The Angry Lemon Hits The Track.
The Clio 197 RS first track day.
In the last post I hinted that I’d been out on track in the Clio, so I want to tell you how we got there with a very annoying french car that decided to do french car things just before the track day.
Never Simple is it.
Now, don’t judge me because Jeremy Clarkson & James May have brainwashed you into thinking this is a terrible game played by whatever they said, I took up Golf last year as a way to focus on something that doesn’t have 4 wheels, even though I’ve ended up trying to drift the buggies most of the time when out on the courses, but I took up Golf & i love it. Before the most recent track day, I had a trip to Poland in the dairy for Drift Masters season Finale, the day before I flew out there I’d been invited for a round of golf with my godfather, so I took him up on it as a way to relax before the carnage of DMEC began. The Clio was first car on the driveway so I threw my clubs in there & went to the Golf Club. A terrible round later & me feeling like golf is the worst thing I’ve ever decided to take up & carry on with, I jump back in the Clio to no spark at all, the car would turn over but not spark up, stupid little french car, here we go.
Thankfully, a local garage had time to fix the car for me, with it only being an easily discoverable Map Sensor issue, it was back on my driveway the day after I returned from Poland, full tank of V Power READY to hit up Snetterton with a few friends!
I jumped in a garage with my friend Kibble & his 182 Clio Track Car
Firstly, this was my first Post Covid world track day now there are no real limitations on covid laws. REFRESHING. The company I went with was Open Track, which seem pleasant enough. Easy sign on as it was all done online through video briefings, which means.. well you know what it means. Sign on at the track was simple, my Clio is equally as loud as my EG6 which confused me but it is what it is and we were ready to hit the track! Also, I quickly want to premise, that I did zero prep to the car, I wanted to take it as is, so I knew what to focus on after what needs upgrading, instead of blindly firing money at it. With how the world is right now, I really dont want to spend when I don’t need too. So the fee for the day, in my opinion was worth the cost to discover and get comfortable with the angry little lemon!
My First few laps were a real wake up call for me. I was RUSTY. But, to be expected. First few laps felt okay, car had very little grip as I hadnt adjusted the tyre pressures but I was pretty impressed with how taught the chassis felt, how light it felt when throwing it around. a big thumbs up from me.
Driving position was excellent too, but I feel like the steering wheel may be a touch too fat for my liking, but I may just end up getting used to this over time.
I love the Recaro CS seats too, what a wonderful thing. I need a set of these for the E92 M3 but we have some drift cars to abuse before any of that…..
One thing that became very apparent was the brake situation, now I know what these Brembos are capable of, but the rest of this set up was horribly below par. I think the Fluid in the car must be a basic Dot4 and absolutely no where near what is needed on a track day, especially one that requires some heavy braking from high speeds!
On one corner known as Montreal , I lost all brakes, thankfully they had been fading before that in the lap & I left myself extra braking room, which lead me to getting quite aggressive on the downshifts & making that poor little 2.0 engine do the hard work, this really did dampen my day a bit as I lost full confidence that i’d been gaining behind the seat in the car. But, I also see it as a positive as we now know, the fluids, discs & pads need upgrading and they are firmly on the list.
Another thing I am dead set on changing is the tyres. I want a set of Nankang AR-1’s from PureCarmodify.com Ive wanted to test these tyres for a long time with hearing great things about them. But, I also need another set of wheels as I do not want them on the car for the road. So 2 more items added to the list of changes to do.
But the big question is what wheels? Because the french use an odd wheel fitment it limits the choice drastically, i do not want wobble bolts, so I really need to look into the options available & then that brings onto the next point, if we’re buying wheels then it wouldn’t hurt to get a new front lip? I did consider the rear RS Spoiler but i just dont like it enough to justify getting on & paying to paint it. So for now, I wont be ordering one of those. I also want to look into some small upgrades like an intake too. KTec seem very popular but Im new to Renaults & want to explore the options before just sending a lot of cash to another company or person!
I wanted to end this post with this photo, something very sobering about it. My past and present. The Integra DC5 has been a huge part of my adult life. My first attainable dream car, something I strove to afford by my 21st, trying to buy one at 19 but getting pied by insurance, owning 3 in total now & still having a major love affair with how they look. With DC5’s still being relatively fair priced compared to other JDM cars, if you are tempted by JDM Honda owner ship the DC5 should 100% be considered.
The owner of this beautiful example was called Toby, he came over & had a chat which was really nice.
I still love the older generation Hondas’ Especially the DC5. I have so many quality memories in that car & I still love seeing them around now.
But
The Clio is a healthy, much cheaper replacement for it, and I really dont see a huge difference in driving them in standard form. Im excited to see where this Clio Journey will take me.
Thank you
Adam - 6TWO1
