bigsid
Paid Member
Bit of background - I did a driving experience day at Palmer Sport in Bedford about 10 years ago. Ever since then I wanted a track toy. I spent the last decade thinking about it and making plans. Originally I wanted to build a Haynes Roadster, but I didn't have the space nor could I weld. I decided it would be easier to buy a car to prep. I looked at all the usual RWD suspects but found issues with them all...
I started researching the Clio Mk3 and it ticked all my boxes except the RWD bit; cheapish, fast, small and light, not rusty. So off I went in search of a reasonably priced 197. I spent an entire weekend driving all over the place and test drove about 7 different 197s and a 182 most of which were in a bad state until I viewed the last one on my list, a white 197 Cup with 120k miles going for £2825.
I viewed it, took it for a spin and it felt the best out of all the Clios I'd driven that day even though it had some questionable styling and smelled of dog wee, so I bought it.
I got it home, and managed to squeeze it into my garage.
- MX5s - too rusty
- 350Z - too heavy
- GT86 - too new and expensive
- 130i/328i/330i - too heavy
- S2000 - too expensive
I started researching the Clio Mk3 and it ticked all my boxes except the RWD bit; cheapish, fast, small and light, not rusty. So off I went in search of a reasonably priced 197. I spent an entire weekend driving all over the place and test drove about 7 different 197s and a 182 most of which were in a bad state until I viewed the last one on my list, a white 197 Cup with 120k miles going for £2825.
I viewed it, took it for a spin and it felt the best out of all the Clios I'd driven that day even though it had some questionable styling and smelled of dog wee, so I bought it.
I got it home, and managed to squeeze it into my garage.