'06 197 & '03 172
Hello! Long time lurker coming out of the woodwork here...
First up is the old faithful, I bought my 197 at the end of 2016 for a mere £3295. It was a bit rough around the edges (you'll get used to that around here...) but mechanically pretty good, it had some dealer special budget tyres all round and more interior dressing than you could shake a stick at.
It had spacers and H&R springs when I got it, that was it. First thing was decent tyres and then it was all downhill from there, the need to modify and ruin the car was all too great. I'll spare you the details but in the 7 and a half years of ownership it's gone from a basically stock car, to a budget (but not bodged) built track car that never sees the road.
Interior - gone. SW half cage and a pair of buckets later and it's awful on the road. However it never goes there so it's not so bad. Spec as it stands;
Engine & gearbox:
KTR intake
Engine Dynamics map (201bhp@7800rpm)
Decat, Milltek stainless system, Toyo stainless manifold
Blackline LSD was fitted after 3rd gear synchro left the chat
Suspension:
Yellowspeed coilovers with Compbrake top mounts, Shorter 8kg springs + helper springs up front to get the ride height correct, shorter 10kg springs on the rear.
Bodywork has stayed the same, only things I've added are a Renaultsport lip and a Maxton bootlid lip.
Interior has an SW half cage, Corbeau Pro Series X seat with a Sabelt GT090 passenger seat, Sabelt deep dish wheel and an SW footplate for me.
I had planned to get this back on the road, but decided against it in the end when a cheap and cheerful 172 popped up for sale locally...
After a cheeky little offer, I went to collect this 2003 Monaco Blue 172 with 112k on the clock, basically standard. I hadn't realised at the time but it'd been off the road since 2021. The guy that I bought it from said it had electrical issues and wouldn't start if it had been raining. As I mentioned earlier, it's a little rough around the edges, with faded/damaged paint on the drivers side, slight crusty bits on the rear arches and the bonnet was replaced with a black one as it had rotten through at the front apparently. It's sat on a set of 7 year old Toyo T1Rs which are... Interesting... Very hard and moderately plasticy, the standard wheels seem to have met every curb in East Anglia and the front bumper is cracked where it had an argument with some local wildlife.
It joined the fleet of Frenchies parked round the side of my house. The 306 is a targa/nav rally project that I owned as a standard car over 10 years ago and bought back last year. The aforementioned 197 that has been to hell and back and the new kid on the block, the "looksgoodfrom20ft" 172.
This is certainly the better side...
There's a few little bits on the 172, it has a BMC CDA filter for that intake honk and a Ninja catback exhaust which sounds quite nice. Interior smells funky but I guess that's what 21 years of arse and ball sweat weill do.
Needs some work, it's got an airbag light on, there's a knock from the OSF suspension which I think is the top mount and the engine/box mounts are genuinely the worst I've ever experienced. Headlights are hazier than my memory and there seems to be a factory installed angry bee in the interior light (some kind of temperature fan? Very odd). The handbrake only works on one side so how it got through an MOT is anybody's guess.
However... All this considered, I can genuinely say hand on heart, this thing is an absolute riot and I love it already.
(If anyone on here used to own this shed, let me know, hopefully there's a project thread somewhere in the archives. It looks as if it was well cared for and it has a Cliosport folder for all the service history!)
First up is the old faithful, I bought my 197 at the end of 2016 for a mere £3295. It was a bit rough around the edges (you'll get used to that around here...) but mechanically pretty good, it had some dealer special budget tyres all round and more interior dressing than you could shake a stick at.
It had spacers and H&R springs when I got it, that was it. First thing was decent tyres and then it was all downhill from there, the need to modify and ruin the car was all too great. I'll spare you the details but in the 7 and a half years of ownership it's gone from a basically stock car, to a budget (but not bodged) built track car that never sees the road.
Interior - gone. SW half cage and a pair of buckets later and it's awful on the road. However it never goes there so it's not so bad. Spec as it stands;
Engine & gearbox:
KTR intake
Engine Dynamics map (201bhp@7800rpm)
Decat, Milltek stainless system, Toyo stainless manifold
Blackline LSD was fitted after 3rd gear synchro left the chat
Suspension:
Yellowspeed coilovers with Compbrake top mounts, Shorter 8kg springs + helper springs up front to get the ride height correct, shorter 10kg springs on the rear.
Bodywork has stayed the same, only things I've added are a Renaultsport lip and a Maxton bootlid lip.
Interior has an SW half cage, Corbeau Pro Series X seat with a Sabelt GT090 passenger seat, Sabelt deep dish wheel and an SW footplate for me.
I had planned to get this back on the road, but decided against it in the end when a cheap and cheerful 172 popped up for sale locally...
After a cheeky little offer, I went to collect this 2003 Monaco Blue 172 with 112k on the clock, basically standard. I hadn't realised at the time but it'd been off the road since 2021. The guy that I bought it from said it had electrical issues and wouldn't start if it had been raining. As I mentioned earlier, it's a little rough around the edges, with faded/damaged paint on the drivers side, slight crusty bits on the rear arches and the bonnet was replaced with a black one as it had rotten through at the front apparently. It's sat on a set of 7 year old Toyo T1Rs which are... Interesting... Very hard and moderately plasticy, the standard wheels seem to have met every curb in East Anglia and the front bumper is cracked where it had an argument with some local wildlife.
It joined the fleet of Frenchies parked round the side of my house. The 306 is a targa/nav rally project that I owned as a standard car over 10 years ago and bought back last year. The aforementioned 197 that has been to hell and back and the new kid on the block, the "looksgoodfrom20ft" 172.
This is certainly the better side...
There's a few little bits on the 172, it has a BMC CDA filter for that intake honk and a Ninja catback exhaust which sounds quite nice. Interior smells funky but I guess that's what 21 years of arse and ball sweat weill do.
Needs some work, it's got an airbag light on, there's a knock from the OSF suspension which I think is the top mount and the engine/box mounts are genuinely the worst I've ever experienced. Headlights are hazier than my memory and there seems to be a factory installed angry bee in the interior light (some kind of temperature fan? Very odd). The handbrake only works on one side so how it got through an MOT is anybody's guess.
However... All this considered, I can genuinely say hand on heart, this thing is an absolute riot and I love it already.
(If anyone on here used to own this shed, let me know, hopefully there's a project thread somewhere in the archives. It looks as if it was well cared for and it has a Cliosport folder for all the service history!)
