Re: My Trophy - #433

[Sir_Dave]

My Trophy - #433

**Warning essay content**

Having now owned the Trophy for 6 weeks & 3k miles, i thought i had better put a little thread up about it ...

Basically, since October last year, id been rolling around in a Golf Gti Edition 30, which really wasnt to my taste & did shoddy mpg. As such, since March, i'd been commuting 30 miles a day in the saxo - not so quiet, but not so dull either.

Things had to change though, for starters running two cars isnt overly cheap, & secondly, with me moving in with the better half and only having space for one car each, i needed something that would do a daily 85 mile commute & satisfy my urge for fun ...

After a great deal of consideration, i dismissed the idea of a 330 as whilst it was probably the best overall/sensible car i could get for my monies, it wasnt an M3, & certainly wasnt a track car. Which left me with an MCS or, wait for it, yet another clio. MCS mpg would make baby jesus cry, so i ended up deciding that it would be yet another clio #-o

I decided to start looking for a low mileage 182 for about £4k, that i would subsequently fit Recaro's, Turini's, H&R's & the JMS inlet to. My intention was to change cars in July (as it was then May).

Then a chap on Cliosport (Jay on here) put up a for sale ad for his Trophy, & my friend Mike and i decided to go & have a look to see to see what all the fuss was about ... on the way there we both laughed about how we always follow our hearts & buy the 1st car we see.

30 minutes later i owned a Trophy. Oops :roll:

Queue urgent stripping/selling of saxo, selling of golf, slight panic at having 3 cars sat on the drive & moving of house - all in 2 weeks. The cars did make for a nice photo though:

 

[Sir_Dave]

Since owning it, i've done 6k miles (i think the previous owner did that in 12 months lol) and it hasnt skipped a beat, averaging 36mpg as well which is nice on the wallet - a gay would buy a diesel for 25-30k miles a year, but not me Whack the cruise on & its a nice, albeit slightly bumpy commuting tool ...

Handling wise, it is actually amazing, you point, it goes, normally on 3 wheels!! Not as adjustable as the saxo, but a lot more ultimate grip, & definately a marked improvement on both the 182 (cup-packed) & 172 cup that i had before ...

Speed wise, personally i think its slower than the saxo, & the 172 cup, but according to Surrey Rolling road its only got 173bhp (with a map & exhaust lol), so its not surprising, obviously weighs more as well, with all that faux cow on the seats.

Brakes, well, the pads are ok in day to day use, but well, they caught fire last night after a spirited half hour excursionl, so i'll need to get my DS2500's on there sharpish!

Mods wise, it already had:

*Ktec remap
*ITG panel filter
*Ktec Ultra silenced exhaust
*DS Performance pads, Brembo HC Discs, braided lines & Dot 4
*Alpine IDA-X200 iPod headunit

Since then, i've accumulated/fitted:

*Genuine RenaultSport mats
*Parrot CK3100 Handsfree
*Pogo Alert Speed Camera detector
*V6 airbox inc. ITG filter
*De-Cat (not fitted yet)
*15" Pro-Race 1.2's inc. PE2's/T1R's for track
*Ferodo DS2500 pads
*2 x OMP 4 point 3" harnesses
*Phoenix Gold 5” Components
*’Si’ Towing Eye
*Variable Wiper Stalk

Future plans (when i eventually get bored of it) are for:

*Mark Fish -15mm springs
*Koni Adjustable rear dampers
*JMS RS2 inlet when they become available 2nd hand. Im tight.

First impressions. Well, its the best car i've owned. Seriously!!

A couple of pictures, apologies for the other nail:












Cheers for reading

 

[Sir_Dave]

Well, a couple of weeks ago i had the cambet, aux belt, thermostat & coolant changed at JMS and rather worryingly, the cambelt was not timed correctly .... rather odd as it had never had it changed!!

Yup, incorrect timing, from Renault, when they built it :roll:

Definately pulls harder at the top end now, whereas it felt a little strangled previously ...

 

[Sir_Dave]

Few more updates after Sundays tinkering

A few of the Failsport/JMS/Surrey lot are attending a track day at Snetterton on Monday, so i thought i had better make the necessary changes to the podgy Trophy ...

1. Rear seats/isofix bar came out, & my harnesses from the saxo went in.
2. Turinis came off, 15" pro race 1.2's (with PE2's) went on.
3. DS2500's fitted (again from the saxo), along with a fresh load of Dot 4.

First impressions are that the wheels have not only improved the ride quality, but when combined with the removal of the rear seats, etc, one of the Trophy major gripes, ie its simply 'too balanced' has been partly redressed. However, whilst the back is still slightly more adjustable, re: wayward, this seems to have upset the front a little, leading to a tendency to understeer on the limit - something that Mark Fish mentioned would be an issue on track ...

Re: cornering speed, having taken it to my local 'rounabout testing area', it carries considerably more pace than the saxo, but its natural tendency on the limit is understeer, with the back end still not wishing to play in the way that the saxo did. This imho limits its adjustability on the throttle, which as said previously is something that i'd like to redress if possible. No super lift-off oversteer in this badboy ...

So, i'm going to mess about with tyre pressures (all at 32 psi at the mo), & essentially see how it fairs at Snetterton, my feeling is that i want a little more hardness at the rear, so i'll probably purchase the adjustable koni's in order to make the necessary amendments. I'd also like the ability to adjust the front's, ie soften them off for day to day use, so will be de-pinning the Sachs as well.

Speed wise, with the removal of the rear seats, its obviously added 20bhp but in all seriousness, its louder & as such, placebo wise, feels a bit quicker - still needs inlets/de-cat fitting though ...

Yum:

 

[eljeffo64]

Interesting write up. Mine has virtually the same "mods" as yours althogh I use R888's on my 15" speedlines and I have STM's and use different pads - I'd suggest a bit of neg camber on the front will help enormously with the steering on track ( I used eibach bolts) - very cheap but effective!