Willis - Nicole The Clio 197...

[Willis]

In the interest of getting everything on here quickly, this is a copy & paste job from Clio197/200.net...

Well, it's a year today since I picked up Nicole (had to be done didn't it) so I thought I should start a thread at long last.

I'll start from the beginning... I'd always loved the Clio Williams as a kid and as I went through school the 172 and 182 came out and I always hoped to eventually own one. I passed my driving test in December 2006 and promised myself I'd have a hot Clio as soon as I could afford one. Then in February 2008, I went on an MSV RaceMaster day at Oulton Park where I got to drive the 197 Cup and a Formula Brands. As cool as it was to drive the single seater, my overriding memory of the day was how much fun the 197 was, it was my first time driving on track (Oulton happens to have been my second home since about the age of 4) and my first time driving a 197. At this point, the hope turned into a promise. I would have one.

So, 2 years and 5 cars (Pug' 106 Rallye, Pug' 205 GTi 1.6, Ford Puma 1.7, FIAT Sei' Sporting, FIAT Coupe 16V Turbo) later, I found myself in the position to finally be able to afford to buy and insure one!!!

12 May 2010;

I paid £8495 for Nicole, she'd covered 30689Miles with 1 previous owner and had a FSH. She was up for £10500, but with some haggling and some hard-faced-ness I managed to blag the price down and get Tyre & Wheel Insurance thrown in for free as well as 12 Months Tax. I did have to buy my own mats and V-Power though, but still, I was happy with saving £2000!!!

13 May 2010;

A nice parcel arrived from K-Tec, an ITG Panel Filter. I'd ordered it 3 days before actually picking Nicole up.

13 June 2010;

Time for my first proper blast out, which happened to by my first trip to The EVO Triangle.

My dad had picked up his new Subaru Impreza WRXS just a week after I'd picked up Nicole, so it would've been rude for him not to join me.

The rest of the summer pretty much followed the same pattern of getting out and about whenever we could and just enjoying the cars. I'd always been a bit of a clean-freak too, so I started to get into the whole detailing thing which has since become a f?cking obsession. But, with our first child (Lewis Jenson) arriving in November, just as we moved house (literally the same day) the sh!te weather arrived and Nicole ended up looking more like a tractor for the next few months...

03 January 2011;

Normal service resumed once things had settled down after New Year and I got back into keeping Nicole nice and clean. I also figured it was about time I took her on track (Oulton, of course) and give her the thrashing she deserved, I was also long overdue another trackday (last one was in November 2009). But, the brakes seemed like they could do with a freshen up as they weren't as powerful as I'd expected. I knew the Rear Discs were only a year old and the Rear Pads had been changed the day before I picked her up, so I refreshed the fronts...

20 January 2011;

Profile Automotive; Fitted Front Pads (OEM), Front Discs (OEM) & Millers Oils Race Fluid 300 Plus

22 January 2011;

Oulton Park, Focused Events; Again, my dad thought he best tag along in the WRXS (my mum wasn't too sure, but she's given up trying to reason with him now) and our good friend Craig also joined us in his Ford Focus ST (320BHP)...

03 April 2011;

Top Gear Stockport; Removed Centre Silencer

From then until now has seen a whole lot of detailing (most of which hasn't been photographed), even more driving (again, not so much with the photography) and too much fun to put into words. The Cat & Fiddle is now my local pub, despite being 15Miles away and I now know The EVO Triangle better than I know my back garden. This brings us up to now...

11 May 2011;

Northwest Performance; MOT & 4 Year Service.

Nicole flew through her MOT with no advisories and so I thought it was only fair to celebrate our aniversary by treating her to a Service.

12 May 2011;

So, that's my first year of Clio 197 ownership, I have some ''small'' plans for her over the next year so I'll update this accordingly.

 

[Willis]

21 May 2011;

Me and Craig took Nicole and the Focus ST out for a bit of a blast around Cheshire.

Videos;

[youtube]ueFrGZJKcpg[/youtube]

[youtube]XVW1N0C9kIE[/youtube]

[youtube]mV2uJLvKTSM[/youtube]

28 May 2011;

Finally got a microphone of a standard to match the camcorder and went for a blast to test the new setup.

£3.00 from Amazon, the sound quality is excellent.

Videos;

[youtube]mj6eBarAoj8[/youtube]

[youtube]8-734zMEB90[/youtube]

[youtube]LXl35qNs8eo[/youtube]

28 May 2011;

eBay; Purchased a Clio V6 Airbox with OEM filter... For... £10.

Now I just need to find an equally cheap race/small battery, relocate it and then get the Airbox fitted. Sounds easy, probably won't be...

06 June 2011

Opie Oils; Ordered Millers Oils Racing Brake Fluid 300.

Should be fitting my HEL Hoses at long last (been sat in the shed since January) in the next week or so with some more goodies (see below). I've been using this fluid since January now and I've given it a good test around Oulton Park as well as a fair bit of abuse on blasts out. Not had any fade issues yet (OEM Pads & Discs also replaced in January) and I'd recommend this fluid to anybody. It's DOT 4.0+, but is actually a higher spec' than a lot of DOT 5.1 stuff. Needless to say, I made full use of our club discount with Opie Oils.

07 June 2011;

Motorsport World; Ordered H&R -35mm/-40mm Springs.

World Of Parts Ltd; Ordered Renaultsport 197 Cup Dampers.

I can't rate Garry at Motorsport World highly enough, he initially told me that there would be a 7-10 day wait for the Springs as they have to order them from Germany... But then an hour ago he sent me a message to say he'd managed to track down a set for me and they'll be here by dinnertime tomorrow. They don't quite have the range of stock as Demon Tweeks, but they p!ss all over them in terms of customer service.

Likewise, Nicola at World Of Parts is an absolute gem and despite me threatening to order the Dampers off her for the last year but continually having to put it off, she hasn't once been funny with me and I'll be going to pick my Dampers up on Saturday. I'm also going to have a nosey at some Megane 225 mud guards whilst I'm there which we think will fit the 197 sideskirts perfectly... If they do then I'll be getting a set painted Deep Black, bit of a different slant on the whole mud guard idea.

In short, today has been good.

 

[Willis]

23 June 2011;

Northwest Performance; Fitted HEL Hoses, H&R Springs -35mm/-40mm and Renaultsport 197 Cup Dampers.

More great service from Alan and Ryan at Northwest Performance. I dropped Nicole off yesterday afternoon and collected her today. My immediate impressions were that she now looked a lot more squat and pretty damn mean... I took the scenic route home.

Here's a few quick before/afters;

The brakes don't feel much different, the pedal maybe feels a bit firmer which is nice but I think with Hoses you don't really notice much until you take the car on track or give it a real beasting. No doubt they'll be better than the rubber ones though. The Springs & Dampers have made a big difference, I'm really quite surprised. Nicole feels a lot smoother now over bumps and pocks in the road without being too harsh and the difference in cornering performance is quite scary to be honest. Very flat. Perfect.

26 June 2011

Well, it had been a good eight months since Nicole and I visited the racetrack they call ''Wales''.

So, we gathered a few of our close friends together (some of who were blast virgins) and returned to The EVO Triangle via The Horseshoe Pass...

The Horseshoe Pass;

The EVO Triangle;

This was the first real test for my new suspension and I have to say I was well impressed. As was my mate Chris (645i) who couldn't keep up when things got twisty. The weather was perfect and we encountered very little traffic all day. We came back over Lllandegla which is one of our favourite stretches of road and is (for now at least) relatively unkown in the car/bike circles... In fact, we only know about it because my dad spent his younger years thrashing bikes about up there.

List Of Attendees; 645i, Clio 172, Focus ST, E36 M3 Cab., Impreza WRXS, A4 Quattro (435BHP).

Can't wait now for the next blast in about a months time.

 

[Willis]

27 August 2011;

Had a nice roadtrip up and over to Newcastle this morning to see Rich and pick up a K-Tec 200 Cell Sports-Cat & K-Tec Cat-Back System.

Nice to meet you Rich and thanks for holding onto the bits for me for the last month.

Time to get fiddling...

21 October 2011;

Northwest Performance; Fitted K-Tec 200 Cell Sports-Cat & K-Tec (Magnex) Cat-Back System.

Well after sitting in my shed for a month and a half and becoming shinier then the mirror in the bathroom in that time, I finally got the exhaust goodies on today thanks again to Ryan at Northwest Performance. I had intended to do the work myself but it's been a busy old month so I've not had much time to fiddle around, hence why I've hardly been on here either for about 5-6 weeks.

My first impressions with the new setup is that Nicole does seem to rev even more freely now and in fact she feels like there's a bit more pull in the mid-range. I love the new sound too, nice and gruff and not too boomy/chavtastic. I have to say that the flatspot that seemed to get slightly worse after I took the centre silencer out seems to have been improved now and isn't really any worse than standard. A remap is on the cards though although that'll have to wait until after Christmas as there's a few other things I want doing at the same time...

Videos to follow later in the week.

25 November 2011

And that's it for now, still not got around to getting a video with the new system. Comment/questions welcome, I'll keep this updated as and when things happen.

 

[Craig_B]

Iya dude!

hows the ride on the H&R's? want to get mine lowered now arch gap is annoying me

 

[Willis]

Superb mate, can't speak highly enough of them.

Bear in mind that I swapped to 197 Cup Dampers at the same time though, thought I may as well refresh and upgrade whilst they were coming off the car. It's a lot stiffer than FF, not uncomfortable by any stretch though. Don't get me wrong, she doesn't waft like a Maybach but that's not what these are about is it? Over speedbumps at a sensible 15-20MPH isn't much harsher than FF and I avoid potholes like the plague as it is so they don't bother me. When pushing on there's a lot less roll now, not like there was that much to begin with like, there's also less pitch under hard braking.

I thought the 197 was the best handling car I'd ever driven, but this is a definate improvement, so she's still the best.

First on-track test coming in January. Woohoo!!!

 

[gsidave]

You've done some good work there will. And you like to drive it like what it's built for.

 

[Willis]

Cheers!!!

She'll be due a belt change next May (5 Years) so if I can save enough between now and then she'll be getting a few other little bits done at the same time. Oh damn right, don't get me wrong, I don't constantly hammer her about and I do try to keep her clean but like you say, anything bearing the RS moniker is built for one thing; Fun. It's all about the Smiles Per Mile!!!

 

[Willis]

Well I've not been on here in bloody ages so this is well overdue a copy & paste session...

27 August 2011;

Had a nice roadtrip up and over to Newcastle this morning to see Rich and pick up a K-Tec 200 Cell Sports-Cat & K-Tec Cat-Back System.

Nice to meet you Rich and thanks for holding onto the bits for me for the last month.

Time to get fiddling...

 

[Willis]

21 October 2011;

Northwest Performance; Fitted K-Tec 200 Cell Sports-Cat & K-Tec (Magnex) Cat-Back System.

Well after sitting in my shed for a month and a half and becoming shinier then the mirror in the bathroom in that time, I finally got the exhaust goodies on today thanks again to Ryan at Northwest Performance. I had intended to do the work myself but it's been a busy old month so I've not had much time to fiddle around, hence why I've hardly been on here either for about 5-6 weeks.

My first impressions with the new setup is that Nicole does seem to rev even more freely now and in fact she feels like there's a bit more pull in the mid-range. I love the new sound too, nice and gruff and not too boomy/chavtastic. I have to say that the flatspot that seemed to get slightly worse after I took the centre silencer out seems to have been improved now and isn't really any worse than standard. A remap is on the cards though although that'll have to wait until after Christmas as there's a few other things I want doing at the same time...

Videos to follow later in the week.

 

[Willis]

16 December 2011;

Well after a lot of reading and researching, I've bitten the bullet.

Today has seen a Clio V6 Airbox purchased from Matt (mdking) and a RITAR RT12200 dry-cell ordered from Lucas Batteries. Now, I know they're probably not a name most people over here have heard of but they're a big name in America and it's cost me less than a third of the price of a Varley/Odyssey for the equivalent power output/capacity and, strangely, it's the EXACT same physical dimensions as a Red Top 25. Me thinks it's the same internals in a slightly less pretty frock...

Now I just need to get a ITG/K-Tec Panel, Battery Bracket and source me an Inlet-Airbox Pipe or make one up from bits of Samco.

Oh, and then pick Litchys auto-electrician mates brain...

19 December 2011;

K-Tec Racing; Ordered K-Tec Racing Panel Filter

R-Sport; Ordered TB To V6 Airbox Inlet Pipe, 197/200 Cup Race Car Airbox Bracket

Unfortunately R-Sport didn't have the Bracket in stock but they're due a huge order from Renaultsport in early January to get stocked up for the 2012 season so they're kindly picking me one up then. Had a good chat with the lad I spoke to, who's name I can't remember, but he was very helpful. Also had a good chat to Martin (sure that was his name) at K-Tec, really nice guy and very clued up. I made the most of the Clio197/200.net discount too, it's always nice when you save a bit of money.

22 December 2011;

Just had a phonecall from R-Sport... Forget the Bracket arriving in early January, it's here now!!! Will be with me on Weds.

Also, after some more reading about my RITAR RT12200 dry-cell, I've discovered that the CA & CCA is actually a lot lower than the equivalent sized Varley/Odyssey. So, although it will start Nicole it will probably only do it the once. With that in mind, I've exchanged it for an Odyssey Extreme Racing 25 to ensure longevity. Hopefully that'll be here on Weds too...

 

[Willis]

03 January 2012;

Tegiwa Imports; Ordered Odyssey Aluminium Battery Bracket

Nicole is booked in to have her battery relocated this coming Saturday (thanks to Litchy for the advice/phone number).

I'm looking forward to getting the Airbox on and seeing/hearing/feeling for myself how much of a difference these things make.

09 January 2012;

I'm having a few teething problems with the V6 Airbox unfortunately. I went up to SC Auto Electrics (www.scautoelectrics.co.uk) in Bolton on Saturday for Steve to move the Battery for me, which he did and I have to say his work is spot on, it looks OEM it's that neat. But, in my attempt to save him some messing about, I didn't take the Airbox itself with me for him to work around, so unfortunately one of the wires has ended up being JUST too short for me to be able to move the new ''Jumpstart Terminal'' and fit the Airbox in. What a sh!tter. Entirely my own fault.

Anyhow, I've spoken to Steve today and I'm going to get back up to see him as soon as he can fit me in so that he can fiddle things around a bit which, will hopefully be at some point between now and the trackday at Oulton Park on 20.01.12. This time I'm taking the Airbox with me.

13 January 2012;

SC Auto Electrics; Fitted V6 Airbox.

I went back up to see Steve this afternoon for him to do some more swearing at Nicole and get the V6 Airbox in and... SHE'S ALIIIVE!!! A bit of fiddling, a bit more wire extending and jobs a good'un. For anybody thinking about doing this modification, I'd strongly advise you to take it to somebody who has big balls and knows their way around an electrical loom. Had I tried to do this myself then I'd have most likely just ended up on fire on the driveway...

Photos and videos to follow, hopefully tomorrow.

The noise. Oh the noise.

14 January 2012;

V6 Airbox & K-Tec Panel vs. Household Items For Scale...

Engine Bay With OEM Airbox vs. Engine Bay With V6 Airbox Setup...

Worrying OEM Airbox ''Pressure Failure'' On Airbox To TB Hole...

Apologies for the sh!t iPhone photography. I still need to sort out a permanent bracket for the smaller Fuse Box as although nobody will ever see it being supported by cable-ties, it does like a bit ''Gypo''. I'll have a fiddle about at work on Monday and see what I can rustle up. One other thing I need to sort out is the Airbox To Inlet Hose... As you can just about see form the photos, it is slightly kinked. Looking at it, I think if I get physical with the sound-deadening on the bulkhead then I should be able to just cut enough out for the Pipe to then sit a bit better without having to remove all of the sound-deadening... So, two minor things to sort out, but all in all, she's good to go.

Note the addition of the ''Jumpstart Terminal'' so I don't have to go in the boot to access the battery should she ever refuse to start...

Not sure what's gone on with the OEM Airbox.

So, videos...

[youtube]sDGxnSNFXOs[/youtube]

[youtube]dJ9ipVchNGc[/youtube]

It was bloody freezing and my sister had never used the camcorder before, so please excuse the shaking/shivering.

16 January 2012

So, after a few days of V6 induction, I conclude that... I've demolished the MPG because of the noise and new-found extra grunt.

31 January 2012;

eBay; Picked up a Clio 182 TB for £17.00. Watch this space...

Also, I'm still a little on the fence about Cams, but I am starting to come around to the idea

 

[Willis]

11 March 2012;

I've just noticed how long it's been since Nicole had an update!!!

Well she's had no new parts lately as I've been trying to save for ''The Big One'' in May, but due to losing ~£700 at work in the last fortnight I'm a bit behind with that so she might just have to wait an extra month or so. But anyway, things haven't stopped completely. As per the last update, I have a 60mm TB sat here waiting to go down to Gav with NINE others now to be bored out to 64mm. So, they're being sent off on 16 March 2012.

I'm hoping to pick up a set of Inlets to have matched before ''The Big One'' too. Sourcing them and having them matched isn't a problem, again it's a money thing. I need to do a bit more reading though first because it seems that Renaultsport did not create all Inlets equal. Some people have reported ~3BHP gains after matching, but others have reported no or little gains from doing this. It's hard to justfiy ~£250 for something that might not give me anything. Or £250 that could go towards something better. I think the easiest thing to do might be to whip off my Inlets and just check them out before I decide what to do. To be continued...

Ah, ''The Big One''. This is of course the Cambelt Service which is due in May. I had planned to drop some ARP Rod Bolts and a set of Shrick or CatCams in and have a Remap done at the same time. Sort of makes sense to have it all done in one hit. But, I've cooled on the idea of the Cams. And with being on the fence from the outset about Cams, I just think that because I'm not 100% sure, I'm going to leave it. We should still see a bit of a jump on the old RR graph from when she was standard with what she's got on her now, I don't have a target, but anything over 193.5BHP (ITG Panel, August 2010, Dyno Dynamics) will be very nice.

So, the amended plans for the remainder of this year;

Remap
64mm TB
ARP Rod Bolts
Cambelt Service

Beyond that I have more I'd like to do, Nicole is going nowhere and no doubt my plans will evolve over time. But I'd like to do the whole R26.R thing. So, if you know of an ''Oulton Cage'' knocking about or you have one you want to shift then give me a shout...

 

[Willis]

07 April 2012;

Just a quick update and some photos for y'all to cast your eyes over...

Whilst I was down in Tamworth last week, a big box full of 64mm TBs arrived at the parentals for me. I have to say I'm impressed with the quality of the work by Gav, they look very good indeed. I tried two of them on Nicole earlier today, just to see if the behaviour was consistant with what Litchy had with his. The answer is, thankfully, yes. The 64mm TB was idling at ~1,500RPM and was sticking at 3,000RPM when stationary if you revved above that exactly as Litchy found. However, under load it dropped back down to normal, i.e; when pulling away the revs droped to where you'd expect them to be. I swapped over and tried another 64mm TB... With this TB on, the idle was slightly lower at ~1,250RPM but the sticking at 3,000RPM issue was completely resolved. I went for a bit of a blast around the block and initial impressions is that there's more eagerness in the lower rev range. After returning and leaving Nicole off for 10 mintues, I restarted her and the idle was now settling at ~2,000RPM and the sticking at 3,000RPM issue which wasn't there originally with this TB was now there. I had a bit of a panic to be honest and phoned Litchy, but it seems that this ties in well with what he experienced for the first couple of days/miles. Consistancy is the key.

For the time being I've put the 60mm TB back on Nicole as I've always said I don't really want to fit mine until I'm having it mapped, but no doubt I will because it'll do my head in seeing it sat on the windowsill in the kitchen. Interestingly, upon starting her up after putting the 60mm TB back on, the idle was at ~500RPM for the first 5-10 seconds before returning to the usual ~1,000RPM. This tells me that the ECU had started to adjust to the new airflow, so that's a positive thing. Nicole is now running as normal, no issues and no warning lights after my experimentation.

What I noticed in a short blast around my local test track is that there was a whole heap more torque at lower revs and more eagerness. With none of the throttle lag I was half expecting...

And here's the technical stuff for you all. I know you can't get enough of the numbers;

60mm TB = 60mm x 62mm = 701CM3

64mm TB = 64mm x 62mm = 797CM3

So a 13.1% increase in volume..

Both 60mm/64mm;

Closer 60mm/64mm;

Closerer 60mm/64mm;

 

[Willis]

05 May 2012;

Northwest Performance; MOT.

Nicole flew through her MOT with no advisories again, good girl. Interestingly, I noticed that on the emissions test the figures are no worse than last years despite the fact that I've gone to a 200 Cell Sports-Cat in the meantime, as well as a few other ''little'' bits. So, kudos to K-Tec, I can now confirm that their Sports-Cat has no effect at all on the emissions whilst still (in my opinion) providing a helping hand in easing/removing the flatspot which is virtually non-existant now on my car. And she's not been mapped. Yet. All good things in time.

So, we celebrated by unwrapping her 64mm TB once we got home and fitting that.

18 May 2012;

Well, I've just booked ''The Big One''. Nicole will be off to Birchdown Auto Services next month for;

Service
Coolant
Aux Belt
Cam Belt
Dephaser
Water Pump
Laser Alignment
ARP Rod Bolt Fitting

Originally I was looking at this being later in the summer but I don't like playing with fate so decided not to delay it.

 

[GhostZ]

Nice thread about your clio , man i do wish we had roads like that here in belgium ..... seems like a joy to drive on

 

[Ollie133cup]

Great thread Willis! Go on go for the cams !! ha

 

[MovingShadow]

Any particular reason why you stay OEM with the airbox?

 

[Willis]

Cheers guys, thanks for reading... I appreciate it was a big old update all in one go but I know most people enjoy a project thread.

GhostZ, yeah we're quite lucky really here. Once you get out into the countryside the UK really is beautiful. There's some very good roads more local to me where we have a little ''track''... There's some videos of some of my favourite roads on my You Tube channel and there's some trackday footage on there too, here's the link; https://www.youtube.com/user/fldwillis?feature=results_main

Ollie, oh I am tempted mate believe me hahaha!!! But the way I'm looking at it is it's Cams or Quaife, and after having a Quaife before on a FIAT Coupe 16VT I know how much difference they can make. So that's what's on my shopping list for 2013. The lads who've been camming the 197/200 have seen around a 10BHP gain which is good for NA but they're damn expensive when you think in terms of £/BHP. I suppose that's the downside to NA engines, but my God I love NA.

MovingShadow, the Clio V6 Airbox is what they use on the Clio Cup Racecars. The OEM setup on the 197 is actually very good and hard to improve on, but the V6 and the R3 Airboxes give proven gains. The R3 Airbox is ~£500 though and requires moving the coolant reservoir as well as the battery (V6 Airbox only requires relocation of the battery) so it's a bit more intrusive and a bit more expensive for not much more of a gain. Plus, I like the fact that everything still looks relatively OEM under the bonnet. Gains with the V6 Airbox are around 7BHP and 10lbFt.

 

[Ollie133cup]

Yeh i understand , im getting Itb's for the 133 but costs are rising as they are only after doing a one off kit. So god damn there expensive ha.

but you just cant beat the ROAR of an N/A