Lightness Revisited - A 172 Cup Adventure.

[photo_ed]

A Fine Sunday.

February 2026.

It's rained a lot recently, even more than usual it seems. So, when a few hours this weekend were promised fine, I made the most of it with the Cup. I was able to get a couple of hours in under the bonnet on Saturday, popping in the new headlight bulb and getting busy with some limes on some engine components. Sceptics can scoff all they like at my admittedly somewhat odd activities, but sometimes the old tricks are the best in this game they call 'detailing' these days...

Anyway, the engine bay is coming along well enough for now, it'll never be concours like our old Mini, but that's not the point with this one. As many of you will know, I love a good period magazine, so once the rain arrived on Saturday, I had a trip into the loft to find the 'Autocar' mag from 2002 which had set me on the course of my Clio obsession. It was fun reading the 172 Cup test again all these years later, where the Cup more or less wipes the floor with Mini Cooper S of the period, satisfying.




Sunday Service - The Cup finally gets a proper wash.

Sunday dawned clear so I was out early doors with my double buckets, it was a fairly full on day of fettling. There were a few bits of paintwork which needed a little bit of correcting, new plates and lamp to fit, and the rest of it a nice bit of layering up with various products. What never fails to amaze me with these Clio's of this era is the quality of the factory paint... if it's been looked after, it comes up like a mirror with a bit of effort. It's nothing short of amazing for 24 year old paint to be fair.



After a few hours I'm happy enough with progress. I've still got stuff to do, like get it up in the air and get all the wheels off and give the arches a good deep clean, but it'll do for now.

In hillclimb prep news, my race licence arrived during the week and I've signed up for the 1st practice session of the year at Harewood, crossing fingers I'll get a place... Before then, I have to work out a clever solution for fitting the timing strut to the front of the Cup without drilling holes in the bumper (I've some ideas, I just need to see my mate Alan and see if he's got time to modify a towing eye for me), I also need to bite the bullet and order my helmet, race suit and some silly boots & gloves. I had hoped cutting out the second breakfasts might bring me down a suit size and help the power to weight ratio, but I'll be honest I couldn't resist a mid morning bacon bagel at my favourite local cafe on Saturday morning.

So, that part of the prep is not going too well so far.

 

[Big Dave]

Ok, so youve got me curious.
Whats with the limes, and engine bay detailing.??

 

[photo_ed]

Ok, so youve got me curious.
Whats with the limes, and engine bay detailing.??

I use them (or lemons) very carefully to remove oxidisation from the aluminium, such as the plenum. Then finished with a stainless steel toothbrush and wiped over with ACF50, it gives a finish I like, clean but not over-restored.

 

[SharkyUK]

Ok, so youve got me curious.
Whats with the limes, and engine bay detailing.??

Second-breakfast left-overs, am I right?

 

[photo_ed]

A little bit more progress.

February 2026.

Another week ticks by on the countdown to my 1st day on the hill, I finally made the final decision on helmet, suit, boots & gloves the other night, so a big box from Demon Tweaks will be on the way soon. Race numbers and some sticker sets have been sourced too. A trip to visit my mate Alan to chat through my ideas about the timing strut is already bearing fruit, he 'just happened' to have a Clio Mk2 towing eye spare in a drawer and some 1.5mm aluminium sheet to chop up to the right size for the strut, so we should have that made by the end of next week hopefully.

I was hoping to get the car out for a bit of a run today, but ran out of time and ended up messing about in the boot instead...



It's all very original in there, right down to the two tins of tire foam still stuck in the wheel well!



Once I was happy with the boot area, I moved back onto the engine bay, it's still not quite finished as I need to repaint and clean a few more bits, but it's more presentable now. I also need to pop some yellow tape on the battery earth lead for the hillclimb scrutineering.

Hoping for a fine day tomorrow to get the car out for a bit of a drive now, I need to get more of a feel for it before we throw it at the tight, twisty confines of Harewood!

 

[photo_ed]

Nearly there...

March 2026.

It's not long now until our first practice session at Harewood, so, despite a few days away in the Lakes some progress has been made on a couple of things. Whilst we were away, I'd left my mate Alan in charge of the first stage of my timing strut idea, and today I collected the results which with his welding and grinding expertise, were just what I was after. I subsequently spent a happy hour or so chopping out some rectangles of aluminium and fettling them up to the correct strut regulation size, I've re-read through the requirements a few times and can't find anywhere that says that my idea is not allowed. It will probably be at the scrutineers discretion I guess, so I'm crossing my fingers I don't get into bother before I've even started.


Putting down the hammers and chisels for a morning of light engineering instead...

My next job is to do the final measurements on the car, and apply some matt black paint to my little creation, I'm hoping for a dry day at the weekend to help with that, however I've also got to tie in collecting another original 182 exhaust I've been lucky enough to stumble across too... Never a dull moment in the world of Renaultsport Clio's...

Talking of brightening up some dull moments, I managed to dig out some old literature the other week, as a few of you well know, I'm a complete sucker for an old brochure or magazine, so I was delighted to locate a 172 Cup item for the history file without having to fork out the slightly wild going rate now for these on eBay.


Oh no... He's been up in the loft again.

With the practice session now fast approaching and having also signed up for the first competitive event of the season at Harewood too, I do feel that I'm missing out on a bit of seat time in the car now. I managed to get it out to Bowland on some of my favourite roads a couple of weekends ago for a little trip for morning coffee, but it was a pretty reserved affair not wishing to alarm the co-driver. Thus, I've yet to really drive the car with any kind of serious commitment, with the lack of ABS and any electronic safety net, I've not really had the opportunity to find out braking limits and grip levels. All will become clear in due course, I just need to remember to take a sensible approach to the learning curve!


Sunday Coffee Cup Run.