Dans 220 Trophy

So today was collection day and after a long 2 week wait it was time to pick up the Clio but first i had to get back from Holland due to work, so it was a early wake up call.

Bearing in mind this is European time, so 5am uk time.

Couple of hours later and we have lift off.



Flight was good and on time most importantly. Landed at Bristol 9am and collected a AVIS rental car and started to head home. 3 and half hours later and home, quick shower, lunch and say hello to the family and its time to collect the Clio.

Hand over was normal paperwork etc and walk around the car, check everything was in order etc.


Wife in the car and ready to go.

Home and awaiting to be put the clio in the garage for the night.


First impression, well to be honest by the time I had picked up the Clio I was knackered from a week working away and an early start. That "gearbox" is going to take a little bit of getting used to however, today on the trip back from the dealer I really appreciated the auto. I did try manual shifting for a while, only keeping in standard mode. Yet to try Sport or Race this will come when feeling a little more human.

Really looking forward to learning more about what this Clio is capable of.

Been over a week with the Clio and even though I have not done a huge amount of miles 350ish, I have had some time to get used to the car. First impressions are it just does everything I need. Early morning, stick it in auto / normal mode and it just gets on with it while I wake up. Once the engine is up to temp and I am more awake its manual / sport mode and this is were there car really starts to shine. 6th gear and it will pull from slow speeds and makes life easy keeping with the flow of traffic, clear road and a couple of pulls of the left paddle and it starts to shift. It's deceptively fast and builds speed in such a liner way. Had a few moments when giving full throttle in 3 then 4 gear and a quick glance at the speedo and not expecting to see those numbers.

I have had some quick cards in the past, E46 M3 & 1 series 135i and don't get me wrong its not as quick as the M3 but the power delivery is so liner it is not the difference you would expect. I do love the pop from the exhaust when pushing on in sport / race mode, that gets very addictive.

Even gets the seal of approval from my 3 year old, at the weekend I asked what car we should take out she said the "white one" but only if the exhaust goes pop again!

No mods as yet, contemplating a panel filter just because I have an itch to do something! However, i did have a small delivery this morning. Waiting for the weather to pick up so I can do the first wash and add some protection to the paint.

for some reason I can't seem to attach pictures so that last bits of the above post does not make much sense, anyway had a few bits turn up from Auto Finesse so roll on a sunny evening.