Trophy Project 40/500

[480bhp.com]

As some of you may be aware i bought a Trophy in Jan 2009 to be used for trackdays.

It's gone through a few changes over the past 7 months, interior out, interior back in, interior out again, you get the picture

So if the September Trackday i've got booked at Croft has been cancelled then the car will be off the road/track after the Renaultsport trackday at Cadwell next month.

The state of the car at the minute is work in progress, but after the latest power steering fault, the entire power steering system is sat on the garage floor and is being replaced by a manual rack.

The Mods already present when i bought number 40 was:

pipercross air filter (hanging loose in the engine bay)
Ebc yellow stuff pads all round
grooved discs all round (just cheap ebay ones by the look of things)
Mongoose or similar cat back system

And that's it, since then it's under gone quite a few more changes, some of which have only just taken place ie the brake pads and steering

Pf97 pads all round
plain discs on rear
Braided lines
Manual steering rack
air con removed
acoustic valve removed
all the interior removed (inc dash, tar everything)
Smaller steering wheel
Cobra Pro evo drivers seat (no passenger seat at present)
Msv 1/2 cage (removed a month ago to make way for)
Full fia cup racer cage
Schroth 4 point harnesses
Maxogen
Fogs removed to make way for brake ducts
Srs system removed
Mf Trophy upgrade road springs
Rebuilt sachs dampers (unpinned)
Revalved koni adjustables for the rear

That's about it, it's developed a problem of one kind or another at all 8 trackdays so far this year, some repaired for a few pence others for quite a bit more, and on top of that there's been belt changes etc

But this all brings me too the winter rebuild i'm about to embark on, i intend to fully strip the car to a bare shell and have it strengthened further with additonal bracing and seamed welded, then get it fully resprayed in white

As part of the rebuild every part will be either cleaned or replaced, most cleaned parts will be either sprayed/powder coated or anodised, and then it will be fully rebuilt with the following;

Tour-de-force ecu
At Throttle bodies
Ast Sportline II's
Schrick cams
Stack Dash
Custom wiring harness
Subaru adjustable top mounts
Gripper diff and 13/59 bolt on Crown wheel
BTB exhaust system


I'm sure there's more too add, but rather than everyone fall asleep reading about my plans i'll leave it at that

Sorry about there been no pictures yet, but as the project gets under way (august/september) i'll make sure i get plenty up on here.

Chris

 

[DanFreemanPhoto]

Sounds immense. Seen quite a few of your videos

Do you have any tips for the fog light -> cooling duct conversion, Im going to do mine soon and wondered what the tricky parts were

 

[Whiteley]

Top car top bloke, look forward to seeing more

 

[480bhp.com]

Still not started on this project yet, as i've got too get cadwell out of the way, but i have been opening the wallet a bit

Oh and the colour scheme has changed, i mentioned the Brawn Gp colours, but i've now decided to go in a different direction, it was another option i had been contemplating and after seeing these wheels that was it.
The main will still be white, but now with red (i've got a picture of a Gt3 Rs in my mind for some reason) don't worry though i'm not daft enough to make it look like one

Anyway here's the 1st picture, and it's of the wheels, i'm expecting delivery early next week

I can't wait to get started, the subframe, rear beam etc will now be powder coated candy red :approve:

 

[Rob Clark]

hmm so you bought a trophy and paid more than a 172 cup to rip out mos tof the bits on it.
Dont get me wrong, it will be a great car, but you didnt need to start with a trophy to have got what you are looking for.
For that serious cash couldnt you have got a 2nd hand cup racer of some description ?

 

[chrispy.clio]

Ooooooo this sounds like its gona be a right weapon.
Agree alittle with Wolf359, but fair play mate you go for it.

 

[rubinhu16v]

Don't get me wrong, but poor Trophy, thats a limited version man!!!Why didn't you bought just a normal rs cup...

 

[480bhp.com]

Don't make assumptions that i paid dearly for my Trophy
I paid £5600 for it (Repaired cat d), and i've got back around £1200 for the parts i've removed, hence the car stands me at £4400

If you want to show me a 2005 clio with decent dampers and 25k mileage for £4400 cat d or not then i might have been interested.

As a cat D it was never going to be as desireable as a pristine Trophy so why not change it completely, At the end of the day it's a car, i use it purely for trackdays so do around 3000 miles a year, and nearly all of them are flat out

So don't worry about it being a Trophy, it's just another clio with sachs dampers :rasp:

 

[f0xy]

did you manage to sort your power steering out after cadwell?

 

[480bhp.com]

did you manage to sort your power steering out after cadwell?

Yep got that sorted, no idea what the fault was, but the pump, hoses and rack have all made way for a diesel manual rack. Think of the weight saving

The rack wasn't tight, so unless it was an internal fault, it wasn't that
The hoses and fluid level was all fine
The pump was working ok
But the dammed thing just wouldn't turn :S

See what kind of difference there is when we hit cadwell in a few weeks

 

[Fletcher]

Still not started on this project yet, as i've got too get cadwell out of the way, but i have been opening the wallet a bit

Oh and the colour scheme has changed, i mentioned the Brawn Gp colours, but i've now decided to go in a different direction, it was another option i had been contemplating and after seeing these wheels that was it.
The main will still be white, but now with red (i've got a picture of a Gt3 Rs in my mind for some reason) don't worry though i'm not daft enough to make it look like one

Anyway here's the 1st picture, and it's of the wheels, i'm expecting delivery early next week

I can't wait to get started, the subframe, rear beam etc will now be powder coated candy red :approve:

Nice project

What size are you getting the wheels?? i'm thinking about getting a set of these in 15''.

 

[BenG]

Im loving this project Chris.

 

[480bhp.com]

Cheers Ben

Fletcher, i've ordered them in 15's best option for track work :dapprove:

Chris

 

[CBetts]

Sounds good Chris, will be looking forward to seeing the finished article!

 

[Inferno]

Nice project. Are you sure you want to ditch the power steering? It does have its benefits (and I also know that running without isn't a problem) when it comes to catching slides (seen your vids!).

I remember speaking to Mark Fish about the failing power steering issue ages ago, he was sure he could fix it, but was unwilling to do the work on a road car due to the possible legal repercussions if there was ever a failure of his system in a road traffic incident. If your car's not going to see the road it may be worth asking?

 

[Steve]

Chris on here too many spend all there time polishing & not enough driving :quiet:

 

[Fletcher]

Cheers Ben

Fletcher, i've ordered them in 15's best option for track work :dapprove:

Chris

Good stuff mate :approve:

 

[walkie86]

Can't wait for the updates on this project. Going to be immense 8)

I guess the red colour theme sort of plays homage to it being a Trophy??

Awesome

 

[The Boosh!]

Wouldn't mind having a look at this mate since your local... You also seem to know your stuff... I could use someone who knows there stuff

Awesome project btw.

 

[dajones]

this sounds like a good plan! You going to get red trophey stickers for the side skirts?

 

[rubinhu16v]

Don't make assumptions that i paid dearly for my Trophy
I paid £5600 for it (Repaired cat d), and i've got back around £1200 for the parts i've removed, hence the car stands me at £4400

If you want to show me a 2005 clio with decent dampers and 25k mileage for £4400 cat d or not then i might have been interested.

As a cat D it was never going to be as desireable as a pristine Trophy so why not change it completely, At the end of the day it's a car, i use it purely for trackdays so do around 3000 miles a year, and nearly all of them are flat out

So don't worry about it being a Trophy, it's just another clio with sachs dampers :rasp:

That car's got recaro seats wich seat lower, racing dumpers, very ligthweight, it has a unique number plate on the inside that tells you wich unit is it from only 500 units made!!! I'm sorry, but if you did that in Portugal everyone would say the same to you.
I'm sorry but i must say, poor trophy.

 

[Fletcher]

That car's got recaro seats wich seat lower, racing dumpers, very ligthweight, it has a unique number plate on the inside that tells you wich unit is it from only 500 units made!!! I'm sorry, but if you did that in Portugal everyone would say the same to you.
I'm sorry but i must say, poor trophy.

At the end of the day it's only a Clio. Hats of for doing this project IMO

 

[W4tson]

This will be mint if all goes to plan! Gd luck boyo

 

[rubinhu16v]

At the end of the day it's only a Clio. Hats of for doing this project IMO

Do you know what's today valur of a simple williams, or from a renault 5 gt turbo? They are increasing there value, not decreasing anymore, and this trophy stock on day would be a classic car, and besides its already tuned up.
Sorry for the long "offtopic", not going to touch this matter again. regards

 

[timmyd]

Sounds like a great project, but it is a trophy and only 500 examples in the uk.
But also if its a cat d, is it going to be desirable come selling time, probably not and is likely to fetch a little more money as a track car if thats what becomes of it.

 

[Fletcher]

Do you know what's today valur of a simple williams, or from a renault 5 gt turbo? They are increasing there value, not decreasing anymore, and this trophy stock on day would be a classic car, and besides its already tuned up.
Sorry for the long "offtopic", not going to touch this matter again. regards

Most Williams i see are rust buckets, and most 5 gt turbos are wrecked. That's what mint standard examples fetch high prices.

 

[B16DOE]

At the end of the day it's only a Clio. Hats of for doing this project IMO

very true its only a 6k car and just a renault

 

[Chesh]

its not like its a timeless classic, leave him alone!

 

[480bhp.com]

Time for an update

Seeing as the Renaultsport Cadwell Park trackday has now passed it's time to start the strip down in preparation for the acid dip

Managed to get a few hours on the car, so today it's been off with the following parts:

Rear Brake line
Rear Hubs
Rear Discs/calipers
Rear beam
Rear Dampers
Rear Springs
cat back exhaust system
all heat shields (how many? )
Gear stick
Handbrake cables

And i'm sure plenty of other bits and bobs, got a couple of boxes now full of nuts,bolts, brackets and various rear end parts.

Only issue was with the rear beam bracket bolts, the long one. It wouldn't loosen and renaults way of securing them is questionable, so when i rebuild the car they'll be replaced with normal nuts and bolts.

If i get chance tomorrow, the fuel tank will be out, and then at the weekend i'll drop the subframe and engine, should'nt take too long before it's ready for the dip

 

[Faboka]

Looking forward to following this. Out of interest. Who rebuilt the koni's?

 

[480bhp.com]

The Koni's were revalved by a Mark Fish Associate, before he sent them to me, it's a service he offers for a reasonable fee. I've not driven the car with standard koni's so i can't say if it's a huge improvement or not, but Mark seems to know his stuff.

Chris

 

[480bhp.com]

Had a few more hours in the garage today
Dropped the subframe and removed everything else at the front.

I'm suprised how easy the car come apart, i've probably had about 6 hours on the car since cadwell (Tuesday) and all that's left to remove now is, the brake module, front brake lines, brake M/c, pedal, steering column and the wiring, and that's it, just a few body panel to remove and a few extra bars to weld in and it's ready for the acid dip.

Picture of the car as it stands at the minute

 

[chrispy.clio]

That pretty good going. Acid dipping, Do they actually dip the whole chassie into a acid filler bath thingy?

 

[Antony]

If you want to show me a 2005 clio with decent dampers and 25k mileage for £4400 cat d or not then i might have been interested.

........... that just made me smile ultimate dismiss . strange your getting stick for modifying a trophy when no one seems to care about me bunging a 172 lump in the series one williams nice project , are you on the trophy forum ?? i know i couple of boys on there who live local and both of theirs are not standard either

 

[BenG]

That pretty good going. Acid dipping, Do they actually dip the whole chassie into a acid filler bath thingy?

Almost certain it is literally dipped in a bath of acid. Removes all rust and paint etc ready for priming.

I wouldn't know where to start putting all that back together! Keep up the good work Chris.

 

[Jay Payne]

Wow mate your doing well with this.

 

[fishcake]

That new two post lift you had fitted has come in handy then Chris,I know where to come now when I start on my mods to keep up with yours on the track when its finished

 

[480bhp.com]

That pretty good going. Acid dipping, Do they actually dip the whole chassie into a acid filler bath thingy?

Yeah they submerge the car in acid, it removes all the seam sealer,undersealer, paint, rust, virtually anything that isn't steel (no aluminium if you want it back)

On average there can be up to 32kg's of seam sealer and underseal on your average car don't think the clio has quite that much bit i wouldn't be surprised if there's about 20kgs worth

After the Dip it's being electrophoretically Primed with zinc phosphate, then i'll get it sprayed white.

Aim is to get the car under 900kg's wet if possible

Yeah Paul, the 2 post lift has made the job easier, no more laying on the floor You can use it whenever you need, i just need to get the car back together 1st as there's nowhere else for that too go without any wheels

Chris

 

[mccabe172]

Quality love this thread. Keep up for good work.

 

[Guppy]

Awesome progress!

Will be good to see it all back up and running.

Any engine mod's planned?