Well its time for an update here on my thread :
After the disappointing Trackday at Anneau du Rhin I lost motivation for the Clio and the German Time Attack Masters Event came closer and closer. I then said to myself, that I won't drive there since it was not drivable for me and the DZ03G's that I ordered have gone lost during delivery. But then 1 week before, something made like a click in my head and I really wanted to drive there. So I said to myself I'll give the Clio one chance to impress me, or else I will part her out and sell all the parts.
So then i quickly started working and removed the gearbox as I had an oil leak, which I thought was the crank seal that I've put flush instead of proud, but the crank seal was fine, it was the slave cylinder which was only 500 km old.
It wasn't a genuine one. It was a TRW metal one instead of the fragile plastic.
But I decided to put a new Oem one in, as I had a new one already laying around from the clutch kit I bought some months ago.
After that I mounted up the old rear axle (Pure Motorsport Version) and changed the rear wheel speed sensor, as I had a fault code on at Anneau du Rhin in which I didn't had ABS.
So then after bleeding the clutch and brakes and doing a complete check I took the Clio for a test drive and I couldn't delete the fault code it had despite the new sensor (the rear discs were also only 500 km old).
I then plugged out the sensor and found heavy metal debris magnetized on the ABS ring, probably because I grinded the stiffening plate of the rear axle a bit out as it was rubbing against the rear damper.
After that the ABS was fully functioning and I aligned her again. Last time I did a setup that was recommended from several local Clio Cup Teams, this time I did it on my own experimenting, and hoped it would work out better than last time.
So I then drove last Saturday to the Nürburgring, mounted up all the decals and passed the technical scrutineering without problems.
The day after was show time. I had 2 free practice sessions in the morning, which was wet so I couldn't get an opinion on the setup, but then in the warm-up session it was dry and it really felt like I've put slicks on now compared to last time. It had so much grip and was phenomenal to drive. There were many from the Dutch Superlap with stripped out Clio 2 RS race cars and I was 1.5 seconds faster than them in my Clio with still most of the Interior on and Nankang NS2-R tyres.
In Qualifying I couldn't get one single clean lap, as there was so much traffic.
The first 3 laps I was behind a Toyota Supra, which blasted away at the straights, but was really slow at braking and cornering, so I made a little ''Kamikaze'' attack at the Dunlop hairpin and managed to go away.
I was then on a really good lap, then there was again more traffic at Sector 2, so I flashed my lights and overtook a Fiesta ST but I misjudged the braking and almost ran into a Focus RS, it was very very close to a crash, but despite that, I still concentrated on finishing that lap and then got in to the pits to kinda calm down my nerves.
There was 5 minutes left so I wanted to get one clean lap, so I headed out and noticed the fire extinguisher came loose, I then abadoned the lap and went to the pits, hoping I would qualify to the Top 5 Finale.
And it did thankfully I was 0.7 seconds faster than the MX5 behind me.
So for the Finale you only have one flying lap to score a time, so I swapped the wheels to front & back and for the first time I had a traffic free lap as there were only 5 cars at the track and I've set my goal to get in the 2:32's as my Quali lap was in the 2:34 range and I knew there was more left, and it worked out !
I got a 2:32:934 and got P5 on my very first Time Attack Event and the 3rd ever time driving on a race track.
Photo by The Unleashed
And now did the Clio impress me ?
Yes. definitely, I already made plans for the next season. My goal is to drive next year again at the Nürburgring and break the 2:30 barrier with some minor mods.
Until then, here's the Onboard of my Hotlap :
Cheers !
