I have just had an interesting weekend taking my new Ring toy over to Germany for 250miles of testing. This is a Clio 172 with cage, buckets, harnesses, fire system & LAD motorsport suspension. Last year I was playing with my Boxster & vRS Fabia.

On track

Clio is definitely faster but you have to rev the nuts off it. No torque. Action is up around 6000 to 7250rpm. The Furby is actually faster at one place which involves climbing a hill for 2 miles. Torque torque torque!

Gear change. The Furby is miles ahead of the Clio. Clio box feels like there is a rubber band in the way.

Braking on the Clio is slightly more powerful at the limit than the standard Furby and with much more feel. Disks seem to wear much better than on Furby with less grooving.

Handling. The Clio gives much less understeer but is very lively at the back. OK if you keep it firmly under power but if you have to back off to avoid somebody mid corner you need to be ready to correct very quickly. The lack of understeer makes it possible to push harder but you have to concentrate more. The tyres wear evenly with no side wall scrubbing.

The Furby was always a car with big understeer. Self limiting since the faster you went into a corner the more it scrubbed off your speed. Very hard to unstick the back if you kept it on power. The big downside with the Furby was the way it destroyed the tyre sidewalls. Very safe though.

On road

1) the Furby motor is so much faster in real world situations. Torque, torque, torque.

2) the Furby suspension actually smooths out some bumps. The Clio had my fillings coming out over bumpy roads.

3) the fuel consumption on the Clio is awful. I squeezed 310 miles from a tank by cruising at 75mph. On track it gives 12mpg. The Furby goes 460 miles per tank on the motorway & 22mpg on track.

4) the insurance for the Clio is f*****g expensive. As soon as I mentioned the mods they quoted silly prices.

On the track the Clio is definitely the better car but on the road give me the Furby anytime.

Good review. SOOOOO looking forward to the trip in August now!

Nice review!

Good review Steve,

Always good to hear informed comment from someone who really knows what they are talking about!

Hi, Im an ex clio owner 172 and trophy who now has a fabia vrs and i cant agree more with you.

Just my 2 pennies worth.

Matt:)

I recently traded my Clio 172 in for a fabia vrs and I agree that the everyday driving advantage of the vrs is so much better. To get the same performance on a normal road out of the clio you really had to rev it and it's just not practical to do that all of the time. I was often caught out too low down the rev counter in the clio, whereas with the vrs that is where you need to be. Also, the clio had things going wrong with it all of the time and was expensive to repair. Touch wood this wont happen with the vrs. Having said that, I have just scraped the side of my vrs against my neighbours bumper.

the clio 172 is a fair bit quicker than a vRS, even my remapped one cant get near a cup, but i would take the vRS for it's ride comfort, mpg, 5 doors, insurance etc, but if I was after something which handled like a dream and went very quickly it would be the cup.

A nice balanced review imho.

It annoys me when people "slag off" the Clio, I think its a super little car. But for an everyday motoring package, the Fabia vRS really is hard to beat.

the clio 172 is a fair bit quicker than a vRS, even my remapped one cant get near a cup,

Not strictly true. I had no problems keeping with a heavily modified Clio around Donnington [2 up !]:

This car

This was in a straight line only mind .

I guess it depends on the remap too. The RICA custom i had on mine was quicker than my mates REVO'd Fabia, and my other mates Custom Coded Golf 4.

0-60/70 in my experience a remapped (1-click) vrs is as quick as a 172 cup - actually the vrs was a little quicker in the run I did - though obviously launching is key in a drag.

a lot of people say on cliosport that the renault sport 2.0 engine is hit and miss, certain ones appear to have up to 10 more bhp than others? hence the manifold mod available for the 2.0 engine to release the true bhp available.

also Andy vRS, i don't doubt your claims and certainly dont want to start an arguement however the renault sport on that web site is Yozzasport's on ClioSport. IIRC it is capable of 0-60 in 5.0 and a 1/4 mile under 14. I have some vids of it at Santa Pod going against WRX's and winning and my car wouldnt even get near my brothers 172 cup with no back seats and an induction kit let alone that on the straights.

See here for details:

http://www.cliosport.net/forum/showpost.php?p=1175767&postcount=10

also Andy vRS, I don't doubt your claims and certainly don't want to start an arguement .

Thanks !

That Clio was 0.9 seconds quicker over 1/4 mile, but once rolling the damn thing went no where, to the extent that down the back straight he ran out of road trying to shake me and didn't make the chicane. I have no doubt it is a great car, but rolling there was no performance difference.

There were plenty of people watching the event too.

And this chap here was in the car at the time. He runs the Volvo Performance Club UK. You are welcome to email him about it.

So why are you telling me that you doubt my claims ??

So why are you telling me that you doubt my claims ??

Errrmmm..

i don't doubt your claims and certainly dont want to start an arguement

Where you just in a remapped vRS :confused:, because looking at the spec I am starting to doubt your claims.

bearing in mind that weighs less than a ton with 225 bhp, that makes atleast 225 bhp/ton which is more than an Exige. And an Audi S6 QUATTRO which only has 218 bhp per ton and that has a 5.2 Ltr V10 from a Gallardo (detuned admittadly) but still has 416 bhp.

-----------------------------

y0z2a

YozzaSport Vs. 1.2 Clio Cup

Engine – 225bhp (7150 rpm), 175 ft/lbs (5600rpm) - Dyno Cell @ flywheel

YozzaSport Headwork

Balanced combustion chambers

Compression Ratio (11.7:1)

Matched inlet / throttle body manifold

Jenvey Individual Throttle bodies (matched to inlet)

Pico Injectors

PiperCross/Jenvey Throttle Body Filter / Airbox

Wossner Forged High Compression Pistons (with ceramic coated skirts)

Schrick Camshafts Fully balanced bottom end (Crank, flywheel, rods, pistons)

GDI Lightened Flywheel

Alcon Paddle Clutch Kit

YozzaSport modified Renault clio 182 4-2-1 manifold

Omex 600 Standalone Engine Management system with Custom Loom

YozzaSport Track exhaust

Suspension

Full Bilstein Coilovers Front and Rear (We have developed an

improved version of this unit now, with fully damping and camber

adjustability.)

Powerflex polybushed suspension arms and anti-roll bars

Corned weighted

1.5 degree Camber Rear

Upto 3 degree Camber Front

Other Modifications

Full Stripped interior

Cobra Evolution Technology seats

YozzaSport Custom Subframes (being re-developed now)

TRS 5 Point Harnesses

Performance Friction 97 Pads

Goodridge Brake lines

Brembo HC 280mm Discs

Speedline Corsa 2118 Wheels

205 50 15 Michelin Pilot Sport Cup Tyres

YozzaSport Welded harness / Strut beam

What are you talking about ? The car was in front of me spitting flames. I was sat right behind him - i played the same trick on the Cohen Mini Cooper S.

The car was just remapped.

So your remapped vRS with 140 approx bhp/ton can keep up with something which has more bhp/ton than an S6 which has a 5.4 Ltr V10 from a Gallardo and 416 bhp (218bhp/ton) which is less than Yozza's ClioSport you are referring to, which has atleast 225 bhp/ton.

It also has a fully sorted suspension setup which as standard is argueably the finest anywhere, let alone one which has been fully track prepped.

Most M3's/Subaru Impreza STi's would struggle against that let alone a "remapped" vRS which stuggles against a 172 cup (IMO a standard cup is still quicker than a remapped vRS).

What are you talking about ? The car was in front of me spitting flames. I was sat right behind him. This was a public GP day you know. There were people there, it wasn't my own private dream or anything ?

I think you should PM me any further thoughts, as you clearly are aiming all your comments at me !

Driver.

Oh and by that I mean, the driver can make one hell of a difference. Put Shoemaker in a 1.2 6v Polo and he'll probably lap faster than you in your modded Fabia.

Or put me in my SDI Octy and I'll whoop a load of Scoobs and M3s.

Wierd innit?

Play nice or i'll come around and idle derv fumes in your general direction :P

Oh and by that I mean, the driver can make one hell of a difference. Put Shoemaker in a 1.2 6v Polo and he'll probably lap faster than you in your modded Fabia.

But would he magically out-accellerate a faster car on a straight? just because it's him who's driving?

They did this on Vroom Vroom, the racing driver in a Polo versus the Granny in a coupe.

Granny won as I remember, even though the racing guy drove the door's off the Polo, still couldn't match the power when granny booted it.

Hewesy

Yozza races in the Clio Cup Championships so I assume he'd be pretty well furnished in the art of driving.

Andy, apologies for having a go, no offence intended. I was just reeling off facts/figures etc as I doubt any modded Fabia vRS, even Jason's with his LPG would stand a chance against that car because of the power/weight & the guy driving it. Especially on the straights & the cornering on that car which is nothing short of spectacular in comparison to a standard road car such as the Fabia; which we all know isn't spectacular it seems like you must be one hell of a driver

The standard Fabia's lap time on the Fifth Gear test track was 57.03s, the Renault Clio 182 54.56. Yozza's Clio weighs 90 kg less (20kg of which is unsprung weight) and has 43 bhp more and 35 lb/ft more torque with track setup & professional driver.

Cooling down lap? Warm-up lap?