I took the Clio to Donington Park on 6th November 2025 for a Track Obsession day.
@EthanMenace had a work trip to Los Angeles that clashed with the date so I had decided to do the track day without him. A few Clios were heading to Donington and I thought it would be a good day.
Over the past few weeks we had put on a brand new set of Direzzas, the car had been given a change of fluids which included engine oil, gearbox oil and the brakes had been given a good bleed.
I drove up the night before and stayed in a cheap and nasty Days Inn hotel nearby. I filled the Clio with some 99 ron fuel and filled two 20 litre fuel jugs. I was looking forward to having the Clio to myself all day and doing lots of laps. The gearbox had been a bit weird on the journey up to Donington and the brake pedal had felt a bit softer than usual. I didn't realise at the time that these were not just "French car" issues but were going to cause a problem on the track day.
On the morning of the track day I drove to Donington and the gearbox was still being odd. It would sometimes decide that it did not want to go in to 2nd gear and would sometimes crunch changing down to third.
The car was unpacked and it was obvious I was missing
@EthanMenace to do most of the spannering.
@Helpimonfire walked over when I was putting on the track wheels to point out that the Direzza treads were facing the wrong way!
I did the sighting laps. The gearbox continued to work sometimes and then play up a bit. This started to worry me as I had visions of the gearbox failing and having to get the car back to Essex.
I did a 30 minute stint on track and the gearbox was still not great - but it was still working. The last time I did the National track layout at Donington was in June 2024 when I had been lapping in around 1m 30s. My first session best lap time was a 1m 29s so not too bad for me despite the gearbox issues. I had decided for this track day to see if I could get through Craners without too much lifting off, and certainly no breaking.
By mid morning
@Beany and
@Tarticmonkey Clios had both decided that they did not want to work anymore with gearbox issues. It was a bit like our Clios had a contagious gearbox disease that was spreading through the paddock.
@Helpimonfire then said that his Clio had a massive judder under breaking that he later diagnosed as a possible front wheel bearing problem.
I wanted to get a compromise of being able to use the car without causing damage so that the day was not wasted. I then decided that I would go out and keep the car in 4th gear and just lap without changing gear. This solution had the obvious problem of hitting the limiter just before Redgate and on the back straight at Starkey's Straight. The car could get through the Fogarty Esses fine. My logic was if the car was not being stressed with repeated gear changes on track I might be able to enjoy the day.
Red flags were a problem.
By the end of the day I think that there had been 13 red flags. A Ginetta race car caused 2 red flags, several shit boxes just gave up on track, one car dropped it's coolant all over the start of Craners, and poor driving left a lot of people stranded in most of the gravel traps. We probably lost between 90 to 120 mins of track time due to the flags.
I only did 5 sessions on track all day. There were a few times when I got ready to go out on track and then a red flag happened. I knew that the light would fade before 5pm so it would be an early finish. There was a fairly long red flag about 4pm, I waited for all of the eager drivers to go out and then thought I would have a last 4th gear session but as soon as I pulled in to the pit lane the chequered flag came out.
@Big Ben very kindly took me out in his Cupra for some passenger laps. It was a different kind of beast to a Clio as it had a lot of power and was very comfortable inside.
The day was good but not great. I managed to sell off my excess fuel to Martin's mate Wes. I hardly used the tyres. I didn't crash. I got a 1m 28s time just using 4th gear round the entire track. I grew some balls and managed to get through Craners without breaking and only lifting off slightly.
Spending most of my time in 4th gear probably meant that I tried to focus on carrying speed rather than using the brakes excessively and trying to make up for it with gear changes and a heavy right foot. Even though I was driving about in 4th gear I was still keeping up and overtaking other Clios (not forum members) on track. There was a good turnout of Clio 197/200s at Donington and probably about 12 of them on track.
On the downside I had a missed opportunity to have the whole day in the Clio and the gearbox shenanigans had stopped that.
I am not exactly sure that the gearbox issue is but I am fairly sure it is slave related. The car was working perfectly before the brake fluid was bled. If the car started from cold it would go in to 1st, 2nd, 3rd and upwards without an issue but when you wanted to downshift from 4th to 3rd it would "catch" and crunch very slightly. It didn't like shifting down from 5th to 4th either. Also, when the car had been moving it refused to engage 2nd gear which meant coasting back in from a session in to the paddock. It did not crunch when trying to get it in to second, it just refused to get in to gear. The car was suffering with clutch drag so that if it was in 2nd after a track session and the clutch pedal was to the floor the car would still gently pull like an automatic car if the brakes were not applied.
I limped the car home to Essex last night and the clutch pedal was not feeling as stiff as it usually does. The brake pedal was also a bit softer throughout the day. Normally our Clio had a very firm brake pedal and there is not much movement in the brake pedal. One thing I did learn on the journey home was that if the car refused to go in to second gear (not crunching but just refusing to go in to gear) if I lifted my foot off of the clutch slightly the car would then slot in to gear. It didn't help that the first 30 minutes of my journey was stop start traffic on the M1 caused by an accident.
The first thing to check with the car is whether or not bleeding the slave can cure the problem. If not it might be time for another gearbox rebuild.
I had the GoPros in the Clio yesterday but have not looked at any of the footage yet. I am fairly sure I caught some examples of terrible driving on track like the Porsche Boxter who just blew enormous amounts of smoke and oil out of his car all day long, the Lotus Elan driver who pushed his car too far and spun off, cars sat in gravel traps, or cars just heading off at Redgate as they could not stop in time.
We have not got any more track days booked at the moment but we will be booking on to the June/July date for the Circuit Days track day at the Nurburgring in 2026 when they release the date in early December 2025. I am sure that the car will back working again soon if it is just a slave cylinder issue.
