Yellow

[jimmybell]

wonder if anyone is in london with a ZPO or PMS to play with?

i seem to remember really appreciating whichever ZPO model you had @burrellbloke

 

[burrellbloke]

You welcome to come and try my ZPO in Essex. If you are really eager I will be at Brands Hatch on Thursday evening (i.e. 10th August) if you are able to escape from your home/work commitments?

 

[Onrus]

My buddy has had the CAE and PMS shifters in his Clio and is now on the stock setup and says that is the best of the 3 in his opinion.

 

[VeiRoNv2]

My buddy has had the CAE and PMS shifters in his Clio and is now on the stock setup and says that is the best of the 3 in his opinion.

Might just be me but i think the stock set up is already great,precise and short,the only thing is lacking is that is too far away from the steering wheel,the ZPO is great and looks mega but certainly not worth 1k for me.
I had a Saxo VTS and went from stock gear shifter to Satchshift and that massively improved gear changes,replaced the whole system up to the gearbox and only cost 300,that was worth it.

 

[jimmybell]

Yeah i have the stock one, deffo changing it.

anything that makes a shorter reach, shorter throw, more precise and fits the oem+ clubsport look works for me.. especially if it feels nicer.

not fussed about the cost - this car is already well beyond it’s ‘sensible cheap mods’ remit i’ve just accepted the pain and will work out how to fund it later.

 

[burrellbloke]

I saw your car at AW Motorworks today. Alex said that the new engine was all good.

Are you going to get the Clio back in time for Oulton Park?

 

[jimmybell]

Yeah should be back in time.. waiting on a carbon PMS shifter with some custom paint work. It's the linkage i want to try. if i hate it or miss the ZPO look i can always change later. or maybe look at how to build custom solid linkages for a ZPO? could be fun.

My wife bought me a birthday present some time ago, and that just physically arrived in the form of some new plates. Sadly that'l mark the end of the 'tradepricecars.co.uk' tag!

I think the engine hit 199hp on the dyno, so nothing special but respectable and sufficient for now! hopefully behaves a bit better given the various mods that might have impacted the old one. I've started a monthly savings plan for a fully built race engine in 2 years if the clio survives that long, seems like a fun goal and a better use of money than daily starbucks. i hate starbucks.


now looking at potential tow cars and trailer hire, seems like a nice safety net in case of track issues...

 

[jimmybell]

Looks like Pure haven't got their new shipment of PMS Shifters in time for Oulton sadly, very annoying - so no new shifter for me should have just done the ZPO. sigh.

Really starting to miss my car now, haven't seen it in 2 months.

In some positive news, some parts arrived from France - alongside a hefty import/duty tax bill, watch this space

 

[burrellbloke]

Will the parts be arriving on a car trailer?

 

[Beany]

Engine on a crate

 

[jimmybell]

haha sadly not that exciting.

maybe one day when i give up trying to be a good driver and just buy a better engine than everyone else.

 

[jimmybell]

Four tasks planned for before Oulton Park:

1. New Engine - purchased a spare from @burrellbloke and @EthanMenace - 199.1bhp on the ED Dyno, not shabby for a 100k miler.
2. PMS Shifter - PMS slow to deliver so no dice here. now going to hold off until the new year and spend the money on a tow car instead...
3. Side Skirts - ordered from Oreca in France - have no arrived but with not enough time before Oulton to fit them, and my rivet tool is broken.
4. a CL10 reg plate

Needless to say only the new engine tasks was actually achieved, and that wasn't even me... so big thanks to Alex and team at AW Motorworks for getting that sorted (and going the extra mile to collect the engine for me).

The plate was also partially achieved, wife bought me 'CLIO BRB' given how often it seemed to fail. Needless to say the rear plate then fell off a few hours from home.

PMS Shifter is now on hold, seems a waste of cash now it's the 'end of the season' so will hold for a while and re-assess in the new year depending on budget and direction.

Side skirts - well, i need a new rivet gun and only had 24 hours to fit them anyway. They can sit on the pile of mods for next year...

So... Oulton Park



What a great track! First time visiting, first time out with the new engine, and a good 4 hours away with minimal traffic meant an overnight nearby the night before. Wise choice, it turns out. I had only about 30 mins on the office simulator to learn the track, and all that did really was to make me aware how complicated Oulton Park is.

The day started off with a wet track but no rain, immediately followed by a bit of rain, then a few hours before lunch of no rain where the track had partially dried out before .. rain. heavy rain. Javelin had a pretty relaxed approach to management, asking if i had been before, or used them before - to which i replied no to both, but got no further information.. making me wonder why they asked.

I took only Cup 2's (as a 'winter' tyre) and MRF ZTRs, so sadly was pretty hesitant all day, despite getting some heat in them there were certain corners that never dried out.

Had a few sessions before a great instructor session with Stuart, who's a really nice guy and pretty clear in his instruction - gave me a lot more confidence vs the usual 'FASTER FASTER FASTER' shouts from most instructors.

Got a eye opening ride in @RSRowe's megane in worsening rain, which is also Yellow, so even faster. Man can drive, and those megane's have a grown-up feel in comparison to the Clio - planted, better build quality and pretty cocooned in comparison.

Towards the end of the day most people left, but the track dried up significantly in the last hour so i got uninterupted laps in.. with i think only 3 other cars on the huge track at the same time. Best laps were around 2:20, but i think there's probably 10s+ in there as i was braking really gently still given the day on wet tarmac until that point.

One 'tidy' lap here:

Goodwood next week, if the weather holds... but currently flying to frankfurt and then up north for the weekend so zero chance of any mods progress before then!

 

[Big Ben]

Car looks good and sounds even better.

Slight bit of jealousy just came out

 

[jimmybell]

There’s an odd rattle on the video, was hard to track down in the car at the time - my latest guess is that given how pronounced it is on video it might be the garmin rubbing against the dash… will investigate

 

[jimmybell]

Lovely e46 with a clever plate

 

[Tarticmonkey]

And wheels worth more than my clio

 

[jimmybell]

Id actually love to try those wheels on the clio. but yeah, perhaps not a sensible balance of cost for a clio.

protrack wrapped in PS5 for the winter set i think

 

[jimmybell]

Nabbed (and butchered) some of the pro photos. Not a great selection but a couple that are OK.

 

[jimmybell]

Goodwood - GRRC Track Day - 27th Sept 2023

Did zero unpacking from Oulton, didn't even wash it - jumped back in and drove to Goodwood for a GRRC members track day.

As ever, goodwood provides the broadest range of cars you could imagine. From pre-war jaguars (with tillett carbon seats..) to a nearly new SF90 at around £400k with 1000hp, radicals, m3s, mclarens, porsche ...etc.

I turn up in my dirty clio, chucked all my track gubbins under a garage and grabbed a sausage sarny.

Morning briefing is ... very 'goodwood'. professional, detailed. It's not an open pit-lane so 15 min slots with at least 1 queuing period likely - so best you can do is 1-2 sessions an hour, i averaged 1 an hour all day. People bemoan goodwood for expensive trackdays but i spent the same as Oulton but got to hang out with some of the above cars - all of which had pretty friendly owners who were just as interested in the Clio as the Ferraris. Upside being goodwood's briefing is in a mid-century designer 'lounge' and lunch is a decent Mediterranean buffet all inclusive. Even the 'map' is fancy.



Upside of the constant queue is the interaction with all the random owners you happen to be queueing with. Very different vibe to the typical MSV track. One session i had a GT3 RS, 458 Speciale, the pre-war jag, the token caterham and a full track prepped M2 comp (seen flying past me in the video below) that had about £65k spent on it.



In my 'gram post i described this as bringing a wooden spoon to a gun fight.

I chatted to the instructor about a ride for some sighting laps but in the end he just gifted me a 20 min training session for free, so no complaints there either - and i'd probably describe goodwood as a more advanced track given how fast it is (some cars north of 160mph on the straights), so was much appreciated and accelerated my learning and confidence significantly.



I now have a rear plate.

Given a few had taken off during the day i stopped by at the end of the day to take a look at a Spitfire starting up - bumped in to an old uni flying friend who now instructs on them, he was loading someone in to the passenger seat, so i took some snaps. incredible things. the noise is next level.



been a while since i did any flying so going to offer some GT3 time in exchange for some flying time. i have a video of this starting up on one of my devices, i'll try to find it.

One of the later sessions in the day, i hit record on the garmin about 2/3 of the way through the session. Video contains a few laps, including one of my fastest. The circuit has some pretty odd lines, and new braking boards designed for heavier cars that presumably had some incidents recently to explain the change - plus the surface is reasonably bumpy so suspension set about half way to hard seemed to work. I think my lines are OK, but lots of room for more seat time to get later/harder braking, plus some of the mid speed corners the clio can 100% carry more speed than i was confident doing given how little run-off the entire track has.

Overall very different to an MSV day, some great bits - some bad (queue), but overall quite a nice experience. Much more likely to drag the wife to a GRRC day than to Snetterton.

 

[LiamP]

Goodwood is certainly more of a day out, recommend to anyone who is new as you can find your own space but like you mention the queue can be a pain especially when you are trying to test / fix stuff.

Lines look good btw, you can brake much much later and harder though.