Afternoon gents. I'm Matt, live in Essex and have been snooping around on here for a while. Thought I'd upload a thread since I've had my Meg for 5 months now! Had a full service with belts and water pump etc done at Engine Dynamics for peace of mind and to give it a good check over. Has a long way to go and originally I was going to sell it within a week of ownership. I love the 250's but rushed my buy and should have waited for the perfect one. The guy that owned this before me had young children and after buying the car and taking it home this became apparent. A lot of the interior plastics are damaged which winds me up! But not to dwell, here she is when I picked her up Rear Megane badge had to go straight away of course Stayed like this for a few months while I debated keeping it or not, but the more I drove it the more I had to keep it. Got a mid box chop with my pal Next came a re trimmed steering wheel by Jack at Royal Steering wheels. Can't recommend his work enough. I drive my car every day to work, around 500+ miles a week as there is absolutely no sign of wear or stress marks at all, very impressed! Also ditched the awful cloth seats in favour of some Corbeau Clubsports. Picked up some B14's for a steal of a price and fitted them along with a drive shaft spacer each side, some silver projects top mounts. Also put on my TD 1.3 in 18x8.5 et45 with 235/40 NS2R's. That's as much as I've done so far, near future plans are Fit Ktec intake Get and intercooler and decat Engine Dynamics map Torque link upgrade PF-Z pads and new front discs I was going to remove all the chrome, badges and lights etc but it's really grown on me! Got a ring trip booked for the start of May and will be booking some U.K. track days soon! Thanks
Nice The stance/wheels/drop look superb - hard to fault. If I did however, I would say I'm not 100% sold on the splitter, and I think if you're going to have an illegal front plate, a 3/4 high one would suit better than a shorter one. That is nit-picking though - it does look really good. Does it handle any better with the mods? Welcome along too, BTW.
Appreciate the comments, thanks! Yeah I'm pretty pleased with how it sits. I agree with the splitter, however I definitely think that the megs really do need something and at the moment there is no other option. Maxton Design ones look terrible quality so the £10 lip I have on there now will do until a reputable company releases something! I do agree I should have probably got a 3/4 one to fill the recess - maybe in the future. It handles amazing now, big part being the NS2R's that I rate on the road. The ride is definitely a lot smoother, probably because of going down to 19s and higher tyre profile. But also with the B14's there's very little noticeable compression from the rear shocks on hard acceleration when compared to the cup shocks, b14's on the rear makes the cup shocks feel sloppy in my opinion.
Good to see you with a build thread on here Matt. Top improvements. Wheels and stance is perfect! Need to get my wheel done soon. I like the lip, for £10 can't fault it.
Thanks Lloyd. Progress will be pretty slow from now on but I'm not sure yet what else I want to do. Steering wheel makes such a difference, the standard one lets the interior down so much.
I hear that complaint a lot on here but after coming from the Twingo I really love the interior of my Megane. The only thing that currently bugs me is that they made all the stitching on the seats, steering wheel and gear leaver red but on the handbrake they left it grey (think it's the same for all 265s?). Every time I see it I want a red 275 handbrake leaver.
Its things like the hidden sport button and terrible stereo, oh yeah and who thought that putting a cruise control button next to the handbrake was a good idea?! I love my car and wouldnt sell it, but i bought it for how it makes me feel when i drive it rather than the poorly thought out interior.
I completely agree. Coming from a R56 JCW, which I think has one of the best interiors going for a car around 10,000, I wasn't expecting much from the megane. Some bits truly are awful and they couldn't of spent much on design or quality of products. But as you say it can all be forgotten about when it comes to driving.
Whilst we complain about the interior I'd like to vent about the key card thing! Truly uncalled for and awful. Especially without keyless start, your other keys just jangle away.
Like this a lot, looks great. What offset wheels are you running? Any spacers on there? It looks WIDE! Where abouts in Essex are you? Would like to go in one with a mid box chop to hear what it's like.
Wheels are 8.5 wide et45 without spacers mate. I'm in Langdon Hills, happy to take you out but without the rear seats in it makes a big difference to the noise!
Ah yes, sorry, it was staring me right in the face and I didn't notice! Definitely looks wide with those wheels/tyres on. I'm only in Chelmsford so just up the road. Would be good to see it sometime and see how loud it is, though mine would very much be staying fully trimmed. Just trying to find one in the spec I want currently. How much did they charge you for the mid box chop by the way?
Haha no worries. Yeah not far at all, only 20mins or so. Yeah more than welcome to have a passenger ride, it's not very loud at all with the seats and that in, very subtle. Pipecraft in Basildon done it for £50!
Looks fantastic. What mill spacers do you have front/rear? and what mm drop do you have? Keep up the good work, awesome example!!
Thanks [emoji1303] As above I'm not running spacers. Not sure how much of a drop it is - bottom of centre cap to the arch is 46cm front 47cm rear if that helps.
It's more common to compare center of wheel to arch or ground to arch, to both aren't the easiest to measure due to the need for a flat surface and the car sitting level etc.
I agree mate, I only gave this measurement as it's the only one I had in the top of my head that I remembered!
Ktec intake fitted, not as loud as what I've read online! Can hear it sucking but it's much better inside with the sound generator removed. Also fitted a recirc blank too so get some nice chatter! Some random pics including the interior at the moment Having a Ktec torque link and powerflex engine mount insert fitted tomorrow, looking forward to seeing if there's any real difference over standard. Have an omp 4 point harness coming for the drivers side too as the standard belt sits way too far up my neck for my liking. Also still waiting on my CAE to arrive too!
Yeah looking good, lets us know how the mounts go, i still need to sort the the gearbox mount and m12 bolt
100% recommend doing them mate! Car feels so much better and nicer to drive. Everything's just a bit tighter, no movement in the box and gear change improved massively. I think my standard torque link must have been well shot. Had my gearbox mount reinforced too. A lot of people go to m12 but there was plenty of material there so went for an m14, no chance of that snapping now [emoji1303]
