Clio Tuning

Clio Tuning – An Introduction

Tuning Clio’s be they 172’s, 182’s, 197, Clio 200’s or even the older cars like the Williams or 1.816v is an always will be reasonably expensive. The bottom line is that RenaultSport and the hot hatches have always been well presented from the factory, and as such improving them from this already raised bar will cost money, will take time and will require high quality components.

“Tuning” – To adjust (a vehicle or an individual component for example) for maximum usability or performance.

Clio Tuning – The Basics

One of the most sensible bits of advice I can impart is to try to start as far up the ladder as you can with the original or standard vehicle. Start with the car – the most expensive part – if you can’t afford a new car, then go for the vehicle that best fits your requirements – a cheap car will always be cheap for a reason – that it either has a problem, requires work, or has had a bump. It is rare for “bargains” to come up and to be trouble free. Tuning is always relative, imagine the Clio 172 Ph1; it has a RenaultSport F4R 730 Engine – probably designed in 1997/1998 or even before, and then built over 1998/1999 to be first included in the ph1 172. The tuning of the 172 engine was reliable enough in YozzaSport’s experience to around 212-215BHP – around a 25% increase in BHP, however to retain the standard engine management and to still gain power the limit was reached with normal (OEM)  internal components at around 205BHP. Beyond this, the engines had to be significantly modified to deal with the extra performance. If however, you consider that you start with a 197 Clio with the F4R 830, you will be starting with a car that has already gained an extra 25BHP over the original F4R 730. Ten years of development, testing and new technologies will have been implemented, ironing out the smaller issues with the original engine. If we are working on a new engine now, one of our first recommendations for our customers is to start with the F4R 830 top end, as it is such an improvement on the older F4R 730.

Clio Tuning – Power To Weight

You have to consider other factors however. The power to weight ratio of a Clio Williams is almost identical to the New Clio 200 Cup – why? The Williams is so much lighter. With only a 150BHP engine it only needs to be 900KG to punch well above its weight in the power to weight stakes.

Clio Tuning – The Car Shell

If you are going to start by stripping a car down to the bare shell to make a race or track car, then you may as well consider buying something that has been light bump, flooded as this will be nothing in the scheme of things by the time you have seam welded the shell and added a multi-point cage.

A motorsport shell from RenaultSport will cost you in the region of £2000. For that money, you could buy a car with some damage, and either acid dip it or shot blast it and then repair it, and still be quids in.

An approved FIA cage can cost between £500 and £2000. My advice would be to spend as much money as you can afford to on the cage. We can offer Safety Devices cages, Sparco roll cages, OMP safety roll cage as well as completely custom build and designed items. What we don’t and won’t offer are show cages – they give a false sense of security, and will not save you in the event of an accident – in fact it is possible that it might do you more damage than it will save you from. As with many things – shiny things that look well often aren’t up to the job when they are pushed to the limit.

Clio Tuning – The Engine

I would strongly advise against touching the engine if you have a sub £2000 budget. Decent camshafts (Schrick/CatCams) will cost you between £600 and £1000 plus the fitting and mapping with total in the region of £2000. It just isn’t worth thinking about if you haven’t got that kind of money to play with. Spend the money on brakes, suspension and 6 trackdays… it will be far much more fun.

Clio Tuning – The Suspension

I would always recommend forgetting everything else and just going for Coilovers – sports springs are really just for looks – they will improve the ride somewhere, but at the end of the day – they are just a cheap cop out. Coilover cost wise – you should be thinking at starting at the £1000 by the time you have fitted them to the car and set the ride, camber and tracking. I have written a long article about the Clio suspension here: Clio 182 Suspension

Clio Tuning – The Brakes

I have also written a long article about Clio 172 and 182 Brakes here: Clio 172 Brakes

Clio Tuning – The Exhaust System

Articles already exist with advice on: Clio 172 Exhaust Systems and Clio 182 Exhaust Systems

Hope that this offered some insight into “Clio Tuning” it is only intended to be a broad overview.

Always a Hooligan,

/y0z

Tags: clio 172, Clio 182, Clio 197, Clio 200, Clio Tuning, f4r 730, f4r 736, f4r 738, performance tuning, renault tuning