Nick172Cup’s 2nd 172 ’TrackCup’ Project/Build.

[Nick172Cup]

So since the Cup I’ve had a few other RS Clios but none like the Cup. I purchased this with Ollie82. to go racing next year but plans changed unfortunately so now it’s solely in my hands and i’m going to use it as just a track car for the time being...

Anyway here’s a brief spec of the car when I got it...

Engine –
JMS V6 Airbox with Pipercross race filter. (Will be for sale)
Stealth cat-back with decat.

Suspension –
Bistein B14’s (Will be for sale)
PMS top mount and strut brace kit (Will be for sale)

Interior –
Safety Devices 6 point bolt in cage
Odyssey PC680 lightweight Dry Cell battery with cut off switch on passenger side floor
OMP steering wheel with OMP adjustable boss kit!
Sparco ‘Circuit’ wraparound seat.
OMP 6 point harness
Spare OMP 4 point harness and passenger seat subframe

Wheels and Brakes –
Speedline 2118’s ET37 in white. (Sold)
Toyo R888’s
Brembo HC front disks and PF97 pads.

So not a terrible spec, the car drives lovely as it is at the moment as well as feeling pretty quick for the modifications but there’ll always be room for
improvement! Here’s a list of things I’ll be doing/getting for the car in the coming few months...

AST Sportline 2’s.
GRP Bootlid and Bonnet (Done)
Polycarb windows
FEV 2.25L Plumbed in fire extinguisher
2L oil catch tank (Done)
3 sets of OZ F1’s (2 sets currently)
Different induction setup (homebrew no doubt)
25mm front spacers (Done)
10mm rear hub spacers
Modifying wishbones for added caster
Camber/Toe shims etc for the rear suspension.
Lighten the car further.

Anyways, here’s a few pictures of it...

Cheers
Nick

 

[Nick172Cup]

Oh and picked these up the other evening from Hal (HrRacing)...

Massively lighter than the standard parts, wont be fitted to the car just yet but when they do i'll be getting them wrapped in Mondial Blue or closish colour to that (hopefully).

Nick

 

[Christopher.]

Great car this loved the passenger ride at Llandow.

 

[not normal dan]

Looks good little cup, plans sound great. Will you ever racr it in the future yourself?

 

[Nick172Cup]

Great car this loved the passenger ride at Llandow.

Cheers Chris!

Looks good little cup, plans sound great. Will you ever racr it in the future yourself?

Possibly, was planning on racing next year but for now just getting it ready and if funds allow get a race or two in. But its highly doubtful at the moment I think, the year after on the other hand is very likely.

Nick

 

[not normal dan]

Cool sounds good mate

 

[mark123]

Nice one Nick. It doesn't look far off being a race car.

 

[Sam@NP]

Looks interesting Nick, I will be following it closely.

 

[msa197]

So you'll be on the same contract as me next year? Lol

 

[Tony Hunter]

So you'll be on the same contract as me next year? Lol

Your both in, it's set in stone you know.

Been a little busy then Nick.

 

[Cub.]

Looks good mate, was sorry to hear of the race plans changing. Why are you selling the Billies out of interest? I have them on mine and I'm happy with them, but I know ASTs are in a different league. I may be interested in the PMS top mounts and strut brace, can you PM when you sell bud.

You heading over to Longbridge tomorrow night?

 

[chrispy.clio]

Oooo another Clio Nick! You must have had about 10 of them by now

Where you getting your AST's from? Buying them new? You going for the Race set up if your getting them new?

 

[Nick172Cup]

Nice one Nick. It doesn't look far off being a race car.

Yeah its not a million miles away Mark, just safety gear really and I could race it from there.

So you'll be on the same contract as me next year? Lol

Indeed I think so Mike!

Your both in, it's set in stone you know.

Been a little busy then Nick.

Lol, happy to help again next year Tony, will give you a call tomorrow for a little chat also.

Looks good mate, was sorry to hear of the race plans changing. Why are you selling the Billies out of interest? I have them on mine and I'm happy with them, but I know ASTs are in a different league. I may be interested in the PMS top mounts and strut brace, can you PM when you sell bud.

You heading over to Longbridge tomorrow night?

Things can always change still with regards to the plans, so i'm not setting anything in stone until the car/myself is ready so to speak. Selling the Billys as they just aren't suitable for what I want Oli, there's no doubting they are a superb road/track coilover but i'm looking for something a bit more serious/capable. The PMS kit if provisionally sold but if the buyer backs out then i'll definitely give you a shout!

Not sure about tomorrow, I have 5-a-side footie on a mondays so if thats going ahead I need to go as I could do with the exercise! lol

Oooo another Clio Nick! You must have had about 10 of them by now

Where you getting your AST's from? Buying them new? You going for the Race set up if your getting them new?

Lol indeed Chris! Think this is number 4 or 5 of the Mk2 range, will no doubt be the last! Though i'm currently very happy with this one so it shouldn't end up in parts like the last couple, and I now know what's good and whats not for a Clio now so this build shouldn't cost as much as my previous Cup :dead: because of just buying random bits thinking they'll make a difference!

Yeah going for a new set of Sportline 2's unless anything comes up on here, indeed going straight for a race setup as well.

Had to sell a few of my toys (car parts) to get the car, like the RS2/carbon bonnet/2118's but hopefully they're things that I can do without really. Rather than spending £1,000 upwards on engine mods, i'm going down the basic chassis and weightsaving upgrading route so hopefully the lack of power can be made up with lots of 'control' so to speak.

Cheers
Nick

 

[BIGASH]

Great stuff Nick looks good Will be great to see how you get on with the car!

Need to speak to you soon anyway will get in touch this week!

 

[sonny172cup]

Looking good fella, will be interested how you fix the bonnet and tail gate, I have mine on order from Hal too. (btw did you go for poly rear window?).

 

[Jay Payne]

You'll forgive me for expecting this one to go the way of the others

Its a great spec currently, was great at Llandow. Did you do anything about the throttle?

 

[Sir_Dave]

You'll forgive me if i carry on calling this one the 'RaceCup' instead of the 'TrackCup', otherwise ill just get confused with Ollies.

Looks good though Nicholarse, bet it runs better with an air filter on it as well

 

[Mad_Adamski]

You certainly go through them nick. Lol you keeping this one? Mines near finished waiting for some nicer days to do some last few bits but it's fully road worthy and very good.

 

[msa197]

You doing landow in march?

 

[Cub.]

You doing landow in march?

Be good if you can get down to Llandow Nick, fair few of us heading down and be good to see this in action down there.

 

[Nick172Cup]

You'll forgive me for expecting this one to go the way of the others

Its a great spec currently, was great at Llandow. Did you do anything about the throttle?

Lol, nah this ones a goodun. So i'll keep it for a while, until something better turns up no doubt!

You certainly go through them nick. Lol you keeping this one? Mines near finished waiting for some nicer days to do some last few bits but it's fully road worthy and very good.

Don't I just Adam! Glad to hear yours is nearly finished, would love to see it in the flesh once its done to reminisce when I had it.

Be good if you can get down to Llandow Nick, fair few of us heading down and be good to see this in action down there.

Doubt i'll be attending this one, done it a couple of times now so unless its rain free, bright and sunny i'll leave it. Really need to start doing some more of the bigger UK circuits next year to freshen up and familiarise on what i've learnt etc.

 

[Cub.]

Fair enough. You doing Bedford on Feb 16th?

I'm up for doing some tracks further afield and bigger ones later in the year (July / Aug), so if you let me know the ones your thinking of I'll tag along if you don't mind. I really want to do Anglesey....

 

[Tony Hunter]

You'll love it.

 

[Cub.]

Do you want to come as a second driver, welcome to head out in mine in exchange for some track wisdom? You'll slide around in the seats a bit but ho hum

 

[Tony Hunter]

Of course.

 

[Cub.]

Ok doke. I'll stop spamming young Nicks threads and enquire about some dates in the new year, try and rustle a few willing bods upto join us, but Anglesey is a definite 'want to do' for me next year. I'll PM you both in the new year.

 

[Nick172Cup]

Lol its alright guys!

Unsure of Bedford as well Oli, dont want to book anything until I know the cars 100% built to the spec which I cant put a date on as yet. Nearly got all the pieces of the puzzle so to speak, just a couple more big purchases and then getting everything fitted to the car. May come up to llandow if I have a spare few quid, but only as a passenger/second driver.

Angleseys a circuit i'd love to do next year also, sometime in mid summer for me so that the weathers good!

Nick

 

[Cub.]

Happy days, I agree with you on the date for Anglesey, nice and sunny to enjoy the views If you can make Llandow or Bedford would be good to see you to catch up. Second driver on Daves panzer wagon at Bedford looks promising

 

[Nick172Cup]

So a little update...

Been meaning to find out why I keep getting a big puddle of water in my passenger footwell, so I went on with removing the dash and all the thick sound deadening from behind there. While the dash was apart, I looked into slimlining the dash a little and cutting bits away there werent required. Also was tempted with a little loom triming but after the problems I had with trying it last time I decided not to bother and just hide them away.

As it was before...

So I removed the front half of the cage to make my life a lot easier as well as the dash itself...

Removed all of the glovebox, trimmed lots of bits from the lower part of the dash that are hidden and what used to hold parts that are now redundant. I think that the dash is roughly half the weight of what it was before and it still looks presentable enough. Possibly lost 5-8kg, maybe more between the redundant parts of the dash and the thick sound deadening behind it. Also fixed the water problem, a drainage pipe in the scuttle panel that was blocked up with gunk that vents into the engine bay. It overflows and then runs between the seals on the heater box and then onto the floor. So with that removed everything seems okay, plus i've managed to strip a bit more weight from the car, not a massive amount true but once i've finished with stripping other parts it'll hopefully make a nice difference to the total weight of the car.

Anyways some pictures of the finished artical, dash still sits remarkably rigid for only 6 torx bolts!

I also got my new induction setup through the post...

Previously had the JMS V6 airbox (which is for sale ) which is okay, but I enjoy knocking up a cheap IK that works alright. Was planning on sourcing my own parts separately, but when this popped up on here for less than I could get all the parts for and was brand new it made sense to get it bought.

Still saving for the AST's, so until I get them there wont be any mega updates with all the other bits sat in my shed. Cant wait for the transformation day tbh!

Cheers
Nick

 

[Tony Hunter]

Bit at a time Nick, don't rush into anything.

 

[Christopher.]

LOL I remember you using the hotels towel to mop the water at Llandow. Good job its all fixed now.

Great work on the dash, I don't like it when there cut about with massive chunks missing.

 

[Luke.]

Looking good mate, I have this induction setup on mine and it transforms the drivability of the car so much!

 

[Nick172Cup]

Bit at a time Nick, don't rush into anything.

Indeed Tony, probably could have done more work on the car recently but i've been drinking far too much of late! lol

LOL I remember you using the hotels towel to mop the water at Llandow. Good job its all fixed now.

Great work on the dash, I don't like it when there cut about with massive chunks missing.

Yeah was pretty bad at Llandow Chris!

The dash looks alright, its a bit crude/rough around the edges but didnt want to go too mad with it then realise i'll have to make new mounts to hold it in place. So this is a good compromise for the time being.

Looking good mate, I have this induction setup on mine and it transforms the drivability of the car so much!

Indeed, does sound great.

The engines still a very standard spec, just the filter setup with a decatted stealth system. It won't change a lot from that, all depends on what pops up at a good price at the time. Ideally i'd probably go for another RS2 manifold but really i'd be more than happy with a set of matched inlets, this induction setup, slightly different exhaust system with a 182 cat and an RS Tuner map to help it come together. I've seen 180bhp / 167lb ft of torque with that type of setup on my old Cup and it went well enough then, I want focus much more on chassis/suspension/weight saving with this project.

Nick

 

[Jay Payne]

Diff!

 

[Nick172Cup]

Diff!

Oh yeah! I keep on forgetting to put that in my replies, I've got a quaife sitting in the shed also. Lol

 

[couzens]

I need to find the picture of the Clio that has a bin as a centre consul. It looks quality!

 

[Llewellyn]

It's good to see that this one lives on, I came down to see this a while back and nearly bought it... Would have been pulled apart and $tripped though, if I'd got my hands on it :evil:.
Good luck with everything, it's a cracking little car with an awesome spec and I can't wait to see the final outcome.

 

[Gman]

Hi Nick,

Glad to see you've still got and are enjoying the car, I still miss it, especially on my last ring trip i done!!

I replaced the cup with a vx220 turbo, completely different but i'm certainly enjoying it, just miss being able to be a hooligan like you can in the cup!!

Shame you've had to pull out of racing it this year, was looking forward to seeing it race, still there is always next year!

If you do any track days at brands give me a PM, love to see the car again sometime!

Gman

 

[Nick172Cup]

Hi Nick,

Glad to see you've still got and are enjoying the car, I still miss it, especially on my last ring trip i done!!

I replaced the cup with a vx220 turbo, completely different but i'm certainly enjoying it, just miss being able to be a hooligan like you can in the cup!!

Shame you've had to pull out of racing it this year, was looking forward to seeing it race, still there is always next year!

If you do any track days at brands give me a PM, love to see the car again sometime!

Gman

Hi there Gareth, hope all is well! VX220 Turbo sounds epic, never been in one but I can imagine they are bonkers to drive albeit like you said, having to be a bit more careful! lol

Indeed when the cars is eventually at 'race trim' i'll be out in it and no doubt be a Brands a couple of times so will definately give you a shout! Let you have a few laps out in or something if you wanted.

 

[Nick172Cup]

Another piece of the puzzle has arrived today, cheers Ed. 15mm rear hub spacers, just need to get some camber shims ordered once i've got the geometry checked.

Nick