Racing and other Details

I forgot to mention some of the more boring features of the car, which might help justify the investment to people who don't appreciate the finer things in life.

The RS Clio comes with a bunch of airbags for both driver and passenger, including side airbags. Newer versions (post 2002, if I recall correctly) come with ESP and traction control. You can control the stereo (complete with CD stacker under the passenger seat on the 172) from buttons behind the steering wheel. And the aircon detects the temperature in the car itself and does whatever it deems necessary to get to a temperature set by yourself. So you don't have to worry about turning the thing on or off if you don't want to. It also comes with alarm and demobiliser as standard, which is popular with insurance companies. Oh, and Xenon headlights, which is very cool. I'm not even sure whether you'd get a similarly specced Hyundai Getz for the same sort of money (pretty sure you wouldn't), and that doesn't have a 2 litre engine in it!

Now that we've got that out the way, to the interesting part: I went racing on the weekend.

I've always wanted to, but with the old Golf it seemed like a pointless and potentially dangerous exercise. So when the guys from ozrenaultsport.com asked for more Renaults at the Queensland Raceway Sprints, I answered the call, so to speak.

First things first: it's a great way to spend a Saturday. There's loads of very cool cars around (usually when you have the luck to spot a Lamborghini Gallardo or Porsche GT2 on the road they're all timid...not so on the main straight!), so even if you didn't drive yourself it would probably be worth the trip.

Secondly, don't have any illusions about insurances. If you damage your car on the track, you're on your own. Hence why I was a bit panicky about damaging someone else's car, but it turns out they've never had a car-to-car accident. Always car-to-wall...one guy put his car into a wall when I was there as well. He was fine, though there were an eery few minutes when the track's own ambulance was driving out and otherwise it was totally quiet around the place. Two other people (one of them one of our Renaultsports :p) got their cars beached in the gravel trap. And while I was out there, three people spun in front of me (one time it was a BMW M3, which was quite cool).

Pictures (courtesy of Psycho from Ozrenaultsport and his Dad)

The guy in the red hat is me.

And these are my pics:

http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f94/Leonstein/2-1.jpg

http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f94/Leonstein/6-1.jpg

http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f94/Leonstein/3-1.jpg

http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f94/Leonstein/4-1.jpg

http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f94/Leonstein/5.jpg

http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f94/Leonstein/4.jpg

http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f94/Leonstein/6.jpg

And a video, again courtesy of Psycho and his blood orange RSC182 Cup (and Monsieur P in the Megane): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEtaSfKd-MU

The car performed absolutely flawlessly. It certainly could have gone a fair bit faster, but since it was my first time on the track and there were a lot of other cars around (it can be quite intimidating having some modified Evo IX all over you), I didn't produce anything earth shattering. It was a 1:08:36 in the end, which people say is pretty good for my first time.

Be that as it may, I caught the bug. For two days after the event I kept thinking about better ways to take corners. I'll definitely be there again, and then my quest for a 1:04 begins in earnest.


Looking through K-Tec's website is starting to give me ideas as well. I'm sorta broke right now, so unless my tax return turns out well, I won't be doing any modifying any time soon. And even if it does, I might have to buy a helmet first. Still, a vision of the finished car is starting to take shape.


Right now I'm thinking (in this order):

1. Air Filter and intake hoses (K&N Apollo, probably, though if something better turns out affordable, I won't say no)


2. Tires (not particularly extreme ones on there right now, so there's some time to be gained)


3. Sports Cat from K-Tec (wouldn't mind a complete decat, but it'd be a pain with the authorities)


4. Catback exhaust (there's a bunch of them around...I'll be looking for bang for the buck. Keep you posted)


5. Brakes (depending on the money anything from Brembo to Endless is on the cards. Or a combination)

6. ECU (if the opportunity comes up earlier, it might move up the list)

7. Suspension (the idea of seriously cambered wheels for the trackday is quite appealing, I reckon. But the stock setup is so good that I don't think I'll be needing an upgrade any time soon)

There's a very cool cable throttle kit by K-Tec, but at 3000 pounds it's a little beyond my reach. Maybe once I finally win the lotto.

First Entry

Hi.

I'm a 21 year old student in Brisbane, Australia. I deliver pizzas for a living, and make some money on the share market as well.

I love cars and I've been looking for one for more than a year. I thought about buying virtually any performance car in my price range (and beyond), from a WRX over an Integra Type-R to a 3-series BMW. But I passed on all of them, and have recently made my choice, and I don't think I could have made a better one. The idea of this blog is to be a source of info for people who are in that situation and to spread the word about these cars, which surely deserve more recognition than they get, at least in Australia. Plus, if I ever do decide to sell it, there'll be a complete history on here.

This is it:

My car is a 2001 X65 Phase II Renaultsport Clio 172.

From the outside it doesn't look like the fastest car on the road. Indeed, unless you know what to look for most people would be hard pressed to recognise it at all. It gets no attention from the police, nor does it have a lot of poser appeal. It's more about substance than style (though I think it's got some very stylish touches, and I suppose it being French doesn't hurt either).

Performance

Here's a video I made of it being tested at a Dyno Day at the 101 Motorcafe here in Brisbane:

http://www.youtube.com/v/ZjTicMzhhws

At the flywheel it's meant to have 172 horsepower, hence the name. About 40hp loss in the transmission seems to be normal for them, so 132hp is a decent sort of result.

Since it's a 2 litre variable valve timing engine, it's got potential to make a fair bit more. Few people in Australia turbocharge them, since it requires expensive kits to be flown in from overseas. A Renault performance specialist firm in the UK quotes more than 5000 pounds for the kit, plus labour. Add shipping costs and you get the picture. Nonetheless, there are power gains to be made in the airbox, the ECU and the exhaust, and if you're prepared to spend a bit more you can get better cams and the like as well.

It's good for 7 seconds from 0-100km/h, which means it'll keep up with your Integra VTI-R, various Pulsars, Preludes and Skylines and generally most cars you'll see. Even more impressive is the range of the powerband (due to the larger capacity), which means that in virtually any gear you've got instant power...which is more than that VTEC Honda driver can say. By the way, I love VTECs and would've bought a Type R if I'd had the money on that day, so no hatemail, please. :p

Handling

This is really the big selling point. Evo Magazine (great publication, by the way, make sure you pick one up at the news agent and give it a go) reckons the RSC is one of the greatest driver's cars ever made. Now, I can't say that I've driven many Ferraris, Lamborghinis and 911s, but I do know I quite enjoy it.

Since I deliver Pizzas in the semirural outer western suburbs of Brisbane, I get to spend quite a bit of time on decent pieces of tarmac at occasionally quite considerable speeds. Now, my old '99 VW Golf 1.6 laboured quite a bit on some of these trips. The good part was that it was a lot of fun and that I was learning about the car's behaviour above and beyond the limits. The bad part was that it was really quite slow.

Since I got the RSC, I've given up trying to reach limits on these roads. It's not like I'm popular with the traffic cops anyways, and if I reach a point where even I think that it's time to back off because going that quickly around that corner is just insane, you know you've got a bit of a special car. Not only does it just grip and grip and grip, but you feel quite connected with what's going on. The steering is very good, you can feel the road surface through the seat as well as the wheel and as I found out on the track the other day, if understeer does become a problem a quick stab at the brakes gets the tail moving and points the whole thing in the right direction.

By the way, the brakes are awesome as well. The stock items went through a whole day at Queensland Raceway without complaints and are plenty powerful too. Plus, I haven't triggered the ABS once so far.

Let me sum it up: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tretjYW0aM

Price

For this 2001 model with 96,000km on the clock I paid $15,990 from a dealer (admittedly, it was with a bit of haggling and the car having sat at the dealership for a while). The 100k service (it's a big one, includes changing all the timing and auxiliary belts...lots of labour expenses) was done and I even got a little warranty. Plus, they sent me a letter the other day telling me that a service might be due (it isn't, but that's another story) and just today I received French shampoo and skin lotion from Renault Australia's HQ as a "Thank You". It's weird on one hand, but a shiny card is always a nice thing to get. Plus my mum says it's good stuff, so I'll take her word for it.

If you can find me a better combination of performance, age, running costs and reliability at that price, I want to know about it. I certainly didn't find it with a year of searching.

Running Costs

While this blog goes on I'll keep updating you on the running costs. Still, in a bit more than a month of ownership, I've so far had the following:

Insurance for me (21 year old male, no claims, with windscreen cover) was $1300 with NRMA. Can't complain really. Take note though...it was a bit of searching involved. Budgetdirect didn't want to insure me at all and RACQ quoted me more than 2 grand!

Rego is the usual for a 4-cylinder car and will be due soon.

As far as fuel is concerned - it is a performance engine, and the compression ratio is such that you'd want to use high-octane fuel. I'm not sure whether lesser fuels will equal instadeath, but I'm not keen to find out. Plus, top fuels minimise engine wear and thus maintenance costs and are apparently even better for the environment (not that I care). So I pick BP Ultimate, since Shell doesn't seem to sell Optimax around here I haven't had a chance to compare the two. At $1.22 a litre today it's not that expensive, there was a time when I paid more for an ethanol blend for my old Golf.

The trip computer (yeah, that's right, it's got a trip computer too) tells me I use on average somewhere between 7 and 8 litres on a 100km (though I recently managed 16, but that's a different story...), which has so far meant between $40 and $50 a week in fuel.

I'm not sure on servicing costs yet. I suppose I'll see when it's time. The same goes for engine oil, it'll have to be some high-rating stuff, but since it doesn't use any oil it won't break the bank.

More when I feel like it. Plus more pictures.