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My Clio Trophy Blog

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Posted 24th August 2008 at 13:06 by AlexR
Updated 24th August 2008 at 13:26 by AlexR

After years of messing around with saxos and the like it was time to get a decent car!
The Trophy is a lightweight version of the 182(proper cup shell) but instead of just using the basic cup spec they added lots of bespoke parts.

Quote:
Take a Cup and paint it in bright Capsicum Red. Next add a few Trophy logos and then purloin the rear spoiler from the wild Clio Renaultsport V6 255 thats sadly now longer with us. Fit a pair of hip hugging black Recaro Sport Trendline bucket seats, guaranteed to drop the seat of your pants 10mm closer to the bitumen and add a super tactile leather steering wheel. Bolt on a set of Renaultsport-branded door sill finishers for a touch of bling and a numbered plaque detailing which of the 500 production run your Trophy is and thats pretty much it when it comes to the aesthetics.

Although Renault have wisely left power output alone, theyve further honed what the Clio 182 Cup always did best, namely demolish corners with gleeful abandon. The suspension is based on the Cup set-up. As a reminder, over the normal Renaultsport 182, this has lower ride height, stiffer springs (20% front, 15% rear), re-rated dampers (+20% front, +10% rear), strengthened front wheel hub carriers and revised steering geometry.

The Trophy suspension is lowered a further 10mm at the front with shorter springs. The dampers are supplied by Sachs Race Engineering and have a unique damping force/velocity curve. Normally only used in competition cars, these dampers cost 10 times more than a conventional road car damper and feature a remote reservoir to accommodate nearly 50% of the oil and gas. This remote reservoir liberates enough space to package a thicker and therefore stiffer damper rod, thus increasing camber compliance.

The increased oil volume brings better thermal stability, to enable the damper to maintain optimal performance at all times. The space liberated allows the hydraulic components and damper valving to work more effectively. Another unusual feature of the damper is that a hydraulic bump stop replaces the usual physical elastometric one. This gives a much more progressive stiffness rate once the bump stop starts to work and thus allows a lower ride height without compromising bump travel.

The objective of the lower ride height is to improve the turn in and reduce understeer. Overall, these chassis modifications give the Trophy much improved damping control at all speeds, improved traction and reduced body movements (roll and pitch). This is particularly noticeable on poor quality roads i.e. typical English B roads.

The wheels are Speedline Turini in anthracite (the same design as those used on the Renaultsport 172 Cup, though with a different offset and colour). These wheels save 1.3kg each and this reduction in the unsprung weight further improves the wheel control and therefore handling.
It's the ultimate clio to have and IMO has a lot more character and is much more youthful than the Civic Type R which it rivals as well as being a lot rarer.

Although this car is well modified as standard there are a few small bits that in my opinion are needed to make it perfect. The main thing being the audio setup which isn't too bad as standard but for any audiophile standard is never good enough.

After a bit of research and pondering a new setup was ordered. Heading up the system is a pioneer 6600 which has USB control for my external hard drive, 400 albums all easily accessible through the head unit. This is connected to the standard display and steering wheel controls with an autoleads wiring kit.

In the reproduction department the front speakers are Focal 5" components with the tweeters and crossovers mounted inside the dashboard. Fitting these bits was a pain as the top of the dashboard needed to be removed, easy for someone of my calibre though. The rear speakers are just boggo JBL coaxes.
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Comments

  1. Old Comment
    flynnsvtr's Avatar
    You like Jimmy Eat World!!! Nice one
    Posted 24th August 2008 at 17:57 by flynnsvtr flynnsvtr is offline
  2. Old Comment
    Alex's Avatar
    very nice you lucky bast**d!!!! Hopefully see it next weekend
    Posted 25th August 2008 at 18:56 by Alex Alex is offline
  3. Old Comment
    MikeCracknell's Avatar
    Whilst I am not a massive fan of the Clio - My wife loves it, and I think I am slowly warming to them too! It has to be either a Black or Red one too - not keen on silver or that blue!

    See you next weekend!
    Posted 25th August 2008 at 19:43 by MikeCracknell MikeCracknell is offline
  4. Old Comment
    AlexR's Avatar
    I'm sure if you drove one you'd love it crackers
    Posted 6th September 2008 at 18:09 by AlexR AlexR is offline
  5. Old Comment
    it's ok.

    Posted 29th October 2008 at 20:05 by a17vts a17vts is offline
 

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