New 250 Cup Owner in Surrey

Welcome mate

Heading to snetterton on Saturday if you fancy it?

I haven't booked but will hopefully get on in the afternoon.

Cheers!

 

Welcome Mark. Good choice of track toy that also works on the road. Good going at the Ring. The car works really well there too. Not very far from you in Sussex. A few of us are doing Silverstone GP 20 Feb if your car is ready by then. It only really needs pads/fluid/tyres for track work.

 

Fair enough ! The beauty of the 250 is that you can tinker without losing the warranty. 7.40s is good going. I only timed myself once in the Meg and ended up 8.35, standard car on hard NS2rs. I wouldn't want to go any faster if I am honest, I was probably at 9/10ths so just enough of a margin for me there !

 

Firstly, welcome and great choice – being impartial I also have a 2011 (same as 2010) black 250 Cup with standard black wheels and also black badges. Secondly, lovely Merc, the 6.2 V8 is just such a lovely engine and sounds like a WW2 fighter-plane at full chat.


Let me know what you think of all the black as I’ve only just put black covers on mine and I’m 50/50 – Some days I think it looks great, some days I think it looks a bit TOO black and possibly boy-racery. I removed the MEGANE, RS and CUP badges so it’s all a bit, well, black!!


I think it would be great on track with the 888’s though, something I plan to do later this year. I ran them on a full-on track-day Clio 172 and they were great, even in the wet.

 

Can't go wrong on 888s although I don't think they do a high enough load rating for the Meg which may or may not be an issue on the road for insurance purposes, but not for track only use.

 

Blah, who cares about insurance?!


(I’m an Underwriter!!)

 

The risk is pretty small of a claim being declined but I'll admit on quite liking being on the right "official" rating, however irrelevant that is technically.

 

You could maybe carbon dip the exhaust trim if you want the full black effect.

 

I think you can from streamline carbon

 

First thing I did was to re-powder-coat the wheels and I deliberated over gunmetal, or gloss-black or just the standard satin-black and in the end I went for satin. Glad I did as IMO it really suits the black car and is of course standard so Renault probably spent some time choosing that colour too!!. Your Merc looks great with its gunmetal wheels though but IMO would look even meaner in satin-black....!!


I'm having a "I like the black badges day" today, as I left for work I decided I liked them. A purchase for the future would be the later model’s black headlights.


I've ran a couple of track toys with 888's and kept them on sometimes when driving on the road, they're a great tyre but a) need some heat in them and b) don't like the wet leafs/mud etc. on the country back-roads. I can’t imagine how a circa 500 bhp RWD 'big' car like the Merc would behave with them on. My personal opinion would be to go for a happy medium (Cup-2’s or whatever they’re called) and then just keep the 888's for the track. Future purchase for me is to get a 2nd set of wheels which I will then shod with 888's and keep solely for the track or nice dry sunny days...


(We’re both called Mark!)

 

I'm thinking of doing the same. The only other option is the Streamline Carbon one which is v.expensive!!

 

I can't be bothered with 2 sets of wheels, particularly when going to Spa/Ring indeed. This wasn't the main reason for choosing the Nankangs but they're so good in the wet that I am pretty stuck with them. Which is no hardship at £360 for 4 fitted.

 

“Mark is a common male given name and is derived from old Latin "Mart-kos", which means "consecrated to the god Mars", and also may mean "God of war" or "to be warlike". Marcus was one of the three most common given names in Ancient Rome. See Roman given names.”


I like the association with “God of war” – I will tell my wife that tonight. In private.


I was just using the 888 title loosely, couldn't remember if there was even an R or not, but from just quickly looking at the Toyo site the R's are listed as "new" and they have a different tread pattern to what I used so I think I just had the plain version. It looks like the R is more a track focused tyre, although with the central groove it looks like it will take the water better therefore may be better suited for the road anyway. It also doesn’t look like the standard version is available in our 235/40/18 size so only the R will fit anyway.


I also had the A048’s on a Lotus!! (I had a tuned 135R), I’d say they were more road suited though than the 888’s.


Anyway we’re digression talking about tyres…. (again….)


Definitely post a picture of the black exhaust surround, as mentioned it’s on the to-do list at some point. If it doesn’t work or flakes off then nothing lost really.


Likewise the black headlights!

 

160 at the ring is very quick!

Having done 150mph, I'd need a nappy to go quicker!

 

lol I was wondering if maybe it was using the full main straight!

Yeah on a track day that's not quite so scary... some of the psychopaths I know apparently hit an indicated 200 mph on that bit.

Then what's even more scary is the speed they take that left hander!

 

Exactly. I've only done a few laps of the place, fear is the biggest feeling I get from going, then relief when I make it back without ruining my life!

Would love to be as comfortable as the quick guys but that takes so many laps, so much cost etc.

I've been 3 times, not sure if I'll go again, we're so spoilt for track days in the Uk, could have a much safer time for the same money and do 3/4 days over a week, staying somewhere nice in the middle of England.

 

I'm noticing a theme.....

Lovely Exige by the way, definitely my kind of car. My 135R was the default light-bluey-silver. But with satin black wheels!!

I can tell we're going to get along.

(I earnt the name Space Cadet many many years ago from rocking into work on a Monday morning after a weekend of clubbing.....)

 

I keep trying not to go back and git is quite right, it doesn't actually make sense as we have so many brilliant tracks. But none of them come close in terms of excitement, challenge, beauty etc... It does take quite a few laps before you're on top of it, ie for the inherent fear to recede and to get a sense that you're are kind of in "control". Maybe 50 laps ? It doesn't mean you know the track but it means you don't let it dictate your moves. Which is usually when it bites you. The place is simply addictive. There is nothing else in my life that is as addictive.

 

Ha ha, mine, surprisingly from the sound of yours, never had any issues ....until I wrote it off!!f (too long a story to tell). Too many cars and bikes before and after it to mention all, nothing as exotic as a C63 though.

Probably most ‘hard-core’ was a Clio 172 that I bought for £2k and probably spent £30k+ on turning into a track-monster. That was silver though so probably not of interest to you. Other memorable cars include a 350Z, 370Z, classic Alfa Spider, Cooper S JCW, various tuned Golf GTI’ s etc. etc., all were 2nd cars for the weekend as have been driving family 4x4’s for a while now.

I missed the ‘driving for the fun of it’ and also the track days, hence me buying the Megane. Long story short I looked at a demo 275 Cup-S, loved it but couldn’t justify the man-maths for a car that I would drive once a week for an hour so I found an exactly identical looking 30,000 mile 250 Cup for almost half the price, £400 later it’s got 300bhp and is old enough to warrant tinkering with….

 

You would’ve though it the other way round..!! The Indy circuit really suited the Clio, apart from Paddock Hill bend in the wet where there is the river of water – which in the short wheel-base Clio was a bit hairy!! I know its all pub-talk and obviously dependant on who’s driving etc. etc., but I remember lapping an R8 in the torrential rain at Brands on 888’s and many a time keeping up with GT3’s etc. Fantastic little car but perversely I made it too track-y and therefore totally unsuitable as a semi-sensible 2nd car. So I sold it and then had the itch for the last three years (and two young boys later) until I gave in and bought the Megane.


I’ve already started tinkering, as mentioned the re-map, wheel re-furb & new tyres, obligatory filter, have had the centre-silencer removed, I fitted an MTECH short-shifter linkage (can definitely recommend this!), upgraded the bulbs as the standard ones were shocking, de-badged, black badge covers. Next job, as we talk, is some black wheel bolts as mine are all rusty (coincidentally all the 6-month old 275 Cup-S’ bolts were the same). Will treat her to some new discs and uprated pads shortly, then as discussed, black headlights. And, and, and……..

 

Yes I can imagine the Merc would be, especially on the full circuit.

Ha ha I know that fealing, stupidly I removed the heater.....!!! I regretted that in the winter when the windows steamed up so I ended up fitting a heated screen!

I'm itching to get another bike but the wife says NO!

Have you bought the CAE already? Looks a nice piece of kit (I fitted something similar to the Clio) but IMO it may look out of place in the Megane...

Discs & pads are like tyres, everyone has their opinion. Without going full-on separate PF rotors & bells I wouldn't have confidence in the quality of any of the non-Brembo normal type discs and as the Cup grooved discs are Brembo HC's I'm just going to go with them again. I've used Carbon Lorraine RC5+'s in the past for fast-road and occasional track and they were fantastic therefore will go with them. The 6's are even better on track but a bit too compromised for the road as need heat in them even just to stop from low speeds, which is not great when popping out for the paper and you can't stop at the end of your road...

Nick has recommended some new fluid, but apparently the ABS pump (I think) needs holding open with a diagnostic reader tool so as to be able to push the fluid through, so I will pass that job over to a garage!