Hi all. This is my story of ownership so far. Theres plenty planned and il endeavour to record everything here.
This conversion came about after i'd owned the car for a couple years, ownership became inevitable after i'd had a few track sessions at Goodwood in a friends 200.
I'd been doing track days for sometime there, at that time i had a nicely put together Mk5 Golf GTI track car. Jumping from one to the other i couldn't believe how good the Clio was out, basically stock, straight out of the box. That experience stuck with me and i figured at some point i needed my own one.
That came about a couple of years ago. A friend of a friend had acquired a basic spec car with decent history and a rebuilt gearbox in px for a race car and wanted shot of it. He had a deal in place but i offered to relieve some delivery hassle from that deal and take it away at the same money. At 2k i couldn't not own it. I popped it on the drive and handed it to the wife under the guise of a runabout.
I was aware it'd had light damage to the front and rear end, but it was purely bumper damage. It was easily sorted. It needed a front bumper fix (a bodge which would go on to haunt every track day i attended) and a new rear bumper. Some tyres. pads, discs and fluid, but was effectively ready to go. I popped some PBS race pads in, some HEL lines and some fresh ATE 200 fluid. Found some speedlines with some rainsports on them and waited for the first chance to get out in it.
I was running my E36 as an occasional trackcar, that needed some jobs doing so i booked some days in the Clio, took it to Oulton Park for its first outing in the wet and had a pretty good time, went on to do a couple of Goodwood half days in it, all of which were a bit damp. I'd not had a dry day yet.
I began to realise i was leaning into the Clio for days over the E36. The 36 was the third i'd owned in as many years. The first was full track car 328, the second an Alpina b3.2 touring converted to manual and the third was a coupe which struck a balance between the two. Retained the interior, fitted some Recaro SPG's, a 3.3 Alpina derived engine which was running throttle bodies on Delta scs management. KW clubsports etc etc.
It was a fun car, but it was a far cry form something i could just hop in and go. The Clio offered convenience and i bought into that in a big way.
That bumper fix kept coming back to haunt me. I got black flagged at least twice with it flapping about. caught on camera one day. It needed replacing. i just kept cable tying/taping it back up. A curb strike saw me tear a chunk off it in this state, so i new it needed to go. Finding one was not going to be easy.
As you can see, it wasnt exactly 'solid' in its fitment
I'd booked a last minute day at Goodwood and instantly remembered i'd neglected to look over the front end after it had felt a bit loose and nervy on corner entry on the last day i had done. That was a wet day so speeds had been low and in hindsight i'd have had a better time if i'd have spent some time sorting this problem out. But time was my enemy.
It had an recent alignment done so i knew it was straight. I figured i had no time to get whatever the issue solved so figured i'd at least work it out and drive round the problem. Bushes, arms and joints were all in good order. The front shocks were leaking (i later found out a spring was also cracked) so i got on with the day.
I'd bought a spare setup for my Garmin to run that in both the E36 and the Clio and popped my go pro in and got going. Here's one of those sessions. Its pretty clear i had no confidence in the front of the car. I'm a gear lower than i should be on the entrance to St Marys and Woodcote, and feeling my way through Madgwick was a bit un nerving but as a first proper dry day it was a lot of fun. I wasn't particularly sympathetic to it on this day.
I decided it was well overdue some love. I booked it in with rentune locally for the belts/depahser/alternator/oil service/plugs etc and had a new set of Bilstein B14's fitted with new top mounts. Of course the handling took a big leap. I'd got the E36 back and booked a couple of sessions in that, so the clio took a back seat for a few months.
The E36 started to offer some frustrating issues. ITB's are great, right up until the point they're not. I began to regret going down that route. Not only that but the noise level also limited days i could book and they're generally more expensive. i got a bit disolussioned with ownership. Having put together what i'd always wanted, it wasn't the car i needed. It didn't fit any more.
I took the Clio on another half day. It came away with a 4th gear crunch but had run all day. I found myself looking at the limiting/weak factors on the Clio. What could be done to raise the ceiling on those limits. Could i replicate the ethos of the E36 but retain more reliability and ease of ownership?
I wanted to stay NA. I got in touch with Dan at Custom Production as i had seen some K swapped cars appear and was intrigued to understand how close to and oem feel the conversion could have.
That escalated fairly quickly and i booked it in for a k24 swap. It got trailered up in May and was back at the end of August just in time for a ring trip.
In that time the E36's fate had been sealed and it was parted out.
This conversion came about after i'd owned the car for a couple years, ownership became inevitable after i'd had a few track sessions at Goodwood in a friends 200.
I'd been doing track days for sometime there, at that time i had a nicely put together Mk5 Golf GTI track car. Jumping from one to the other i couldn't believe how good the Clio was out, basically stock, straight out of the box. That experience stuck with me and i figured at some point i needed my own one.
That came about a couple of years ago. A friend of a friend had acquired a basic spec car with decent history and a rebuilt gearbox in px for a race car and wanted shot of it. He had a deal in place but i offered to relieve some delivery hassle from that deal and take it away at the same money. At 2k i couldn't not own it. I popped it on the drive and handed it to the wife under the guise of a runabout.
I was aware it'd had light damage to the front and rear end, but it was purely bumper damage. It was easily sorted. It needed a front bumper fix (a bodge which would go on to haunt every track day i attended) and a new rear bumper. Some tyres. pads, discs and fluid, but was effectively ready to go. I popped some PBS race pads in, some HEL lines and some fresh ATE 200 fluid. Found some speedlines with some rainsports on them and waited for the first chance to get out in it.
I was running my E36 as an occasional trackcar, that needed some jobs doing so i booked some days in the Clio, took it to Oulton Park for its first outing in the wet and had a pretty good time, went on to do a couple of Goodwood half days in it, all of which were a bit damp. I'd not had a dry day yet.
I began to realise i was leaning into the Clio for days over the E36. The 36 was the third i'd owned in as many years. The first was full track car 328, the second an Alpina b3.2 touring converted to manual and the third was a coupe which struck a balance between the two. Retained the interior, fitted some Recaro SPG's, a 3.3 Alpina derived engine which was running throttle bodies on Delta scs management. KW clubsports etc etc.
It was a fun car, but it was a far cry form something i could just hop in and go. The Clio offered convenience and i bought into that in a big way.
That bumper fix kept coming back to haunt me. I got black flagged at least twice with it flapping about. caught on camera one day. It needed replacing. i just kept cable tying/taping it back up. A curb strike saw me tear a chunk off it in this state, so i new it needed to go. Finding one was not going to be easy.
As you can see, it wasnt exactly 'solid' in its fitment
I'd booked a last minute day at Goodwood and instantly remembered i'd neglected to look over the front end after it had felt a bit loose and nervy on corner entry on the last day i had done. That was a wet day so speeds had been low and in hindsight i'd have had a better time if i'd have spent some time sorting this problem out. But time was my enemy.
It had an recent alignment done so i knew it was straight. I figured i had no time to get whatever the issue solved so figured i'd at least work it out and drive round the problem. Bushes, arms and joints were all in good order. The front shocks were leaking (i later found out a spring was also cracked) so i got on with the day.
I'd bought a spare setup for my Garmin to run that in both the E36 and the Clio and popped my go pro in and got going. Here's one of those sessions. Its pretty clear i had no confidence in the front of the car. I'm a gear lower than i should be on the entrance to St Marys and Woodcote, and feeling my way through Madgwick was a bit un nerving but as a first proper dry day it was a lot of fun. I wasn't particularly sympathetic to it on this day.
I decided it was well overdue some love. I booked it in with rentune locally for the belts/depahser/alternator/oil service/plugs etc and had a new set of Bilstein B14's fitted with new top mounts. Of course the handling took a big leap. I'd got the E36 back and booked a couple of sessions in that, so the clio took a back seat for a few months.
The E36 started to offer some frustrating issues. ITB's are great, right up until the point they're not. I began to regret going down that route. Not only that but the noise level also limited days i could book and they're generally more expensive. i got a bit disolussioned with ownership. Having put together what i'd always wanted, it wasn't the car i needed. It didn't fit any more.
I took the Clio on another half day. It came away with a 4th gear crunch but had run all day. I found myself looking at the limiting/weak factors on the Clio. What could be done to raise the ceiling on those limits. Could i replicate the ethos of the E36 but retain more reliability and ease of ownership?
I wanted to stay NA. I got in touch with Dan at Custom Production as i had seen some K swapped cars appear and was intrigued to understand how close to and oem feel the conversion could have.
That escalated fairly quickly and i booked it in for a k24 swap. It got trailered up in May and was back at the end of August just in time for a ring trip.
In that time the E36's fate had been sealed and it was parted out.
I watched a Yaris spin at the same spot but they ended up hitting the barrier on the left and ending up upside down.
