R20 BTG - 200 Cup Track Car Blog

[R20BTG]

Had a bit of post-Cadwell Park pre-Oulton Park prep today.

- Jacked up fully on axle stands and all wheels off.
- Gave everything a once over, degreased and jet washed inside the arches.
- Tweaked the rear dampers to fully stiff to see if I can get a bit of rear rotation.
- Popped to the tyre place and got the two dead slicks removed and disposed of, replaced with another two slicks. Had a slow puncture repaired on the Disco while I was there.
- Measured what tread depths I had on all the slicks and figured out which corner I wanted them on.
- Got all the rubber marks off and gave the car and the wheels a good wash, glad I ceramic coated the Braids as they were dead easy to clean.
- Back in the garage ready for the forum track day on 19th Sept

 

[deekay16v]

Looks really good on those white Braid wheels

 

[VeiRoNv2]

- Back in the garage ready for the forum track day on 19th Sept

I didnt know there was one,where can I join do you know? Thanks.

 

[R20BTG]

It’s a Javelin day, not just forum people but there are a few of us going.

 

[EthanMenace]

I didnt know there was one,where can I join do you know? Thanks.

There's lots of us going to Oulton on the 19th with javelin, everyone's welcome

https://clio197.net/threads/track-day-meet-for-2023.66405/page-2#post-751938

 

[R20BTG]

Sunday morning pottering… my mechanic mentioned to me that to tweak the camber he needed to take apart the scuttle panel, so I’ve done what I probably should have done a while ago and opened up an access hole in the plastic weave. Snips to form the shape and a Dremel to take off the sharp bits:

 

[R20BTG]

This is probably my favourite angle

 

[Helpimonfire]

Does look mega on those wheels!

 

[jimmybell]

Love those side skirts, much want! Are they the renault ones?

 

[Marsch]

Love those side skirts, much want! Are they the renault ones?

Seems like. If you enlarge the photo you can see the Renault Sport writing.

 

[R20BTG]

Yes they are genuine RenaultSport ones, I’ve only seen them on eBay once before. This site shows the pictures but I can’t see any part numbers to search for:

New GENUINE RenaultSport Clio 197 200 CUP RS side skirt spoiler RENAULT SPORT

 

[RSRowe]

Remember when you said you weren’t keen on the Braids

They look spot on

 

[Marsch]

Yes they are genuine RenaultSport ones, I’ve only seen them on eBay once before. This site shows the pictures but I can’t see any part numbers to search for:

New GENUINE RenaultSport Clio 197 200 CUP RS side skirt spoiler RENAULT SPORT

Résultats de recherche pour: 'road legal left side skirt for clio iii r s rsp x85' - Store Officiel R.S. Performance

La boutique officielle Renault Sport Performance vous propose une large gamme d'équipement, d'accessoires ou de vêtements aux couleurs R.S.

en.shop.renaultsport.com

Résultats de recherche pour: 'road legal right side skirt for clio iii r s rsp x85' - Store Officiel R.S. Performance

La boutique officielle Renault Sport Performance vous propose une large gamme d'équipement, d'accessoires ou de vêtements aux couleurs R.S.

en.shop.renaultsport.com

 

[R20BTG]

Donington Park 17th Feb 2024

The car hadn't moved since August 2023, I've had a lot going on professionally and personally over the last 6 months or so, and cars have taken a back seat. It was nice to get out there again, albeit short lived.

I'd stiffened up the rear end, softened the front a little in an attempt to get a bit more rotation. It was still a bit damp as I was warming up and the suspension changes seem to have done the trick. Nearly a whoops moment.

Session 1 was going well, car felt great. Session 2 I lost all power, it went into limp mode and I barely had enough power to get back to the pits. It was running on Cylinder 2 + 3 only, Cylinder 1 + 4 were dead. Swapping coil packs made no difference. I'm hoping it's as simple as a faulty injector but that was the end of the Clio's day.






Paul Roddison chucked me the keys to his Scirocco race car just before lunch, was difficult to drive as the seat wasn't set up for me and it wasn't comfortable but it was a pretty capable car having won a few races outright in a previous life. This was Chris @ Circuit Days personal car (hence the livery).



I also had a good passenger session with @RSRowe in the Megane, also a very capable car driven well. Nice to get out but some fixing to do before Nurburgring at the end of April. I'm glad this has happened now and not whilst out there.

 

[R20BTG]

A day of mixed emotions would probably sum up today. After the limp mode issues at Donington Park in the last post I’d done some further reading thanks to @turkie172 research and all signs pointed to a faulty injector.

The coil packs and injectors share the same loom, and the coil packs and injectors work in pairs, cylinders one and four are paired, and cylinders two and three are paired. The loom sends a signal to the injector to squirt fuel, followed by the signal passing through to the corresponding coil. Therefore it made sense that my symptoms of running on cylinders two and three only were injector related after I’d ruled out the coil packs. If an injector had an electrical fault, not only would that cylinder not fire but also the corresponding paired cylinder would not fire either as the signal would be interrupted.

Armed with that, I felt confident to order four new injectors from RPD, along with a new inlet manifold gasket as it has to come off anyway. I ordered four because I figured while I’m in there I might as well do them all, as to my knowledge they are original to the car.

I had a couple of hours this afternoon, off came the inlet manifold:



Off came the fuel rail attached to the old injectors:



New injectors were unpackaged and ready to go on:



Attached the fuel rail:


New gasket:


Feeling rather proud of myself I fired her up, and it had made precisely zero difference.


At that point I had a strop and went inside to watch the rugby.

Not to be deterred I did some more reading on the fault code P0638 and came across this:


At that point @RSRowe asked if I had a spare throttle body I could try. I couldn’t figure out how a faulty throttle body would cause running on only two cylinders but I had one in the spares box, so nothing ventured nothing gained.

I swapped them over and WOULD YOU FKIN BELIEVE IT, it fixed the issue. Started on the button, settled into a smooth idle and all fault messages gone.


On one hand I’m delighted it’s sorted, but on the other hand I’ve just spent £270 on completely unnecessary parts. FML.

Oh well, look on the bright side, I now know the injectors have been replaced and I have four spares.

 

[RSRowe]

 

[Beany]

Glad she’s all fixed

 

[turkie172]

Ah F*ck I felt sorry for you at a track day with a broken car put the broken throttle body back on to double check if your not driving it before being on track, just to make sure it's not a wiring thing thats been fixed temporarily because the work has disturbed the wires.

 

[R20BTG]

I've never been happy with the way my brake cooling ducts were fitted, pointing(ish) at the caliper and disc but zip tied to the swivel. It was questionable where the air was being directed and eventually the back and forth of the swivel knuckle just ripped the tubing.

An option was to go for the Corvette ducts that a few people on here use, but I spotted these on Instagram and thought they were a very clever solution.

Login • Instagram

Welcome back to Instagram. Sign in to check out what your friends, family & interests have been capturing & sharing around the world.

www.instagram.com

It is a 3D printed flexible composite which alledgedly copes with temperatures of up to 110c on the surface. They zip tie to the pivot holder but crucially do not move with the swivel hub, meaning the whole brake cooling setup is fixed in position and designed around the arc of the swivel hub.

I've ordered the 63mm hose version to go along with some new 63mm flexible hose, which will be joined to the Josh Wheeler foglight ducts currently installed. I have a shorter height screenwash reservoir to fit at the same time to make room for the brake duct on the driver side. These should be here in a couple of weeks so I'll report back on progress.

 

[Big Ben]

I bet watching the rugby didn’t help much!