Ph1 'Exclusive' Budget Track Car

[vroomtshh]

About a year ago, I decided I had too much money tied up in my track Leon, and I should replace it with something a little more budget conscious. I've had a few 172's in the past, and they're cheap as chips and pretty good standard around track so it made sense to buy another. FIrst one that came up was an exclusive, and I fancied one that wasn;t blue or silver so it was perfect.

Took it straight from buying it to a tracknight 😂

So now I had a list of things that needed improved. A couple of seized calipers and a dead rear shock to begin with, but other than that, the car was pretty solid. Engine was good and it's not rusty.

 

[vroomtshh]

I'd never seen an exclusive before, and 2 days after buying it, I came across this is a car park 2 minutes from my house

And now was time to fit a few new bits. I already had seats and harnesses left over ffrom my Leon, and I bought a set of pure engine mounts, strut brace and top mounts and stud and nut conversion. Got all that fitted up pretty quickly.

Quick release bumper pins I had left over

Harness bar welded in

Air con delete fitted

Small battery under passenger seat

 

[vroomtshh]

Brakes were all free'd off, and some high quality £11 ferodo pads fitted (wanted to make sure it all worked before spending money on decent pads)
and off for another trackday. Pretty uneventful. Car felt a lot faster now the brakes were free'd off, but the dead rear shock wasn;t helping things 😂
Luckily this wasnt me

Manage to get a swap for the horrible turbines

And a decent set of suspension

A set of ebay brake ducts, and tow strap

 

[vroomtshh]

I think I did approximately 0.1miles on the F1's before I decided I didnt like them, and I got a deal on a very dirty set of Pro race 1.2s, and had them fitted up with a new set of A048s.

I was on the phone to Pure, ordering up a decatted, single silencer exhaust system, and Nick mentioned they had 1 ph1 fibreglass bonnet left in stock and wouldn;t be getting any more 🙈, so thought I better get that too.

Excuse the cutout in the bumper - it wasn;t me 😂

 

[vroomtshh]

Made a start tidying up the rear wiring loom

And whipped the dash out to get the last of the sound deadening out.

At this point I was 'done'. It didn;t need anything else, and I hadn;t went too crazy budget wise.

 

[vroomtshh]

Then the budget went out the window and I start buying stupid things that the car definitely didnt need 😂

Squeezed in another track day

I decided at this point that a passenger seat was just extra weight that I didn;t need so upgraded to a nicer winged seat

And got some door cards in a group buy on here

New filter for the SM intake

And on - mostly

Spent 5 minutes cleaning some of the PAS fluid off the engine

 

[vroomtshh]

Managed to get a deal on a few more fibreglass panels

The bonnet was pretty flappy so I added a middle fixing

And added some speed holes 😂

 

[vroomtshh]

Finished off fitting the SM intake

Jumped in on a CSOC scotland rolling road day

Car made decent power, and at this point I ignored it pretty much the whole winter.

 

[vroomtshh]

Bought a spare set of wheels as I've always wanted a set

And a Pure shifter (is it even a clio without one)

Thought I'd see if I could cut out a bumper a bit better for the exhaust

Some people might notice thats a ph2 bumper :fearscream: - the horror

Tailgate fitted

New ECU fitted (yes that was a nightmare)

New seat mount fitted

I ran a group buy on here for some Lexan windows

 

[vroomtshh]

And at this point - disaster struck. I was taking the car to the paint shop to get the rear end done. Got it out the garage and the alternator belt snapped, and took out the timing belt :angry:

So now, it was either break it, fire in a cheap engine, rebuild the old engine. a ph1 engine with 44k miles and full history came up for sale around the corner from me, so it made it a bit of a no brainer. And what should have been a weekend job of swapping an engine has turned into 5 months of work 😂

New engine

Old one out

I decided that maybe the Pure AC delete was flexing and that allowed the belt to come off, so I got the new uprated version

And thought I may as well get a light flywheel while it was out

And then I made the mistake of painting a few bits to tidy it up

PAS removed

Extra bits removed 😂

Engine built back up

Manifold wrapped

Engine bay gradually getting emptier

Servo painted

I then decided that the engine bay was a bit grubby and it would be as well being painted too 🙈

Single wiper

 

[Christopher]

Awesome build!
Do you still have the Exclusive interior?

 

[vroomtshh]

ABS delete hoses and poverty spec heater motor in

New suspension arrived after 16 weeks of waiting - You may spot a small problem with it

Phase 2 dash and pod sorted

Rear end back from paint

At this point I'm pretty fed up waiting for Curtis to sort out my suspension so I started buying more suspension parts 😂

And it's going back together

Wishbones welded up

Beam stiffened

Everything powdercoated

Brake hoses getting finished off

 

[vroomtshh]

At this point, the old radiator looked a bit scabby

And it made it outside for the first time in a while

And then it was put away ready for mapping

 

[vroomtshh]

So, a week before mapping, I decided that everything was in place for throttle bodies 😂 and it's not worth getting mapped twice

And that brings it up to date - mapping results to come in a couple of days

 

[Djw John]

Worst best budget build I've seen in a while!
When you next up at knockhill?

 

[vroomtshh]

Yeh the budget has went a little out the window 😂.

I'm up at the CSOC Scotland night on the 3rd July assuming I can get hold of a N/S Ph1 wishbone and it doesn't die during mapping

 

[Djw John]

Cool, I'm considering the 5th of august KH run one and booked a private one for 24th august.

Get the later wishbones for the extra caster.

 

[Coops Mk1]

ai use the 182 cup wishbones, lots of lovely free caster then!

and as above, lol at 'budget' in the title! looks great though and once bonnet is painted it'll be spot on!

 

[vroomtshh]

Awesome build!
Do you still have the Exclusive interior?

No it's long gone

Cool, I'm considering the 5th of august KH run one and booked a private one for 24th august.

Get the later wishbones for the extra caster.

I'll hopefully get a few more in through summer. I don't know why I wrote wishbone when I meant driveshaft. I already have the later wishbones

 

[t90_lle]

Great read! Budget build!! Haha everyone says that!

 

[green]

Love it! Good luck with the mapping :up::up:
Are you running standard cams and head ?

 

[Daz.]

Oh my, this is rather nice!

 

[Sam Linssner]

So much for the budget you need pure manifold now to match...

 

[vroomtshh]

Love it! Good luck with the mapping :up::up:
Are you running standard cams and head ?

For now, the rest of the engine is standard. I doubt that'll last long 🙈

So much for the budget you need pure manifold now to match...

As much as I'd love one because they look awesome, theres not really enough benefit vs the cost of them

 

[AdamCup]

Nice work for a "Budget Build" :up:
What radiator is that ?

 

[vroomtshh]

Nice work for a "Budget Build" :up:
What radiator is that ?

Its from Pure Motorsport. They do 2 options. A polo radiator chopped about a bit, or this one, a full on custom jobby with ducting etc

 

[bloke]

out of curiosity who's braided line kit did you get?

oh and throw a set of cams in and get the pms exhaust manifold :tonguewink:

 

[mantis946]

Great build, PMS have had some trade from you haha

Have you drove it without the PAS yet ? I've just removed mine but might be a few more months before it's driving, some say it's pretty heavy without it !

 

[vroomtshh]

out of curiosity who's braided line kit did you get?

oh and throw a set of cams in and get the pms exhaust manifold :tonguewink:

Mitch from Proline motorsport made me the kit.

That's coming soon 😂

Great build, PMS have had some trade from you haha

Have you drove it without the PAS yet ? I've just removed mine but might be a few more months before it's driving, some say it's pretty heavy without it !

You're not kidding. I think I've put Nick's kids through school. There stuff is just always so well thought out that its hard to beat.

I have driven it, its pretty horrific at slow speeds. I'll most likely be going EPAS sooner or later

 

[bloke]

Mitch from Proline motorsport made me the kit.

how much and are the ends crimped?

 

[The Chubby Pirate]

Thats absolutely awesome!

Budget build lol. The funny thing about Clio's is, they are cheap like you say - but f**k me its still plausible to empty your wallet in one sitting!

 

[vroomtshh]

how much and are the ends crimped?

There are a few options for pricing depending on exactly what you want. Best thing to do is give Mitch a call, he'll gladly talk you through the options.
The ends are crimped yes

 

[JP83]

Bright green fwend!

 

[Coops Mk1]

oh the issue with the AST's, remote res missing?

 

[scotiamr2t]

oh the issue with the AST's, remote res missing?

Much simpler, a vital component is missing.........springs

 

[Coops Mk1]

Much simpler, a vital component is missing.........springs

lol oh ai, I totally over thunked that and missed that fact all that's there is helpers

 

[bloke]

There are a few options for pricing depending on exactly what you want. Best thing to do is give Mitch a call, he'll gladly talk you through the options.
The ends are crimped yes

cheers.

 

[Chambers_RS]

Love this.

You missed the PMS exhaust manifold off your shopping list tho :fearscream:

 

[vroomtshh]

Love this.

You missed the PMS exhaust manifold off your shopping list tho :fearscream:

Let me know when your breaking yours and I'll buy it off you 😂

 

[KitsonRis]

Another Ph1 thread I didn't want to read....puts mine to shame!