis through a hole thats already there. Unfortunately the longer rear tow eyes were not made anymore. So out with the rule and onto AutoCAD. Sent drawing over to workshops at work and few hours later I had this machined. Used RSJ bolt shims to get it to sit how I wanted and come through bumper where I wanted then drilled out hole in the rear bumper insert. Later on painted the tow eye anthracite to match the cup front tow eye.

August 2009- Engine Mounts

Got some presents from K-tec. Made things bit noisier at idle inside car but benefits of the gear change feel outweigh the negatives. Within few weeks I quickly got used to them and one of the best mods I’ve done.

August 2009- Track Day

Arrived to a wet and cold Anglesey, but things quickly dried and warmed up once the sun showed up. Another awesome day and ducts worked ok but not as well as I had hoped.

Decent MPG for track driving.

September 2009- Ducting covers

After having to cover up my brake ducts in order to get some heat into the brakes initially on last track day and for normal road driving especially with winter coming I decided to make some covers to go over the fog lamp holes to my ducts.

Got some high density foam from work, cut a piece of thin plastic out and bonded the two together.

Thanks

 

[Keith185]

Thanks guys. Will have more photos and detail for 2010 onwards, wont be relying so much on my goldfish memory to do write up.

 

[JackJack]

Nice write up.

 

[Jon.G]

Nice right up! Always love reading about what other Trophy owners are doing with their cars

 

[Keith185]

thanks guys

 

[SharkyUK]

Nice write up, mate - cheers for sharing. I look forward to seeing what the future holds for yourself and the Trophy...

 

[.Stevo.C.]

Looks lovely mate and a great write up too. I've just bought a trophy this week and I've got Knockhill booked for the 22nd if this month can't wait to take it on.

 

[Keith185]

Nice write up, mate - cheers for sharing. I look forward to seeing what the future holds for yourself and the Trophy...

Thanks Not 100% sure yet, possibly cams and maybe a bit extra. But we'll see

Looks lovely mate and a great write up too. I've just bought a trophy this week and I've got Knockhill booked for the 22nd if this month can't wait to take it on.

Thanks Awesome, so capable on track straight out of the box. Photos up when you can please

 

[Will.]

Again, I enjoyed reading that.

You've reminded me I actually need to remove my acoustic valve. All I've done so far is disconnect it

 

[guysy]

Good read and pictures mate enjoyed it.

 

[domlebo70]

How did you find the new uprated engine mounts. I only have the dogbone at the moment.

 

[Keith185]

Again, I enjoyed reading that.

You've reminded me I actually need to remove my acoustic valve. All I've done so far is disconnect it

Thanks Easy job once you get wheel off and linner off.

 

[Keith185]

January 2010 – More SnowAnother year and more snow for little red to contend with. As usual did it without a problem.

April 2010
Bought an alloy footrest. Think it’s a great addition and matches the standard alloy pedals. Even fixes onto the original fixing point

One wing mirror had a crack in the stem part of the mirror when I bought it and thanks to a lorry deciding to cut a blind corner forcing me a bit too close to a wall the other mirror cover had a scrape on it. Bought one new primed mirror cover and was going to repaint the other. While I did the painting bought two plain black plastic ones to go on temporary . . . I sort of liked the black mirrors so 2 years on and they’re still on car.

May 2010

Hadn’t had any proper photos of the car in a while so gave it quick clean and went around where I grew up to get some photos. Dont apprechiate how beautiful the area is.

May 2010 – Trackday

A beautiful day on Anglesey and yet again little red performed faultless. Ran the coastal layout which makes use of the corkscrew corner which has to be one of the most fun corners you can take JAlso met Johnny, who would later on become a Trophy owner

Some of the casualties from the day, flies.

June 2011

After the last months trackday the R888 were well past their best and with a day at Oulton park looming I needed some new track rubber. With the price of the Toyo R888’s gone up this gave me an option to try something else for similar money I would not have considered before. In the end I went with some Yokohama A048R’s.Unfortunately I needed 4 new road tyres too. 4 Michelin Pilot Exalto 2 were ordered aswell.

Then gave call to my local garage and told to bring them all down Saturday morning. So 12 tyres into a Clio? Yes they do fit with
room for me to drive. Fortunately was only a 2 mile drive to the garage.

July 2010-Renault Sport Trackday Oulton Park

Been looking forward to do Oulton park for ages and what better time than the Renault Sport ran day. Was an amazing day, love the track.Unknown to me Jay and Dan were going to be there. Had met them both a month previously helping Jay and Tony out at Anglesey.Big thanks to Dan for a passenger ride around and massive thanks to Jay for giving me some instruction around Oulton and for looking after little red, felt was only right he got a turn.Managed to get my brother out in his new R26 Megane also.

Some heritage cars on display. Still amazes me how wide the V6 are.

Got to take the new 200 out for instruction. Such a tighter car compared to the Trophy. Brakes were immense as was the gearbox.

Day didn’t stay dry, but the Yokos were not bad at all in the wet either. The wear rate on them compared to the medium compound R888 was miles better too.

July 2010 – Post Oulton clean

After my day at Oulton park, car was looking just a little bit filthy (inside and out) so decided to give it a clean inside before I put the interior back in.

Hoovered the interior of all tiny stones and rubber marbles. Gave the plastics a going over ith 303 aerospace protectant. Awesome stuff, gives a clean finish thats not overly shinny. Treated the leather on the recaros to Auto Glym leather care before putting the covers back on.

Snow foamed with I4D stuff mixed with some Dodo Juice Supernatural.

Rinsed off and then Dodo Juice Supernatural hand wash.

Then a layer of Collinite 476 wax. Awesome stuff, not expensive and gives great protection and shine. Bit awkward to buff off compared to Dodo Juice waxes but well worth it.

Buffed off and tyres dressed

August 2010 – Steering wheel

2 things I felt really let down the interior of my Trophy was the standard grey mats it came with and the steering wheel that had started to melt.After some issues with Royal Mail loosing my steering wheel I got one retrimmed by Arran. Awesome craftsmanship and was only a 10min job to replace it. Getting airbag off being the awkward part.

Old

New

Had a few minor changes planned which will be shown later on.Got some new RS mats in to finish the interior off nicely.

Sneekey pic of one of my older brothers new car. Its immaculate. Owned by BMW Uk’s directors originally. Has every single extra possible. Classed as an import due to it being brough over before any of the Uk M3 evos. Then owned by a proper enthusiast who cared for it without compromise.

August 2010 – MOT

That time of year again, car flew through the MOT without any problems. The car I got while mine was in. So much fun to drive. Same handling characteristics just at much lower speed and grip levels

Ironically after flying through MOT no problem, 2 weeks later for the 1[SUP]st[/SUP] time little red let me down. Set off from parents place, while turning around at my flat to park up (requires a 3 point turn done on a stupidly steep hill) I must have let the revs drop tiny amount and engine died on me. Thought it was weird because it would rev that low usually. Tried restarting but was dead. Light came on dash but nothing except a clicking buzzing noise.

Called one of my brothers over got car towed outside flat and checked it over. Jumpstarted it and back to life she came.Brother left me with a booster pack and next day off to local motor factors to get new one. Typical nothing was easy with them supplying me with the wrong sized battery. So call to Birchdown to ask what size I needed and 10 min later got right size one and few pounds back in refund.

December 2010

With snow falling and winter here i needed to get to Cardiff to watch an awesome welsh band you may or may not have heard of, Bullet for my Valentine. Little red got me there no problem and back even with loads of motorway and road closures.

Year ends how it started with snow. And lots of it. Trying to get down from where I lived to Mam and Dads was a bit interesting. Dad came over in his Navara and we somehow got my car down to main road so I could go to theirs Christmas morning. Little red never ceases to amaze me with how capable it is.

Thanks

 

[Keith185]

How did you find the new uprated engine mounts. I only have the dogbone at the moment.

You notice a massive increase in noise on start up initially. But this lessens as they bed in and you get used to it.

Amazing improvement in gear shift feel. This alone is worth it if you can live with the extra vibrations and harshness imo.

But have been commented on how much harsher they are when other people drive car that own a clio. Id say if the extra harshness isn't an issue and something you can live with, definitively go for them but if you like comfort then wouldn't bother.

 

[Keith185]

January 2011

Bright blue skies and picturesque Wales along with a brand new SLR.

Febuary 2011

Bad luck strikes with with me picking up a screw in my tyre. Was peed off because I picked it u on a journey I didn’t have to make lol, sods law. Luckily was only a slow puncture and obvious, unfortunately happened on a Sunday.

As a short term solution as I needed car to get to work I put the track tyres on the back while Dad took it to garage next day to be repaired. Safe to say I took it stupidly easy with the Yoko’s on the back.

March 2011

Finally got my interior trim pieces finished. Took a couple of wrong silver cans of paint to get a close match to the original trim (this being a slightly brighter shade than original and gives a cleaner look imo) Thanks to N2graphix’s Ady for the decals and making me the custom ‘Trophy’ one for the steering wheel. Few coats of laquer and they were ready to replace the old ones.

Really happy with how they turned out, although I do have a craving for carbon pieces to replace all silver trim now.

March 2011 – CS Chester Meet

1[SUP]st[/SUP] meeting I had been to and an amazing turn out. Leave some photos from the day.

Can’t remember who took this but thanks and hope you don’t mind me posting it on my story.

Couple of photos when I got back

Got home to latest issue of EVO magazine with a little article in it J

Aprill 2011

A busy and expensive month. Having found the front spring had snapped along with weeping damper, Sachs refurbishment and a set of 2[SUP]nd[/SUP] hand temporary cup setup to allow me to keep using my car.

Few parts I had ordered for little red and in preparation for the Sachs refurbishment. Along with new rear dampers. And few days later a full set of springs.

Carrying on my bad luck. Later on in the week the Lambda sensor that had been replaced before Christmas decided to bring up a fault light. Found that the heating element had gone on it. Was still under warranty so replaced free of charge by my local garage. Bit surprised being a genuine Bosh one but sometimes things happen.

Next up the Sachs refurbishment . . .

 

[Keith185]

Just copied this from old post so sorry if I go over something ive already said

Front Dampers were due to be refurbished (had been weeping oil for a good few months from bottom of reservoir, which as I found out later I should have not ran on them) and had been collecting parts for that work, One day while fixing the exhaust sheilds noticed the rear damper was weeping some oil, so onto phone with Renault-Lookers to get 2 new ones ordered. What fun that was! Was expecting some issues with ordering the parts so Gareth had supplied me with the part numbers for the read dampers. The guy just wasn't going to accept the part numbers saying they weren't a Renault part . . . he ordered rear dampers for me, which once I went to pick up were the wrong ones, was bit pissed off. But they agreed following some more key bashing and finding right part number to get them ordered in asap and to honour the price of the wrong ones for the Sachs ones, saved me over £100

Week later noticed car just wasn't sitting right one day, put a jack underneath to see this. Quite scary considering day before I'd been driving back from a Chester Cliosport meet along the twisty old A5 and back roads through North Wales.

So took decision to completely refurbish and replace the springs aswell as planned damper setup front and rear to get the Trophy handling like new.

Monday morning was on phone to Renault-Lookers to get 2 new front spring and 2 new rear springs ordered on top of the current rear dampers on order which still hadn't arrived.

Week later called up to find out the status of them all, Front springs weren't actually in France, so had to be made and they had no idea on the rear dampers still :S at least rear springs, which I din't actually really need just for the price they are was going to change

This is my one and only car and had not used it since finding the broken spring, needed it to get to work so got onto here, cliotrophy.net, ebay and Clio spares to try to get a set of 182 cup dampers and and springs to keep car on road. Few days later I had this collection of parts to fit the following weekend.

Had to clear out all the crap my Dad had piled into garage but few hours later had enough space to get the Trophy in and start work

Sachs off

Can see the broken spring and pretty sure thanks to the rubber sleeve it must have pulled the two pieces in to the point that the car felt ok day to day to drive and prevented the coil from turning.

Trophy Sacks damper next to a 182 Cup damper. Quite a difference in the piston length. Hence reason why I struggled later on to get spring back on without compressors.

Got on phone to BG motorsport who were able to get them booked in to do in only 2 days so got the Sachs jet washed and packed up and thanks to local courier company (Delsol) they got them there in a day

Got call on day they were being refurbished to say that one of the pistons had scored due to being run at low pressure. Was told it wasn't too bad and had cleaned up but wasn't perfect and may cause loss of pressure prematurely. Wanted everything perfect so told the guys to change it. Extra £102 to bill but considering it all was small price.

While I was waiting to get them back gave the top hats a clean and a quick coat of Bilt-Hamber Hydrate 80 and VHT roll bar and chassis paint, which hardens to almost a powder coating like finish

Finished items with cleaned and treated boots

Big thanks to BG motorsport who gt the dampers back to me within the week, so then onto sorting the dampers out. They had replaced the adjusters for me but at some point between these being made and now the rates on the adjuster had changed slightly (1-2 clicks) so I actually had dampers now that are able to go a little bit firmer at max setting. They'd marked up the new default rate setting for me

Spot the other present that had arrived from Tom at Wests Renault

Wire brushed as much rust off as I could and some emery cloth on some spots. Then Hydrate 80 onto the rusted spots

The spring platform was quite badly rusted as was the bottom mounts

Hydrate 80 is awesome stuff, kills the rust, dries quickly and goes from the baby blue when wet to a dark purple once dried and gives a brilliant surface to paint onto. Masked everything I didn't want painted including the original manufacture stickers which weren't in too bad a condition tbh, had to re fix one corner back down but that's it.

Keyed the old paint up and an IPA wipe down. Smooth Silver Hammerite is a perfect match for the dampers.

Gave them few days to dry, then removed the masking from the damper sticker and gave the whole body a quick coat of laquer as extra protection.

New front springs had arrived two weeks after ordering but I still didn't have the rear dampers! Think it took 6 weeks from ordering to getting them but they finally arrived a week later in massive boxes lol

Gave these a quick keying and laqured up seeing how rusty old ones were

Finally after over 6 weeks everything was ready to go

Following weekend back into garage. Had to clear out garage again Dad being the hoarder he is and need to put crap in any cleared floor space lol.

New Top mounts

Little brother gave me a hand so thought I'd throw him in at deep end

Had planned to get hubs cleaned and painted but everything came together and instead of putting car off road while I did little jobs got it all sorted in a weekend.

As if refurbishing the dampers wasn't enough needed new brakes too, so on with same setup I had, Brembo Max discs and Pagid RS 4-2 pad.

Never been so glad to have taken car into garage in my life

Had to drop tools for a bit while garage got flooded lol.

Even hailed in May!

Got all torqued up and took for a quick test drive, felt so solid (but needed alignment done) Checked everything once back and left rear dampers for next day

Rears was easy, well I thought it would have been except for one of the cup rear dampers top nuts would not come off, had to grind it off, which was a t**t of a job in the location it was.

All off and top mounts checked and swapped over. The new rear dampers didn't come with top mounts which at fully retail price is a joke. Know others come with them as one unit. Luckily the old ones were in as new condition.

 

[JamesT87]

Absolutely incredible journey Keith,

Are you doing any cadwell sessions this year?

James

 

[Keith185]

Absolutely incredible journey Keith,

Are you doing any cadwell sessions this year?

James

Thanks James.

Not sure yet, only one that I'll definately be doing atm is Oulton Park on the Renault Sport calender.

 

[Keith185]

Aprill 2011- Rear end tidy up

Seeing as I had a nice 11 day weekend, thought I'd tidy up the rear of my Trophy. Here’s what I got up to today

The Number plates had been bugging me for ages (well 4years almost lol) with the large garage logo and border, seeing as they had started to fade as well decide to change them for some nice new plain ones.

Forgot to bring my tardis with me so getting the self adhesive tape off too longer than planned

Used Megs #83 with Meguiar's 7" Polishing Pad and a Britemax Spot Pad to clean it all up Followed by Dodo Juice Lime Prime.

While at it wanted to fit my Trophy sticker and my Anglesey track sticker (Made by N2Grafix) to replace my previous one.

All sealed in with Dodo Juice Supernatural. Not used this much yet but the finish is really good but best thing is the application and removal, it's so easy, ideal for us with a short attention span lol

Out for a little photo

July 2011- Brake Ducts Mk 2

Was never happy with the old brake ducts I had on. Contributing factor of too large a hose used, poor directing through the wheel arch liners and lack of direct air flow through them due to the shape and frontal airflow in fog lamp area.

Had been designing a attachment that I would bond onto the fog lamp surround to aid airflow into the hoses but would have cost a lot in materials and would have been trial and error.

Had looked into the genuine cup ducts but these were rare to get hold of and wasn’t keen on the idea of having to cut the bumper up and unable to refit the fog lamps later on.

Damien (M4D M4X) had been making moulds to make a replica of the cup racer ducts that used the standard fog lamp surround as a base and would allow the standard fog lamp fixings to be retained. These were exactly what I needed. Put my name down then few months later after Damien trailed them and made a few sets I had them.

Got the old ones off and set about to trimming back the bumper to allow them to fit. Didn’t need to remove much and all clips and mounts were kept intact for the fog lamps to refitted if I ever want to.

Trial fitted them and got the fixing holes drilled ready. Got them painted with matt finish black paint.

Ordered some black anodized pan head screws, funnels and ducting, once arrived I was ready to fit them.

In order to get the hoses fixed to the arch liner and give a good airflow to the wheel arch and brakes I made up some sandwich plates that I would fix to the arch liners.

Got all fixed and fitted together and, replaced arch liners and had them ready for my RS trackday at Silverstone.

 

[Keith185]

August 2011- Silverstone RS Trackday

Seeing as there wasn’t going to be a Renault Sport trackday at Oulton Park this year I’d go along to one of the others. Closest and date that suited me best was the Silverstone one. Got hotel booked few miles outside circuit and car stripped and loaded headed down night before.

Arrived to an overcast and miserable looking day but at least I had a garage. The garage being larger than my flat lol. Went for the briefing, got myself booked into driving the 200 around and got my wheels changed. We were running on the new International layout circuit.

Got a chance to take a fair few photos with the weather causing a fair few red flags lol. But the Yokos were pretty awesome even in the rain.

Got some video footage too but my laptops died and desktop pc wont cope with HD editing lol, therefore will try to get some videos up in the future.

The 200 I got to drive. Such an awesome car. Brakes and gearbox so awesome.

On track photos

Had an awesome day, faultlessly ran by Silverstone and Renault Sport.

Typically the ducts I fitted I didn’t even uncover them with the weather.

Facilities and track were awesome and can’t wait to get back there some time in the future.

August 2011

Was hoping this would have arrived before the trackday. Due to the weather I’m sort of glad it didn’t because I didn’t need any extra assistance in getting the back to move lol

 

[Keith185]

October 2011

Seeing as my wheels hadn’t been washed or cleaned since the summer that id get some new cleaner to try out. Read so many reviews about Valet Pro Billberry that I had to give it a go.

Before

Most stuff are always a let down if they’re hyped up too much. So got the jetwash set up and sprayed the stuff neat (it can be diluted) onto dry wheels and waited few min.

It was a pretty colour atleast. Then jet washed off and f** me sideways at the results.

Forgot they wheels were that shade of grey lol.

November 2011 – Headlamp change

Being a trophy it had the normal headlamps without xenon’s. Had previously bought some Phillip nightbreakers for the dip beam but wasn’t overly impressed by
these (although they were good value)they only lasted little over 18 months and changing lamps is such a ball ache I wanted something that gave a whiter light output and lasted longer.

I ran PIAA lamps in previous car they lasted 24+months until I sold car and had a great light output. Granted they weren’t cheap though.

Got onto ebay and other shops and found cheapest place and put an order in for PIAA dipped, main beam in Xtreme white plus and sidelight lamps in xtreme white.

All these are E marked and perfectly legal.

Off with the bumper. Thanks to guide on here got it off in no time.

Car looks so sorry for itself I thought.

Lamp off and into house to fit all three lamps.

Apart from one of the spring steel clips coming off bumper and going to play hide and seek in the front end it was all straight forward.

Before anyone says, yes I still kept the orange indicator bulbs. Did think ‘should I have bought some silvervisions’ for all of 10seconds.

November 2011 - Painting Calipers

Was hoping to leave the callipers until the spring but they were looking awful. Had paint and a dry Sunday so got cracking.

Wire brushed all the loose rust, quick emery over the smooth surface of the calliper with my onlooker keeping and eye on proceedings.

Just used card to mask off area. The nozzle on VHT paints are awesome, give awesome quick direct coverage that id go as far as saying you could spray without masking at all.

All done for 2011, finally up to present year

 

[Keith185]

January 2012

New year and I could keep the inner child quiet any more had to get a Autobot badge on it somewhere.

Time for its 72k service and no brainer as to where it’d be going. Birchdown lads did an awesome job. Did the service along with coolant and gearbox oil for me along with finally fitting my Powerflex ARB bushes. These made a surprising difference to the feel, deffinately tightened things up.

Febuary 2012 – Steering feel issue

Car hadn’t felt right since start of December even after 2 allignment checks and adjustments by local garages (me trying to save some time and not driving to Wrexham) so booked car into Demon Tweeks, never had any issues with their work on setting up.

Then last minuite I decided to get some new steering rod ends from euro car parts to change just to eliminate them from equation of my handling issues, luckily these arrived few days before I was booked in to get alignment so night before I whipped old ones off and put the new Lemforder ones on. These had seen better days one of them was well past its best.

After alignment car felt tighter and tracked better but still lacked the direct responsive feel I was used to. Wasn’t sure what to do next.
Knew the Michelin Pilot Sport 3’s that I was now running had a softer sidewall than the Exalto’s so decided to put my track wheels on to see.

Ride was harder as expected but still had the weird loose feel to it, if anything it was worse.

On way back from a trip to London I called Andy at Birchdown while I was at Keele services outside stoke on trent and asked if I could pop around for him to have quick look at car. So quick detour through the back roads I ended up at Malpas.

Andy looked car over again and only thing he could remotely find was very slight play on one of the steering arms but were well within tolerance and most clios that came in had more play than that.

Only thing left in my mind were the Dampers, this would have been worst situation for me having only had them serviced 9 months previously.

March 2012 – Steering feel issue and Sachs cleanup Mk 2

Luckily I still had the 182 cup setup, so decided to fit these in order to eliminate them out of the equation, or prove it. Put the old springs and top mounts on them and switched them over in a couple of hours.

Dampers looked fine coming off and testdrive proved feel was still weird, albeit much softer dampened ride. Saying this was a relieve was an understatement.

Although I had lost the exact camber settings now, but thanks to an awesome little iphone app I was able to set them quiet close back.
Seeing as the Sachs were off and even with only 9 months of use since I refurbished them they looked bit sorry for themselves.

When I painted them last year I only gave them a quick clean and treated them with anti rust paint, looking back should have stripped them back to bare metal properly.

Got the rubber sleeves off and cleaned along with the springs. Gave them a coat of wax.

Then went to work on the dampers with a soft grinding stone and small flap wheel. Was scary grinding through as much rust as I did on the dampers. Got them back to bare metal.

Built myself a little spray booth in my kitchen. Then on with Billt-Hamber Hydrate, Smooth Silver Hammerite, Lacquer and a new step this time a few coats of Clear Plasticoat.

Had originally last year opted away from solid mounts on the struts but with the softer sidewall of the PS3’s and the reviews about the pure motorsport kit I ordered this.

Can’t sing their praise enough. Amazing service from them at Pure Motorsport.

Along with a 10min rear shim to dial out some of the toe at the rear.

Due to having to use the car everyday I broke up the refitting of the Sachs and fitting of the Top Mounts into few days.

1[SUP]st[/SUP] was to M/o and drill holes in struts. Took my time to do this, marked out using the brace ends and then using the top mount upside down. The brace all bolted up was really deceiving as it appeared too long to fit.

Thanks to James (JamesT87) for helping me here. Almost completely ignored the brace at this point as it was making it difficult to line up the holes marks.

Then onto some paint on the bare metal holes, only brush I could find was my nephews one xD

Refitted the shinny Sachs with the new top mounts and set the camber back to as closely as I could to how it was before I took them off.

All went on without a problem. The shorter bodied Sachs are so much nicer to fit than the 182 cup dampers. Tightened it all up and took for a drive . . . b**cks, first bump it started knocking, u turn and back. Quick spanner check and one of the mounts must not have been seated properly on the damper shaft, quick tighten and out again and all felt good. Wasn’t half as hard as I was expecting tbh.

Another one of the reasons I preferred to refit the Sachs at my place is that I have a nice level surface to measure and reset the camber easily and that there are plenty of smooth roads right outside, unlike parents far where I have to drive 10min on farm track to get to roads to test drive.
Next day was up at Mam and Dads farm and got the brace itself bolted up, went on without too much hassle.

And a this little thing arrived

Had a few of these lying about so it found it home on the strut brace.

Car still felt loose and decided that next step was to get the steering rods changed along with the rear shim fitted and alignment done. Quick call to Birchdown and car was booked in.

Dropped car off night before and left the keys to the Steve and Andy, got a call later that day that unfortunately Renault hadn’t got the steering rods delivered yet and that there was a chance that they wouldn’t be able to get the car over to Demon Tweeks to get alignment done to standard spec, fortunate at this point Birchdown are awesome and arranged for me to keep the van an extra day, went there next day to pick up a like new Trophy. Car felt so much tighter, massive thanks to Steve and Andy.

 

[Jon.G]

Looks fantastic Keith!

Keep up the good work.

 

[Stefan.]

fecking awesome....those sachs looks like brand new. hats off to you! :hail: i am looking at the pure motorsport brace/top mount too. can you notice much difference and not a placebo effect i mean

 

[.Stevo.C.]

As above looks fantastic. We're you not tempted to go for mark fish springs when you had everything stripped off?

 

[Russ_16v]

Thats one big update! glad to here the issue was fixed!

 

[Keith185]

Looks fantastic Keith!

Keep up the good work.

Thanks Jon

fecking awesome....those sachs looks like brand new. hats off to you! :hail: i am looking at the pure motorsport brace/top mount too. can you notice much difference and not a placebo effect i mean

Thanks. It's difficult to tell exactly until I get the camber put back on and get it on track. All the changes done difficult to be deffinate. Feels that they have taken the softness out that the PS3 created and car turns in beautifully now even on standard camber and their design is so sexy too

As above looks fantastic. We're you not tempted to go for mark fish springs when you had everything stripped off?

Thanks. Was tempted last year but opted to keep it standard. Unfortunately it's changing a bit now with being standard. Tempted again this time but can't justify their price following brand new springs 12months ago.

Thats one big update! glad to here the issue was fixed!

Haha yeah, one small one to come and it's all updated. Thanks, handles so much better now even without extra camber.

 

[.Stevo.C.]

Yeah they are a tad expensive tbf. I fitted them along with koni rear dampers and a Whiteline arb to my trophy today and the handling is even than before but what surprised me the most is the change in the ride, it's a lot less crashy and seems to soak up the bumps now.

 

[Keith185]

Yeah they are a tad expensive tbf. I fitted them along with koni rear dampers and a Whiteline arb to my trophy today and the handling is even than before but what surprised me the most is the change in the ride, it's a lot less crashy and seems to soak up the bumps now.

Wonder if that the Koni dampers on back? Noticed the back seems to be bit crashy, probablt because front isn't as much now with the top mounts that I'm noticing it.

 

[Keith185]

May 2012

My lack of faith in the Eibach camber bolts had led me to ask Steve and Andy to remove them before the alignment. Was in two minds what to do next, after chat with Steve and his personal experience with H&R ones I got on the search for some.

Could not find any UK stockists but good old Ebay found a seller in Germany, few clicks and had these arrive a week or so later.

With the new shinney bits in the engine bay thought about time I got started on painting some parts. Started off with the ecu bracket and airbox bracket. Used VHT paints roll bar paint. Gives a semi matt tough almost powder coat like appearance.

 

[Keith185]

May 2012

Just a very small update. Gave the front bumper a much needed machine polish, 1st of the year. Didn't have time to do the whole bodywork, that's hopefully going to happen next month. Got to work trying to hide some of the marks it's picked up over winter.

Clayed then machined using Megs #83, followed by Zaino AIO then sealed with Zaino 2 to try and keep the lovely red paint from fading.

Also added this little decal, wasn't sure at 1st but doesn't look too bad imo. Had it sitting amoungst the Trophy paperwork for about 3 years. Done in the style of the Megane Trophy.

 

[Sam@NP]

ow I like the new Trophy sticker! I might rob that idea.

 

[Keith185]

ow I like the new Trophy sticker! I might rob that idea.

Hehe be my guest, covers up stone chips too

 

[Sam@NP]

Hehe be my guest, covers up stone chips too

Ill need a few more to cover my stone chips up, how do you find the top mounts and dampers?

 

[Keith185]

Ill need a few more to cover my stone chips up, how do you find the top mounts and dampers?

Feels like it used to now. Think they've gotten rid of the extra movement of the PS3 sidewalls compared to the PE2 tyres. Not too harsh either just firm only really notice on rough pot hole town driving. Can't wait to get it on track again now

 

[Keith185]

June 2012

Got to work last friday and something wasn't right, the 'tappety sound' I had thought was the dephaser was deffinately not the dephaser, it was much louder. Opened the bonnet in work's carpark to be greeted to an almost empty coolant tank, not a good start to the morning. Went into work got a jar of water and returned to it. Tried to fill it up but was coming out almost straight away. Quick look in engine bay then underneath and I saw this.

Got on the phone to the almighty Birchdown and told Steve of the lack of coolant and noise and he quickly told me that the waterpump was at fault. Hadn't even said it was coming from that end of the engine lol. Was told if I can find a way to get the car to them they should be able to squeeze little red into their packed schedule next week. Times like these I was glad I had AA cover. Quick call to them (2nd time lucky as the first number on my AA card took me through to some car rental place lol) and I had a local recovery truck on way. Following 2 conversions with that company they finally understood I wanted it taken the 100mile trip from Holyhead to Malpas to Birchdown.

Within 2 hours of me calling Steve at Birchdown I had a recovery truck at work. Off to safe hands it goes. Hour or so later had a call from Steve that it had arrived safely.

Luckily I was able to get lifts into work the following week but also had to make use of things called 'Buses' and 'walking' was not to my liking lol.

Got a call on Wednesday saying all work was done, new water pump and belt kit fitted. I wasn't able to get down to pick up the car until Saturday which the guys had no problem with. One of my big brothers gave me a lift Saturday morning was met at Birchdown by Steve. Little red back all well again

The water pump that had ridiculous amount of play on the shaft. Was so lucky that it was caught when it did. Could easily have seized and taken the cambelt out or boiled the engine dry. Luckily it never ran hotter than normal and pump stayed together.

On way back home Saturday popped over to Lookers to pickup a new rear number plate light following seeing Jon.G project here.

Old

Comparison

New

Makes such a difference.

Car runs perfectly, looking back I'd say the pump had been on it's way out good few weeks and considering the milage I had done I count myself incredibly lucky the way and when I caught it.

Massive thanks to Steve and Andy at Birchdown yet again. Amazing service and went beyond call of duty to fix the Trophy in such a short timescale with the work they had on. Thank you so much guys.