Cullen's cup - Spa trip update

[Cullen]

Right seeing as the weather is blowing a gale outside and I cant fit my harnesses today I thought id throw up a build thread to keep a check on things.

So where do I start, a brief history of my most recent trackcars as I do love a car or 2.

My all time favourite that I built and drove on track over a 10 year span.

first disguise


Final completed product

2.0 litre abf engine
quaife diff short ratio gearbox from a ex hillclimb car
ultralight wheels
astra gte calipers mk2 rear disc conversion and bias valve
rose jointed strengthened rearbeam
half cage
buckets and harnesses


After this I broke this down to reshell into a mint example, I decided I needed another track car that was cheap to tie me over.

So I went down the clio 182 route and im glad I did, what motors they really are and how fun they are on track.

bought it fairly stock no interior and just 2 bucket seats
Added a cage
Brand new cup shocks and cooksport springs added 3 degrees of camber on front and 3 degree camber shims on the rear
Brembo hc disc' s and ferrodo ds2500 pads along with motul 660
X4 Yokohama ad08r's
fabia splitter
new injectors new plugs full service
and added the leftover stickers for our annual spa trip last year






I then sold this to fund my mk1 project I wont bore you with details im sure your dying to see my current clio

Mk1 project
from that

to this



Now if your still following this is were I had a change of heart and after 12 years of mk1 ownership I really wanted something new so I stayed classic but went rwd.

Short story on this turned out to be an absolute dog of a car bodywork wise pulled the rear subframe through the body after 4 track days and I broke it for parts

 

[Sean197]

Love the mk 1's, can't go wrong with a martini livery!

 

[Cullen]

Right this brings me up to date with my current car

Clio 197 cup

A car that ive known about since 2015 and even did a lap in it at Bedford auto drome in it

CAT D repaired by the friend who I bought it off, he owns and runs a very successful body shop he has had the car since 2014/15 and it was also serviced in its time by my best mates garage so I couldn't ask for a better looked after car.

39,000 miles
belt and dephaser done aswell
quaife diff
4-2-1 manifold
decat
and cat back with slashed pipes
rs tuning map 210hp and similar torque if I remember correctly
and dodgy stickers that im not a fan off.

Picked it up for the sum of £2800 which with the mods im happy with

car needed a balljoint new pads and discs and service

The night I picked up the car



First on the list was to peel the awful stickers off it and what a pain in the arse that was took nearly a day including getting it clayed and washed after.



The after pics will not upload for some reason

After getting this annoying task done I set about a little order spree
I ordered

Brembo hc front discs
mintex F2R pads
standard rear discs
a complete driver side hub
new wheel bearing
Passenger side hub had been done last year
track rod end
x4 Yokohama ad08r's
20mm spacers
half cage
clio cup splitter

Trial fit of the rollcage.



All loaded up to go to my mates garage to fit all the new parts.





When I resize a few more pics ill update the thread.




​

 

[Cullen]

Car during its new parts install


Few pics of the cage installed and one with the seats.





The wheels were kerbed and faded so I set about giving them a diy paint job

new colour kia titanium silver



And finally a few pics of the cup splitter added which I cracked slightly didn't realise how hard and brittle these splitters were.




Future plans for the car involve a full strip out and a cup racer inspired build

Off to SPA Francorchamps for a double header trackday in 14 days time so ill update as and when I do stuff or trackdays.

 

[adam thomas]

Subscribed [emoji108] previous cars look awesome! Look forward to seeing what you do with it

Sent from my LYA-L09 using Tapatalk

 

[Mark_L]

Sounds like a good buy with that spec and the Recaro's. You'll get a few quid back on them if you decide to change to some fixed seats.

I'm still deciding on going the full track route myself.

 

[Cullen]

Sounds like a good buy with that spec and the Recaro's. You'll get a few quid back on them if you decide to change to some fixed seats.

The recaros will be for sale after ive purchased a trailer in the upcoming months, loving having afjustable seats with normal belts when you do the odd sunday drive.

I'm still deciding on going the full track route myself.

I think these cars can be full track while retaining the comfort, if done correctly

 

[Pav]

 

[Cullen]

Update

Few new additions to the car before we headed off to spa

First off harness installed


Drilled through the seat raisers as they are thick enough and put spreader plates behind, this meant the buckles were easy to adjust and i could keep my existing seatbelt.



New torque arm bush

Old


New


New sunstrip


And a random pic as it looked good

 

[Cullen]

The Big Day

SPA FRANCORCHAMPS

We set off on the sunday about 4.30am to catch our 7.20 train, not many pics just a mainly uneventful travel to spa, got to the hotel de la source at about 2pm and swiftly jumped on the beers.

A few belgium jupiler's later and a bite to eat



Day 2

And the first of the double trackday

All lined up and ready to go

Full specced clio 182 caged coilovers etc
My cup quaife diff caged etc
Astra gsi fully stripped quaife diff 290hp
Mk3 focus rs kw v3's ar1's 420hp
And not in shot
Caged and coiloverd e46 m3


Few check overs before sighting laps





Sighting laps were long as anyone who has been on track will know, i think javelin overbooked the first day as we didnt get on track officially til 10am ‍
None the less we had a full day of sunshine and dry track best ive seen spa in 3 years now






S26CUP flying up eau rouge


Holding up a slightly faster car



The old man getting in on the glory



The day went faultless for the clio overtaking some much higher hp cars and hussling a few others out the way it sure wasnt the slowest by a long shot.

On the other side of the garage tho it was a different story for my mates m3

After 3 laps this happened




Grey smoke overfueling you name it this car had it that day,
After alot of headscratching and diagnosing we werent coming up with much we stripped everything down, checked breathers, fuel, code read it and still nothing exactly the same everytime he went out.

Luckily he knew a bloke at ringspares at the nurburgring so he shot off for the 1 1/2 hour trip to get diagnosed, in the hope he could be on track for day 2.

The astra had a cv boot split so he set about getting it sorted in his lunch break.



The rest of the day was superb lap after lap getting better and better, i hardly took any pics of vids as it was nice to get loads of track time in before tomorrows rain came.
We ended on track at closure time 6pm and headed for another... yep you guessed it. This time on the rooftop bar over looking eau rouge.

Cars getting a well deserved rest






Ended day 2 with more food and drink

 

[Cullen]

Day 3

And not a good start for the bmw

After one lap it pressurised blew the breather off sent oil over the manifold and caught alight in the pits.
Safe to say that was the end for the bmw



The rain came and went all day but the track was surprisingly grippy, mainly off line as there no rubber layed down,
The AD08R'S are so good in the damp and wet conditions.

Few pics

Getting a bit squiggly at la source





Again not many pics as i spent alot of time just lapping getting quicker and quicker and finding the limit in the little clio.

I had read up about wet track driving and how its best to stay offline where you can due to no rubber being layed this making it greasy, i did all my braking lines offline and wow what a difference in grip there was i was hooked and overtaking alot of fast cars with this knowledge.

I felt with the cup shocks and springs and no rear anto rollbar it was better in the wet alot more forgiving and not as titchy as my previous years in coilovered cars.

The car ran faultless again until 4pm when danger struck.

A dry line had appeared just before 4pm and after lapping spa in the wet confidence in the dry was even higher than day one, but the clio had other ideas coming.
Just as i came to the last corner i thought i missed 5th but managed to get into 4th, coming upto the chicane i put my foot on the clutch to downshift to 3rd then 2nd and there was nothing, no pedal just air basically, coasted it into the pits were i got towed to our garage.



Bollocks to ya i was fuming the ol girl had done so well and to let me down with a slave on the last 1/2 hour of the day was a pisstake.

After the storm had blown over in my head we started the car off the starter motor in 1st and got back to the hotel.
A beer was swiftly downed and the RAC euro recovery was sorted.

Now for those of you who havent broken down in europe let me tell you something, i will never moan about breaking down in britain ever again.

The cars when broken in europe have to go and be looked at by a garage to assess the damage then they have to weigh up the cost of the vehicle as they can agree its not worth fixing and its not worth getting it recovered home, thus meaning you would have to go back out to europe with a trailer and bring your car home.

Lucky for us this didnt happen the cars were deemed expensive enough to be recovered home,
It didnt end there tho, the cars wont be recovered home til the 18th april.




To be continued.............

 

[Cullen]

Mods can i get title changed to Cullens cup spa trip update

 

[Big Ben]

Epic update. Did you take out extra Euro breakdown cover before traveling? That’s awful them not recovering you until the 18th!

 

[Cullen]

Epic update. Did you take out extra Euro breakdown cover before traveling? That’s awful them not recovering you until the 18th!

Cheers

Yea took out extra RAC cover, my mates bmw has just randomly turned up today without warning, so the clio could be home any day

 

[petercronin]

Sounds like a great couple of days, hopefully the problem at the end hasn’t put a downer on the trip. Spas somewhere I really want to go when I get a chance.

 

[Slowride]

We were at Spa tja 1st of april, seen your car. Great day, well organized.

 

[Cullen]

We were at Spa tja 1st of april, seen your car. Great day, well organized.

Amazing weather on that monday couldnt of asked for better.

I was meaning to get round to talking to some clio owners see whats good and whats not but i couldnt pull myself off track

 

[Cullen]

Fee more pics from the monday



Taking the BTCC line in this one

 

[Cullen]

Sounds like a great couple of days, hopefully the problem at the end hasn’t put a downer on the trip. Spas somewhere I really want to go when I get a chance.

Its awsome well worth forking out the money, if and when you do it any help just drop me a pm

 

[Cullen]

Some good news and some not so good news

The car came back early from belgium which is a bonus but they fooked my splitter so a complaint will be going in



Seats have been provisionally sold new owner is coming for them tomorrow.

Looking sorry for itself


New genuine clutch and slave has turned up so hopefully that will be the next update.