Purchased a small French lightweight hot hatch - Renault Clio 172 Cup & NOW 182 Trophy

SixTwoSix said:
God damn, even though I have my mind set on a mk2 3MPS I keep reading the updates on this thread and find myself browsing 172/182 cliosports nearby. I had a 172 a few years ago and it was such fun to drive, not much refinement but it's not designed for that of course :D

This has appeared for sale close to me in the last week or so, well looked after and really liking that colour but feels like it's commanding a fairly high price

https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201808169568453?
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I was looking at that one yesterday too :p
 
Gibbo said:
Anyone here got experience of Toyo R1R and AD08R, I was gonna get AD08R, but I keep hearing great things about the R1R, saying its essentially an 888 but designed for wet use with the tread blocks and deeper 6.5mm, people saying dry grip is more or less on a par with 888 particular once down to around 5mm but that they work from cold and are exceptional in the wet.
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I have had my AD08R's for the past 2 years on my celica and cannot really fault them. Great on the road and great on track. Even driven on snow! Only downside is the road noise is terrible but thats a given for a stiff sidewall.
 
Havana_UK said:
Take a look at Nankang AR-1 @Gibbo
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I have, shall have a set of those coming for the M3 to put on another set of wheels, they look amazing for track and hot summer days, very fast tyre indeed, M3 cup cars run them and since changing to those they are running 1:17-1:18 consistent lap times around Donnington in race conditions, which is a good 2s or so improvement over the previous control tyre which was the Nankang NS-2R soft compound, that is no longer available, hence the switch to AR-1 and the lap times came right down. It is said to be pretty much on a par with the incredible DZ03G which is now illegal for road use and was setting times within a second of slicks generally, so the AR-1 is very good.

I just feel is it maybe too much for a Clio with road use, would I ever be able to generate enough heat into them on the road to extract their performance because as with all proper semi slicks, they don't work great when cold and take some additional effort to get heat into them.
Trust me I have considered putting on 888R or AR-1 but it would probably be a waste.

This is why I was swung towards AD08R, many think its a semi slick, it is in fact not, but is a very high performing extreme summer tyre with generally dry levels of grip exceeding any other, including Michelins and of course AD08R has re-inforced sidewalls which can really awaken a cars front-end, which is why many like them, probably not such a requirement though in a Clio that weighs only a tonne. AD08R does seem highly recommended, can get a set for £400 on the Clio, versus around £600 for a set of 888R or AR-1.

Of course the attraction of the R1R is how popular it is in sprint and autocross racing, where there is no time to warm up a tyre and it needs to perform immediately and it seems very popular in such circles and is also popular amongst track day enthusiast who use the R1R as a wet tyre and 888R for dry tyre, but they claim the R1R is also very good in dry but extreme track abuse in dry shreds them quickly. Can grab a set of these for £320.

Clio owners seem to love both R1R and AD08R, of course those tracking a lot are running the 888R and AR-1 generally.
 
I cant help but think a road car tyre like a Michelin is going to be the best for this car, going to sticky may detract from what this car is about.
 
Hi there

OK ordered a set of R1R's, £300 for a set so not too bad, see if any good, supposed to be very grippy in wet and dry, but also fun and progressive.


Plus a very quick mod this morning:


Before:

L1.jpg




After:

L2.jpg




Very effective, very cheap, about £6 but just freshens the car up.

Weather is well this weekend, shall be changing the upper left engine mount for a new one along with Powerflex insert. :)
If tyres arrive shall probably book the car in for wheel refurbishment and the R1R tyres fitting.
 
Hi there


Some more jobs on the Clio today, removed the old upper engine mount and cleaned the area up, great to see no rust or corrosion:

m1_1.jpg






Then fitted up the new engine mount along with Powerflex insert to help limit movement, seems a highly recommended modification on these cars:


m2_1.jpg





I then made decision to remove air box, throttle body etc to give a cleaning, the throttle body was rather dirty (no before pictures) and the air box was rather dusty, plus there was a load of PS fluid/dirt on top of gearbox. So I thoroughly cleaned the throttle body and got some degreaser to work on some parts of engine and the gear box.

m4_1.jpg


m3_1.jpg





All much cleaner, I then went to work with a detailing spray to bring up the plastics and finally the engine bay is looking somewhat fresher now:


m6.jpg


m5.jpg




So now all the engine/gearbox mounts are done, upper, lower and dogbone. Only the upper has Powerflex insert, as I am only really using Powerflex where it makes sense, end of the day its an original car restoration so trying to keep it original.

The parts left over now to fit is:
- Front wishbones x2
- Inner & outer track rods
- Powerflex anti roll bar bushings
- Powerflex rear beam bushes
- Wheel sorted
- R1R fitted all round


That should have the car spot on the, driving the car today I have to say it felt even more responsive and urgent, no doubt a bit placebo from the upper engine mount and powerflex as now the engine rocks less, visibly than before so that force will be in the cars shell and thus give added response, the throttle body was rather dirty, so maybe a handful horses restored also.

Really enjoying driving the car, but the steering wheel is definitely too big, so I might consider removing and putting into storage and fitting something smaller so I can enjoy the car better.
 
Diagro said:
Not thought of a better rear dogbone?

I used eBay item 372062241308 when I had my 172
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Thought yes, but decided to keep most of the car as original as possible plus I find oem bushes tend to be better, particular on road cars, more compliance. I don't mind using bushing inserts which compliment the oem bushes.

I am not building a track car, but just restoring a great car to pretty more OEM specification which maybe a couple of minor improvements here and there.
I only have Powerflex ARB bushing kit instead of OEM simply as OEM was out of stock.

Its a fun car, that is really only as fast as your willing to drive it as it can carry serious speed if you happy with the whole tripod and lift of oversteer, but in fairness it is way more forgiving and far better handling than 306GTI-6 and 205GTIs for sure.
 
Diagro said:
The flowflex is a soft bush mate. I highly recommend it. Especially if you have poly inserts.

The stock dogbone is really weak...
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You mean the bushes are weak, as that ebay number is just poly bushes to put into stock dogbone, not a new dogbone.
If I destroy the stock bushes, I shall of course replace with some uprated bush, for now since the fresh the gear change is precise and easy.
 
Gibbo said:
You mean the bushes are weak, as that ebay number is just poly bushes to put into stock dogbone, not a new dogbone.
If I destroy the stock bushes, I shall of course replace with some uprated bush, for now since the fresh the gear change is precise and easy.
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Yea that's what I meant
 
So the Clio made its first trip to work today, along the way I through in a bottle of Redex 5in1 Petrol injector cleaner along with a full tank of Vpower.
Some my say why? Why not? Always found on my older 205's Redex really improved the running of the car, now the Clio has no signs of problems, but as I suspect the previous owner filled it with regular fuel and never did anything more than absolutely necessary, I feel a Redex treatment shall do no harm. I also have regular Redex 2 shots, so once this tank is empty, I shall run a tank of Vpower, then next full temp throw in regular Redex which should clean the injectors up nicely if they do indeed have any fouling on them.

Can I feel any difference? No. As I say car was showing no problems, just doing it more as preventative maintenance. :)


Grab a few photos as the car is looking so much fresher now after all the work I've done to it:


red3.jpg

red2.jpg

red1.jpg







Also booked it in at local garage to have front wishbones and front inner/outer track rod ends fitted. Yeah the alignment will be screwed though to be honest it already feels pretty screwed up judging by the amount of torque steer I get even in 3rd over undulating surfaces, though I think the larger issue here is the 4 miss matched tyres and the front passenger winter tyre is doing my know favours, so I don't care if these tyres get destroyed. :)

Once the R1R's are on, it shall have the rest of the bushes replaced that have not been done so far and a full alignment to factory specification. :)
 
Diddums said:
"preventative maintenance" my ass, you just saw the shiney thing and went WANT didn't you? :D


Great little car though, the ultimate in slow-car-fast.
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I am kind of hoping the R1R's squeal as much as these budget tyres, they probably won't but it is quite funny that every single roundabout or corner I can make the tyres squeal for mercy, but its a very playful car.
 
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