Tom's Track Car - BMW E46 -Engine Number 3

as you said..can't go wrong with some metal tools..:thumb:
hope all is ok for your first track day in 2018...any more upgrades before that??
 
Fantastic updates Tom. Car looks, sounds and handles the business.

Love Anglesey btw, I suppose everybody does!
 
as you said..can't go wrong with some metal tools..:thumb:
hope all is ok for your first track day in 2018...any more upgrades before that??

Not got anything planned for it to be honest now. Just going to service the brakes, possibly throw some pads at it if it needs a new set. Other than that saving some money for the time being.

Fantastic updates Tom. Car looks, sounds and handles the business.

Love Anglesey btw, I suppose everybody does!

Thanks for that @Yiannis197, good to here these comments especially from your self. Car was a completely different beast at Oulton with the recent changes, and I used to think the handling was exceptional in it's standard state! Looking forward to the Coastal at Anglesey and only £100 for the day.
 
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Cars looking and sounding good

Thanks Arch. Coming along bit by bit. Keeping it as the on going project now. I'll keep doing little bits on it through 2018 now it's at a standard I'm happy with even though there's always room for improvement.
 
Little bit of maintenance while the majority of the country is hiding under snow.

Been trying to find a dry weekend for a few weeks now to get my hands on the car for a few hours,

Started by removing the wheels all around, setting the suspension settings back to something which isn't back breaking on the road. Big advantage of the adjustable coilovers.



Refitted the 20mm spacers to the rear axle, was experimenting with not running them at Oulton last month but much prefer the look of the car with them on so for the time being they're refitted until the next track day in Feb.

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I last stripped, cleaned and serviced the brakes on the clio 5 Track days ago, at that time I fitted the new two piece rotors and the DS1.11 brake pads. I've only visually inspected them between track days and left them be considering the car doesn't get driven on the road and isn't exposed to the general road dirt and grim. But wanted to measure how much was left on the brake pads after 5 track days. Still got 8mm worth of brake material left leaving 12mm overall. New pads come with 17mm and run till minimum thickness of 8mm before changing.
Few tiny cracks in the surface of the pads but nothing to worry about. Put them back together with cleaned and greased pins ready for Anglesey in Feb.

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Update - Booked two days at Spa now, I Had originally just planned to do the one day but considering there's so many forum members doing the second date I thought I might as well book that too. Makes the whole drive out there a lot more worthwhile as well when we're going for the full weeks. Give me much more time on the first day to chill out and take it as it comes rather than trying to get in as much track time as possible. Also gives me a massive advantage against those just doing the second day!! :chris2:
Booked the ferry last night for the Van and Trailer to get it over there and accommodation sorted. Booked a house just outside of the circuit which sleeps 5/6 people.

Not done a lot with the car recently. It's been parked up on the drive since Oulton back in November. I've started it now and then and done a few bits of maintenance on it like the brake service.
Just purchases oil and filter to do a swap before Anglesey on the 4th Feb.

While up in Scotland for Christmas I saw a pair of Clio hubs come up for sale, at a very good price, 380 miles from home but happened to be passing by on that day so collected them, can never have too many spares for a track car. Stripped them down, checked the ball joints, cleaned everything up and put them back together.

Only thing that's missing is the tapered seat for the track rod end so I'm going to make a batch of these as I know there's always someone on the forum wanting them.

Photo shows them all stripped down ready for cleaning and rebuilding.
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Also here's a little reminding of what it looks like in all it's glory out on track.24631786187_a19499f30e_b.jpg
 
Little Saturday update - I thought I would pop on here and see what every one has been up to and also put a little update on for my self.j
Not clio related as such but spent the morning today sorting out the van. Jet washed, snow foamed, jet washed, onto some soap and mitten action, rinsed down before spraying all the paint work with a detar/decontaminator. I knew the paint was starting to feel rough with tar and road grime when washing it but didn't realise how bad it was until it was cleaned like this. Washed off and repeated a few times until it was spotless. Gave it a quick spray on wax to keep it protected until the next wash. Hopefully the weather will start to improve then and I can spend the weekend on it with the DA and then put a proper wax on it for the rest of the year.

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In other news I took the Clio out for a little blast last night as I needed to go to the shop. I've not really looked at it that much recently just been walking past it on the drive. I'd forgotten how good the lines are on these cars and how good they really look. Wouldn't have thought they're as old as they are!

Treated my self to some more tools last week too. I've got numerous spanners, standard ones, ratchet ones but recently I've needed a couple of larger ones to bought a set that goes up to 32mm. I like spending on tools!

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Great build thread mate. Read this over the last few days after work as a little bit of light night time reading and been well impressed! Given me some good ideas for mine :smile:

Great mate thanks. Glad people are still finding it interesting and helpful. Not a lot has been happening with the car lately but I'll be getting it ready to go to Anglesey in a few weeks so I'll start updating about that.
 
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Great mate thanks. Glad people are still finding it interesting and helpful. Not a lot has been happening with the car lately but I'll be getting it ready to go to Anglesey in a few weeks so I'll start updating about that.
You bet people find it interesting..what a build thread...
When's your next track day Tom?
 
@Pav I'm just getting my self sorted to go to Anglesey on Sunday. Quite a large group of us going down, quite a few Clio 197/200's too.

Little update... I should remember to update this thread more often, even with small updates!

Spent a few weekends down at my friends unit getting cars ready to go to Anglesey. Started off working on my friends Clio 200, Replacement wishbone ball joints and lower swivel joints. This was something that required a little bit of thinking about.
I made up the following tools in work on the lathe to be able to press them out on the hydraulic press as it's a little awkward.
I didn't use the gold piece on the right in the end as i pressed it back in with a socket.

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I set up the correct tools for replacing the wishbone ball joints on my own car over Christmas so already had the tools to do this ready to do.
Correct socket. 1m breaker bar with my full length jack handle on the end of it and plenty heat got it shifting in the end.

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While I was working on the car and doing an oil/filter change I noticed that the AC delete kit I use that has a tensioner on the alternator had snapped. Made a new one of those on the lathe at work this week and a spare for the tool box.
Fresh oil and two tyres fitted onto the track wheels and we're ready to go to Anglesey Saturday night.

Obviously had to take a photo of it when I had finished with it in the Unit. On road plates too which isn't often seen. Looking good with the Yellow cage and 3.5 degress of camber on the front.

Ready to load onto the trailer for a shake down at Anglesey before the two days i've got booked at Spa at Easter.

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Finally. Picked up a bargain of the ECU last week...

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