So after my first year of Clio ownership I thought I would share my experience.
I bought the car with just over 90k miles on the clock and everything seemed in good shape considering.
And so the journey began! I had it booked in with Edge Automotive for the Recaros and steering wheel to be refurbished. Steve did an incredible job and it really made the car feel like a nice place to be!
As the primary purpose was for track days, it was best to have someone to look at the car. Fortunately my brother is a mechanic and he said it looked in good shape.
High on the list of upgrades was brakes, so I ordered Ferodo DS1.11 and Brembo HC Discs for the front and Ferodo DS2500 on the rear with braided lines. Naturally along the way not all went to plan, so a refurbished rear caliper was bought and fitted. My brother also enjoyed removing the seized brake pins, which we then replaced with some Mr Pink Pins to try and avoid a repeat in future!
Not being an expert of Clio’s and not knowing the full history my brother advised I had a specialist look at the car. This prompted a visit to K Tec for a health check and service which lead to a few small but fixable issues being uncovered. Of course whilst I was there I had the car put on the rolling road which yielded 188bhp, which I didn’t think was too bad!
By this time the car was ready for its first track day, which was Oulton Park. The car blew me away, but there were early warning signs of a common issue developing....
Less than a month later my friends and I booked on at Silverstone for a cold damp December track day. Learning more and more about the car it uncovered 2 things that needed to be resolved.
The Christmas break left me with time to think, knowing the gearbox has to be refurbed I weighed up a number of options. I had also reflected on the track experiences and wanted to go down the harness and stripped out approach to feel more from car.
What followed surprised myself (and my bank balance); I had a half cage on its way from SW Motorsport and was booked back in with K Tec for the gearbox refurb. As it was being looked at I had them resolve some of the advisory fixes from my previous visit and had ordered harnesses, clubsport bucket seats to replace the heavier Recaros (yes after the refurb) and an 4H Tech short shift to reduce the gear throw.
My act of lunacy came when I decided ‘why not’ and opted for their full engine back exhaust, induction kit, sports cat and remap.
In true fashion I had also booked track days for late March, so whilst some work was to be done by K Tec, the cage and seat install was going to be handled by my brother and myself. So we had a race against the clock fitting it all in!
The cage was a good fit and relatively straightforward, although in forgetting to remove the rear view mirror it cracked the windscreen. Never mind, lesson learned. The seats were fun! Besides no holes lining up and then we discovered the need for an additional anchor point for the harness. We opted to use the Schroth harness eyes in the end which proved to be a great solution. The final upgrade was tyres, so I bought some Michelin PS4 to finish it off.
It then came to the track days themselves, and the car was a different beast all together. The change of weight distribution and stiffness was apparent along with the additional performance which was now running at 203bhp. Despite being financially very poor, I was overjoyed at the result. The track days at Cadwell and Snetterton (21st and 23rd March) proved to be the last outings before lockdown, so I was also incredibly lucky I got to drive.
Once lockdown eased, I was back out there at Snetterton and Cadwell on 10th and 25th June. Besides the car being fantastic, me learning more and more each outing, it was also a much-needed respite from the outside world.
Naturally there is always more to do on the car and, with the age of the car, things to keep an eye on. Having recently discovered Beaniesport is very local to me, Chris looked over the car and advised of some minor things to look at that will prevent headaches in future. So more to be added to the shopping list.
In the mean time I have door cards and foot plates arriving to allow me ‘tidy up’ the interior and lose some more weight from the car. And then to get to the gym to lose weight from the driver...
As for the future, from a parts and performance perspective a Quaife diff and KW Clubsport coil overs are the current plan and from a driving perspective I’m considering lessons to try and speed up my track day learning curve and get more out of the car.
I would like to add that this community is fantastic and has provided ideas, inspirations and solutions through my short ownership period.
I realise it’s a big update to start with, for those that made it to the end, thank you for taking the time and I hope you enjoyed it.
I bought the car with just over 90k miles on the clock and everything seemed in good shape considering.
And so the journey began! I had it booked in with Edge Automotive for the Recaros and steering wheel to be refurbished. Steve did an incredible job and it really made the car feel like a nice place to be!
As the primary purpose was for track days, it was best to have someone to look at the car. Fortunately my brother is a mechanic and he said it looked in good shape.
High on the list of upgrades was brakes, so I ordered Ferodo DS1.11 and Brembo HC Discs for the front and Ferodo DS2500 on the rear with braided lines. Naturally along the way not all went to plan, so a refurbished rear caliper was bought and fitted. My brother also enjoyed removing the seized brake pins, which we then replaced with some Mr Pink Pins to try and avoid a repeat in future!
Not being an expert of Clio’s and not knowing the full history my brother advised I had a specialist look at the car. This prompted a visit to K Tec for a health check and service which lead to a few small but fixable issues being uncovered. Of course whilst I was there I had the car put on the rolling road which yielded 188bhp, which I didn’t think was too bad!
By this time the car was ready for its first track day, which was Oulton Park. The car blew me away, but there were early warning signs of a common issue developing....
Less than a month later my friends and I booked on at Silverstone for a cold damp December track day. Learning more and more about the car it uncovered 2 things that needed to be resolved.
- Tyres, these were not changed since buying it and were a mix of 3 brands across 4 wheels, which was not great and just let the car down.
- Gearbox, the crunch appeared.
The Christmas break left me with time to think, knowing the gearbox has to be refurbed I weighed up a number of options. I had also reflected on the track experiences and wanted to go down the harness and stripped out approach to feel more from car.
What followed surprised myself (and my bank balance); I had a half cage on its way from SW Motorsport and was booked back in with K Tec for the gearbox refurb. As it was being looked at I had them resolve some of the advisory fixes from my previous visit and had ordered harnesses, clubsport bucket seats to replace the heavier Recaros (yes after the refurb) and an 4H Tech short shift to reduce the gear throw.
My act of lunacy came when I decided ‘why not’ and opted for their full engine back exhaust, induction kit, sports cat and remap.
In true fashion I had also booked track days for late March, so whilst some work was to be done by K Tec, the cage and seat install was going to be handled by my brother and myself. So we had a race against the clock fitting it all in!
The cage was a good fit and relatively straightforward, although in forgetting to remove the rear view mirror it cracked the windscreen. Never mind, lesson learned. The seats were fun! Besides no holes lining up and then we discovered the need for an additional anchor point for the harness. We opted to use the Schroth harness eyes in the end which proved to be a great solution. The final upgrade was tyres, so I bought some Michelin PS4 to finish it off.
It then came to the track days themselves, and the car was a different beast all together. The change of weight distribution and stiffness was apparent along with the additional performance which was now running at 203bhp. Despite being financially very poor, I was overjoyed at the result. The track days at Cadwell and Snetterton (21st and 23rd March) proved to be the last outings before lockdown, so I was also incredibly lucky I got to drive.
Once lockdown eased, I was back out there at Snetterton and Cadwell on 10th and 25th June. Besides the car being fantastic, me learning more and more each outing, it was also a much-needed respite from the outside world.
Naturally there is always more to do on the car and, with the age of the car, things to keep an eye on. Having recently discovered Beaniesport is very local to me, Chris looked over the car and advised of some minor things to look at that will prevent headaches in future. So more to be added to the shopping list.
In the mean time I have door cards and foot plates arriving to allow me ‘tidy up’ the interior and lose some more weight from the car. And then to get to the gym to lose weight from the driver...
As for the future, from a parts and performance perspective a Quaife diff and KW Clubsport coil overs are the current plan and from a driving perspective I’m considering lessons to try and speed up my track day learning curve and get more out of the car.
I would like to add that this community is fantastic and has provided ideas, inspirations and solutions through my short ownership period.
I realise it’s a big update to start with, for those that made it to the end, thank you for taking the time and I hope you enjoyed it.
