Author Topic: My 2006 Renault Clio Sport Cup racer (Read 6967 times)

danidmas · « **Reply #40 on:** 05-Mar-2009, 12:08:57 »

Quote from: Darkel on 05-Mar-2009, 11:05:55

Dumb question : what is the air scoop for, what does it cool down ?

The cockpit. Very useful in July when we have 40ºC and we're wearing the full-driver equipment (long-sleeves fire-proof underwear included)...

vincentdci · « **Reply #41 on:** 05-Mar-2009, 15:10:50 »

Quote from: danidmas on 05-Mar-2009, 10:41:13

I think it's basically a question of looks...

The car is based on the roadcar... so, obviously, the Cup car had to feature the same Y-style exhaust. As you can see in the detail pics... it's pretty much a straight pipe... and it throws flames too!

I have no idea...

BTW, I've got the list of spares of the old Clio... but I don't have the parts-catalogue anymore... so I'll try to figure something out to translate the name of most of the items

As for the new Clio... the Cup cars that take part in the Clio Cup have to change the front bumper for the new one... we don't. But I'm afraid that as soon as we smash one (quite usual in the last races) there won't be any of the old ones avaiable...

I was thinking the same thing, that double bend in the exhaust over the rear axle must go, FFS the exhaust on mine has a better traject, and is that a catalyst i spot there

If it were me, i'd get that double exhaust off and go for a single exhaust with the least amount of bends. I have an unused bosal backbox for a Pontiac Trans Am lying around in my workshop which would do the trick just fine. You can have it for free, pick up only though

Also get your ass in gear for that parts list you lazy sod

And oh yea, get the catalan flag painted/stickered on the roof, that would look sweet imo

danidmas · « **Reply #42 on:** 09-Mar-2009, 15:47:33 »

This weekend we've had the first race of the season... spanish championship, in Cheste, Valencia. There were 20 Clios more or less in our class, so the race looked promising... and to be honest, I was hoping to get a nice result with our new ride. I was utterly wrong

I had never driven on that track before... so that was already a big disadvantage to start with

I spent the 2 free practice sessions trying to memorize the lines and the braking points... but there were still a couple of corners that I didn't "master" until well into the race

Especially the last turn (I don't know if you're familiar with the track, but it's a looooong left-hander, 5th gear, downhill, blind, no references)...

Overall it's not the best circuit I've driven on, not the worst either... but it has 3 turns that are among the best ones I remember: both the first and the last turns and some esses somewhere in the middle. It's very technical... and you need a good setup to be quick... setup that we hadn't

The kerbs are extremely low, so you can drive 4 wheels over them and the car won't unsettle...

This has some consequences as you will see...

In qualifying I set a hotlap which was a whole 5 seconds quicker than my best on the free practice... basically 'cause I was using new tyres and I drove more than half a lap behind one of the quick drivers... copying as much as I could of his driving... so I was starting in P16... not good, but still quite decent considering that I had no previous experience at that track.

The start was average... the old Clios flying over me, it was quite desperating. I set a fastest lat 2 seconds quicker than my best in qualifying... so you see that I was still learning the track during the race. The car worked fine... until the driver change.. where the left driveshalft just fall apart:

That meant we were out of the race. We suppose it broke because the previous owner (a team with a certain bad reputation among the paddock) gave us the worst shit they had avaiable (clutch, driveshafts)... and we didn't revised the car anyway so. And then there's my driving over the kerbs... may be a bit too agressive

Fortunately, the team we were sharing the box with, lend us a spare driveshaft so we could enter the second race. I was doing the second (and final) part of the race... and one of the things that annoyed me is that we had no speed on the straights... because of the standard setup we were using (when the Clio 2006 was launched, it was slower than the 2004 - not anymore); we had pretty much no camber... while the rest of teams had setups way more agressive than our.

That made also that as the tyres were wearing out... it became more and more difficult to enter the car into the corners... so you had to brake more to stop the car if you wanted to avoid understeer. That's, I guess, the problem of weighting 160 kilos more than the old Clio. Final result: P20... pse

We'll see how we do in the next races once we manage to get a proper setup...
Don't tell anyone, but I think we would've been 1.5-2 seconds quicker with the old Clio

danidmas · « **Reply #43 on:** 09-Mar-2009, 15:51:34 »

Some vids:

Fly by:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWahHzjcU00

You can hear the pit limiter in this vid:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bh3iubrf6-4

The start of the race:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofsrZ-FOSjM

Killing some time on the highway, with the 171º videocam:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COICt73viBc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDZhJkX0wGQ

danidmas · « **Reply #44 on:** 09-Mar-2009, 16:14:26 »

This is right when we notice the broken driveshaft...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PIQIdw3NHU

Darkel · « **Reply #45 on:** 09-Mar-2009, 16:44:14 »

Sorry to hear about your car troubles

But the bright side of it is that you found out everything that was wrong at once, and on a track you didn't expect to be the quickest ones on

+ you know the track now.
I guess it would've been more annoying if you had planned to finish on the podium on a circuit you knew by heart.

llastarri · « **Reply #46 on:** 09-Mar-2009, 20:30:17 »

Don't worry, the next race will be better that this!!

TT · « **Reply #47 on:** 09-Mar-2009, 22:40:39 »

Sorry to hear about the troubles, but I guess it's pretty normal to have to climb the learning curve with a new car to set up! Good luck for your next race!

vincentdci · « **Reply #48 on:** 10-Mar-2009, 02:18:21 »

For what i know and have seen, your lucky to finish a race at all without problems, in motorsports like these.
So i say top job, unlucky about the driveshaft thats for sure,
arent you allowed to fix the car during the race?

acmarttin · « **Reply #49 on:** 10-Mar-2009, 04:41:03 »

Is this the track Dani?

If so - I sort of know how the track goes. At least, I've done a lot of laps in various racing games

- most recently Race Pro on 360 which represents the track as being very bumpy, especially at turns 2 and 4. I have a hard time figuring out my braking points digitally I'm sure she was a bitch to tame in real life.

Cheers on the first real test of your new car, though! This is a seriously cool topic which IMO if you don't mind you should start your own thread about your race series so we can all follow along. I find it very fascinating!

Good luck in race #2!

yeckmohr · « **Reply #50 on:** 10-Mar-2009, 09:04:20 »

sorry dani, but trouble in the beginning means luck at the end, i think i heard this before !

where is the TAU sticker on the car ? i didn't see it in the movie.

danidmas · « **Reply #51 on:** 10-Mar-2009, 10:52:43 »

Quote from: vincentdci on 10-Mar-2009, 02:18:21

For what i know and have seen, your lucky to finish a race at all without problems, in motorsports like these.
So i say top job, unlucky about the driveshaft thats for sure,
arent you allowed to fix the car during the race?

Considering the races are 50 minutes long... it's pretty pointless to try to fix the car during the race

At least we had 3 hours between the first and the second race... time enough to change the broken driveshaft

As for finishing with the car intact... the drivers in these series are more gentleman than in, let's say, the Renault Clio Cup. The athmosphere, even if it's a national championship, and some drivers are actually Cup drivers... is quite amateur-ish... which is nice.

I've never had a problem with any other driver...

Quote from: acmarttin on 10-Mar-2009, 04:41:03

Is this the track Dani?

If so - I sort of know how the track goes. At least, I've done a lot of laps in various racing games - most recently Race Pro on 360 which represents the track as being very bumpy, especially at turns 2 and 4. I have a hard time figuring out my braking points digitally I'm sure she was a bitch to tame in real life.

That's the track, yes.

T1 is done in 4th, flat out... really challenging

T3 is again flat-out over the kerb. T8 and T9 are the esses I was talking about, one of my fav parts of the track. The first left-hander is done with the 4 wheels over the kerb... and the braking to T9 is done over the kerb, it's quite tricky to keep the car settled for the braking. T10 is great also, short braking and flat out... again 4 wheels over the external kerb. And finally T11, the trickiest turn of them all... no references at all (I was using a little house on the horizon to mark the turn-in point, and the braking lines on the tarmac), the back of the car going wide... really funny once you start to do it right

danidmas · « **Reply #52 on:** 11-Mar-2009, 01:09:16 »

Forget the nasty sound, forget the horrible light... forget the fact that you can't barely see anything from the outside.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZoTAwz7shs

We were just trying my brothers new 170º wide-angle videocam... and the result, despite the quality, is quite interesting. You can get some pretty cool vids with this wide-angle!

llastarri · « **Reply #53 on:** 11-Mar-2009, 09:37:40 »

Wow!!
Interesting video...and good vision of car!

The camera...out, in front!!
jejeje...

danidmas · « **Reply #54 on:** 19-Mar-2009, 11:59:19 »

From 2:27 to 4:05...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PozYeY3Gc40

Notice how quick is the old Clio...

In my defense, I'll say that I kept this guy behind me for 4-5 laps... but the car (second stint of the race, tyres in not really the best of shapes) was quite undriveable... especially in the turn-in, with lots of understeer.

The driver of the onboard camera... in the last race of the last season, at Barcelona, in a 2-hours race... he finished almost a whole lap behind us... 2 minutes. It's freaking impossible he could pass me like that unless there's some serious problem with the car's setup.

I know it sounds like a lame excuse but........

yeckmohr · « **Reply #55 on:** 19-Mar-2009, 13:05:10 »

mhm sounds to me exactly like a lame excuse, we have to discuss this in june.

llastarri · « **Reply #56 on:** 19-Mar-2009, 13:28:14 »

We can check that plotted/way yours is very different to the plotted/way of the other old Clio.

Problems of setup car??

We will have to believe it.

[

with darling]

danidmas · « **Reply #57 on:** 19-Mar-2009, 15:33:20 »

Well, I admit I have a small problem when I have a car behind me, and I know for certain that this car will pass me sooner or later: I start to be more focussed on the rearview mirror than on what I should be doing... and this is a good example. Yeah, combined with the fact that the car handled like shit

The other driver, though, took some very strange lines in some corners... way too inside... guess it was to frighten me or something

danidmas · « **Reply #58 on:** 27-Mar-2009, 00:26:20 »

Just came back from the Renault service: 2 driveshafts for... 1.700,00€ fucking euros! What's that? a Ferrari F430 GT2?!?!

I know the 'box is a proper sequential 6-speed Sadev... but for God's sake! It's still a Clio!

Saturday we're taking it to the paintshop: it's gonna be sprayed in GT3RS orange

llastarri · « **Reply #59 on:** 27-Mar-2009, 08:58:30 »

Wow!!!
GT3RS orange???

We are waiting next week the photo!!

[Renault know that you paint in colour of Porsche...and change Renault price for Porsche price too!!

]