Belgian 197 Track toy

[Mr. N]

Hello everyone,
After a long time on the forum I might as well introduce myself on here. My name is Nick and I live in Belgium. Last year I bought a 197 with the intention to daily drive it and sometimes go on track with it.
A few months after getting the car I started working somewhere else where I got a company car so the clio could be used for just track days.
Following things already changed.

Engine:
Map sensor bracket
Milltek cat delete
Raggazon cat back system
Pipercross performance replacement filter

Interior:
KTR seat subframes
OMP TR-S seats
QSP seatbelts
Stripped rear interior
QSP helmet net
Shifter extender
Carbon doorpanels

Exterior:
Clio cup spoiler
Supreme Motorsport / Zero Point One tow strap bolt
Stub antenna

Suspension & brakes:
UltraRacing 2-Point Front Upper Strutbar
UltraRacing 4-Point Rear Trunk Brace
Mtec dotted & grooved front discs
EBC yellowstuff brake pads F & R
HEL braided brake lines
Motul RBF600 brake fluid
Federal 595RS-R semislicks

Some photos I took after a few weeks of owning it.

Some other photos

I just plastidipped the spoiler black because we probably gonna do the whole car in matte gray

Got the Weedermotorsport aerocatch plates fitted just need to order the aerocatches itself.

Carbon doorpanels

Shifter extender

Exhaust before fitting it, it’s not too loud but gives a nice sound.

This happened after the Folembray trackday… Going to solve this with some metal plates on the splitter.

Trackday at circuit Zolder

Trackday at Folembray (France)

The honda’s, lotus and caterham are friends so there is some variety in cars.

At the moment I’m stripping the whole interior, heater box, wire loom,….

 

[Mr. N]

Yesterday I finally had some time to work on the car. Removed the heater box, a few brackets from the crossmember and made some plates to cover the holes.

Next up, fix the wiring for the battery relocation, make a bracket so I can fit the airfilter and try to move the expansion tank.

 

[Mr. N]

An update after a bit of time… Finished stripping the front wire loom, I also Installed a Clio cup footplate, Momo steering hub, RRS steering wheel and Volantech button plate that I bought second hand.





Finished the battery relocation, installed the other air filter and the plates on the diffuser.








Went to do a trackday on Circuit Clastres in France. Had a fun time till the hose that goes back to the radiator from the expansion tank decided it had enough and sprayed coolant all over the engine bay and windshield, so need to find a better coupler for that.

 

[Mr. N]

A few months have passed since the last update.

Again a few changes have happened to the car. One of the biggest and most obvious one being that I plastidipped it.

Removed all the vents and stuff in the interior. While I was doing that also removed all the rest of the cables from the loom that aren't necessary. Windowswitches, mirrors,...

Fitted lexan window in the front doors.

Some photos from when I just finished assembling it.

Also fitted Weedermotorsport brake ducts. They work a treat. Haven't had any problems on track now with light fading like I had the other times.

Went to a trackday on Mettet, first one of 2021 and since October. Hopefully not the last but since I send back my plates to DMV I now need to trailer it to the track.

 

[N0ddie]

Looks nice though why does it sit so high? 10th pic down makes it look like a little SUV.

 

[Mr. N]

Looks nice though why does it sit so high? 10th pic down makes it look like a little SUV.

Because it's still on stock suspension. Next update will be some coilovers, just looking for the right set. I was looking at yellowspeed or gaz but might change if something good comes up second hand.

 

[Mr. N]

Looks like I need to update this ...

- Removed the plastidip.
- Removed all the sound deadening in interior.
- Did a stalk delete.
- Removed the aircon compressor, the easy way.
- Heatwrapped the exhaust.
- Changed the frond brakepads to PBS Prorace and changed the pins to Mr. Pinkpins
- Found out I need to change the bottom engine mount...
- Gonna change the stock dampers to 200 cup dampers with Eibach lowering springs (a friend ordered them for me and for the price I couldn't hesitate) and silver project topmounts.
- Did only one trackday last october.... No trailer and no car to tow it... So I rented a truck. It was a very good day and made me realise again why I love to drive the car so much.

 

[R20BTG]

Why did you remove the plastidip? I quite liked the matte grey and yellow look!

 

[Mr. N]

Why did you remove the plastidip? I quite liked the matte grey and yellow look!

Because there were some spots where it came loose mostly by rubber that hit the car.
Gonna wrap a part of it yellow so next year it will be another look

 

[rSilva]

what's your feedback of the topmounts?

 

[Mr. N]

what's your feedback of the topmounts?

The car is still up in the air, I'll let you know when I went on track with them. Normally 18th of march is the first outing

 

[Mr. N]

Bit of an update...

Installed the powerflex bushes in the front suspension arms and wheeler motorsport bushes in the subframe.



Heatwrapped the exhaust and put v-band clamps on instead of the simple slide in fitting. So no more blowing exhaust sounds



Started with the wrap. Just needs some more stickers and mount a black towstrap on the back.