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.

 

[hoolio]

Following this with interest.

 

[photo_ed]

A Small Matter of Timing...

March 2026.

I checked on the Harewood draft entry lists last night and was both relieved, and I'll admit... Slightly daunted to see my name right there for the 1st competitive event of the season. Oh God, this is all getting a bit real now, with 26 entries in my class 1B.



Luckily, I'll have had next weeks practice day under my belt first, which I hope means I'll have at least some vague idea of what I'm doing and I was delighted to have a message from the guys at Harewood confirming the usual food van would be present at the practice, so I don't need to go to the trouble of packing my second breakfast in the van.

In other news. The sun shone long enough yesterday for me to complete and get some paint on my towing eye/timing strut creation, just hope it's not going to cause a problem in the paddock at the scrutineering. My argument is going to be I've seen at least 3 Elise's and one old Porsche 911 running similar set-ups...

 

[Big Dave]

Just approach it with the mindset of fun.
After all anything we do is "supposed" to be fun...
Yes competitive fun, but fun none the less...

Looks like the timing strutt is a work of art, but I wouldn't expect anything less from you Ed....
So long as it makes contact with the beam itl be ok... IE the correct height....

Looks like a pretty big class your in....

 

[photo_ed]

Just approach it with the mindset of fun.
After all anything we do is "supposed" to be fun...
Yes competitive fun, but fun none the less...

Looks like the timing strutt is a work of art, but I wouldn't expect anything less from you Ed....
So long as it makes contact with the beam itl be ok... IE the correct height....

Looks like a pretty big class your in....

Cheers for the kind words of encouragement Dave, very much appreciated.

Yes, my class 1B, continues onto the next sheet with a total of 26 entrants, with plenty of fellow Renaultsport's in the mix. I think my mate Tony is going to be gunning for class honours this year, there's a 205 GTi and Civic Type R which do well too, so I expect it to be a three horse race between them at the top end of the leaderboard. I'll be happy to to make it up the hill, and as you say, have a bit of fun!

 

[photo_ed]

Service, Wash & Tow (stickers)...

March 2026.

I'm on my way to see my mate Alan at the garage again, I've got the Cup booked in for a quick oil change before the big day on Sunday. Matthew had recently done a service on the car, but I'm keen to get some of the Millers Motorsport Oil I favour dropped in, it's also an excuse to get more wheel time in on a rare sunny day. The first part of the journey is a pretty dreary trudge through a string of fairly depressing Northern towns. There's a bit of sparkle as we cross over the border from Lancs to Yorks, with a tasty little ribbon of NSL B-road, full of ups, downs and some really quite technical corners, some not unlike those on the hillclimb.

I'm trundling up the ascent to the NSL section, it's a 30 here and it's all parked cars and a little rural primary school. Literally welded to my rear bumper is some description of new Peugeot SUV with a besuited couple inside who obviously have places to be. Sadly for them, there's some old fart in an old Renault in their way irritatingly sticking to the speed limit. By the time we reach the round white sign with the black diagonal, they've been close enough in my mirror that I've decided they must be something like estate agents late for some wanky sales pitch, well, whatever hurry they're in, this pair of pricks are in for a rude awakening... As I've noted above this bit of road is technical and not for the feint of heart, I've driven it for the last 30 odd years, in every condition imaginable and still I'm learning. It demands respect. Despite the clear skies above it's still early enough for the tarmac to be a fair degree damp, I give the Cup a prod in 3rd gear and off we go. The road dips then opens into a really tricky cresting right hander, get this wrong and you're tumbling into an unforgiving moorland ditch, as I extend 3rd into 4th down the following straight, I have enough time to clock a Peugeot some way behind in the mirror, in the throes of a lumbering understeering mid corner slew. It's the last I see of them.

The rest of my run into Yorkshire has my senses on full alert, the lightweight Cup is a lively thing, up on it's tiptoes under braking, I really need to get used to the brake balance as it all feels quite different to the Trophy. It feels almost more like a 205 GTi in the way it's all on the cusp of being quite mobile - especially in the damp, it takes a fair bit of driving that's for sure. Circumspection needed, even at 7/10's. Soon, we have to temper the cobweb blowing and return to a trundle.



At the garage, Alan cracks on with the oil change while I potter about underneath the car giving everything a good coat of looking at, and all the vulnerable metal parts a good coating of trusty ACF50, I swear by this stuff now for underbody rust stopping duties. I'm pleasantly surprised by the undercarriage of the Cup, there's a couple of ARB bushes which will need replacing when I put on the Sachs but it's all in pretty good shape for now, especially when I consider the car is 24 years old. Millers nectar duly added, it's soon time to make my return trip home. The road is dry now, so the border ascent gives another opportunity to have a little bit of a play, the Cup's feeling more planted and predictable now, and I can't help but grin as I get a lovely front turn in, rear squat exit balance just right on a delicious uphill left which is startlingly reminiscent of 'Farmhouse Bend' at Harewood..



I've set the whole day aside for car stuff, so the afternoon is spent giving the car another clean to get rid of the coating of Saharan sand it collected during last weeks rain. I also test fit the timing strut and pop on the 'Tow' stickers.



The pre-hillclimb check list is getting smaller.