New Member - Ireland

Afternoon All

A very new member to this forum, looking for some help, advice and to purchase my first Clio 197 / 200.

Always been a fan of Renaultsport's offerings however I have never owned a French car (Aside from buying a Fiat 131 Abarth in France once and driving it back to Ireland to join the mainly Italian family car collection)

I am hoping to buy my first Clio in the coming weeks in the UK to use as both a fast road / track focused car for weekends, trips to differenct race tracks etc.

Ideally I would love a F1 Edition 197 in Liquid Yellow / Blue with some modifications already done. Absolutely love limited run cars so even as a track car I would love something numbered.

Looking at becoming a paid member so I can view the classified section but havent just figured out how to do that just yet (feel free to point me in the right direction) and looking forward to becoming a part of the Clio community. Loving the forum and build threads so far.
 
Welcome in. Hope you find the right car soon. You will enjoy it as long as you're happy to rev it! Handling is sublime.
 
Welcome along. There’s a good buyers guide on here to help you out. Take your time looking and feel free to ask on here about certain cars before you buy, good cars tend to be good but bad ones end up being very bad and costly.
 
Many thanks for the welcomes and advice everyone

Already the forum seems to be a very vriendly place compared to others I am a part of.

Time to get trolling through the classifieds ...
 
I've spotted my ideal spec F1 edition online for what seems to be ok value but needs some tidying / improvement but may be a good base for what I am looking for.

Its a 2007 liquid yellow F1 edition with 74k on the clock, cup spoiler, lip kit, decals, recaros etc ... exactly what I am looking for

The main concern however is that it has the dreaded 3rd gear crunch. Initially this isnt a huge concern as my family are in the motor trade and I can think of a few places that may be able to rebuild the box in Ireland. With these issues, is it generally a syncro rebuild that is needed or is a replacement box the best course of action ?
 
Many thanks mate.

Any rough estimate of costs or any specialists you would reccomend anywhere in Ireland ? Obviously it will differ slightly from place to place. Not very well versed on anything that isnt Italian :worried:

Where abouts in the country are you?
 
The only place we ever used where I worked was Gardiners Transmissions in Cullybackey. They would be a bit of a trek for you and I’m sure there are others closer. The likes of @turkie172 may be able to advise of someone closer to you.


Thanks Eddie appreciate the help

I really like this car

https://www.pistonheads.com/classif...lio-x85-renaultsport-vvt-f1-team-2007/8835951

Have two others in mind, one blue one yellow, both F1's and both appear to be a little bit cleaner etc but I just keep going back to this one
 
With it missing some of the stickers, non R27 wheels and needing a gearbox repair it wouldn’t be for me. Budget for around £800 for the gearbox refurb along with labour for removal and refitting the box.
 
If its an F1 then the gearbox is a 003 the 024 came out in 2008 with higher 5-6 gears then the 031 with higher again 1-4 then the same 5-6 as the 024 box. I have a very slight problem of very high revs going to 5th and 6th not crunching just the feeling that the box is not ready for the upshift as at the gate of the gear it feels not ready to engage until the revs drop. I was looking for a 024 or 031 gearbox to have it rebuilt as I don't want my car off the road for long as I need it but I have convinced myself its the clutch starting to go off so I'm going to change just it but will do the pedal hydraulic master cylinder first to make sure the right pressure and amount of fluid is being put through for clutch operation. I arrived at this conclusion as the car creeped one day when I had the clutch engaged while in first gear and revved to the cut-out and the feeling is while changing at high revs is that the clutch as not completely disengaged the drive from the box for a smooth change my guess is that this might be the root to all TL4 197 - 200 gearbox problems when people force it at that point. There are a few 003 gearboxes around but I want the economy so less revs per MPH the gearbox is mad for a car with low torque as most people describe it you can go 1st to 2nd then 4th to 6th in town with no problems. I'm heading to Thruxton on Tuesday and most likely driving home on Mon all the way up to Cairnryan so I might try and see what I can find along the route I picked up a Clio GT spoiler on Monday past which I've been looking some time for.

I just don't know if I have the balls to do what needs to be done to fit it after it gets repainted. Check out the link to the Italian forum
https://cliorsitalia.forumfree.it/?t=59336259&st=15
 
I see the car ask on the forum does anyone know the car. The liquid yellow is an expensive paint job and hard to match so make sure it has not been hit would be my advice I would say it is an F1 as no one would pay the money to put the roof logo on an ordinary one. Mine is no oil painting as far a detailing goes but everything works until I find someone I can trust to fix the paintwork.
upload_2018-7-27_16-17-14.png
 
If there's no hard proof of cam belt work then treat it as not done a few members found out the hard way. If the F1 stickers are not on it treat it as a normal 197 price wise but the roof sticker is £1000 on it's own so putting the other stickers back on maybe worth it front and rear just under £90 each, door stickers about £180 each as a rough guide
 

Similar Thread Suggestions

Thread starter Similar threads Forum Replies Date
A New Members 3
I New Members 1
Red Baguette New Members 7
-Eddie- Ireland 100
J New Members 10