197 tuning newbie questions

[Clio chris 197]

Hi, I brought my first 197 last night to use as a daily and track toy. I plan to go back to the Nurburgring and spa next year with it.
I brought it knowing that the exhaust flexes are blowing and that the cam belt needs doing, as well as a good service etc.
My question is while it’s having the cam belt done it would make sense to uprate the cams at the same time if their worth doing, and change the manifold And exhaust if again there are performance gains to be made.
Then handling wise what mods to people go for? Cup struts with uprated springs, or coilovers, roll bars, spacers etc.

 

[J18NYR]

With these cars handling wise it's down to how much you want to spend? What is your intentions?
For me if you are using it daily and planing road trips then a refresh of all components for genuine Renault with cup shocks and some cooksport spring is where I would put my money.
If your going to be tracking it 1/2 a month then coilovers like Gaz gold seam the happy medium with spring rates that suit your driving style, too mounts to gain camber and maybe rear shims. Then getting it set up by someone that knows what their doing will pay dividends.

Engine wise these are were they need to be really. To get any more then it's big money to say NA. If you want out and out power then turbo is your biggest bang for your buck.
Sure you can do a few breathing mods and a remap but the exhaust manifold is good enough. Changing the rest of the system will give you some more noise but not much gain.
Cams - yes would be worth doing while the belt is off but I would say to get the most from them it would; V6 airbox, sports cat, change the rest of the cat back and then have a remap. Again a lot of money for me, better put into handling mods, tyres and brakes.

 

[Clio chris 197]

With these cars handling wise it's down to how much you want to spend? What is your intentions?
For me if you are using it daily and planing road trips then a refresh of all components for genuine Renault with cup shocks and some cooksport spring is where I would put my money.
If your going to be tracking it 1/2 a month then coilovers like Gaz gold seam the happy medium with spring rates that suit your driving style, too mounts to gain camber and maybe rear shims. Then getting it set up by someone that knows what their doing will pay dividends.

Engine wise these are were they need to be really. To get any more then it's big money to say NA. If you want out and out power then turbo is your biggest bang for your buck.
Sure you can do a few breathing mods and a remap but the exhaust manifold is good enough. Changing the rest of the system will give you some more noise but not much gain.
Cams - yes would be worth doing while the belt is off but I would say to get the most from them it would; V6 airbox, sports cat, change the rest of the cat back and then have a remap. Again a lot of money for me, better put into handling mods, tyres and brakes.

Thanks J18NYR.
Brakes wise it already has the Brembos and pretty big discs on, so I was thinking it’ll just be a case of putting a set of decent discs on and up rated pads for the track.
Tyres wise I’m going to get another set of wheels, running something like Michelin pilot sports on the road and some track tyres, yoko/ Nankang/ Toyo’s.
I’m definitely going to look at top mounts and a suspension set up, who would you recommend? Are there threads on here to point me in the right direction?
Rear shims, is that instead of the spacers people seem to fit Or as well as ?
The exhaust flex’s are blowing at the moment, I’ve read the polyflex top engine mount is the fix for this, and if the standard manifold is good enough, I’ll get some new flex’s welded on, or deleted. I was looking at the k-tech manifold, but if there’s no gains then theres no point
I’ll look into the cooksport springs/ gaz in more detail

 

[RSRowe]

It depends how much you're wanting to spend ultimately. I don't have cams personally - the additional cost of buying them prevented me from fitting them when I did my cambelt. It seems like alot of money for not much gains.

Standard manifold with welded flexis is plenty sufficient, though alot of people fit the Toyosports manifolds are they're very cheap. It's worth getting all engine bushes as opposed to just the one.
Handling, you'll not go too far wrong with cup shocks and H&R springs until you start getting a little more serious. I've ran them on track here and over at the ring for a number of years, and they've been fantastic. I only really 'upgraded' to Gaz coilovers for the camber adjustability, as I was ruining my fronts tyres very quickly.
Brakes, standard front and rear discs are fine. Braided lines, SRF or RBF660 fluid, and some quality front pads will do you good. DS1.11 are very common on here, though I've never got on with them. For rear pads I would suggest something a little less serious, such as M1144 or Yellowstuffs.


Like I said, it's how much you want to get into it all. You can do it cheaply, or you can spend a decent amount of coin from the outset.

 

[PITA]

If you’re Midlands based I’d take a trip to String Theory in Stratford upon Avon when you want your geometry set up. It’s not cheap but he knows his stuff.

As mentioned above, it all really depends on what you want from the car and the budget. Before you know it, you’ve spent more on mods than you paid for the car.

 

[bedoef]

Echoing the other sentiments on here, the Clio is a momentum car. If you just want power, get / make a Meglio (megan 225 or 230 engine and gearbox swap).

Handling investments pay dividends on track. The car is a blast to drive stock when its fresh. You will need to give it time to settle for changes in direction and take your time going into and out of corners bc of tire grip / no LSD. These things can all be addressed with mods. Only power mod I would suggest would be a drop in tune to help liven up the car a bit.

The NA power route is not worth it unless you truly love the car. To get max NA power, you would ultimately need better headers (roughly 600), cams (700ish), ITBs (1500++), standalone ECU + wiring (who knows), tuning. And you will only end up around 220 bhp to the wheels if you are lucky on pump gas.

My 2c - work on handling and get a drop in tune until you get bored, then look at a meglio upgrade. Buy one with it sorted already and enjoy

 

[NickD]

Would agree with everything above. A standard car is great fun. Don't underestimate the pleasure of a high revving NA engine regardless of the "lack" of power as you can keep up with other things. It is a very common thing to want more power, but there is always someone faster no mater how much you have and you just catch up slower traffic quicker. There is great joy in being the underdog. I agree with Bedoef that a standard car can feel a little wobblily in rapid changes in direction, although I have also known people make their car less fun by having their suspension too well tied down. And rather than having more power a slippy diff that can put the power down would be the better option.
This is a standard car, not even the cup chassis that I was told it was. It has not got bags of power, but keeps up. You can see the direction change issue, or fun at 4 minutes depending on how you view it. Bet advice is drive it and enjoy it until you think you need more.

 

[Clio chris 197]

Would agree with everything above. A standard car is great fun. Don't underestimate the pleasure of a high revving NA engine regardless of the "lack" of power as you can keep up with other things. It is a very common thing to want more power, but there is always someone faster no mater how much you have and you just catch up slower traffic quicker. There is great joy in being the underdog. I agree with Bedoef that a standard car can feel a little wobblily in rapid changes in direction, although I have also known people make their car less fun by having their suspension too well tied down. And rather than having more power a slippy diff that can put the power down would be the better option.
This is a standard car, not even the cup chassis that I was told it was. It has not got bags of power, but keeps up. You can see the direction change issue, or fun at 4 minutes depending on how you view it. Bet advice is drive it and enjoy it until you think you need more.

I’m fully onboard with high reving engines, my race car has a hayabusa motorbike engine fitted, which only has about 110 ft lb of torque, but revs to 12,000
I’ll leave the engine and look at cup suspension, maybe wheel spacers, more research on here into handling upgrades.
I’ve renewed all the brake calipers, discs, pads and wheel bearings so far, and the cam belt, depharser and service is being done next week, hopefully do my first track day in it on the 4th, depending on work.

 

[bedoef]

Keep us posted!