Renault Clio N3

Rajareits · **Postat:** 2009-11-22, 20:52

I was boring the other day, so I thought I could post our competition car here.

We compete in Estonian rally championship at the moment. I'm a co-driver and my friend and relative is the driver. We're currently driving a 2001 Renault Clio. It's a pretty decent car, handles pretty good. It has an original Sport engine (about 120 kW), but since it doesn't weigh much, it's quite fast. Not the fastest out there, but not too slow either.

Previously we drove VW Golf II's. The first one we built ourselves, but since it lacked power, we changed it for another one. It was cheaper to change, than to buy a new gearbox and engine. The second Golf was very fast, but unfortunately this ruined the car. The engine was so powerful, that we couldn't finish any rallies - the axles broke after every two stages.. After that came the Clio.

At the moment we have a pause. There ain't no rallies currently driven, so we're doing a bit work with the car. We're going to paint it blue, but before that we have to fix it (again). We had a roll in the middle of the season ( YouTube - Võru Rallisprint 2009 KURVITS CRASH ) and had to quickly mend it, because a big rally came the next weekend. So it has dents all over it.
The last rally we hit a tree too, so there's work with that too.

fanimej · **Postat:** 2009-11-22, 23:50

Cool car! When you have low weight you really dont need much power :)

Rajareits · **Postat:** 2009-11-23, 00:01

Yeah.
The advantages of a light car specially come out when cornering. It just breaks so well and handles too.
But those fast stages are just a pain in the ass. All those Type-R's just disappear and the top speed around 130-140 kph doesn't help either.. :D

Zwamp · **Postat:** 2009-11-23, 01:03

What are the rules about modifying the car? And how much are you allowed to do with it?

Rajareits · **Postat:** 2009-11-23, 10:32

The N-Group in other words mean Production Cars. We're not allowed to change much. We can take out the interior (besides the dash, heating system and etc), change the brakes and suspension. We can replace the inside of the gearbox (the number of gears must stay the same) and so on. We can change the exhaust as well. But it's still very very limited.. All the information about the car is written into the homologation book, and that book can be changed only by FIA authorized dealers (I don't know the right word). We can't (and have had a lot of problems because of that). And it sucks. The National Group (E-Group) was much better for that - we could do almost anything.

If you would like to read more, then here are the FIA regulations - http://argent.fia.com/web/fia-public.nsf/93F20445C66864D8C1257656004962D3/$FILE/254_09-10.pdf

If you have any questions to ask, feel free to ask them.

fpcarsound · **Postat:** 2009-12-21, 11:45

nice:D

Rajareits · **Postat:** 2010-03-08, 01:37

More pics, if anyone cares.. :D

Kärmas & Rada Värvigrupp OÜ | Ralliuudised
Sorry for the Estonian.