Furious Fleet Update -

[Mr Furious]

When I previously departed these shores I was rocking a 2004 Mondeo ST220 and a 1984 Mk2 Granada. Although I don't for one minute regret buying the Granada I never really clicked with it, it was slow, thirsty, wallowy, temperamental, needed jump starting and the tyres blowing up every time I got it out - It just never really made me want to bother driving it. However I needed a tow car and at the time that was it, the ST220 ccouldn't have a tow bar because for whatever reason Ford never homologated it for towing, so I thought y'know what, i'll just get rid of both. The Granada sold to a guy in the lake district and I fucked the ST220 off to WBAC for an insultingly low amount, but It needed money spending on it and I didn't have time for tyre kickers.

I already had its replacement which is the 2015 Mondeo below, not a lot to report on this really, It just is what it is. It does everything brilliantly, its a 180bhp diesel with just about every toy you can think of, I bought it on 16k miles and its just ticked over to 30k - I never really have to touch it other than put fuel in so there isn't going to be a lot to write about here, and I doubt its of much interest to anyone but here it is

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So I thought well that's good, I now have one car to do everything I need....fleet reduction, very sensible..

But then one night toward the end of lockdown #1, after a slightly drunken conversation over a BBQ at a friends house, the subject of track days came up and I thought hey, what about if I got a track car...why wouldn't I do that?

This conversation fairly rapidly transitioned into searching ebay and pretty soon I was having this delivered from a great seller who lived locally. I paid £2300 which, at the time, was by far the cheapest 197 in the land and actually, its pretty bloody nice! So this is the car I mainly spend my time tinkering around with and the one i'll likely write most about here. I've had it a year almost to the day and never actually been on a track yet - but hey you can't rush these things...

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[LynehamHerc]

Regarding the Mondeo sometimes you just need a car to be a car, boring although that might be.
We've got a Skoda Roomster which does just that.

[Mr Furious]

Yeah that's exactly it, at the time I was doing a 60 mile a day commute and just wanted something newish, reliable, economical, comfy etc and I actually really like the looks of the Mk5. Circumstances have changed since then due to Covid, I'm now permanently based at home, going into the office only when required, but I doubt I'll change it any time soon.

Onto the Clio though. Its a 2007 Renault Sport 197 - A friend of mine had one of these brand new back in 2006 and I was always slightly envious of it, so when this popped up I was like hmm, I fancy that. We were still in Lockdown #1 so Covid made buying cars less than convenient, but the guy lived locally, brought it to me so I could look around it, even delivered it to my door when the deal was done. Really nice guy

The only thing that didn't work was the air conditioning which I thought I wasn't at all bothered about, and then fairly quickly decided I was.

Anyone who tells you "air con just needs a regas mate" is either a deliberate liar or misinformed. Air Con systems don't end up empty unless they have a leak, and if they have a leak its almost always the condenser. So I took to ebay again and dropped on a brand new condenser selling for £20 due to a damaged box. He assured there was no damage to the condenser inside, but given how fragile they are I knew this was a risk. Regardless I am also a major skinflint so it seemed like a risk worth taking. This seller was local and hand delivered it, I clicked buy it now one night about 2am and it turned up at 9am that morning

So bumper off and fitted it that evening, I don't know why it looks like its bananered in the pics, it sits at a slight angle to the crash bar so maybe its that, but it was undamaged just as he'd said. £35 Regas voucher from Group-on and I booked it in at ATS

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Took it for the Regas a few days later - FAIL. They said they gassed it up but one of the Schrader valves was leaking when they removed the hoses so they had to drain the system again. Maybe this one wasn't the condenser after all? Regardless, a new condenser won't do any harm.

Took it round the corner to an air con specialist who replaced the valves for me for a tenner - re-booked it back at ATS (As the first one hadn't been successful they hadn't charged me) and this time all good. Working Air Con for £65 all in which is still going strong 12 months later

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Next up was Tyres and Suspension...

[paulplom]

Nice clio.

[Mr Furious]

Tyres and Suspension

The main reason you'd by a 'hot' French hatch for track days is their legendary handling and reliability. No wait, just handling...but a previous owner had fitted this particular example with some horrific budget brand which not only had I never heard of, but were also completely the wrong size. In the wet it was laughable, these aren't torquey engines, they go alright if you really wring their necks past 5k rpm but low down they could barely pull a tired dog out of bed. Even so, driving in the wet felt like driving on ice, the traction control was constantly kicking in even with the lightest of throttle applications, so they had to go...

There was no question it was getting Michelin Pilot Sport 4's which, arguably, are the best all round tyre on sale today, however they were around £96 a corner on black circles and I do love to save a quid if I can. So an inordinate amount of time was spent scouring different combinations of deals, discounts, cashback sites etc and eventually I got some correct 215/45/17's from ATS which after their discount at the time, top cashback and a special offer for a free Amazon Echo show - worked out around £75 a corner. Happy with that.
Tyres duly acquired

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I pretty much left it alone then because it was getting towards winter time, Covid, adverse weather and my general disorganisation had snuffed out any chance of a track day.

Come January 2021 it was MOT time and it failed on a broken spring and split CV boot. Of course, the spring was on one side and the CV boot on the other. I was tempted to just sling it into the garage and get them to fix it, but I didn't really want just one spring replacing and for the prices they were quoting I could replace both front springs and shocks - so that's what I set about doing. I bought some genuine Renault cup springs and shocks from Renault Parts direct and set about removing the old ones.

I had been warned about the infamous 'pinch bolt' which is a bitch to remove due to being a steel bolt going through an alloy hub and the galvanic corrosion which results, but nothing could have prepared me for what an absolute utter bitch it would turn out to be.

High quality French bolts refusing to come off everywhere...

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Eventually, after almost a full day hammering on them with everything I could think of, I got the pinch bolts out and freed the old shocks from the hubs.

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I assembled the new ones in the hallway...and the following day put it back together, which mercifully went much smoother, mainly because I'd had the foresight to buy new top mounts, drop links, nuts, bolts, arch retaining clips etc.

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The CV boot turned out not to be split, just a broken clip so I kept the original which still seemed to be in good order, re-greased it and put a new clip on

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The hubs went back on pretty easily and I got everything buttoned up in about 1/4 the time it took to get it apart

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I then decided to replace the rears with matching spec - again Renault Cup items. Mercifully this was FAR easier and the whole job was done in under an hour

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The cup spec sits slightly lower and is slightly firmer so you do sacrifice some ride quality but - what a difference. Replacing all of the top mounts, bushes, spring cups etc eliminated all of the knocks and rattles from the front end and it feels really solid now like a new car, and the new suspension and tyres mean it now sticks like shit to a blanket even in the rain, and changes direction like a house fly.

This wasn't a cheap job, including the tyres I was well over a grand into it for parts alone, but it should somewhat future proof it and ensure it can operate at full capability, which is useful cos my driving aint up to much and needs all the flattering it can get

Next up as a budget DIY wheel refurb which got a bit...err...intersting

[Mr Furious]

The other thing letting it down which I'd decided I was OK with, and then later decided I was not OK with was the wheels, they were pretty tatty and the guy I bought it from noted they needed a refurb in his ad. I don't think I have any pics showing the true state of the,, but they were a mess.

So I thought I can fix this on the cheap with a rattle can full of 5 wheel silver, some wet and dry and a bit of elbow grease.

So I removed all 4 wheels and got to work, there weren't many pics of the actual process but i'm sure you know the drill.

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They were a long way from perfect, but not a bad effort for me, who has a long history of spectacularly failing wherever paint is involved. I was so pleased with myself I decided to paint the callipers for good measure.

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This is where it got interesting. I like to think I'm a fairly sensible guy, but sometimes I'm a total moron. My axle stands, which I have about 6 of, were in an inaccessible place and I thought I could get away with a combination of the spare wheel, my trolley jack and the factory scissor jack....to get all 4 wheels off the floor. It was cowboy in the extreme. But I wasn't actually going underneath it so it was fine....until it wasn't

I literally barely touched the front calliper to sand it back and the house of cards came tumbling down...

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I guess now I an have a go at some actual bodywork?

So off down to halfords, some plasti filler, sanding blocks, primer, they didn't stock this particular colour, but I got it made up with their 24 hour custom mix service (and I have to say the match is absolutely awesome)

Side Skirt removed for easy access...

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If you knew you were looking for it you'd spot it, but for me....it was an excellent job if I do say so myself

Anyway, important lesson learned - alls well that ends well, I think the wheels and callipers came out pretty superbly

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