One of our favored cars is the Nology Clio V6
 |
||||||||||
|
||||||||||
|
|
 |
 |
|
 |
|
|
|
2001 RENAULT CLIO SPORT 3.0L V6
The Sportiest of Compacts
There is an old saying “ you always want what you can’t have”. How true this is. When asking automotive enthusiasts, which car they are lusting for, one car is always in the very top portion of the list, if not the #1. And the car is not available in the US. It is a car that falls in the classification known as Sport Compacts and as far as we are concerned, it is “The Sportiest of Compacts”. The Renault Clio V6.
It is a testosterone loaded little road rocket with go-kart like handling. The car is hand assembled in Sweden by none other than TWR (Tom Walkinshaw Racing). There are less than 1600 of these hand-built wet-dream-on-wheels in the world and the only reason the car even exists is because Renault needed to homologate it to race it. You heard correctly – race it. The Clio V6 is essentially a slightly de-tuned version of the same car raced in the Clio Cup. And what is the Clio Cup you ask, only one of the most exiting racing series in Europe.
Consider the Clio V6 statistics. The car is not much bigger than a Civic hatchback, but it has a 250 horsepower (230 hp DIN) and a 3.0-liter V6 engine where normally the rear seat and luggage space would be. What a great concept. If the engine bay is too small, put the engine in the rear seat. Who needs passengers anyway? The race-bread suspension is tight and the exterior
styling evokes responses from onlookers we cannot print here.
So when Nology chose the Clio V6 as their project vehicle, they were faced with a dilemma. How do you improve a perfect car? And the answer is: by using the best aftermarket parts from the best manufacturers in the world.
Nology started by putting on the actual wheels that are used on the Clio Cup cars. 17 “ O.Z.s’, 7×17 in the front and 8.5×17 in the rear. Of course the tires had to be the new Yokohama AVS ES100. In the front they are 215/45’s and in the rear they are 245/40’s. These two modifications alone improved the handling tremendously. Next was the suspension, which was much more difficult than expected. The stock handling is already impeccable and the Yokohama tires and O.Z. wheels made further improvement almost impossible. It took the knowledge of the engineers over at Eibach with their treasure chest of motorsport parts, to take the handling to a level that even surpasses racecar roadability. Several sets of special Eibach springs were needed to finally get it right. The result? We like it, we really like it.
What was done to upgrade the brake system? Absolutely nothing! The car already has 13 “ ventilated monster discs on the front with hefty four-piston calipers that would smash your face against the windshield if it weren’t for the four-point racing harness from Momo. Also from Momo are the racing seats, the steering wheel, pedals, e-brake handle, and anti-skid boards.
And just in case we get bored with the tremendous performance and handling, they installed as much audio / video equipment as possible. Starting with an Alpine in-dash monitor with DVD player, the audio signals travel through Scosche wiring to a Massive Audio equalizer and 6-channel amplifier, finally reaching 3 sets of Momo components and a matching Momo subwoofer built by Polk Audio. And believe me, if the screaming of the engine, or the G’s when accelerating, or the light-headiness when cornering don’t entertain you, the stereo will. As a matter of fact, you can FEEL it.
Next came the engine. How much power can the car handle? What mod’s would not hurt reliability and drivability? The choice was easy: A two-stage 100 hp kit from Nitrous Express. The engine can handle it. It is built to the highest standards. The engine block with all it’s webbing looks like an IRL engine and going the nitrous round would not hurt drivability, because the engine essentially stays stock. However, in order to assure ignition when that hundred-shot of nitrous hits the combustion chambers, an improvement to the ignition system was needed. There is nothing worse than a weak ignition and loads of nitrous. The installation of Nology PowerCore coil amplifiers and Silver spark plugs, as well as a Nology PowerBand electronic engine management controller, which was only used to control the ignition timing did the trick. Without the PowerBand controller, detonation-caused meltdown would be assured. It looks like the laughing gas really works.
Everyone who drove the car has a big smile on their face and no wonder, now, when you push that little button and activate the Nitrous Express Shark SX2 Nozzle, hold on, because now the car has 350 horsepower. Did anybody say slingshot? But pleeeeease make sure you keep your hand on the billet shift knob of the B&M short shifter while accelerating through the six-speed tranny so you don’t miss a shift, or the engine will bounce off the rev limiter while you laugh yourself silly.
The Nology ignition upgrades also improved off-nitrous performance, as did the sport exhaust from Renault, which also added to the audible pleasure even before the engine reaches it’s 7100 rpm redline. Not to mention the exhaust tips, which are so handsome, in a strictly mechanical design kind-of-way, of course.
Except for some cool graphics from Digital Imagery , the exterior was unchanged. Why mess with perfection.
The Nology Clio V6 went to the racetrack, skid pad and the dyno. Here is what happened: 0-60 under 5 seconds and the car ripped through the 1/4 mile in the 11-second range at 120 to 130 mph. Estimated top speed is 160 mph. On the skid pad it did above 1 g and in the slalom, even a Porsche GT 2 should have a hard time keeping up. Engine power is something like 250 hp stock, 300 hp 1st stage squeeze and 350 hp 2nd stage squeeze.
And there you have it. The Sportiest of Compacts, not coming to America soon. Keep wishing though.
RENAULT CLIO V-6 SPECIFICATIONS
ENGINE
Displacement: 2946 cc
Bore x Stroke: 87.0 x 82.6 mm
Cylinders: 6
Valves: 24
Injection: Bosch ME 7.4 sequential injection
Compression Ratio: 11.4:1
Maximum power (Stock): 250 bhp (230 DIN) at 6000 rpm
Maximum torque (Stock): 221 lbs/ft (30.6 mkg DIN) at 3750 rpm
Maximum power (Modified)
Nitrous Oxide – Stage 1: 300 bhp
Nitrous Oxide – Stage 2: 350 bhp
Vehicle Weight: 1335 kgs
Number of Forward Gears: 6
BRAKING SYSTEM
Servo-assisted, diagonally split double circuit system
ABS with EBD (electronic brake distribution)
Ventilated disks
Front: 330mm with 4-piston calipers
Rear: 300mm with 2-piston calipers
STEERING
Power assisted rack and pinion.
2.75 turns lock to lock
PERFORMANCE (Stock)
0-62 mph: 6.4 seconds
Top Speed: 147 mph
PERFORMANCE (Modified)
0-62: 4.9 seconds
1/4 mile: 11.4 sec. at 122 mph
Top speed: 160 mph (Estimated)
Skid pad: 1.1 g’s
MODIFICATIONS
ENGINE UPGRADES
Ignition Upgrade – NOLOGY
SX2 Dual Stage Nitrous Oxide Kit– NITROUS EXPRESS
SUSPENSION
EIBACH – Pro-Kit Lowering Springs
WHEELS
O.Z. WHEELS -SUPERTURISMO
FRONT 17×7 / REAR 17×8.5
TIRES
YOKOHAMA – AVS ES100
FRONT 215/45ZR17 / REAR 245/40ZR17
EXTERIOR UPGRADES
MOMO – Carbon-fiber Exhaust Tips
DIGITAL IMAGERY – Vinyl Graphics
INTERIOR UPGRADES
MOMO – STREET RACER GT Adjustable Racing Seats, Street-legal Harnesses, TREK Steering Wheel, SUPERTURISMO Racing Pedals, PIT STOP E-brake Handle, Anti-skid Racing Plates, B&M – Billet Short Shifter
AUDIO UPGRADES
3T MOTORSPORTS – Audio System Builder / Installer
POLK AUDIO – 3 pairs of MOMO MM6 6.5” Components and
MOMO MM10 10” Subwoofer
ALPINE – CVA-1003 6.5” Motorized Monitor, DVA-5205 In-dash DVD Player
MASSIVE AUDIO – RS 650 6-Channel Amplifier, EQ-2X Equalizer
SCOSCHE – Audio Wiring Products