With a track day at Brands Hatch coming up and another planned for Anglesey – I decided it was time to stiffen the Clio’s shell up and a bit of safety

I drove down to gloucester to buy an OMP roll cage from a lad on ClioSport. It was originally a 6 point OMP cage with a single diagonal bar in the back but it has been modified to now have a full cross with harness bars. Got it for a bargain price but the platforms to weld into the car had seen better days.

Got the car booked in at FrenchSport Tuning and the lads did a superb job as per usual.
They cleaned up the platforms and re-welded them to neaten them up, then welded them into the car.
The cage was then bolted in with high tensile bolts. Took 8 hours and it looks superb.

I’ll let the pictures do the talking

The dashboard in the clio has rattled ever since I fitted solid engine mounts.
I was sure it would be something easy to fix but it’s taken me a while to get around to removing the whole dash.

I stripped it all out last week and found the alarm wiring all loose behind it – which was causing the rattling noise as the cables vibrated against the plastic. I also found that the heater control cables had snapped and had been badly bodged together (which is why I’ve never been able to select the demister function!!)

So I went for a drive to ClioSpares and picked up a new lower dashboard for a bargain £40 along with 2 heater control cables. Highly recommend them for parts, Josh is a top bloke to deal with!

While the dash was out I binned the passenger airbag – reprogrammed the airbag ecu to turn the warning lights off – tidied up all the factory wiring so nothing rattled about (where would we be without cable ties eh? ) and removed ALL the sound deadening.
6kg of sound deadening and a 2kg air bag binned – I think that must get the weight-loss down to about 60kg now!!

Everythings all re-fitted now and I’m pleased to say I’ve got no rattles at all and fully working heater controls

Picking up a roll cage in 2 weeks – and I’ve started sanding down the interior ready for paint. Got to get it all fitted and sprayed before September 22nd as I have a track day at Brands Hatch.
Also need new tyres and a full geometry setup. No rest for the wicked!!

I fitted Bilstein B14 coilovers a month or two ago now and while they did firm the ride up the handling was still a bit soft and the turn-in dissapointingly slow. I was finding very little feedback through the wheel and a lot of under-steer on track

I had a look at the suspension and with the car just ticking over 113k the bushes and ball joints had seen better days.

So I bought a set of wishbone bushes from Demon Tweeks and matching ARB bushes. I then went looking for some solid top mounts and stumbled upon a setup from Pure Motorsport which looked ideal. It’s a copy of the old cup racer setup with solid top mounts bolting directly to a very strong strut brace. So purchased one of those too

Pure Motorsport were brilliant and the whole kit arrived next day

Sadly things then went down hill. To cut a long story short I treated myself to a cordless impact driver and ended up rounding the top off of one of my coilovers

Anyway a few weeks later and massive thanks to my mate Phill at G&G Motorsport and it’s all fitted.
I’m very happy to report the turn-in is now fast and precise, the feedback from the steering wheel is greatly increased and I’m a happy Clio driver once again.

Now just need to get it booked onto a track session again ASAP!

Just a couple of videos from my open pit session at Rockingham