Beddoe123's GW 200 CUP

[beddoe123]

Clio 200 Cup

BK60 SXX

I had taken loads of photos with the intention of starting a thread but just never got round to it. After finishing my engineering degree the other day, I decided to finally make one.



After buying a project 182 trophy in 2017, it reached wintertime. Not wanting to drive it in the miserable weather or take it with me to uni, I started looking at options. So, after selling my first car on my 19th birthday, the day after I found myself heading home at 4:00am through empty roads in the peak district in a 200 cup, with my mum leading the way in the trophy. The 200 (with Recaro’s) had been a dream attainable car for a while for me. The odd time to be traveling was due the bank not letting me transfer the money. O well.



So the car…

Good

Recaro’s

Cup pack

No crunching gearbox

Revs

Classic black and white colour combo (plus white is better for not showing scratches - because daily)

Bad

H&R springs looked good but the ride was crashy

Rattling engine torque mount

Brakes seemed to not be 100%

Tyres weren’t great

No aircon or cruise control because race car



2017 Work Done:

• First to tick of the list was a clean
• New cambelt which was needed due to the mileage. The car was dropped of at Diamond motors with mick.

Bike transport duties.



And the weather that winter was white.

2018 Work Done:

• Fitted a non res scorpion exhaust. It felt a bit boring after driving the trophy with its ktec exhaust.

Empty uni carpark



It was clean before I set off. Honest. Worth it though, as the 3 hrs of back roads to Bike Park Wales from my uni were epic.



The winter had taken its toll on the car and I found towards the rear callipers were sticking. So that summer I took the opportunity to refresh the whole braking system and fitted Powerflex engine mounts. The ditch finder tyres also need changing.

2018 Work done:

• Refurbished the brake callipers with new seals pistons and paint at BCS Automotive Nottingham
• Braided brake lines
• Mr Pinks Pins
• Brembo pads front and rear
• New brake discs front and rear
• PFC RH665 brake fluid
• Powerflex all the engine mounts
• 4 X Michelin PS4
• New window vinyl and CUP badges

Surprise. Sticky rear calipers.





Fresh and refurbished bits to go back on. Forgot to ask for the brembo decals.














All done ready to head back to uni. And drive it.



After all the work, I felt it was the ideal opportunity to try it out on track. Booked my first track day and had my dad and a friend from uni down as additional drivers. It performed faultlessly all day.











Spring 2019



Summer 2019

I then had my placement year. Ended up finding an engineering placement in Scotland and lived in Grantown on Spey. Yeh the commute was all right, I guess. Turned out to live next to the start of one of the best roads in the UK. The Old Military Road. So, it would have been rude not to go for a few drives after work.

Road to Aviemore ski area




The Old Milatary Road

Coincidently, there was some very good mountain biking along this road, which made for some good days out.





Autumn 2019

 

[beddoe123]

Autumn 2019

Lecht Ski Centre





Winter 2019

Autumn turned into winter. This made keeping the car clean particularly hard not only because of the salty muddy roads, but also because the temperatures dropped so low.

Here are some wintery photos from the time.







Going along the Old military road in these conditions was certainly eye opening.



The cold temperatures played and grimy conditions havoc with the car. Some days it was as low as -8 °C making even getting in the car hard. Snow also came.









I noticed the car was struggling under acceleration and was gradually getting worse. Limping the car back home at Christmas was very touch and go weather we would make it.



2020 Work Done:

Upon reaching home the car was taken to Mick at Diamond Motor by car transporter. In the end it turned out to be a map sensor and thermostat. Presumably, the cold weather and age killed these off. Whilst there the car also had its gearbox refurbished with a new clutch and slave cylinder.

When I got the car back, the handbrake was also sticking. Some new handbrake cables sorted this.




After this the car was great. Not much needed doing through 2020, due to it seeing little use and trophy rebuild taking up most of my time.

If you like seeing rusty things made shiny, i made a thread on ClioTrophy. Its car 007/500.



Few pics from 2020







Stopped off a Cheddar Gorge on the way to a friend, as i'd never been.







The car was fine for a while, until the steering started to feel vague and would follow cambers in the road. Indicating the hub ball joints were gone.

I then didn’t use the car much because of this.

2021 Work Done:

• New cup dampers
• New Grams springs
• New top mounts
• New hub and wishbone ball joints
• New Anti rotation links
• New ARB links

I then used the modified ball joint tool suggested on here to replace all the ball joints. Along with new cup dampers, grams springs and suspension refresh to improve the steering and ride comfort. I was wanting some coil overs however, didn’t fancy the idea of knackering them in winter and the additional cost, with it being mainly a road car.

I must say getting the old ball joints out was quite a task.



I compressed the old dampers to see how bad they were. Made some bubbles and squirted oil out. Safe to say they were toast.





Dynax UC over everything to keep it looking nice.



Front H&R vs Grams springs

 

[beddoe123]

Rear H&R vs Grams springs







Back on the ground. Really happy with the cup dampers and grams springs. A lot less crashy. Price vs performance are very good.

 

[beddoe123]

Summer 2021

I had only driven the car a couple of thousand miles before it needed some more attention. The brakes were juddering and the stopping performance was not great. I didn’t use the car for a while because of this and instead opted to just use the trophy.



After looking into it I found the front pads and disks were long gone and ordered some new bits. However, upon jacking the car up to fit the parts I found the bleed nipples had seized. Then after snapping one I decide it was best to let a brake specialist sort them out. I had to cut the rear brake lines to get them off and dropped all the callipers off at BCS in Nottingham. They removed and replaced the nipples and added some fresh decals.

Whilst the brakes were off, I had a look under the car to see how it was fairing. The rear axle was heavily corroded, so I wanted to paint that. But as I took the parts of the car to get to it, I started to uncover more corrosion. In the end what started as a simple replacement of the front discs, pads, paint the rear axle and bleed the brakes turned into pretty much a full underside restoration from the front subframe back. With a few touches to make the car a very useable daily (well as much as possible) capable of smashing out a track day with no problems.









Very dirty and a bit of rust.



The Radiator support I had painted a while ago also had rust reappearing.







The abs sensors had had it.





After removing everything I started to clean the underside removing all the dirt and under seal.

Top tip for removing the underseal is to use sticky stuff remover. Brush it on and it can be wiped off.





Half cleaned.



Both sides cleaned.



Dirty rear wheel arches.



Sadly the dirt was hiding some rust.

 

[beddoe123]

With the underside mostly clean I then went over a second time with POR15 degreaser.



Next, I removed the rust using wire wheels, flap discs and a Dremel.





The bare metal was then treated with POR15 metal prep.



The areas were then painted with POR15 rust preventative paint.





The underside was scuffed up and masked off ready to be painted in UPOL Raptor. First time using this stuff and will definitely be using it in the future. Even if it was really messy.











After the shell had been treated my attention moved to the parts I had taken off.



I soaked the bungs and clips in degreaser and order a few more where they were missing.



The parts taken off (apart from the subrame brace).







To remove the rust, I wire wheeled the worst off and then constructed a tank to soak the parts overnight in Bilt Hamber Deox-C.







Went to Goodwood FOS for a break before progressed resumed.

I then repaired the heatshields by gluing washers onto them using heat resistant glue. The glue would isolate the two different metals and hopefully stop the galvanic corrosion. The rear heat shield was a bit more involved and require a new piece cutting out and patching in. Ideally, I would have bought new ones but this helped keep the costs down.





















I then fitted the new wishbone bushes as these were the only remaining items to be replaced on the front end after the suspension refresh earlier in the year.

New vs old.







I decide to change the engine mounts back to standard as well to reduce some of the NVH for daily use.








It was then time to paint the parts that had been soaking in the Deox-C. After rising them clean they looked like new.









Once again, the bare metal cleaned with POR15 degreaser then treated with POR15 metal prep before being painted in POR15 rust preventative paint. Depending on the colour they were then painted in silver or black POR15 topcoat.



The clothing line made a useful drying rack.



And a apple tree.



I dusted the parts with etch primer before the topcoat so I could see where I’d painted.





POR15 Topcoat on.





Whilst the paint was out, I also touched up the ARB. The subframe brace was also replaced due to old one being bent.











The bolt which holds the rear diffuser on was the only one to snap. This was also repaired with the help of a welder friend.









Whilst parts where still drying, I applied some fresh cavity wax and refitted the rubber bungs and clip to the underside.







Once they had dried all the parts were then reassembled starting with the rear axle.



Some 10mm PMS stub axle spacers were fitted along with new OEM axle bushes to keep the car daily friendly.





Rear exhaust hangers refitted. These were probable the most corroded things on the underside.



Axle was then refitted along with some new ABS sensor holders.





The fuel tank was cleaned up and refitted.





Next up was addressing the brakes. After the first attempt to fit them, I found the rear callipers had seized. I managed to rectify this with some jiggery pokery and plenty of grease. These were refitted with PBS ProRace pads, PFC 665 fluid, Mtec discs and braided rear axle brake lines after the old were cut to remove the callipers. Safe to say the old pads were long gone. One pad had worn unevenly and fell apart when I removed it.









I then refitted the existing braided lines with some new clips along with the handbrake cables. Had to bodge the brake clips slightly with some washers as they weren’t quite the right size. Worked fine on the trophy but o well will do the job.







More PMS stuff. This time an exhaust. Keeping the track ready daily style going the non res Scorpion needed to go. It was just too droney for anything remotely long distance. An an Akrapovic sounded the ideal solution. Good noise when going for it and no drone when not. But the cost had just been bumped to £1500.

So I went for the PMS equivalent. Resonated and without the sports cat or manifold. This in theory would be like the Akrapovic having big resonators, secondary decat and being reliant on the manifold cat.



Old vs New.



Fitted.





Then some new projector lights were fitted after alot of head scratching. Found one of the head light fuses had gone but got them working in the end.



Next up the refreshed wish bones and new radiator support from BTT.







Front discs then went on and a PMS stud nut conversion kit and 10mm spacer.











New undertray to replace the drift spec one.



The arch liners and diffuser were cleaned up and one liner was replaced.









All back together after 3 weeks actually working on it.



And back out the garage after 3 months.

Quick drive down the road to check it wasn’t going to fall apart.



The car was booked in for some new AD08RS tyres ready for a MOT.

Booked in that day but it didn’t go so smoothly after that.

Passed emissions with just the precat, however hadn’t fitted the exhaust to well so the was a leak and hence the emergency silicone came out to get it to pass. Next the mishap was the lights. Turn out after looking on this very forum and seeing that someone had bought LHD lights by mistake and checking before I ordered I had also fallen into the same trap and done the same trap due to misunderstanding the description. The light also would not adjust high enough. So, I painfully had to the drive of shame back home to then remove the lights fit the old ones and return the next morning. I used the opportunity for some photos.









Upon my return we then found the old lights also would not adjust high enough no matter how hard I tried. So back home I went. This time I decided to leave the bumper partly attached and head back to the test station with a bag of washers just in case.



In the end it took some manual adjustment with washer to pass. Think I must have damaged the adjuster motor with all the messing around.

 

[beddoe123]

Then as if by magic found some RHD projector the next day with adjuster motors. The lenses were a bit sun damaged, but for the asking price I really couldn’t complain. Worth it for the adjusters alone. In the end they fixed all my issues, and a lesson was learnt. Whilst at it I also adjusted a rattly heat shield.

New (LHD) vs Used (RHD)





The car was then ready for its baptism of fire at Cadwell Park. My first time there and I was excited to test the car.



After nervous sighting laps I started to build pace. The AD08RS tyres behaved as I expected. Similar grip levels to the previous PS4 but lasting longer before going off. The stiffer side walls improving turn in and reducing wear on the shoulders. Had some good battles with other cars and only one squeaky bum moment going through halls bends with too much gusto. One annoyance was the front tyres overheating quite quickly causing understeer. Creating the need for some aggressive trail braking.

To say the car had minimal mods and a full interior with my dad as a passenger I was really happy with the performance. Managing to catch quite a few higher-powered or more track dedicated cars.

Also happy with the exhaust. As I hoped it's very quiet at idle and cruising. Probably not far off standard one. Put your foot down and it still sounds great with a few nice subtle crackles and pops when warm. The noise tester at Cadwell said I need to try harder next time. 5700rpm was 90dB if I remember correctly.

At the end of the day the car was faultless and happy to be thrashed and pootle back home. Baby GT3? Clutching straws maybe?

Was spotted and photo'd by a Facebook group member. Clio fwend



Then to add to the cars all-round ability I then also took it to a car show/pub meet.













Some nice cars but could have more than 40 clio 200's or a Lambo SVJ

Well done if you got this far

 

[EthanMenace]

Looking good Must be very satisfying to know the whole underside is sorted for a long while now.

 

[beddoe123]

Looking good Must be very satisfying to know the whole underside is sorted for a long while now.

Definitely. Thanks. Feels like new with all the work this year.