42. Gear shifter improvements and a quick trip to Croft

Bit of work on the car before our next race at Anglesey.

First thing to sort was the gear shifter. Wanted to improve both the gear change and the constant rattle at idle.
After a good search on the internet I decided to start with a Coolerworx shifter which I thought would be able to match a similar geometry to the standard clio shiter.

After lots of measuring I CADed up the first attempt. Tried to make it a similar size to the standard base so it should fit a standard Clio.

This is another great thing about the vinyl cutter. Create a drawing of all the different pieces. Cut them out and then you have perfect templates to stick on the sheet metal and then a combo of the bandsaw and angle grinder to cut them out. Pretty much the poor man's CNC laser cutter!

With the parts cut out I tacked them together and checked it was still looking like it would work. So far so good!

Fully welded the base ready for paint.

And this is the finished item.

Had to modifying the centre control panel as the fire extinguisher clashed with the shifter. So took the opportunity to add the steering EPAS adjustment knob to the panel too.

One of the front shocks started to have a bit of play in them so were sent to cooksport to be serviced. Should have done this over the winter really.

To make sure we weren't left needing a wheel bearing changed at the track again we sorted a spare pair of Laguna uprights to carry with us for Trackdays and races (Luckily we haven't needed to use them yet, but no doubt the day we don't take them a wheel bearing will go).

Although the gearshifter could easily be swapped back to the pms one we wanted to test it before the race at anglesey so we booked a trackday at our local circuit Croft for a bit of testing.

So regardless of looking good the proof was in the pudding, it was amazing! So much more confidence you were going to slot it perfectly into gear especially 5th to 4th and as an added bonus there wasn't a hint of rattling. So really pleased with putting the effort it to making it. 

So I really don't understand why not one has made a Clio mk2 self centring shifter before to be honest. Is it just down to the cost? Not sure. But I am keen to give it ago on a standard Clio and see if it really can be a direct swap. It certainly will be close to fitting. No idea if there would be any interest in making a batch of them either. But for us its night and day better than the alternative.

A bit of a wash after Croft and it was all ready for Anglesey the following week.