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We have a chat with Clio legend Winston and take a look at one of his older projects from 2006 the RSI-brid. An N reg Silver 16V, a thing  of beauty, a true Euro Clio that defiantly touches all the right spots with me in terms of perfect Clio modding that didn’t seem to get the recognition it deserved in the press like some of his other Renault project cars have done in the past.

Hello all,

I thought as the first real post on clioforum.net we had better get in touch with a car from the past the RSI-brid, created by the legend himself; Winston.

The RSI-brid is one of my all time favorite modified Clio’s. I hope you enjoy as much as i do.

Before I crack on with some jaw dropping pics and a bit of a project log, I thought i would have a chat with Winston about his inspiration and some of the history behind the project, for those that don’t know about it.

Q: What was your inspiration when creating this car? I love it to bits, its a shame its no longer with us!

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Q:

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Lets now get on with some top quality photo content curtsy of Winston himself!

“After I had scrapped my Black Clio 16v. I had a few other Clio’s but i really wanted another 16V to make my own. As luck would have it I got my hands on 90k N reg Silver 16V for pretty much free, it had a problem with the subframe and needed new engine mounts.” Nothing a few days and a Winston sized spare parts pile cant sort out!

“The first thing i had to do was to change the wheels and fit a standard 1.8 16v front splitter”

“To fix the issues with the subframe i fitted my widetrack and coilovers from my old black hybrid”

“I was still having trouble finding the right wheels for it and came across some rare Renault fitment Mattig 7×13 steel wheels on German eBay, so after a quick photoshop I wired the money to Germany”

A nice looking set of wheels, love the Euro look myself!

“Fitted, I had to fit Clio RSi front brakes in order to get the 13’s on!!”

“The car was starting to take direction. With the car having steel wheels It reminded me of my pug 106 rallye. So I went off the the local scrapyard and raided the low model clio parts bin.
Windie windows and bogo plastic door cards, non pop out rear windows…”

“…and lots of blanks for the dashboard. I got some German plates made up (which one day  the police ended up taking the car off of me at the side of motorway… another story all together… lol”

“I tweaked the torsion bar and coilovers… so i took it for a photo shoot”

Some really nice photos there, but keep reading there are many more nice shots of this awesome Clio coming up!

“By now FCS (French Car Show) 2006 was coming up and i wanted to do something different for the show, as the car had a Pug 106 Rallye-ish theme, I thought why not rip the valver lump out and Fit RSi 8Vengine to it. The old lump was a slow one so it seemed like a good idea, a road spec light weight warrior… So I set to work getting it ready for FCS.”

Its funny to see how much space there is in the bay with the huge 16v lump removed and the 8v dropped in.

“I painted the wheels white and also fitted 15mm spacers to the rear to give the car a better stance and match the wide track suspension fitted.”

“For some mad reason i thought a Ph3 Clio front end would look dope… it was different.” I think there is a reason why this isn’t done Winston!

“Due to ECU / immobilizer problems, the car never made FCS 06. I got it running the day after the show… typical, after I got an ECU from Grey… The Ph3 front end wasn’t really working so i refitted the valver stuff and went off to get some pics so i could show it off”

“I did a bit of wheel whoring at my mates VW yard…”

“Now because i did a sh*t paint job on the wheels and the fact they were white the brake dust just ate the paint, so also being bored with white i painted the wheels bright orange!”

“This car was much lower than the black hybrid… I doubt you would find a lower Mk1 in the UK” – I don’t think you will get many people trying to deny you that Winston, check out how outrageously low this car really was.

“Due to it being so low and sh*t UK roads I used to tw*t the sump & rip the exhaust off on a weekly bases… Being so low it had to be rolled onto wood – scissor jack – Trolley jack to refit it everytime. It pushed me to far and i put the car for sale for £1500 not a sole was interested or had the cash.

One week the exhaust came of pretty much everyday which drove me mad… so the car ended like this. From full car to bare shell in 24hours all my own work!” – Damned impressive breaking skills there, shame to see such a lovely Clio go to scrap heaven tho.

Thanks Winston for letting us know about this amazing Clio’s life. I personally think this is one of the best Mk1’s there has ever been. Hit every single button for me. I think i was one of those who just didn’t have the cash for it at the time

Let us know what you think of this car, should Winston have scrapped it? What the hell was he thinking with that phase 3 front end? Could you have copped with such a low suspension setup? Let us know in the forums..