The Driving Motive Clio 200

[OLT]

Hi all,

I have some extra time given the lockdown so thought it was about time to post a progress thread on my Albi Blue Clio 200 with cup pack. "The Driving Motive", which is in the name of the thread, is my YouTube channel where I occasionally post some car content.

Anyway, onto the car. I bought it as a completely standard car in September 2016, it's my second car however I fortunately have had the chance to drive lots of fast cars as well as the Clio. None of them feel quite like it in terms of the handling, steering and gear change. My previous and first car was a 1.1 Citroen C2 (see below), which I modified, although it was more 'form over function' - whereas with the Clio, I've tried to only make changes where it will make the car faster round a track or improve other functionality (for the most part at least!).

My Citroen C2:


GoPro pictures once I bought the car and added pressed plates:


The first thing I set about doing was making things black (in true Mighty Car Mods fashion). I had the wheels done in gloss black and added gloss black diamond covers. Also added a 'The Driving Motive' sticker to the front bumper and cliosport.net stickers to the rear windows:







I then did the Clio de-badge on the rear, added an RS 197/200 sticker (Facebook group) and took some random photos at the Trafford Centre:







After a full service at Cross Garage in Ashton Under-Lyne near Manchester (enthusiast run garage who have their own track cars and are always working on fast machinery), adding a Scorpion Non-Resonated Catback exhaust as well as an ITG Panel filter, I took the car to be remapped by RS Tuning in Leeds. It made 187bhp standard and 193bhp post-remap.



The modifications I have mentioned so far took place over the course of 9 months, having bought the car in Sep 2016 and remapping it in June 2017. I still own the car to this day and have done many more modifications, as well as taking the car to live with me in London, across the UK on trackdays and to the Nürburgring and Spa-Francorchamps. I've been out plenty of times with people in Clios both on the road and on track and made some great mates through owning it.

For now, I'll leave the thread here in case there is a size limit per post, but will be adding some more today, so if it is of interest then keep a look out! Thanks for reading up to this point.

 

[OLT]

Following on from my previous post, I invested in some snowfoam after the remap and at some point, although I can't remember when, I bought Philipps Diamond Vision headlights as well as 6000k sidelights and number plate bulbs:


I should note that, the car had Goodyear Eagle F1 on the front and Delinte DH2 on the back when I bought it and I still hadn't changed these yet at this point.

I then took the car on its first trackday to Cadwell Park and was joined by Cross Garage and their EP3. This wasn't my first trackday as I had driven another Clio 200, Honda Accord Type R, EP3 and MK6 Fiesta ST on track before:






Shortly after the car's first trackday, I re-located from Manchester to London and took the car with me, where it spent most of its time for the following year locked up in an underground private car park, however I still managed to get it out for some pictures. At this point, we were in June 2018:



I also attended some car meets which were great (special shoutout to Surrey Car Meets which were amazing) and also met Davinder from this forum and had a small photoshoot:


I went to Brands Hatch and tried to find some half-decent roads on the weekends (nothing compared to the Peak District which was on my doorstep in Manchester):


The next big modifications were Bilstein B14 coilovers and PBS brake pads front and rear fitted by Cross Garage, with before and after shot below:
Before

After


I lowered the car a bit further after these photos were taken.

I then stripped out the rear seats and bought a full set of Yokohama AD08R, and took some pictures during a day-trip to Oxford:



I met Davinder again and at this point was looking for some new wheels so tried to imagine how his Autec Wizards would look on my car:


Shortly after taking the rear seats out, my KTEC carpet came and then I bought an Ultra Racing Strut Brace and had it powdercoated in yellow (took off the Ultra Racing badge and placed it on the other side of the brace instead):


The second trackday was again at Cadwell Park in April 2019, with my Clio and the Cross Garage Megane:
I'm on the right




I then packed the car to the brim with the contents of my apartment and moved back to Manchester whilst I was in between jobs:


On the car's third trackday, we met a couple of guys on the day with a Clio 197 and Megane 275 (I think), who we ended up meeting at the Nurburgring - but more on this later. Also somehow got the below photo with all four of us on the main straight:


That was in July 2019, and I also drove the car around Anglesey Circuit in August 2019 however don't have any pictures (there are a couple of videos on my YouTube channel though).

At this point you could call the car fairly modified and I had done a total of four trackdays, with plenty of road miles done in the Peak District, Lake District and Yorkshire Dales. A particular favourite is the A686 to Hartside Cafe, and of course both the Woodhead and Snake Pass.

I will call this post Chapter 2 and end it here. Will start writing Chapter 3 now....

 

[OLT]

I didn't make any further changes to the car and in September 2019 took it on my first Nürburgring trip where I got around six laps in the Clio (and plenty more as a passenger in other cars), and also to Spa on the way home however just did some passenger laps in a Megane 250:



I moved back to London once again shortly after and left the Clio back in Manchester, but did use it to transport my belongings again in March 2020 when lockdown started and I returned home to Manchester. On the day I travelled from Manchester to London and then back again, I got the following pics in Canary Wharf:



Then back in Manchester:


Recently I made my car a Clio RS200 Nurburgring edition with the stickers I bought from the official 'ring shop:


And that last picture reminds me, I also bought the yellow stitched Renault Sport floor mats quite early on in my ownership!

Last month I went on a drive-out with a group of friends up North and the Clio was fantastic - it definitely surprised everybody on the day in more powerful cars and it really is a treat to drive, so fun and enjoyable whilst being relatively comfortable:


Bringing us to the present day, last week I fitted a set of Sparco Assetto Gara in matte black, ET45 fitment but don't have any pictures yet. They look insanely awesome in my opinion but are rubbing on the arches so I need to take a look at that next. I also have a set of Clio 197 wheels with nearly new AD08R that I will use for future track days so the Sparco wheels are only for road. I fitted a sunstrip too which I will get pics of when I get pics of wheels.

No real big mods that I want but some things that I would like to do in the future:
Replace clutch (with standard Renault/LUK unit)
Paint callipers in yellow to match colour scheme of blue car/yellow parts
Cold air feed to brakes in place of fog lights
Potentially remove front wheel arch liners
Cut hole in sunstrip for auto-light functionality
Yellow seatbelts (yes, admittedly won't make me any faster but I think they look cool)
Carry on enjoying it on the way to 4 years of ownership!

Now my ramble is over, it'd be great to hear your thoughts, questions, comments (positive and negative), or anything else!

Thanks for reading and I'll update with fresh pictures soon

OLT

 

[Beany]

Great progress thread and enjoyed the read.

look forward to seeing it on the sparco’s. They’re a popular wheel choice.

need some recaros in it

 

[Onrus]

Really good read. It’s nice seeing how much you enjoy your Clio. I hope you don’t have to raise it to much with the new wheels, it looks really good at the current ride height.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[OLT]

Thanks guys! @Beany Always loved the look of the Recaro but couldn't justify the expense, especially when the standard seats hold you in so well even on track and sit nice and low! But yes would look much nicer with Recaro or other buckets. Maybe one to add to the never ending list haha

@Onrus first I'll try to work out something with the arch liner I think. I know a lot of people take them out but I'm not a fan of that so may have to modify it somehow so that it doesn't rub. If it comes to it then may raise it as a last resort

 

[Onrus]

Maybe adjustable top mounts so you can adjust the camber. That might help you keep it low.

 

[Ocsltd]

Great thread and pictures. Nice to see it being enjoyed properly. Like the mods, agree with Beany, some Recaro's would be the icing on the cake!

 

[OLT]

@Ocsltd thanks! I was going to cut a hole in the sunstrip today for the rain and light sensor but decided not to as I wouldn't have done a neat job. Also took my boot plastics off to try and find an annoying rattle but I think it may be coming from the rear seatbelts behind the plastics.

hopefully will upload some updated pictures this week.

 

[OLT]

Also, see a shameful plug of where I post some Clio videos. I'm going to post some old footage that I never got round to doing soon from Cadwell Park and Anglesey: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgxr5bnpZ5UdIX5qhMMY1eQ?view_as=subscriber

 

[Daniel_S]

Great write up and progress! Will look fantastic on the news wheels.

 

[OLT]

Some pictures with the new wheels! Although they still haven't been cleaned so the white stuff is tyre paste, not curbing. Also just ordered 2 x lower ball joints (https://www.apmotorsport.co.uk/product-page/clio-3-lower-ball-joint) which I needed.



And earlier this week I went to Donington for the first time ever - not driving the Clio but was a passenger in the aforementioned Cross Garage E46 M3 as well as a friend's M3 with water + meth kit:

 

[OLT]

So I finally got some pictures with the wheels cleaned up! Doesn't look bad for a 2011 car on 107k miles. This reminded me I bought TPI bolts a while back too but wouldn't mind replacing them with a stud and nut kit soon-ish. The car looks a little high here, it's because of the slant on my driveway...

Also added a final nurburgring sticker to the front bumper, in line with the RS badge. Difficult to see on the photos but you may be able to spot it.



I've also just ordered a passenger window motor from Neil Brooke (not sure if you would know him on here but he seems to break lots of Clios) as the window isn't moving

 

[Beany]

Yeah the blokes taken over FB with the amount of breaking clios and parts

Cars looking good

 

[massivewangers]

Looks good that!

 

[OLT]

Small update: I've been trying to find an annoying rattling noise that I am sure is coming from somewhere in the rear interior. I took off the boot plastics which cover the wiper motor but it's not coming from there, so I've been trying to take off the plastics surrounding the rear seatbelts.

Seems to be quite tricky without snapping anything, but I'm going to take another look today and want to remove the rear seatbelts anyway which I suspect are causing the rattle.

Will update as and when. Any advice much appreciated as I couldn't find any threads on here with pics, so not exactly sure which plastics need to come off.

 

[forecast.buckets]

lovely looking Clio mate

 

[OLT]

So I removed the rear seatbelts today - not a bad job to be honest other than the sharp plastics slicing my hands. Despite me thinking the belts were the cause of the rattling noise, the rattle is still there, so I think I'm going to remove the strut brace and see if it's somehow that. I hate rattles.


I also removed quite a few stickers for a cleaner look.

 

[suj]

It could be heatshielf on the diffuser, quite common for the rivets to fail or even the one above the backbox, maybe that's causing a vibration to then pass through the car?

 

[OLT]

It could be heatshielf on the diffuser, quite common for the rivets to fail or even the one above the backbox, maybe that's causing a vibration to then pass through the car?

I used to have this issue but solved it! This one is definitely an interior noise. Either way I’m happy the rear seatbelts are out now!