Glacier White 200 Cup

We took the Clio to AW Motorworks today to get an alignment done. The gearbox had been dropped out of the car a few times since the last alignment so we knew that the alignment would be slightly out. We also wanted to see if more camber would help with tyre wear on the outside edge of the front wheels.

When we got to AW Motorworks there were quite a few people about who were making various suggestions for a geo set up. I wanted to go a little bit more aggressive generally and was I then enlightened about the importance of caster. Eventually we agreed to go for 4 degrees of negative camber at the front with 5 minutes of toe in for each wheel at the front. At the rear we decided to go just over 2 degrees of negative camber but more toe out with about 15 minutes out on each side.

The idea was that caster is pretty much fixed at about 6 degrees even with a cup racer front end and Gaz Gold top mounts would not give any extra caster. The front of the car was really stable and both @EthanMenace and I were happy with the turn in. After showing a photo of the wear on the last set of tyres we took off the car it was suggested that we had graining on the fronts as the rear of the car was too stable. If we could make the rear more lively with some toe in and higher tyre pressures we could get more rotation in the rear of the car that may help with tyre wear at the front.



This is how the car was set up eventually.



Over a year ago the rear beam was shimmed by Alex and when he did not have a shim that was the right size he cut up a can of Monster and used that as a shim. I am pleased to say that the Monster can shim is still part of the rear beam set up.

Whilst the car was on the ramps it was pointed out that the drivers side rear Gaz damper has a very slight leak so that will need to be rebuilt soon.

We were also given the idea to consider adding another bump stop, or a bigger bump stop to the front Gaz Gold dampers to see if that would stop the front wheels eating in to the front bumper. Another idea we were given was to buy some PMS top mounts as they can give a bit more caster.

Our exhaust is hanging low again and needs to be tightened up so that the elbow near to the rear beam stops twisting and coming down.

We have had front and rear track door cards delivered from Track Car Door Cards but they won't be installed until after we come back from Germany.

We now need to book a track day in early June to test out the new alignment.

On the short term to do list is:

1. Sort out the exhaust
2. Remove and rebuild the rear Gaz dampers
3. Buy and fit a set of PMS top mounts

We have just booked on to a MSV track day at Snetterton on Monday 2nd June 2025.

It will be a chance to push the car with the new geo set up to see what it feels like on a track that we are both familiar with.

LiamP said:

Jesus, good luck with Coram with that much toe out

Regarding the bump stops I did a lot of work to stop the car hitting the bump stops as it makes the car very tricky to handle under compression. I was getting an oscillating type motion that was causing the car to load/unload the front tyres.

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You are filling me with confidence. If it is awful we can go back to a tamer set up.

LiamP said:

Sorry don’t want to scare you but 15 minutes toe out is very aggressive, I imagine in the racers with Cook at the wheel they probably ran this much but it’s going to be loose especially on the brakes whilst cornering hence mentioning Coram.

The toe in on the front should help things but not sure I know of anyone who has run a setup like this, might be optimal

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On track days most of the time we are both in the car, I am not particularly light, so I would expect the car to be carrying an extra 80 to 90 kilos of weight compared to other track cars. It was suggested to us that we had graining on the front tyres on the last set of Direzzas we used because we were over working the front of the car by just dragging the rear of the car around the track. The proposed solution was to make the back end a bit more lively so that the extra rotation would help share the work that the front tyres were doing.

As we all know I am no expert when it comes to cars. I really do value people's opinions, particularly when you (@LiamP ) have raced your Clio and are a current Hot Hatch champion. I am willing to make changes and see if things can be improved. It could all be a disaster but we are trying to cater for two largish men sitting in the car where in the past the back axle has been really stable.

I have absolutely no idea whether our additional weight will impact on the rear toe out.

I think that if the rear axle does get really loose at Snetterton we can throw some spacers on the rear to widen the rear track and give it a bit more stability.

We got a few jobs done on the Clio over the weekend.

First job was to replace the old sun strip that had bubbled and perished. It had been on the Clio for a few years so I had done well as a cheap bit of vinyl from eBay. It was a horrible job removing the old sun strip as the black plastic peeled off and left about 50% of the adhesive stuck to the windscreen. After using a lot of glue and tar remover the glue was off of the windscreen. The new sun strip was from a chap on Instagram called @taylormadedecals. I told him what I wanted and sent over some image files and he then printed it out on air release vinyl.



The air release vinyl was a lot easier to use when the sun strip went on to the car. I think that the new sun strip looks good. We will soon find out if the windscreen wipers are going to ruin the sun strip and either tear it off, or scratch off the design.



The next task was to replace the door kick plates. I had seen a French chap selling kick plates on Instagram and got in touch with him about 2 months ago. He sent me some yellow and black kick plates but the first set he sent me did not have enough lacquer on them and were peeling when they arrived. He was really good about the issue and sent me out another set free of charge.

@EthanMenace removed the old silver kick plates with some fishing line and then left me the task of trying to get the old foam backed adhesive off of the side skirts. Another horrible job which required a lot of scraping with a trim removal tool and more glue and tar remover.



When all of the glue remnants had been removed the new kick plates were stuck down.



The combination of the yellow and black compliments the existing colour scheme in the car.



The third job was to replace the exhaust clamp at the rear of the car where the centre section and back box connect. Every 6 months or so our exhaust clamp decides it has had enough and then the elbow of the exhaust twists and ends up dipping on the rear axle. Hopefully the new exhaust clamp will last longer than 6 months this time.

We are off to Snetterton tomorrow, 2nd June 2026, for a MSV track day to test out the new geo settings on the Clio and see if the rear toe is okay, or too much. I gave the Clio a quake clean to make sure it was presentable for the track day.



Provided that noting goes terribly wrong at Snetterton the next task will be to put in a new clutch.



The gear changes still are not quite right and it was cheaper to buy a new clutch than rebuild the gearbox so we thought why not? When the old clutch comes out we will see if it is damaged at all, if it is not we will still put in the new clutch, make sure the slave is fully primed and hope for the best. We would ideally like to have the gear change issue sorted before we head off to the Nurburgring at the end of June 2026. The only other task, at the moment, that we need to sort out before we go to Germany is to take off the rear dampers and drop them in to Gazmatic to get them serviced. One of the rear dampers is weeping.