Clio Trophy

[Lione1 Richie]

Hello all,

I find myself in the position of needing to downsize from my current car to free up a little bit of money (house purchase ) so being the good husband will be selling my current car.

I have always been a fan of the 182 and I got to thinking that putting a Trophy in the new garage would be a good long term prospect as well as hoot at weekends.

I'm looking for information on the the trophy as a weekend and track toy and owners opinions about the car and living with it (any big services, high running costs etc)? I only drive at weekends and would probably only put about 3-4K miles a year on it, would such low mileage prove problematic?

I've not even driven one yet (indeed haven't driven a front wheeler in anger since my VTR years back), I know its a highly thought off car but what makes it so? Is there a standard check list i should go through when viewing (I have heard about the sachs damper rebuild issue).

Any and all information greatly appreciated

Edited as I can't type properly!

Edited by Lione1 Richie on Tuesday 10th November 13:41

[MrGman]

Hi there, All the answer you could ever need are on this site.

http://cliotrophy.co.uk/forum/

The only thing that you will probably come across is the sachs dampers which aren't problematic as such but do need rebuilding from time to time. This isn't all that expensive, most rebuilds come in at about £400
Aside from that they are pretty good, i owned mine for one year and done about 13k miles, in this time i had the shocks done and had to replace a brake pedal sensor and apart from that it was all fun fun fun.

If you enjoyed driving your VTR you'll love the trophy as it's fun for the same reasons just a lot lot more fun though.

[dougk]

I've thought about getting a Trophy but was put off by the hassle of removing the dampers & havving the car off the road whilst they were away 4 a re-furb. If its a weekend car then it wont be an issue but if its your daily runner it might be hassle. I run a 172 & its great but not as enjoyable to hussle along a B-road as my last car, a clio williams. I read in Evo magazine that the Trophy beats the williams tho, indeed they rated it as 2nd best FWD drivers car ever only losing out to the Integra Type-R.

[MrGman]

The thing with the dampers is they aren't sealed as well as a usual road car damper. most seem to have lasted around the 3 year mark so it's not really a hugh hassle, anyone with a slight mechanical side can have them of the car within less than and hour and if booked in a refurb can be as little as a three day return so it's not half as bad as some people like to make out.

[Lione1 Richie]

Thanks for the input fellas,

TBH I had expected the damper issue to be an over inflated problem, car faults normally are (I have an RX8 so know all about 'myths').

Thanks for the Club link MrG, will do some researching