I’ve been a fan of 197’s since reading the first reviews on magazines many years ago and when the 200 came up, I decided I was definitely going to own one. Although buying one was always on my mind since moving to the Uk 7 years ago, work commitments, high insurance rates (new British driving license) and money matters forced me to drive boring cars.
Until 3 months ago when I got my 2010 RB Clio 200! It came with the ‘full fat’ spec, Recaros and the cup pack, with about 75000 miles on the clock and service history. Starting a progress thread wasn't on my mind as I’m not planning to ‘build’ a great spec car like many other members here but given the crazy mileage I’m currently doing, I thought it could be useful to have one as sort of documentation to prove that the car has been well looked after in my ownership. Also I’m always up for a good ‘car talk’ anyway!
So having bought the car I took it to Two Techs (awesome guys and great service!) for a service where I had the blowing manifold replaced with a Toyosport, lower and upper engine mounts with Powerflex ones, front pads with Ferodo DS2500, brake lines with HEL braided ones and filter with ITG. It also had an oil service, brake service, suspension check and tracking done. Suspension came up all good and clean but very slight pulling left was unfortunately persistent.
I was now ready for my first track day after 8 years so went for an evening session at Brands Hatch!
I was very impressed with car's handling, nimbleness and the grip of ADR08r's. I've found I could ignore slight lack of steering feel and really lean on the car (credit to tyres as well). It was great fun even though I was slightly disappointed with my driving and how rusty I'd become. Hopefully I'll get back in shape after a few more track days.
The stock exhaust started blowing on track. First I bought a KTEC Pro from Steve here but it was too loud for my liking so sold that to someone at CS and got myself a brand new Milltek Resonated cat-back which in my opinion, sounds near perfect. I was sad and surprised to find out 3rd gear began crunching very slightly on track, as the gearbox had been reconditioned only a few months before I bought the car but replacing the oil with Red Line MTL almost completely cured it. Now you need to change really super-carelessly to get it crunch slightly. Well at least on the road...
Recently I noticed car was rather strongly pulling to the left under high speed, hard braking. Last week I took the car back to Two Techs for an oil service and to investigate the problem with brakes but they couldn't find anything other than very slight cracking on front pads. Pads were sanded but the problem persists. I'll visit an MOT garage next week for a brake balance test and will see from there.
Well it's been a pretty long one for someone who didn't have starting a progress thread on his mind! So what do I think about the car? Honestly, there are times I do reconsider whether it was a good purchase. This is usually when I drive 500 miles in two days for work or when I get stuck in horrendous traffic on M25 after a very long day. Most of the time though, I really, really like it. And then, there are other times when it works it's magic and I absolutely love the thing to bits! All performance cars I owned or drove before were forced induction and I must say there is something very satisfying about rev-happy n/a engines. It does need more power though, especially given the capabilities of the chassis. Maybe one day I'll have a SC one, who knows!
So as it stands:
2010 Clio 200 full fat with cup pack
Circa 85000 miles
ITG panel filter
Toyosport exhaust manifold
Milltek resonated cat-back
Ferodo DS2500 pads
Brembo Grooved discs
HEL braided lines
Powerflex upper and lower engine mounts
Yokohama AD08r tyres
To do:
Get brake imbalance sorted and go for another track day!
Get slight left pull sorted.
Get steering wheel refurbished.
Get on a rolling road (out of curiosity).
Perhaps an RS tuning re-map at some point.
Thanks for readings.
Until 3 months ago when I got my 2010 RB Clio 200! It came with the ‘full fat’ spec, Recaros and the cup pack, with about 75000 miles on the clock and service history. Starting a progress thread wasn't on my mind as I’m not planning to ‘build’ a great spec car like many other members here but given the crazy mileage I’m currently doing, I thought it could be useful to have one as sort of documentation to prove that the car has been well looked after in my ownership. Also I’m always up for a good ‘car talk’ anyway!
So having bought the car I took it to Two Techs (awesome guys and great service!) for a service where I had the blowing manifold replaced with a Toyosport, lower and upper engine mounts with Powerflex ones, front pads with Ferodo DS2500, brake lines with HEL braided ones and filter with ITG. It also had an oil service, brake service, suspension check and tracking done. Suspension came up all good and clean but very slight pulling left was unfortunately persistent.
I was now ready for my first track day after 8 years so went for an evening session at Brands Hatch!
I was very impressed with car's handling, nimbleness and the grip of ADR08r's. I've found I could ignore slight lack of steering feel and really lean on the car (credit to tyres as well). It was great fun even though I was slightly disappointed with my driving and how rusty I'd become. Hopefully I'll get back in shape after a few more track days.
The stock exhaust started blowing on track. First I bought a KTEC Pro from Steve here but it was too loud for my liking so sold that to someone at CS and got myself a brand new Milltek Resonated cat-back which in my opinion, sounds near perfect. I was sad and surprised to find out 3rd gear began crunching very slightly on track, as the gearbox had been reconditioned only a few months before I bought the car but replacing the oil with Red Line MTL almost completely cured it. Now you need to change really super-carelessly to get it crunch slightly. Well at least on the road...
Recently I noticed car was rather strongly pulling to the left under high speed, hard braking. Last week I took the car back to Two Techs for an oil service and to investigate the problem with brakes but they couldn't find anything other than very slight cracking on front pads. Pads were sanded but the problem persists. I'll visit an MOT garage next week for a brake balance test and will see from there.
Well it's been a pretty long one for someone who didn't have starting a progress thread on his mind!
So what do I think about the car? Honestly, there are times I do reconsider whether it was a good purchase. This is usually when I drive 500 miles in two days for work or when I get stuck in horrendous traffic on M25 after a very long day. Most of the time though, I really, really like it. And then, there are other times when it works it's magic and I absolutely love the thing to bits! All performance cars I owned or drove before were forced induction and I must say there is something very satisfying about rev-happy n/a engines. It does need more power though, especially given the capabilities of the chassis. Maybe one day I'll have a SC one, who knows! So as it stands:
2010 Clio 200 full fat with cup pack
Circa 85000 miles
ITG panel filter
Toyosport exhaust manifold
Milltek resonated cat-back
Ferodo DS2500 pads
Brembo Grooved discs
HEL braided lines
Powerflex upper and lower engine mounts
Yokohama AD08r tyres
To do:
Get brake imbalance sorted and go for another track day!
Get slight left pull sorted.
Get steering wheel refurbished.
Get on a rolling road (out of curiosity).
Perhaps an RS tuning re-map at some point.
Thanks for readings.
Lovely intro and even better looking car...
