Yellow

Had the clio at AW for Alex to take a look at the hesitation and confirm niagra falls running down the front of my rad is in fact the A/C. No smoking gun or giveaway codes for the hesitation sadly so i think mostly cleaning some bits and replacing plugs as a start - hoping it doesnt become too much of a problem at snett.

Also got these now.. very excited, but need to get them fitted (went the other day and my tyre guy had shut up early.. sigh):
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Oh and at some point i'll get some practice on our new office sim rig..

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ok, turns out 'more than 5 mods' is the problem on comparison sites. back to 750 now with LV, automated system had ticked the wrong box.
 
Ok so Snetterton..

Started off well, ended badly. TLDR: probably a new engine, but jury is out as havent had a proper look yet. Worst case it gets a very lightly used one with upgrades for reliability.

departed crazy early from south london, clear run all the way there…

Realised quickly my hectic week meant i hadnt done any of the briefing/sign on, so my wheel swap time was spent ‘watching’ the briefs and then dashing to sign on and morning brief.

About 300 other clios arrived and we managed to get 4 garages adjacent, sharing with me was @Beany - wondering who this clueless idiot was who spoke like a southern monkey.

First time at Snetterton so i sat through the extended newbie brief and did an early instruction session - hoping to be shown the line instead apparently i’d worked most of that out so he spent 10 mins teaching me btcc fwd car handling tricks.. which to be fair did knock off a lot of time but a tad keen for 10am after only the sighting laps.

First two sessions were quite busy and focussed on learning the instructors tekkers rather than actual complete laps so a few 1:34 to 1:37 in traffic.

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As the day progressed i managed a few sessions tailing (and also holding up..) the other clio197 folks so learnt a little, got down to 1:29s.

Towards the end of the day i went out with Wes .. who showed me his aggressive 1:24 line.. i got a decent handful of 1:26 times, best was 1:26:05. Was thinking id harden up the front shocks and go out again solo, hoping to get in to the 1:25s. One last lap .. pulling in third on to the back straight, shifted to 4th, Full throttle.. a few seconds later and i’m creating a large white mushroom cloud behind, visible across the entire track… with some caterhams and corvettes coming out of the smoke like matthew kelly on stars in their eyes..

Still unsure on the actual damage, i’d guess head gasket but fundamentally it was a recovery truck home where it’s parked awaiting a lift to AW for repairs.

The car is in such good shape otherwise so it’l be no expense spared repairing it, perhaps with some reliability upgrades thrown in. No huge hurry as it’l never make donny on 13th (jinxed myself there..), so GT3 is coming out to play for that.

Generally a great day, with good behavior on track and a solid clio presence of nice folks. Perhaps a little busy at times but the track swallows numbers easily so would certainly like to go back.. i hear 2:17 is dooable… (edit, not 1:17.. my brain keeps remembering similar laptimes from f1 simulator..) the only negative was a large number of red flags, mostly due to the fun cup beetles that couldnt manage 5 laps nevermind the 4 hour endurance race they were prepping for at the weekend!

Videos to come, currently helping the very preggars wife relax in greece whilst plotting the clio’s return…

Oh and i did a nice little spin scrubbing in the new tyres.. apparently snett isnt an easy track to scrub in rears.. i had thought 3 laps was enough!


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The car is in such good shape otherwise so it’l be no expense spared repairing it, perhaps with some reliability upgrades thrown in. No huge hurry as it’l never make donny on 13th (jinxed myself there..), so GT3 is coming out to play for that.

Generally a great day, with good behavior on track and a solid clio presence of nice folks. Perhaps a little busy at times but the track swallows numbers easily so would certainly like to go back.. i hear 1:17 is dooable…
Fingers crossed that it is just something like a head gasket. There did not seem to be any oil spilling out of the engine bay and there were no obvious signs of damage like a piston hanging out of the block.

I am looking forward to my passenger laps at Donington!

I am not sure what track you were on but 2m 17s is a good lap time for a Clio - 1m 17s would be about half way round at Snetterton. I will probably never be this fast but with the car set up you have now it is certainly capable of a 2m 17s lap.

 
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Fingers crossed that it is just something like a head gasket. There did not seem to be any oil spilling out of the engine bay and there were no obvious signs of damage like a piston hanging out of the block.

I am looking forward to my passenger laps at Donington!

I am not sure what track you were on but 2m 17s is a good lap time for a Clio - 1m 17s would be about half way round at Snetterton. I will probably never be this fast but with the car set up you have now it is certainly capable of a 2m 17s lap.


Hahah i keep writing 1 when i mean 2. I was referring to Ethan’s time!
 
Expect a lot of Shed dwelling sim racing Nerds who have turned up to spectate expecting racing not quite understanding what a track day is.

Jimmer is a great content creator and great person being frank (I met him at time attack Cadwell last year and he was really quite a cool guy to talk to). He also owns and races a Praga as well as few other bits.
 
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