Glenn_R

I've been offered a Clio Williams for a very cheap price. Mileage a bit high and it's in need of a tidy but has a good service history.

I owned a 1.8RSI Clio a few years back, thoroughly enjoyed it and had no reliability probs whatsoever. Anyone have any Williams ownership experiences? What to look out for? Are they expensive to fix if things go wrong??

Cheers

SJJ84

the 1.8 16V clio was a lot better than the 1.8RSI and the williams was in a different league altogether. Absolutely fantastic cars, brilliant fun to drive and rare. Has it been modified in anyway? Some have badly unfortunately and have ruined a wonderful car. Not all that good in a crash tho, front end is fibreglass and doesn't like going in the back of another clio, it's been tested!!

CRAIGFIN

Glenn,

I used to own a Series 1 Clio Williams (No 98 out of 400). It was a fantastic car, its like having a street legal go-kart!! They handle well and go like stink and in all the years I had it, it never let me down once. They do have a reputation of being fragile but I cannot concede to that at all. It is the car I had the most fun in for years, and I've owned some nice cars (300BHP Type-R Impreza and currently own a 350Z).

Thumbs up from me!!

Craig.

chris singleton

Didn't own a Williams but did have a 16v and it was great fun as mentioned above.

IMHO they look great (flared arches, bonnet bulge, etc) much better than the new breed of hot hatches which aren't much difference to the base models.

Look out for shoddy electrics (especially the windows and the 3 guages in the centre of the dash), power steering pump, overheating and head gasket.

I'd be tempted to buy one of these myself if I sold the scoob

Cheers

Chris

mynickers

If I could get hold of a ***** Clio I could trust, I wouldn't hesistate.....Chances of getting one in good knick in this day and age, is probably more difficult. Do your homework if I was you, there must be plenty of stuff on the web

micky

iTrader: (2)

the front end is NOT fibreglass. galv steel front end, with bolt on plastic wings . excellent cars , i still have one in my collection , 100% reliable if cared for correctly

mynickers

I am surprised no enterprising wee engineering company has started reconditioning them, I reckon there would be a market for them now, I know three people including myself that would have one...

codek

i had a 16v clio, which unfortunately blew up on me for no good reason at all, so beware! saying that it was a good car. It was serviced religiously, never thrashed when cold etc etc and from what i could tell very good condition, so it was rather a worry! The problem with the clios, and many renaults, is that there are good and bad ones ( depends if it was built on a friday or not! ) , and it's hard to tell... I know many people who claim their renaults are amazingly reliable, hard to believe admittedly!

of course it was a blessing in disguise as i now have a scoob

wall

there was a williams at the last amateur hill climb I took part in ... now my CooperS pushes out over 190hp and I'm not totally hopeless at driving, but the williams clocked a way faster time and was really flying. Now judging by the noise and the 'buckets-and-harnesses' interior I don't think it was exactly standard, but nonetheless an impressive machine especially given that it's what , 10 years old? You had to go up to a very well driven Evo7 to find somehing that went faster up the hill. My MCS, bunch of WRXs and Bugeye STIs, and assorted semi-exotica (badly driven mostly) were all blown away by the little old Williams
So, it certainly has potential, especially tuned which I'm sure would be fun to do on a relatively simple older car, well out of warranty too.

skiddus_markus

A fella I used to work with found a company that will take a basic Clio and make it to Williams spec.Not cheap though,but is possible.

codek

to be honest for the money i wouldnt have thought that was worth it... there's only about 13bhp difference between them, and some small tweaks to the handling ( wider track on the williams ) and thats it!

for the same money i suspect you could do something mad like a turbo or NOS conversion, now that would be nice

Tim-Grove

Williams are quoted as 150bhp in standard form but regularly put out between 5 and 10bhp more when rolling roaded. Seen a Standard Williams 2 put out 158bhp on a cliosport.net RR shootout day where my Clio 172 struggled to put 170bhp out.

I’d say go for the Williams, I use too own a 16v and have been in a Williams and would say the Williams is noticeably faster and handles lots better.

cactus jim

one of the guys in my office has a Clio Williams 2 that he is going to be selling soon, probably will sell for a good price as he will trade it in otherwise, hes an old woman when it comes to driving so it will be in great nick.

if anyone is in the market for one of these, drop me a line and i will put you in touch with him. He is based in Chelmsford.

jb

talizman

iTrader: (1)

I owned a Williams 1 (No 207) between Scoobs and it is one of the most fun cars I've ever owned.

I wish I was in a position to have kept it and garaged it, but alas, I had to sell.

Points to watch.......
Rust bubbles on rear arches
Power steering pump - noisy/heavy steering
Heavy clutch - 8 hours to replace clutch
Timing belt done (50k IIRC)
Service history is a must

One of the problems is the cramped engine bay, which you are going to get when you shoe-horn a 2 litre into a bay the size of a swan vesta box!

My alternator went and to remove it, the bonnet, grille, headlight and radiator had to come out, just to get access to the bloody thing!

As for the "only 13bhp more than 16v", don't forget the torque that the 2 litre lump delivers

R1916v

Williams may only have 13 or so more bhp, but its the extra torque it produces that makes it better.

The 1.8 valver engine (as in the clio or the 19) is a rev monster, comes alive >4k and will happily rev to the redline and its very safe to get the limiter extended to 8k.

The 2.0 engine doesn't like the revs as much but is much better low down.

You can make the 1.8 into the 2.0 by sourcing an old megane coupe 2 litre block and use the parts from that (I forget if it's the head or bottom end you just swap over, having a dumb day). Many places will do the 1.8 to 2.0 litre conversion but its not cheap for what you get, or you can source your own ***** lump but expect to pay about a grand for it from most garages/scrappies as they are wise to why everyone wants them.

If its in good nick bite his arm off, just get the cambelt done

Engine bay is an **** to work on, like to see quik fit only charge 9.99 for an oil and filter change on one of them! The 2 litre block is the same size as the 1.8 so engine bay space is the same.

Neil W

I owned a CLio 16v for a couple of years but sold it as it needed a new clutch and the cost to change it was £800

thecirsch

I too owned a 16v Clio from new, I had it for 6 years and had done 80k miles when I finally sold it.

It's already been highlighted about the electrics, during my time it need a new sunroof motor, new fan belt motor and eventually I had to change the factory fitted immobiliser as it played up no end. I also had TWO clutch cables' go, something to do with the car being right hand drive and it wears away on the bulk head.

I did have the option to get a Williams instead. However, the insurance was horrendous (IIRC group 17). It worked out just under a grand , this was 11 years ago! I'm paying nearly half that on the Scoob

iain atkins

Hi

I got a new Williams 3 in 1996, and it was a great little car, de-cat, k&n replacment filter element, and a ECU pushed out 190bhp.

Loads of fun!!!!!



Iain

Brian the Sn@il

Got to say a Williams Clio will go down as a Collectors item.

Buy one and keep it, look after it and love it.