X85 Clio race car pros and cons

[Jamous]

Hello newbie here
So I've been looking and read a little on here about people buying an ex race Clio cup car .
And the costs of rebuilding the sadev gearbox and general maintenance of these cars.

I have a track car which I'm selling at the moment which I've spent over 2yrs building which has cost a fortune . Im Getting bored and fancy fwd maybe ...
Just looking at all the flawes in owning one .
Or I see an alternative people saying about the R26.r .
Are the ex race clios road worthy ? Can they put put on the road or not ?.
I've done a few in my charged M3 but really fancy a x85 Clio just to hit track days . It's got to be the same sort of price as the M3 ??
Trying to find specs on power to weight ratios or videos of them is difficult I find .
Not sure if I'm making the right move in selling mine?
I do like the focus RS mk2
I love the r26r
Would love a x85 Clio track car hope it's fast enough .
Keep the supercharged M3
And buy a megane Clio turbo??
My mate has just bought a 197 white Clio sport which I think is so much fun .
It's not all about bhp

Any info would be great cheers
Jaime

 

[Sam Linssner]

There is a post a few down from this one about the X85's which has a bit of info on them. Might answer a few of your questions.

 

[Jamous]

Thanks Sam yeah already had a scan through that one I'll keep searching

 

[Advikaz]

The box I imagine will be the main cost.

Those sadevs aren't cheap at all and it'll want servicing.

I did hear from a friend of mine that raced them that the shells weren't always up to much and that the seams on the shell can come apart if it's had a hard life.

 

[mikekean]

There are quite a few tired ones around now and the good ones seem to go for quite a lot, budget 3-4k for a gearbox rebuild on whatever you buy. As an owner of a mk2 cup racer i would say unless you are going to race the car it's not really worth taking on the expense of owning one.

 

[Jamous]

Cheers thanks for the replys! Thought these cars would take the punishment all day long! It was something I was looking at and hitting track days rather than keep spending and not doing track days .

 

[NorthloopCup]

@BIGASH owns a pukka x85 cup racer and apart from a few gearbox repairs it's been relatively trouble free. Obviously you're going to go through consumables, but I know that the car is driven hard (and properly) every time it goes out.

 

[mikekean]

Cheers thanks for the replys! Thought these cars would take the punishment all day long! It was something I was looking at and hitting track days rather than keep spending and not doing track days .

They can take punishment but also need proper maintenance, if they are anything like the mk2 then parts will already be coming obsolete for them, which can be a pain when things break! I'm not trying to put you off as they are great cars, but my personal opinion is I don't know why you would want to take on that hassle/expense if you are not going to race?

I think everyone put's the cup racer up on a pedestal, yes they are very capable cars but they are also from a one make series where the pinnacle of suspension setup and weight reduction are not the highest priority. The cars have to meet a specific configuration and are fine tuned as well as can be within the confines of the regulations. As a result they are heavy and have been built to last 1.5 hours of use between maintenance/meetings. You could build a better faster car for the same money in reality, they only thing about the 192/200 racer is that value's are holding quite well on them due to there still being series to race them in.

 

[Jamous]

@BIGASH owns a pukka x85 cup racer and apart from a few gearbox repairs it's been relatively trouble free. Obviously you're going to go through consumables, but I know that the car is driven hard (and properly) every time it goes out.

Yeah I'll have a look at his car think I might have to be a full member

They can take punishment but also need proper maintenance, if they are anything like the mk2 then parts will already be coming obsolete for them, which can be a pain when things break! I'm not trying to put you off as they are great cars, but my personal opinion is I don't know why you would want to take on that hassle/expense if you are not going to race?

I think everyone put's the cup racer up on a pedestal, yes they are very capable cars but they are also from a one make series where the pinnacle of suspension setup and weight reduction are not the highest priority. The cars have to meet a specific configuration and are fine tuned as well as can be within the confines of the regulations. As a result they are heavy and have been built to last 1.5 hours of use between maintenance/meetings. You could build a better faster car for the same money in reality, they only thing about the 192/200 racer is that value's are holding quite well on them due to there still being series to race them in.

Reason I wanted one , was that they are ready to go and hit the track days and power to weight ratio it should be almost the same or quicker than my supercharged M3 .
More time in the seat and less time modifying hopefully .
Maintenance yeah I get that as I change oils etc in mine far to often .
And as I've attended a couple of Renault days at Bedford these clios seemed to go really well .
After being in a couple they are great fun .
Building another race Clio is an option but I would rather buy one done .
If I had the money I would have both .

 

[mikekean]

I'm not sure what M3 you have but the power to weight ratio of an e46 M3 in standard form is more than that of a 197/200 cup race car. You obviously want one so just go buy one, just buy wisely. Id be wanting to see invoices for gearbox rebuild in the past 12-24 months and some evidence to show how many miles/hours it has done since it's last rebuild. Dependent on the type of use your looking at between 1000-1500 mile inspection interval's which can rack up pretty quickly over 7-8 track days.

 

[Jamous]

Thanks mike
Yeah I just done bhp per tonne and it works out to 389 , haha not to bad .
Yeah I'll see what happens