Tom's Track Car - BMW E46 -Engine Number 3

tombate911

Paid Member
Hi, first proper post on here, I thought it would be a good place to start with my new project.
I've had 3 clios in the past, white, black and blue 1.2, 1.4, 1.5DCI. Then moved into the Volkeswagen scene with a Golf then a Passat CC, but I've now sold the Passat CC for a Clio 200 with Cup Chassis, some people think I'm daft but I've always wanted one and fancied something a little sportier.

Clio Sport 200.
2010.
54,000 Miles with full service history.
Albi Blue.

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First couple of jobs I've had done is a slight knocking noise coming from the off side front wheel, Had the following replaced under warranty, 1 strut, two springs and top mounts.
I've started with the following:
Replaced the wiper blades.
Gearbox oil service.
Removed the middle box and will be decating soon too.

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Finally here's my main Toy and money pit! Converted my self from a standard panel van.
2013 T5 with Caravelle interior with bed and cooking pod, gas water and second power supply. 185BHP 390NM.

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Welcome to the forum!

Good to see that you've got straight in with the maintenance on the 200!

The van sounds cool, good work!
 
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Thanks, I thought it would be best to get everything mechanically perfect before any modifications. I'm going to start to convert it to a track car, sparco buckets with harnesses, strip the back out next year. Drives perfect and tight now with new dampers, springs and top mounts. Other than that everything is perfect, good set of discs and pads all the way around.
Shall be tinting the rear 3 windows this weekend, I've never had a clio with standard glass, prefer the darker look in the rear windows.
 
Clio looks great!

I'd go with Recaro pole positions or SPG's if you can :thumbsup:

Depending on how much you want to spend on brakes, on my old 200 Cup I ran DS2500 pads all round, Brembo HC discs, braided lines and ATE Super blue/gold fluid. Really couldn't fault them on track and they took a hammering on full days, no fade at all.

Alternatively I've now got the Reyland 2 piece discs, DS1.11 pads, braided lines and ATE Super Blue, they certainly feel much better although can't comment on track until after January 31st.
 
Clio looks great!

I'd go with Recaro pole positions or SPG's if you can :thumbsup:

Depending on how much you want to spend on brakes, on my old 200 Cup I ran DS2500 pads all round, Brembo HC discs, braided lines and ATE Super blue/gold fluid. Really couldn't fault them on track and they took a hammering on full days, no fade at all.

Alternatively I've now got the Reyland 2 piece discs, DS1.11 pads, braided lines and ATE Super Blue, they certainly feel much better although can't comment on track until after January 31st.

I'll have a look at those. I took a trip over to demon in tweeks a few weeks back and sat in all the seats they have on display then decided it was the sparco pro 2000 seat which I liked the best. Braided lines and a bleed are on the to do list to start with then replace brakes and discs when this set have worn out as they're not that old by the looks of them.

Been out for a drive this morning in the rain now I've removed the middle box. Sounds better but quite tinny. I would imagine with a decat fitted it would be slightly annoying, I wanted to have a mess with the standard exhaust first before I decide on what I actually want to do with it. I think when I fit a decat pipe I might reinstall the middle box before having it mapped as I'm sure it'll go louder and tinnier again?!
 
How much warranty is on these cars.ive just bought a 2011 200 and thought the warranty would be well out of date now?
 
How much warranty is on these cars.ive just bought a 2011 200 and thought the warranty would be well out of date now?

I only purchased it the week previous and it came with a 90 day warranty. So I used this to have the nocking noise looked at. Cannot fault the mechanic who did the work on it. Had it for a week, replaced everything he thought should be replaced and gave me a hire car while he had mine.
 
I'll have a look at those. I took a trip over to demon in tweeks a few weeks back and sat in all the seats they have on display then decided it was the sparco pro 2000 seat which I liked the best. Braided lines and a bleed are on the to do list to start with then replace brakes and discs when this set have worn out as they're not that old by the looks of them.

Been out for a drive this morning in the rain now I've removed the middle box. Sounds better but quite tinny. I would imagine with a decat fitted it would be slightly annoying, I wanted to have a mess with the standard exhaust first before I decide on what I actually want to do with it. I think when I fit a decat pipe I might reinstall the middle box before having it mapped as I'm sure it'll go louder and tinnier again?!

Pro 2000's are good, a few friends have run them in the past and had no complaints. Lines are a must with a decent setup, just be careful with the fitment, I had to have custom HEL lines made up on the front as the Goodridge ones were too long and rubbed on full lock, important to use the existing clamps too.

I took the mid box out of my old 200 but always wanted a little extra noise. It's not the best way but Youtube videos can give you a small idea on what different systems will give, I'd imagine the decat will lose the tinny noise but not certain of that. It all comes down to preference but I'd leave the mid box out, have the decay fitted and get it mapped by RS Tuning, well worth the trip.
 
I would have thought the Decat would make the tinny sound worst? I've just won a decat pipe in Ebay for £26 quid. So was going to reinstall the mid box and put the decat pipe in then weld it up.
Can anyone confirm whether the decat will make it even more tinny or better with the middle box removed?

long terms goals will be to fit a miltek exhaust decat cat back non resonated. But that will take some saving up for after I've fitted my seats and harness.

However I'll get my first track day under my belt first before any more modding. Before that I need two tyres and a cambelt. 5 years old in March.
 
More maintenance this weekend.

Stripped down the brake calipers after reading the pins where prone to getting stuck inside the calipers.

Still 8mm of pad material left excluding the backing plate so they'res loads of life in these yet. Degreased, cleaned and copper slipped.

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Also on the list of jobs to do was to clean the seat belts and steering wheel. Since I bought the car last months it's something that's been bugging me. A friend recommended Woolite to use on the upholstery of the car, scrubbed the wheel and belts with a nail brush and leave the seat belts soaking in a bucket. Actually shocked how well they've come up, I didnt know the strip at the top of the wheel was even yellow!

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Started tinting the rear 3 windows, this still needs some work to finish the rear glass but making progress in the right direction.

Trying to get things ready for Anglesey in May. On the look out for a set of Clio wheels for summer tyres too before then.
 

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Good work, that reminds me , I need to clean my belts too,got any after pictures ? Your calipers look in good condition !
 
First little purchases this month. Wanted to get my self a set of dry tyres and alloys.
Been checking ebay for a couple of months until this set of white 197 wheels turned up with Toyo R1R tyres. there have 6mm on. I will use them for a while and then eventually replace with Federal R1R's.

I think I will get these painted black and use them as my normal tyres and have the tyres put on the orignal wheels for use in the dry, much prefer the look of the 197 wheels than the 200's
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Secondly. managed to get the car into a mates garage today and did some adjustments to the exhaust. I originally fitted a silencer delete pipe but the sound was too raspy and tinny for my liking, I then won a decat pipe on ebay for £23.
I've now moved to a decat pipe with a resonator. Not as loud but the car feels to start reving a little easier around 4k. It used to only really come alive at 5k as standard. Happy with it now!



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Nice work, where did you buy your resonator from ? Also what clamps did you use ?

Believe it or not, that's the standard resonator I've refitted with a Decat pipe.
Left is what I removed and replaced with the set up on the right.
Initially i used cheap exhaust clamps because the pipe slipped over the original middle section but they where rubbish. This time I bought proper exhaust sleeves (From ebay). Much better quality and sealing.
In the future they'll be a Miltec rear sections going on purely just for sound but for performance this set up will hopefully make a bit of a difference in how quickly it Revs.

Planned in the future.
Find a suitable panel filter
Clean and service rear brakes, I didn't get around to these last weekend when I did the fronts.
EFI Remap to smooth things out with the upgrades.
 
Spent a little more time on her this month.

Finally got around to stripping the rear brakes, perfect working order with 15mm pads still.

Also fitted a Polyflex Torque mount which has made a world of difference

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Got around to finding a dry weekend when I could pop the track wheels on and test them on the road before their first outing. Managed to do an alignment of the wheels on the drive to straighten out the steering wheel and get it driving in a straight line, feels much nicer to drive after a little more TLC.


Track wheels
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Wet Tyres and wheels

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Finally I've spent the afternoon researching and shopping online but i'll save that for that next update!
 

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RS200 Buckets and Harnesses fitted.

Carrying on from the update from last week here is the progress from this weekend.

Started off Friday night by stripping out the standard seats, removing the seat seats and starting to figure out how to mount bucket seats in the Clio.

I knew there was a few issues to over come with this path.

-Offset steering wheel in relation to the seat.
-Seats are too low with just the rails, even using high rise ones,
-Floor mounting points no were near line up with the mounts.

Spent Friday manufacturing two sets of sub frame rails which I could then bolt the rails down too.

Saturday was spent fitting the 6 point harnesses, fitting eyelets and strengthening the floor to accommodate the harnesses too.

Finally I worked around the seat belt issues as well as the mirco switch which is found on the standard Renault seats caused an airbag fault for a few hours as a 3R3 resistor is not big enough to clear that fault. However I now have no warning lights and a clear dash without the use of CLIP.

You'll probably notice I have managed to retain the 3 point belts too for general driving.

Would be great to hear any feedback!

On another side note I've also booked the Renault sport day for 15th April at Oulton Park!

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Those seats look epic and I am sure will he excellent on track. How do you find harnesses for daily driving ?

Did you overcome the angled driving position in relation to the steering wheel through your seat brackets ?