1996 Renault Clio 16v

[topgeartom]

Well ive just bought myself a new car, its a mk1 ph2 Clio 16v its a 1996 car so its one of the very last valvers they made before the model was cut out and the ph3s came in.

Its in a really rare colour combination of Silver with facory fitted Black leather interior. The silver is rare as nearly all were produced in blue or naples red like my old ph3 was. The factory leather was an option very few people took when buying new so to get the two combined is not a common thing at all.

Its got renaults DOHC twin cam F7P unit - a fuel injected 16v block which produces 137bhp as standard, not half bad in a car that weighs under 1000kg. The book says 0-60 in 7.7 seconds which isnt half bad even by todays standards.

Its been lowered, has a full magnex exhaust system, a de-cat and a hill power induction kit. Such mods should see that a car of 11 years of age should still be running the sort of power it came out of the factory with all those years ago.

If i save enough cash i might get a remap to tie all the breathing mods togeather but im currently skint after the purcahse and the subsequent insurance arse raping.

Ill get pictures up when i pick the car up tommorrow (hopefully), but for now here are the pictures used in the listing.

http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c341/JammyDJ1/Clio/Frontviewfromright.jpg
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c341/JammyDJ1/Clio/leftsideview.jpg
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c341/JammyDJ1/Clio/Lefthandsidefromback.jpg
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c341/JammyDJ1/Clio/Frontviewfromleft.jpg

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p209/topgeartom/clio/DSCF0637small.jpg

Cheers
Tom

[TopGearNL]

Sweeet Tom! A shame what happened to your other Clio! :(

Ah well, Ive been looking at that car over here and I can't find a single one in good condition! :fist:

Anyway glad to see you found one, take good care of it and I hope no stupid bastard or tart runs into it! :wink:

*No custom pic?*

[topgeartom]

Cheers dude, and thanks for reminding me about the custom shot, i completely forgot - if a mod could move this into unverified until i pick the car up tommorrow so i can get you guys a custom pic.

[blinkmeat]

I bet that feels brisk

[gis]

Nice one Tom,bet thats a bit of a step up in the go go department from the 1.4.i like these but again pretty hard to come across one that hasnt had its brains bashed in.

whats insurance like for you on it? ive been checking up on some faster cars lately,gettin some good quotes now

[topgeartom]

insurance is a complete arse raping to be honest. I might as well have bended over and handed them my wallet. The car cost £1475 - well down from what it was advertised as (my dad is a hell of a negotiator) and the insurance for a 10 month bonus accelerator policy is £1620. Daft money but its a cracking car so ill put up with it - its exactly the same as what i was paying in my first year of driving on my 1.4. It would have been 1440 but for some reason elephant.co.uk bump up the premium by £200 as i got crashed into. Its insane that on a no fault claim my premium should go up but thats life i guess. Elepehant are still miles cheaper than anyone else.

Ive yet to drive it myself - dad did the test drive so i have no idea just how quick it is. Rest assured i will report back tommorrow night.

[TT]

:arrow:

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p209/topgeartom/clio/DSCF0637small.jpg

[topgeartom]

thanks for unlocking TT, heres the first impressions and what ive done over the weekend.

Picked this up friday, and i have to say im impressed with the car. Still not use to driving it properly yet, the clutch and accelerator are way stiffer compared to my RT, and then of course there is the power. Friday night i took it out for a quick run along with my friend in his 1.8 escort, we pulled off a roundabout onto a bypass, i thought id open her up for the first time and see what she pulled like, i was in 3rd off the roundabout so wasnt in the best gear for the situation, but i kept my foot in and as usual, after the 5k mark everything really took off, i went into fourth and as i caught and went round my mate, looked down to see i was doing 100! Obviously backed right off and put the stoppers on at that little relevation!

I got some mates round and attacked the car saturday, there were a few niggles i knew about when i bought the car, and weve solved nearly all of them. The electric window switches now operate the correct windows and one of the connectors was re-wired so it now works perfectly. My own head unit was wired in after a bit of difficulty getting wires in right places, but it now works fine and sounds really good. The major work however was sorting the heating out - it got warm but wouldnt blow out, so i removed the blower unit from my RT and swapped it over onto the valver - success first time!

The only thing left to do now is sort the steering, theres a bit of play in the wheel, i think its a case of a worn steering column bush, its a common problem on mk1 clios apparently.

Spent the rest of saturday cleaning it. Im a complete amature when it comes to detailing or cleaning, i gave it a wash with some turtlewax shampoo, then set about all the plastic trim with AutoGlym Vinyl and Rubber Care, it brought everything up really nice and black, especially the engine bay bits which were covered in grease and dirt. I attacked the rest of the engine bay with AutoGlym Engine & Machine cleaner which is amazing stuff, it cut through the layers of grease with complete ease.

This morning was spent polishing the car with AG Super Resin Polish and a polishing pad which brought out a really nice shine.

Anyway here are a few pictures i took this morning before dashing back here to uni now my holidays are over.

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p209/topgeartom/clio/DSCF0628small.jpg
http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p209/topgeartom/clio/DSCF0633small.jpg
http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p209/topgeartom/clio/DSCF0634small.jpg
http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p209/topgeartom/clio/DSCF0629small.jpg
http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p209/topgeartom/clio/DSCF0630small.jpg
http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p209/topgeartom/clio/DSCF0635small.jpg
http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p209/topgeartom/clio/DSCF0631small.jpg
http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p209/topgeartom/clio/DSCF0637small.jpg
http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p209/topgeartom/clio/DSCF0639small.jpg
http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p209/topgeartom/clio/DSCF0640small.jpg

The exhaust combined with the induction kit makes an amazing sound, the thing really roars, ill get some vids up as soon as i can.

Comments welcome

Cheers
Tom

[Daggernite]

WOW :shock: One heck of a nice car! So your sticking with the Clio's then? Good decision I bet that thing flys. I dint know they was that powerful either 7.7 to 60 is pretty quick even for todays standards.

Get more pics vids and stuff up, I really like your car!

EDIT- Ok, so you was uploading pics as I was typing :P Nice!

[gis]

Nice tom,sweet lookin car.your right the exhaust doesnt look any different from standard really.

good job :D

[TopGearNL]

Nice to see more pics of it and hear your experiences with it so far Tom! :D

Whenever Im in England be sure to give me a testdrive since I am fairly interested in this car myself!

[ARMAN]

Wow little pocket-rocket as it should be :twisted: congrats on the buy and I hope you'll have less problems than with the previous car :) looks pretty good as its lowered

[Mattk]

It even has leather seats. Nice car, have fun with it.

[Mattk]

^yes, drive it safe. Good cars are useless when destroyed. :P

[Erez]

looks in great condition! all the hot hatches here are in horrible condition after year and year of abuse! :lol:
congrats! :good:

[topgeartom]

Thanks for all the nice words people!

I would quite like some williams wheels for it, refurbished in gloss black with a silver lip, that would look awesome.

For now though all my cash (of which there is very little) needs to go on a new steering column as its got too much play in it so the usual 'sharp' handling is sort of lost, theres not much feeling to it when you can turn the wheel through 30 degrees of lock and nothing happens!

Might get some vids tonight if i go out in it.

[gis]

Might get some vids tonight if i go out in it.

if? you know you will,lol

[TopGearNL]

Might get some vids tonight if i go out in it.

if? you know you will,lol

Haha, yeah you will tom, you will! :twisted: :wink:

[topgeartom]

Looks like i dont have much choice in the matter then!

My camera isnt brilliant quality for vids but ill see what i get tonight.

[TopGearNL]

^^ Allright, looking forward to it!

[Skaala]

16 valve... sweet :)

[topgeartom]

Its not big and its not very clever, the sound is pretty crap due to the digital stills camera it was recorded on, and i couldnt give it a full run through the gears due to the urban area.

In real life it sounds a lot more throaty with more of a roar and its much less 'boomy', the induction noise is amazing.

Anyway here it is.

Clio 16v with Hill power IK - YouTube

[gis]

is it just me but does it have a boxer engine note when you giv it the beans nearer the end? lol

[topgeartom]

I said the exact same thing to my mate when i took him out in it.

When you floor it and the induction kit starts to suck like a 2 bob whore and the magnex exhaust system really opens up it almost has a warble like a boxer.

We should have a mini-meet one weekend and ill give you a ride in it!

[gis]

yea im interested to see the difference between your 16v and the R5 GTT :D

[silentm]

a very nice car, now see if you can't get a ncie set of rims when you have the cash ;)

[topgeartom]

I would love some euro style wheels for it.

RH Cups look amazing IMO:

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d127/wazza16valver/valver6.jpg
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d127/wazza16valver/blackmountains5.jpg

[gis]

^^^ funny thing is thats probably what tom looks like driving around the yorkshire dales,lol
be interesting for sure to see gtt vs clio 16v at the nurburgring. :D

[topgeartom]

/\/\/\ LMAO - Theres a lovely little road near me known as the keighly bumps, its a long straight road and theres plenty of opportunity for airbourne antics!

[gis]

i think ive been down there in my ZS mate,is that near the japanese car import place,keighly import and trade or something?

[TopGearNL]

/\/\/\ LMAO - Theres a lovely little road near me known as the keighly bumps, its a long straight road and theres plenty of opportunity for airbourne antics!

LOL! Can't wait for that!

Anyway thanks for the vid tom, sounds very nice, a bit like an impreza with that boxer sound :wink:

[blinkmeat]

Valver Rev'in - YouTube

nice car man - does it sound like this one?

[jon_s]

Forget those wheels.

If I were you I'd take the 16in Speedline wheels of the official gr. A rallycars - and a couple of Diac and Vive le Sport decals. There's one 16v around here like that and I can tell you it's awesome :D

Should look like this: :mrgreen: :twisted:

http://multimedia.club-rs.org/albums/userpics/10002/600_his_1992_tcm2-5007.jpg

Agreed - I would take the Speedlines too :lol:

[topgeartom]

i think ive been down there in my ZS mate,is that near the japanese car import place,keighly import and trade or something?

Thats the bugger!

Theres a road that sort of runs parallel with the dual carriageway up over the hills, its one of our little 'routes' we have when we go for a blast over the moors

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8sVYaC3AIg&mode=related&search=

nice car man - does it sound like this one?

Just like that dude only a bit deeper with more roar due to the open induction kit.

Im going to put the de-cat on this weekend which should change the sound quite a bit, ill try get some decent before and after vids to show the difference.

[TopGearNL]

^^ More vids, and better quality! Sounds good Tom 8)

[gis]

i think ive been down there in my ZS mate,is that near the japanese car import place,keighly import and trade or something?

Thats the bugger!

Theres a road that sort of runs parallel with the dual carriageway up over the hills, its one of our little 'routes' we have when we go for a blast over the moors

i thought so,i came into the place on a duel carriageway then drove around on these twisty roads,then finally arrived at the import place,it had a few dealerships surrounding it,like citroen and VW i think and next to some railway lines coz a bastard train stopped me for bout 10 minutes,lol.it was raining when i went but i said to my mate that id love to have driven those roads in the dry.

[topgeartom]

i think ive been down there in my ZS mate,is that near the japanese car import place,keighly import and trade or something?

Thats the bugger!

Theres a road that sort of runs parallel with the dual carriageway up over the hills, its one of our little 'routes' we have when we go for a blast over the moors

i thought so,i came into the place on a duel carriageway then drove around on these twisty roads,then finally arrived at the import place,it had a few dealerships surrounding it,like citroen and VW i think and next to some railway lines coz a bastard train stopped me for bout 10 minutes,lol.it was raining when i went but i said to my mate that id love to have driven those roads in the dry.

They are properly insane mate, in the dry at night so you can see any other cars lights coming they are immense. Theres a section known as the black mile which is a mile long straight followed by a completely mental downhil section that has hairpins and all sorts of daft corners.

You really should come down one weekend.

[gis]

yea we will plan it sometime,i still owe daggernite a trip there anyway,so be cool to all meet up.got some little niggles with my car to sort out before i go WRC style with you yorkshire folk,lol

[topgeartom]

lol ditto - my steering currently has more play in it than a world cup final.

New column me thinks

Could do with a new clutch cable too - its currently stiffer than a manakin with a steel rod up its arse, makes crawling in traffic a nightmare, i can either set of at a snails pace and let the clutch slip out for 5 minutes, or set off with 9 billion revs like a bat out of hell. In heavy, slow moving traffic this does not make for a pleasant journey.

[gis]

lol yea thats a bit of a pain.get both those sorted and im sure the car will fly around the twistys.it wearing some good tyres?

[topgeartom]

lol no frankly they are shit.

Wanli.

I suspect they were made in a jungle clearing somewhere.

Some yoko A539's are in order.

[gis]

lol.yoko's are great tyres.my dad had some on his golf and they were fantastic.before i come there i think mods or new car are needed to keep up the pace,only chance i have is in the corners.lol

[topgeartom]

lol, im not that quick really, my mate in his 60bhp 205 diesel is the fastest thing you will come across over those roads. Quite how he makes it go so quick i have no idea.

[gis]

he aint screwing with you guys is he and it actually has a GTI engine in there,lol

[TopGearNL]

lol, im not that quick really, my mate in his 60bhp 205 diesel is the fastest thing you will come across over those roads. Quite how he makes it go so quick i have no idea.

What he looses on the straights he makes up in the corners :wink:

[topgeartom]

lol, im not that quick really, my mate in his 60bhp 205 diesel is the fastest thing you will come across over those roads. Quite how he makes it go so quick i have no idea.

What he looses on the straights he makes up in the corners :wink:

Oh hell yes he does, and no gis, its definately a stinking, non-turbo oil burner. Hes been looking for a 106 gti for ages now, but cant find one in the spec he wants. When he gets something as fast as a gti i swear i'll never see him again. I'll just constantly be chasing a set of tail lights in the far distance!

[gis]

lol how is he so fast? simple craziness?

[TopGearNL]

^^ Yeah, no fear of crashing I guess..

[topgeartom]

I think its crazyness mixed with genuine driving ability and detailed knowledge of the roads. Theres a section of VERY twisty road we call caravan corners due to it going past a caravan park half way through it, that he just goes round soooo quickly its scary, i genuinely cant keep up, even my mate with a 125bhp escort who has similar knowledge of the roads cant keep up, despite having over double the power.

[RC45]

Nice "little" car there midge... I mean mate.. ;)

And in silver, by far the fastest colour on the roads :)

[topgeartom]

Tom, you never can go wrong with a set of BBS alloys ;)

I can mostly be found on Cliosport.net forums these days, and theres a guy on there called Winston who likes to go for the euro look.

Hes currently got a Williams he has completely stripped and slagged, which he proudly calls the illiams. Its sat on its arse on BBS wheels and looks mint.

http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h175/76ball/Illiams/PICT2064.jpg

[gis]

that does look awesome.you want to go for the euro look then?

[topgeartom]

Im not sure mate, i'd like to but dont think i can afford it, and im pretty taken with the standard look at the moment.

[TopGearNL]

Silver really is a nice colour for that Clio but if it was blue maybe you could have put some Clio Williams rims under it. On the other side might not look so bad gold rims under a silver car :wink:

[gis]

^^ thats an interesting idea,i bet the clio williams gold rims would look pretty smart.im sure you can pick some of those up for a good price. :D

your right though Tom,the look of it standard is pretty smart,i especially like the bonnet,its the thing i like about that shape clio,the looks arent "in your face" :)

[TopGearNL]

http://img133.imageshack.us/img133/3726/clio2ot7.th.jpg (http://img133.imageshack.us/my.php?image=clio2ot7.jpg)

[Daggernite]

So when do we compare the old and new then tom. My extra power against your light weight.

[topgeartom]

We definately need to have a meet up of us northern boys.

Took the car out for its first proper run on friday, a 150mile round trip at night deep up into the yorkshire dales. Some amazing roads, nearly all at the national speed limit.

It was my first chance to stretch the cars legs, and i can confirm shes a leggy bitch! Pulls like a bastard when you get up around 5k rpm.

My steering column is still slack so i cant really comment on the handling until i get a new column or weld it up. Certainly grips well even with shit tyres. I couldnt get the arse out using lift off oversteer on a large roundabout so grip is pretty high all round.

[topgeartom]

Few vids from last night, posted in vid & pic links, but popped here for ease.

http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=-389324853508761422&hl=en-GB
http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=2115912596857148350&hl=en-GB
http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=6904474802851410213

[silentm]

"SLOW" - *wooosh* hehe. nice vids. though next time maybe during the day? ;)

[topgeartom]

Much better at night mate - you can see if anythings coming because of their lights in the distance, so you know if you can cut the corner or not, whereas in the day you would have no idea 8)

[gis]

^^yea best way to drive these country roads,learn were the corners are during the day,drive them quick at night

[Svensson]

Some nice heel&toe downshifts in that vid!
You need to be awake though... One wrong move and you can end up upside down in the ditch :?

[cooperluke]

Few vids from last night, posted in vid & pic links, but popped here for ease.

http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=-389324853508761422&hl=en-GB
http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=2115912596857148350&hl=en-GB
http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=6904474802851410213

Gee... you're nuts!!

You drive against the traffic!!! :shock:


That was my first reaction, than remembered you're in UK! :wink:

[silentm]

^ ROFL :lol:

[gis]

if its what im thinkin then its called "full beams" here :D im guessing you have some bright lights on the 5 then dani? lol

[topgeartom]

Night driving is by far and away the most pleasurable.

Theres very little traffic, you can see any oncoming cars ages before you reach them due to the lights, and the air is usually cooler giving slightly better performance.

In fact, i might go for a drive out now!

[RC45]

I guess wild animals wondering into the road are not much of a worry ;)

[gis]

only wild animals that are about at that time of night are chavs :P :lol:

[topgeartom]

I guess wild animals wondering into the road are not much of a worry ;)

LOL, we have decent reactions.

The night those videos were taken, on a section before those wide sweeping roads, on a single track tristing road with high hedges either side we went round one corner to find a baby dear in the middle of the road!

It just leisurely made its way up the road for half a mile before finally getting out the way!

Ive never seen a dear / doe in real life before so it was fairly cool.

[silentm]

i once had to dodge some cows who where standing on the road :lol: they didn't seem to bother though :?

[topgeartom]

Just thought id add a little update:

Had the car rolling roaded at a place near me which had just taken delivery of a £50k dyno dynamics rr.

It made 133bhp atf, somewhere around the 110 atw IRC

Not bad for a 11 year old 1.8 lump thats been thrashed from day 1, with only a decat and cat back exhaust system.

Torque curve is remarkably linear too.

I love how you can see the spike in power after the car comes on cam at around 4500

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p209/topgeartom/clio/small.jpg

[topgeartom]

Not bad for a 11yo beaten hatchback! :D

I want to dyno my GTT one of these days too. A friend of mine had a sort of g-meter that calculated the power, considering the weight of the car and the passengers and some more data that I don't remember now. My GTT gave 108hp... quite dissapointing considering it had 120hp stock - but by that time, there was a small problem with the oil pressure that is fixed now. I guess it's time for a new try... especially now that it has the OMP gr.N exhaust line :wink:

Definately get it rolling roaded again, and this time do ti properly on a real dyno. G-meters arent accurate at all. Even the less expensive dynos can be wildly innacurate. You get what you pay for i suppose.

[topgeartom]

It can vary from £30 - £60+

I paid £50 which is considered expensive but its one of the best/most accurate dynos money can buy and i also got air:fuel ratio readings on a separate printout.

Expect to pay around £35 or €50 at most places.

[topgeartom]

While im at it, heres a few more photos from more recent times, inculding a few on the end from fcs 2007, if you look hard in the last pic, you can see my car in the middle of all the other clio 16v's on the clio16valver.co.uk stand.

Since the pics were taken ive semi stripped it. The silver grille has gone, the rear of the interior has gone and there are one or two more stickers around the place on the outside.

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p209/topgeartom/clio/fcs/DSCF0961.jpg
http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p209/topgeartom/clio/fcs/DSCF0962.jpg
http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p209/topgeartom/clio/fcs/DSCF0965.jpg
http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p209/topgeartom/clio/fcs/IMGP0752.jpg
http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p209/topgeartom/clio/fcs/IMG_0049.jpg

[RC45]

Just thought id add a little update:

Had the car rolling roaded at a place near me which had just taken delivery of a £50k dyno dynamics rr.

It made 133bhp atf, somewhere around the 110 atw IRC

Not bad for a 11 year old 1.8 lump thats been thrashed from day 1, with only a decat and cat back exhaust system.

Torque curve is remarkably linear too.

I love how you can see the spike in power after the car comes on cam at around 4500

http://i129.photobucket.com/albums/p209/topgeartom/clio/small.jpg

110 at the wheels.. not bad.. - I do believe my 1994 V4 750c RC45 motorbike made about that much power.. ;)

But I digress - do these folks offer any sort of tuning services to go alomg with the Fifty Quid for the Dyno run?

[topgeartom]

Paul at RS Tuning who carried out the dyno run and who owns the business is widely regarded as one of the best renaultsport tuners out there, he offers remaps based on his own maps hes developed for the various renaultsports in varing states of tune and also livemaps tailered not only to individual modifications but also the the specific engine itself, as RS's are notorious for having engines which produce relatively wildly varying outputs from the manufacturers quoted figure.

I think he charges around £350 for a custom remap tailored to your mods and somewhere over the £500 mark for a livemap session.

He certainly isnt cheap but its been proven his work produces the biggest gains with the max. durability and practicality. Most of the 172/182 boys wont be seen dead without a rs tuning remap.