Dave's super clean trackday machine

thanks Ash that pictures a favorite of mine too.

 

yeah did my best to chris. braking seemed to one area i was stronger than most at donington. lets just hope i havent ruined my discs and pads this time in the process. i certainly rate the coilovers on track but not on road. ok for short trips i guess or going off for a drive but not for daily use. on the road youd be quicker point to point with a set of cooksports but as i only really use it on track or when i fancy a blast at the weekend there fine for me personally

 

thanks Grey!

 

took the car to blyton park a few weeks ago along with some old friends in there fiesta ST's. track was wet for the first few hours then quickly dried out. as usual the car went great and was quite comfortably the quickest front drive car out on circuit. i still have more understeer though since replacing the Federal tyres with a fresh set. i think i'll certainly be looking for something a bit slicker once these are dead.















the trackday was followed by a trip to see mark on the way home as one of my scuttle drain holes was blocked with muck and silt at the top. its always drained away slower through that hole and it had finally completely blocked. thankfully once the trim was removed it cleaned out and is now working perfectly.

sadly it seems my PFC discs have only a few trackdays left in them as the grooves are starting to wear through



im planning on changing them to brembo HC's when these are done as i cant justify the price of replacment discs with the amount of life im getting on track out of a set. (the alloy bells will be up for sale if anyones interested)



im currently waiting to apply the second coat of hammerite to the rear discs to prevent any further rusting from the lip or the hub and generally tidy them up a bit.

thanks for reading

Dave

 

thanks steve. yeah im a big fan of the performance of the pfc pads and will use them with new HC discs to begin with. might give 1.11's a go after that.

 

done mate. sorry

 

thanks john.

i have heard of people getting through them quickly esp with the aggressive pads i use. ive done about 8 to 10 full trackdays on them and they were skimmed to remove the pad deposits after donington last year.

 

ordered some wheel studs and some open ended nuts to match today from JCC race and rally. will be fitting these to the real for now then to the front as well once the new discs are on.

 

its about £500 a set from PFC mike. I could pretty much use brembo HCs and bend a set every trackday and still break even on price.

They are amazing brakes and im sure on the road they will last for ages with the right pads but putting the car on its nose from 110 - 120mph time after time with aggressive pads is whats killing them. Theres plenty of people who have had them lasting a lot longer.

Dave

 

I'll be trying the brembo HCs with my PFC pads as they have plenty of life left then I'll try the ds1.11 pads.

 

had the car up in the air the other week to change the front discs and also fit the stud bolts front and rear.

the rears are an easy job and just require threading into the discs and the fronts thread into the hub and the discs then slide over them. whilst the wheels ere off i also decided to paint the edge and hub of the discs to keep them rust free as well as a few other bits and give everything a general clean up.



also drilled out all the crud from the holes in the rear discs which you can see in the tray below




hubs all cleaned up and painted. the bare metal was cleaned with raceglaze metal cleaner and the hub was painted with hammerite smooth









wheels caked in brake dust as pads bed into new discs



the car was then given a good clean inside and out including door shuts was APC and protected with poorboys all in one polish/wax







car was then foamed and washed



i then brought the car inside to blow the shuts, wheels and engine bay clear of water




the car was then given a coat of blackhole via DA then a top up with sonax brilliant shine detailer as well as valet pro glass cleaner and sonax tyre gel. i got a few shots of the car in the sun the day after.







the brakes are still bedding in but seem to be working ok for now. cadwell park on the 5th july should be a good chance to see how they compare to the PFC discs but i'll be taking it easy til then.

having wheel studs is a joy and makes it a lot easier to swap wheels. thanks for reading

Dave

 

thanks John

i got them from JCC as it worked out cheaper for the type of nuts i wanted and had some locktite already.

 

thanks bud. will have to keep an eye on the paint then! done this before with no bother which perhaps shows you drive harder on track than i do!

Dave

 

Hi chris.

Mine are ET55 and were a lot less than the OZ wheels. They are also lighter than the std wheels and .r wheels.

Dave

 

not been on here for a while so thought i best show my face and upload a few pictures from the last trackday at cadwell park which i attended along with a nuber of other forum members.

the day started off very wet indeed but quickly dried in the afternoon. i ran the car with the suspension in the softest damping setting in the rain and it performed really well i was out on track for ages in the wet (probably about an hour after the sighting laps) to get a feel for everything. the back end stayed in check and there was plenty of feel and progression before it broke traction (just what you need when the barriers are 10feet away!)

for the afternoon i firmed everthing up and the car really came into its own. new HC discs were great once id bedded them in fully and learned not to ride the brake like you can with the PFC's i was really impressed with the stopping power for the price of £65 a pair.

pictures from the day





























id also like to confirm i did not wash my car during the lunch hour

Dave

 

after cadwell and speaking to others about tyres i looked inot getting a set of part worn slicks for the megane as a set can be cheaper than one new semi slick tyre. as my wheels are 8.5J i was able to use some ex BTCC dunlop slicks from the recent croft meeting. once they arrived i quickly got them fitted to check the fit ok. i wasnt sure if they would clear the arch on full lock or catch the suspension due to the 245 width and 65 profile.

















amazingly there are no issues with these catching anywhere even on full lock and both front and back sit within the rear arches. the back in very low at only 10mm from the top of the tyre to the arch lip but ive been assured by track torque racing who set the car up and run a few ex BTCC cars that it shouldnt catch even under load. if it does i'll be looking into camber shims or a slight increase to the ride height. im reluctant to fit a stiffer rear spring set as im happy with the front to back balance and the usability in the wet thanks to the softer 4kg springs.

im hoping to book something soon at blyton park as its a track i know quite well and is flat with plenty of run off whilst i learn to drive on slicks. theyl take between 6 to 8 laps to get fully up to temperature but once hot im told the grip is mighty and very consistent.

thanks for reading and comments and questions welcome

and yes i did tyre black the slicks

Dave

 

you can David as long as its dry out on track

 

thanks Dan. least thats made it an easy decision if i do have any issues

 

sure your not biased Steve? haha

 

I just googled "megane r26 brembo hc discs" mate and they popped up.