Damon

Oh yeah, have you guys got all of the new DT stuff for Systematic Chaos yet? The album isn't out until June but right now there are two songs (Constant Motion and Dark Eternal Night) available online here and there. Dark Eternal Night has a wicked solo section that's going to take me a little while to learn as its about as complex as Dance of Eternity. You Tube has a bunch of stuff you can watch and listen including both songs, DT's promo for the new album and a 20 minute behind the scenes fottage of 30 or so DT fans assisting with the recording for one of the songs. I usually get any new DT album about a month before its released covertly online somewhere so I should have it any day now. Still hunting. If anyone wants the two new tracks and can't find online them let me know and I'll see if I can post them somewhere. Also, at the recent G3 gig in Sydney I saw John Petrucci and Mike play and Mike announced that they indeed plan to tour Australia after the new album comes out. Since the US tour kicks off in July I doubt we'll see them until late this year sometime. Fingers crossed...

Well, I've been a Dream Theater tragic since 1991 when I first went to Los Angeles and saw Pull me Under on MTV. I have played drums since I was 7 years old and can play virtually all DT's stuff as well as anything else Portnoy does (Transatlantic, Neal Morse, OSI, Liquid Tension Experiment, whatever). I'm a prog nutcase and usually listen to DT, Neal Morse, Spock's Beard, Rush, Yes and that sort of thing. In January 2000 I missed seeing the opening concert for Scenes From a Memory by two days when I was forced to come back to AUstralia. It killed me, they were double billing with Queensryche.. As for my brother? I got into writing in 1994 with Hot4s, origionally doing their car audio section. About a year later I was working full time at it and we needed to find someone to take care of the Commodore title. I was able to rope my brother into giving it a go and he took to it like a proverbial duck to water. He's been at it ever since like I have. One of the magazines he and I co-developed and launch was called SPEED. Oh yeah, and my brother is a bit of guitar freak too, he's able to play DT stuff with me when we jam, we usually warm up with Under A Glass Moon. I also had the great pleasure of meeting Derek Sherinian at the Planet X gig a while back, but better still I saw Mike Portnoy's little known about drum clinic that was held in Sydney in 1993 just after Change of Seasons came out and got to meet my idol. Got a photo taken with him that has pride of place on my desk.

Funnily enough he's my brother, both of us are in motoring publishing. I'll show him this post next time he's here.

Hmm, interesting. So you are suggesting to completely replace this item? Thanks for the pics and guide.

I've already arranged to have the steering wheel retrimmed in leather so that will fix the main bug bear of the car for now. Today I'm going to reset the ECU, replace the front door speakers with something larger, and see if I can work out how best to get a thick power cable through the bonnet release cable grommet. Pardon my ignorance but TDC says 'Top Dead Centre' to me in car parlance. You obviously mean something else.

I went through the service manual prior to purchase and there were no major replacements required that I could see other than regular consumables. While in my reckoning the car still runs great it does have a few buzzes and rattles about it here and there, while the engine isn;t the smoothest I've come across - yet it still pulls strongly and doesn't blow smoke or anything like that. With no other point of comparison for the Clio Sport I have had to assume that this is the way they are. Aside from badly fouling it plugs (which looked about 120000 kays old when I pulled them out!) the engine has been faultless, leaks no oil or water, and the only strange one is a tendance not to start on the first key turn. Though if you switch the ignition off then on again it fires straight up no dramas. Most of the things I have found to be just idiosynchracies, like the use of security screws to hold the car together instead of 10mm bolts and phillips head screws. Or things just clip off... The interior trim has fared extremely well for such high kays, and the only stand out wear item is of course the rubber thumb parts of the steering wheel. The driver's side one is toast and I had to glue it back together. I doubt a second owner of a 185000 kay car could claim it under warranty...

Since much of my experience is in the car audio field I'll probably spend a fair bit of time delving into this aspect of the Clio first up. I've spent a couple of days ferreting around the car so far and will have some input into audio based questions for sure. The first nut to crack is the main power cable through the bonnet release grommet. When I do mine I'll take some pics and produce a DIY if I get time. I'll also be doing speaker upgrades plus a fibreglass spare wheel well subwoofer enclosure.

Hi guys (and gals), My name is Damon Dupriez and I've just joined ozrenaultsport after becoming the recent proud owner of a MK2 Clio Sport. I'm a motoring journalist and have been enjoying this career for a dozen years now, having worked on titles like Hot4s, Auto Salon Magazine, SPEED, Street Machine and various others. I also was involved in the Auto Salon show series for many years and did some DVDs for Meguiars under the Motor Active banner. I've owned a great number of interesting cars over the years including Brock Commodores, 200SXs, WRXs, an R33 GTR and, more recently, I was custodian of the blue Hot4s EVO VII project car that was sponsored by Yokohama. Mid last year I returned to freelance work and needed to buy myself a fun runabout that was frugal, cheap to insure, wouldn't get stolen or get me carjacked (which happened in the GTR as some of you may have read about in print), was fun to drive and - above all - unlike anything I had ever owned before. I had my eye on the Clio Sport for many years but it wasn't until now that buying one made so much sense. I bought a silver MK2 from a wholesaler in Queensland a month ago and I would like to thank all the tireless ozrenaultsport members for thier work as posts on here did help with the purchase no end. I also used some of the DIY tutorials for a couple of small projects I've already done on the car including a spark plug change and an audio upgrade. If any of you are Hot4s readers you may see my column titled 'The Word' pop up in a month or so which talks about the purchase of my Clio and why I chose it. Hot4s readers are rather blinkered towards riced up Lancers or chrome wheeled WRXs these days (I'm partly to blame I suppose) but hopefully I can get some editorial about Clios in there in some measure. I've approached the editor to use it as a project but alas I think he'll be too conservative to stick a 'dirty French car' in Hot4s with any regularity. Business does dictate that they must feature cars that attract advertisers too and the Clio isn't exactly going to help there. Then again the editor drives a minitruck so who knows? I also believe I may own Australia's highest mileage Clio Sport. It has a whopping 185,000 kays on it! But while this is rather extreme for a 2002 model car it came from the country, had one owner, and has full service history so fingers crossed it will remain reliable for me. For those curious I paid just $10,000 for it. Makes you wanna cry, huh? I plan on being a daily visitor to ozrenaultsport and will post when I feel I have something worthwhile to contribute, but my knowledge level of Clios is growing day by day. Once again thanks and I look forward to being a positive member of the forum. Cheers, Damon