Clio Inferno 182

[Simon Blades]

After complaining of how slow and dull my Seat Leon was, I decided to take it upon myself to get a proper hot hatch.
Here are a few photos from when I picked the car up




I've done quite a lot since owning the car, including both belts and dephaser and various cosmetic touches such as cup spoiler, fabia splitter and colour coding the badges on the doors.

Prepared for Trax by Simon_89, on Flickr
I also did my first track day on Wednesday (2/10/13), I decided on Cadwell out of impulse and must say I'm glad I chose it as I had a great amount of fun and getting to see what the fuss was about Clio Sports

Cadwell Park by Simon_89, on Flickr

Cadwell Park by Simon_89, on Flickr

Cadwell Park by Simon_89, on Flickr

Cadwell Park by Simon_89, on Flickr

Cadwell Park by Simon_89, on Flickr

Cadwell Park by Simon_89, on Flickr

Cadwell Park by Simon_89, on Flickr

Cadwell Park by Simon_89, on Flickr

Cadwell Park by Simon_89, on Flickr

Cadwell Park by Simon_89, on Flickr

Cadwell Park by Simon_89, on Flickr

Cadwell Park by Simon_89, on Flickr


Cooksport Springs by Simon_89, on Flickr

Cooksport Springs by Simon_89, on Flickr

Cooksport Springs by Simon_89, on Flickr

 

[Simon Blades]

"Before" shot of the ride height:

Bolts out, springs dropped out:


New vs Old:






Fronts needed bullying with plusgas and rattle gun, didn't take long though - also must have got the car under 1000kgs with all of the crud I chiseled off the bolts...


I was nervous about us not being able to undo these, but they pretty much just fell off when we touched them...


Cruddy...


New vs Old top mount bearing:


Shiney shiney...


And the after shot, the spring you can see in front of the car is not a part we forgot to put back in... I don't think.


Car felt fine from the test run, no creaks rattles or bangs - but my 4000 mile old Continentals have been knackered on the inside edge, so I definitely need to sort the alignment out before the Xmas closure and potentially look at replacing 2 CS3 tyres I reckon


Untitled by Simon_89, on Flickr

Untitled by Simon_89, on Flickr
As you can see the exhaust has cracked where it enters the rear silencer, ironically the plate that is meant to strengthen the pipe has also come off. Luckily the garage I went to knows someone who can weld stainless steel and are charging me £15 for having it welded up.

Untitled by Simon_89, on Flickr
I also need to get my centre section sorted as it seems to put my cat at a funny angle and I think it is causing it to blow slightly from the cat/manifold joint

 

[Simon Blades]

First up was to sort out the gear stick, the cover was really heavily marked and looked a mess

Untitled by Simon_89, on Flickr
So I popped onto eBay and for a couple of quid I just got myself a normal Clio one, goes with my black dash strips

Untitled by Simon_89, on Flickr
Also decided to give my seatbelts a clean yesterday after seeing a couple of people on here managing to get them silver again, unfortunately I didn't manage to get after photos as it was getting dark but you can see how bad the drivers one was

Untitled by Simon_89, on Flickr
Got a couple of more things I need to update on but haven't had time to get photos of them yet.

Did Blyton Park yesterday, isn't quite as intimidating as Cadwell Park and is also suited quite well for the smaller cars like Clios.










and finally...one to add to the collection






New track day alloys, has a lovely TUV stamp on the inside of the alloys too

 

[Simon Blades]

One blank flattened down and one half way through polishing

Both polished up nicely
[/url]
My luck was going far too well :mad: , fell out of my short pockets and fell on the floor so I'll be redoing that one
[footnote]Edited by Simon182 on Tuesday 29th April 21:07[/footnote]


197 Steering Wheelby Simon_89, on Flickr
Clio Sport 197 steering fitted

Got rid of my ktec racing air filter today for a more favourable mod, a whiteline arb. In place of the air filter I've got a ktec panel filter, with a silicon elbow in a standard air box.

Whiteline ARB

Air box

I did Blyton last week and to my pleasure my cheap alloy wheels didn't explode like some thought they would, first thing was to try and find a starting point for the tyre pressures. I'd read on here that you had to run them at quite a high pressure otherwise the sidewall could end up with excessive wear and fall to bits. Initially I had it at mid to high 30s and the car just wasn't happy and just seemed to bounce about everywhere.
After speaking to a friend with a 106, he recommended I try around 26psi cold in the tyres and take it from there with running a couple of PSI less in the rear tyres too. Needless to say I gave it a shot, first few laps were a bit wobbly but once the heat got into the tyres the difference was amazing. By the end of they day my tyres looked something like this

Federal RSR by Simon_89, on Flickr
It was a great day and met a few people too off the forum.
Gave the car a much needed wash after last weekend, the wheels were filthy from brake dust and I even found a few bit of rubber stuck to the inside of the alloys too!

Dirty Alloys by Simon_89, on Flickr
Whilst I had the alloys off for cleaning I was checking the tread to make sure there wasn't any damage and found a stone embedded into the tyre, I removed it and it had lodged itself in quite deep. There's also still signs of the tyre melting, I thought this would of warn away by now or when it was all coming off down the M180 and hitting my back bumper!

Stone in tyre by Simon_89, on Flickr

Grainy Tyre by Simon_89, on Flickr

Melted Tyre by Simon_89, on Flickr
and finally one of the car cleaned, not bad for a daily track car that turned over 109k on track last week!

Clean Car by Simon_89, on Flickr

So this weekend turned out to be quite an expensive one, an expense I shouldn't need to spend again any time soon hopefully. There was a rolling road day on at RS Tuning, thought I'd pop down and have a gander at what cars were down there. Earlier in the week I had emailed Tony Banks about a custom exhaust as I had tended to a broken handbrake cable the week prior and noticed it in a sorry state....

Cracked Exhaust by Simon_89, on Flickr

Cracked Exhaust by Simon_89, on Flickr
So I popped down to Tony Banks on Saturday and had a look at the tail pipe options they did; took a liking to a 2.5" outward rolled tail pipe. Turns out they had a free space in the morning and it turned into a 'take my money' moment
So this is the outcome, I asked for the trim to stick proud of the bumper and I'd say they've done a great job....

2.5" Outward Rolled Exhaust by Simon_89, on Flickr
They even ditched the rubbish Renault exhaust mounts in favour of their own custom ones which utilise standard exhaust rubbers which can be replaced.
Overall really happy with the look

 

[andybond]

Quality post @Simon Blades

Any further plans for it ? Track it to death ?

 

[Simon Blades]

Just keep it maintained and track it as often as I can afford to. Although I'd love to charge it but saving for a house is far more important

 

[Big Steve - Raider]

Nice job @Simon Blades :i-m_so_happy.gif:

 

[DaveL485]

Just keep it maintained and track it as often as I can afford to. Although I'd love to charge it but saving for a house is far more important

Debatable

(Check out @Ricardo 's Petrol blue one)

Lovely car, they are fantastic on track aren't they? Very easy to drive quick. Only caveat to that is high speed tracks, if the rear overheat it'll bite you real quick! Blyton in mine was awesome though, it was flying!