Clio 172 Cup, track car to race car

[sonny]

Blimey Sonny, easy tiger you'll have a 20K Clio before you know it.

Trying to stick within a budget. I have got good deals and discount on most parts so happy days

[PJC]

I've heard about your budgets before.......

[adsgreen]

That is going to be a mint car to track sonny, the Clio's race prepped are unreal on grip and nimbleness.

Totally agree, I have never driven this model of Clio, but have been around Brands in a normal 172 in the wet. I must say I was impressed, the breaking zones was a lot later than would be in the RS4 due to the weight difference. It will take me a while to re-learn FWD driving!

Can't stand FWD myself as it's all arse about face from what I'm used to.
As soon as you feel oversteer, turn in and boot it - as long as you keep the the front wheels point where you need to go and lots of power it'll work out in the end.

As I said - arse about face.

[sonny]

Been very busy working on the car over the past week to get it ready for the Summer track day season.

Last week I started to strip the interior out of the Clio. The front seats are staying in until I find a sutable set of frames for the Pole Positions.

Removed all this rubbish, shed about 50kg of weight.





Now looks like this.







Some 3.3ohm resistors fitted in the rear seat belt pretensioner connection to stop the airbag light from coming on





Oreca racing boss and resistors fitted to the airbag squib connection



Sabelt RS steering wheel fitted with sparco push buttons for the horn and maybe a data logger at a later stage



Next was to put a TSR tow strap on the front, this needed modifying slightly.



Cutting out the front panel





The hole is needed to be filed to fit the M16 X 50MM tow bolt




Finished product, I may however swap this for a 100mm bolt so the tow eye is more forward, this would stop the bumper cracking if towed from a side angle. (i.e out of the gravel trap)



Next job was fitting new spark plugs and 8mm Magnecore HT leads. The car had those silly Bosch super 4s in them...replaced with some NGK performance ones.



Next was to fit a front OMP adjustable strut brace and a new coolant bottle as the old one had seen better days



The front panel was cut out more to ease air flow into the ITB





Rear wiper was removed to free up more weight. The wiper was seized onto the bolt so out came the axe saw



Holes was plugged up and sealed with sealent and rubber grommets from Halfords

[PhilT]

Awesome . Can't wait to see it on track!!

[sonny]

Awesome . Can't wait to see it on track!!

Thanks Phil

[sonny]

Also to go on are these solid top mounts, rear camber shims and front camber bolts



Also braided hoses, DS2500 pads and Brembo grooved discs, these will go on when my RBF600 fluid finally arrives.

[bam_bam]

...and that's how it's done. A top read that and a great work.

[ShouldveBeenAGerman]

Nice one sonny, I bought myself a mildly modded 172 a few months ago, £1500 ebay special for track use. Stripped it down, stuck on some 888's and done a few sessions at Oulton.

90% the track fun of the RS4 at 10% of the cost!!!

[sonny]

Nice one buddy, any pics?

I paid over 3k for this car, but the mods it had on it would have come to over 3k anyway, so saw it has a deal.

Agree the cost of parts is so cheap! Those discs are like 90quid from ebay

[ShouldveBeenAGerman]

Mine was a bit of a shed bodywork wise, but the history was good and seemed mechanically sound.

I'm surprised at how well these engines pull! You do have to push them pretty hard but they love it

[sonny]

Nice one, looks good. I see you have done the brake cooling mod through the fog lights, did you use deflector plates behind the discs?

[HYFR]

this looks awesome Sonny

[sonny]

this looks awesome Sonny

Thanks Dave,

[Mr V10]

Loving this little car. Nice work, Sonny.