Have found that there's lots of useful info and a some knowledgeable owners on
http://www.cliosport.net/forums/ and the Facebook group "Clio Sport Owners Club". So many issues with these cars as they are unbelievably French, but flip side is that it's guaranteed that someone else has already had the same problem and posted a fix and/or an explanation for the symptoms....
Just need time to wash Craig's old one and get some decent current photos and I'll start a project thread on progress to date with mine