Buying a 197 to convert to club rally car

[rallyrep]

Hi all thanks for letting me join, I’ve been around motorsport most my life, Owning Cosworths and running in the concours RS seen for many years also done some sprinting and hill climbs, I’ve built a fair few cars that have ended up being featured in magazines.
But the last 7 years my health had deteriated and a bad MX crash I’m now slightly better and moved from the city into WRC country, So I thought with some help a Clio 197 would make a great little club rally car for me and the wife so while the new double garage is being built I’d start looking for a 197 which has to be completed on a 10-12k budget INC car purchase , Looking forward to chatting Andy

 

[Mark_L]

Welcome Andy,

sounds a bit different from the usual track cars most end up as.
Look at the guide's on what to look out for.
Ball joints, manifold flexi's etc.
Plenty of advice etc on here.

 

[Big Ben]

Welcome aboard Andy.

Good luck with the project. Be nice if you posted up some pics and started a thread for us all to look at!

 

[rallyrep]

Sorry about pic quality, This is the base car a late 2008 197 Met Blue 90k Fsh, just had new cam belt and new discs and pads, long mot, 3 owners & last owner for 5 yrs picked up for £2600.

 

[Foxspeed]

welcome

 

[RSRowe]

Seems like a good buy.

Wikl you be doing mainly gravel or tarmac events?

 

[rallyrep]

We will be doing mainly tarmac ,I’d like to do a few gravel ones but the cars body work gets so hammered it’s probably not worth it.

 

[Mark_L]

A bit of inspiration.

 

[Pav]

welcome aboard..good luck ..not many rallye boys around so it sounds very refreshing...

 

[Pauleds]

Ive got a 172 Cup tarmac rally car and a 197 road car. I think it would cost me a lot more money to build the 197 to get to the same standard/faster than the 172. It will be interesting to see how you get on with it.
Out of curiosity I am going to try a sprint in the 197 this year to see how it compares to my previous sprint 172.
I really have to thrash the 197 and keep it revving to get going (extra weight) but the brakes and handling do feel a lot better.
Good luck