Dave's super clean trackday machine

thought id share the progress of my megane R26 F1. ive owned the car for about 18 months after buying a standard ultra red with auto lights, wipers, xenons and only 14,000 miles on the clock. my plans were to keep it as well maintained as possible and get plenty of trackday use out of the car.

a few shots from the first time the car was washed.





i attended TRAX that year for the cars first bit of track driving and it performed very well especially considering the standard brakes and tyres.



before attending my next show in the megane it was given a complete overhaul including a light machine polish, wheels sealed, arches cleaned and protected and the interior scotch guarded. paintwork was coated with Gtechniq C1 as final protection.

 

first full trackday

my first trackday was a novice day at cadwell park to allow me to learn the car on track with fewer cars than a full trackday. still in standard trim the car was one of if not the quickest car on circuit (perhaps due to it being my 3rd visit there)

i had some basic issues with rear end grip more due to the lack of or to much heat in the tyres and the brakes and fluid finding there limits as well when pushed. this was the last time the car would see the track in standard form.








shortly after cadwell i contracted team dynamics regarding a set of Pro race 1.3 wheels with a custom ET to keep the wheels within the arches. these were cleaned and protected before fitting federal RSR tyres for track use.

 

wheels were then fitted





the car was also fitted with a set of cooksport springs before a trackday at cadwell. there few basic mods made the car feel much more stable this time







brakes where the next area i wanted to improve with the following set up

PFC 330mm discs
goodridge ss lines
ferodo ds2500 pads
gulf 5.1 fluid

the discs of coarse had the alloy bells coated before fitting





i also opted for pipers 3 inch decat pipe to give the car a bit more noise. both the brakes and decat were taken to mark black for fitting.

 

heres a few shots from blyton park (i think this was before the brakes and decat were fitted)





shortly after i was back to marks for my 3 inch piper car back to be fitted

 

i was then back to blyton for another trackday. the exhaust made the car sound and feel fantastic banging and crackling as well as spitting a few flames and the brakes performed very strongly once warmed up and bedded in.

 

the drivers seat was fitted with a sabelt harness to help keep me in the seat on track and to make steering inputs easier.



next i was booked on track at oulton park. great day and a circuit that the megane works best on out of all the places ive tried as its heavy on brakes and having plenty of torque helps against the up and down nature of the track













i did sadly slide very wide out of lodge corner after overtaking a very unwilling car removing my splitter and most of the brackets. thankfully i escaped with only a mucky wheels and underside (the underside of the car, not me personally!)








after a quick check over i was back out minus the splitter

 

next was a disappointing trip to Donington with Seb in his black R26.

the hard use of brakes at oulton has caused the ferodo ds2500 pads to transfer onto the discs giving awful vibration once they warmed up which wasn't notable when driving on the road.

sadly i only managed a few laps but thankfully i had another megane to passenger ride in











since donington ive had the discs skimmed to remove the pad deposits fully which were thankfully still straight and the ferodo pads have been binned for a set of PFC 07 compound pads. not cheap but much better than the ferodos even from cold. if they stand the track abuse come spring time it'll be money well spent.

 

the car is not sat idle due to the poor weather so had a few things tidied up on it. the underside was cleaned and waxoyled after the off at oulton park as well as the arches cleaned, sealed and the wheels also decontaminated and sealed again.















whhel nuts were also plasti dipped







next mod will be a set of BC BR spec adjustable suspension from angel at cazan racing which will hopefully be fitted next week sometime



once fitted the car will be getting corner weighted and the camber properly set up to maximize the performance. cant wait to find out how well the car goes on track once these are fitted.

thanks for reading through and comments and questions welcome

regards

Dave

 

thanks Dan. i wasn't sold on the red until i saw it in the flesh. brakes aren't cheap but perform really well.

Dave

 

ive not been timed at cadwell but i think i was about 2:08 at oulton with some light traffic.

Dave

 

thanks very much Jdrummo. not easy to keep it looking clean when it gets lots of track use. the bottom half needs a good decontaminating session to remove the tyre rubber after each trip to the track.

Dave

 

your a braver man than me taking to bikes on track haha. its road legal but doesnt do more than 5k a year generally in dry weather.

Dave

 

Thanks Chris. The piper exhaust was ordered through ktec. They brand it as there own but its made by piper exhausts.

Dave

 

Cheers sokol. The mods ive chosen are to make it quicker on track rather than more power.

Dave

 

Thanks Ash. Im certainly into the process of clean, trackday, clean book trackday with this car. Very surprising what you can keep up with once youve done a bit of modding.

Dave

 

No they were from a corsa VXR on custom mounts.

 

Thanks mate. Its holding up well as its not brittle like paint its rubberised kind of finish.

Polished mine up but they soon go rusty again. Expensive to replace so this was a cheap option.

Dave

 

Cheers seb! I'll let you know what day im going down for them fitting.

Thanks for the kind words!

Dave

 

Good time that mate. Always hard to get an accurate time with traffic.

 

Yeah im hopeful of a noticeable improvement in handling on track with the coilovers fitted. Cant wait to try them out. Very little info available on them as few peopke seem to have coilovers of any kind on the meganes.

Dave