Hi. New R26 owner.

Hi all,

A couple of weeks ago I got an Yellow R26 (w/decals) to play with, 58 plate , 40k miles. I needed another car and had always wanted one since I had one on test for a week back when they were new. Primary reason for purchasing to use as a road car, secondary reason is as a spare track car and something with 4/5 seats I can use for Euro trips.

My dedicated track car is a very non-standard Focus ST with 430bhp but its fully caged, quite loud inside and often in pieces, so I wanted something for the occasional change on track - the R26.

The Focus.

R26 (dunno why the pic is so small LOL)


I have an annual pass for the Nürburgring, so we head out there often to stay with family and driving out there every time in the ST is a pain. So this year we will take the R26 a few times.... so it won't be staying standard but then it won't be modified massively either!

I am in the car modifying trade and as reseller for Collins Performance/Powerchips, I had the car mapped to stage 1 within 12 hours! Also as Mongoose exhausts reseller I had the last of the discontinued Mongoose catbacks for a bargain price! Since then I've added the following:
HID conversions/LED sidelights
New numberplate light units
K&N panel
Silicone airbox-turbo hose
Stereo 3.5mm aux
New temp sensor in door mirror

I have a stack of parts to fit including:
New Brembo seals
Goodridge hoses
330mm front discs
R26R rear discs
Race pads
New radiator
Airtec intercooler (95mm core with scoops about to go on sale, available from me soon)
All new fluids
New plugs/coils/injectors
A few decals
New polyamide bush in steering rack (I have a few in stock if anyone is interested)
New inner rack joint
Gripper plate diff
My own airbox mod
Nankang NS-2R track tyres
Some rolling road time at Collins to perfect the mapping.

Loving the car so far even though it has a few faults.... some common, some not so common. One that is bugging me is the electric mirror switch fell to bits, so I replaced it and now none of the mirrors work! Still haven't figured it out. The outside temp doesn't display in the car even though I replaced a faulty sensor.

Hopefully I will be along as a trader soon also.. Fingers crossed!

Cheers,
Jonny.

 

Yeah the Focus isn't so great out of the box but small steps make it much better. I've changed pretty much everything and its still a work in progress but it does under 8 mins around the ring so it definitely isn't so shabby! I'm looking forward to seeing how well I can get the R26 around there! First trip is March if i can get it ready in time and the weather outlook is good. Its covered in snow at the moment!

 

I'll let you know how it goes at the ring and on track days. No doubt I'll announce when I'm there.
I trade in pretty much everything to be honest. Specialise in a few areas and develop a things of my own.

Thanks mate!

The idea behind the bush is this. Say you have already replaced your rod ends and inner joints but there's still a little play in the rack, then its most likely the plastic bush that is worn. This is a common Renault issue not just on the Megane. So the official fix is a new rack. The bush is in the nearside only, you remove the steering arm and pull the old bush out and slot the new one in, then replace the arm. Pretty easy.

See above :-)

Hi Steve - I'll see how the car handles on the track first. I won't be modifying things too much as I need to maintain a practical ride height and level of comfort with this car. One of the reasons for buying this car was that to a certain extent, its pretty much track ready out of the box. I also need to think about maintainability and supportability because the majority of time needs to be spent on other vehicles. Apart from replacing standard parts with new standard ones, I may well uprate some bushes if I can find any - or I will develop my own. The suspension feels really quite good at the moment. I think it could benefit from being a little lower but not too much. The Cooksports look great but are too low for my use of the car.
Cheers,
Jonny

PS. Based in Oxfordshire, 20 mins north of Reading.

 

There's quite a list, so I'll summarise...

• Focus RS engine Collins tuned to 430 bhp / 450 lb-ft (it has well over 400 bhp all through the gears :-) )
• Airtec stage 2 intercooler
• AS carbon airbox
• AS alloy plenum/inlet
• Full mongoose exhaust
• Crank scrapers and windage tray
• Pro Alloy oil breather system
• Our own thermostatic oil cooler system
• AP Racing clutch, lightweight single mass flywheel
• Gripper plate diff
• Our own motorsport driveshafts
• Uprated engine/gearbox mounts
• Fully polybushed
• Front/rear chassis/strut braced top and bottom
• BC Racing ER-series fully adjustable coilovers with external reservoirs with custom valve and spring spec
• Hardrace adjustable suspension arms and roll centre adjusters
• -4 rear camber, -3.5 front
• Our own motorsport fuel pump system with 1.5L swirlpot, 1/2" lines and custom fuel rail etc
• K-Sport 8pot 356mm front brakes
• Our own proper brake cooling duct system
• Mintex F-Series F6 race pads (you need proper cooling for these!)
• Several sets of wheels, various tyres, semi and full slicks etc
• Lifeline Zero360 plumbed electric extinguisher
• Cartek GT battery isolator
• Full cage and harnesses
• Quick shifter
• Datalogger with OBD, external sensor and GPS
• Carbon bonnet
• Custom grills for additional cooling

There's probably loads of other things but that's the main stuff :-d

Cheers,
Jonny.

 

Yes, standard RS internals are ok at this output (and a bit higher). It will get forged internals when it next comes to bits. So far its been very reliable and has done over 20k miles at the current output and 12k miles at a lower output. That includes about 350 laps of the Nürburgring and more track sessions than I can remember! The plan was to do Time Attack but I just haven't had time to ready for it!

 

Yes both have the same type of 5 cylinder Volvo lump but the RS version has a few improvements over the ST one. I bought the RS one new from Ford Motorsport after destroying 2 ST engines at a much lower power outputs (290-310bhp). A combination of poor mapping and weak liners. Haven't had an issue since moving to the RS engine and Collins Performance as a tuner.

 

Cheers mate! I can't believe there's so much interest in the Focus from this forum - I expected to have it shot down by all you Renault fans LOL :-d

 

= perfectly drivable :-) I'll post some in car videos sometime :-)

 

This is solid and could take more power but the way i drive on track means that cooling, braking ... and the poor driver takes its toll! LOL. The guys pushing 600-700 bhp through the front wheels are however in the looney group! Mine is considered a little last year (or the year before) but I'm still faster than they are haha ;-) A plate diff gives much more traction than an ATB as well and it also means the car drives straight rather than being pulled left and right like with an ATB!

 

Here's a good example video but on very knackered road tyres because there was wire poking out of my slicks! This was the last lap of the trip and the tyres were so bad but i held it with a couple of GT2's. Not a great lap time of 8:20 but not completely awful considering there was the tourist bus in karrusell and the finished tyres!
http://youtu.be/9pC4A0oI5mY

 

Ah right... you probably made the right choice LOL. What did you end up with and how is it?

 

You have a PM

 

Is it your first Renault or Megane?

 

Thanks mate. Unsure really. I got a 300 bhp ST around in 8:15 and that was a long time ago (around 250 laps ago). A stage 1 R26 is going to have far less torque but the car is a tad lighter and handles pretty well plus I know where I'm going better. I would say around 8:25-8:30... who knows
I didn't get any decent clear runs on my last trip but the GPS data showed I was going much quicker at certain parts of the circuit, so if I can get to string it all together, I reckon I might do something quick. But I doubt I'll push the R26 as hard - it'll probably fall to bits LOL.

Here's an example of the GPS and data analysis of a typical lap of the ring. The red points are when my GPS groundspeed is over 125MPH. The sample tooltip is showing that fuel pressure, oil and coolant temps etc are all fine after the long flat out slog up the mountain. The software is our product - still in development at the moment.

 

There are some good STs out there but often never when you're looking. My mate sold a mint one recently!
My R26 was the first one we went to see. I had no intention of buying one so early in the year but it ticked most of the boxes so the deposit was paid. I just didn't want to waste time searching around. There was another yellow one in Bristol for £500 more but with new PS3s. I didn't want new tyres and mine had 3 worn out ones, so perfect :-)

 

Its a tame beast rather than an animal :-) Easy to drive!
Your bush is in the post by the way and should hopefully arrive tomorrow ;-)