Martijn's yellow RS250 Cup

Even though I was quite fond of my modified Volvo V50 T5, it never felt special enough to me. Great cruiser, but everytime I drive my MINI, I wished my daily felt a little more like that. So I started looking at Mégane 3’s, for which I blame both EVO Magazine and Matt’s stunning red RS250.

Was looking at German cars for a while, because there are always a lot for sale over there. Car had to be in Cup-spec, I preferred it to be yellow and Recaro’s would be nice. Then I stumbled on one for sale over here: original Dutch car form 2010, 63.000km, full history, Cup, yellow, Recaro’s. Made a good deal on trading in the Volvo, so last Friday I drove of with this:







Car is exactly as I would’ve specced it when new:
- Cup 2 with 19” Steev
- cloth Recaro's
- Sportmonitor
- Pack Visibilité
- Pack Essentiel
- 3D Sound by Arkamys

Very fresh car, just some scratches on the rear bumper and a little wear on the drivers seat side bolster. Fully stock, except for a custom remap from Fastchip, the guy that developed the RSTuner. Found this dyno run done the by first owner on a forum (at the wheels):


Bye bye Volvo:



As soon as I took it for a spin I had a “click” with this car, love the way it drives and steers. I’ve got a lot of experience with front wheel drive cars, but having a limited slip differential sure is a whole new game to play. Love how you can nudge it up to the edge of grip and than use the diff to tuck the nose even more into a corner.

After I took those pictures up top, I met up with a friend who was doing a photoshoot:





To our amazement I was able to keep up with the Evora 400 from 70-170pkh quite well, so it seems to be running ok.

But I got this car to do more road trips with the Misses, so figured I might as well go with a head start… A couple of friends were going to be at the Nürburgring this weekend, so we booked a hotel and set of for the ‘Ring on saturday. Apart from the RS-part a Mégane is still a quite car, so even with lots of holiday traffic and rain it was still an ok trip. Spent the afternoon chatting with friends and watching the track, with that horrible Civic crash as a dark reminder of the risks involved. Had a steak on a stone, ice at the ‘Eisdiele’ and some drinks before heading for our temporary German bed…



Excellent weather on sunday, so it was very busy with a lot of closed track time as a result as well. I’d only done some passenger laps before, so this was my first time driving on the Nordschleife. My aim was to have fun but keep it safe and return home with my 2-days-old-car still looking shiny. That’s exactly how it went, with 2 grinning people in the car as a result:







After that we had dinner at the Pistenklause with the whole gang, and set of for the 3 hour drive home. I was easily able to get it up to an indicated 270kph (167mph), a nudge over 265 on my GPS. Cup suspension does feel a little stiff, but it’s easily well within my tolerances. Never felt the need to stop during those 3 hours.

All in all a great introduction to my new car, or, as I told a friend: I had more fun in those 3 days than I had in 2,5 ears of Volvo ownership!



No disadvantages at all? Well, some:
- engine sound, or a lack thereof
- audio: the Arkamys is far for impressive, stereo in the Volvo was miles better
- no height adjustment on the seat belts, they cut into your neck depending on what you’re wearing
- the stiff suspension: not a problem in itself, but the headlights are very bouncing when driving fast on the Autobahn. Luckily the roads over here are much smoother, and a lot of them are lit at night
- some of the ergonomics are hilariously French, like the hidden Sport button that only works after disabling your cruise control in the center console, or the secret button press to activate the Sportmonitor
- the pedals are unsuited to heel and toe, at least to my large feet. I’ve seen throttle pedal spacers for the Fiesta/Focus ST, maybe someone should develop something like that for the Mégane

Lots of plans of course (duh ), starting with new license plates and some more engine sound.

 

Yeah, me too! Thanks for the inspiration and advice mate!

 

I've got the adaptive xenon lights, might make it more noticeable. It's not a big issue, only prevalent when doing 180-190kph for a long time on a pitch black Autobahn with concrete surface.

 

Did a couple of small mods, starting of with a Peugeot 607 antenna:



New plates:



Removed the airbox foam and fitted a Pipercross panel filter:



Team Heko wind deflectors:



Stealth indicator bulbs:




And just a couple of random pics while I was at it:

 

Thnx, one of the perks of living in our newest province! No difference in radio reception, but the Netherlands is quite crowded and flat, so reception is hardly an issue at all. I forgot to put my antenna back on after washing the car last week, and I still got good reception on a 100km drive.

 

Been driving this for 1.5 month now, still puts a grin on my face at every ride. Love the handling, love the power, love the positive reactions I seem to be getting everywhere!

The lack of engine sound was bothering me from the beginning, so that had to be sorted first. According to the research I did all aftermarket systems seem to sound similar, and you might be better of just chopping out a silencer. The middle one seems to be the most popular due to the ease of the work involved, but the rear one brings more noise inside the car. After finding on here it’s called a "silencieux tube inox" by the French, I was able to find one online, made by GT Performance:



Went to my regular garage to have it fitted, starting with this:



Chop chop:





Stock back box removed:





And the replacement fitted:







Should bring a 5 kg weight reduction as well, but I was mainly interested in the sound. It got a lot better, louder as well as more raw sounding, without being obnoxious. Someone described it as “gruff”, and I guess that’s about right. Still not a lot of character to it, but much better than stock, and now I know the engine is running without having to look at the revcounter.

No drone at constant speeds and a lot more bangs in sport mode. Just some resonance when coming of the throttle around 3000rpm, but I can live with that.

It’s always hard to capture exhaust noise on video, but I gave it my best shot. It turned into half a documentary, so you be the judge:

 

Thanks guys! I've found myself looking at lots of videos while researching exhaust, but most of those are rather lacking... so figured I might as well do this to hopefully help others.

 

Dropped the car of at my local dealership for it's big service + timing belt change. They were very helpful and up front about the whole process, not something that can be said for all main dealerships unfortunately, had some bad experiences with my Volvo before this.

Valve cover gasket was leaking a bit at one of the spark plug holes, so had that changed, together with a door catch and front right inner fender. Always costs more than you'd like, but it's a good feeling to have a car that's 100% right. As a bonus they fully valeted the car, looks way better than my washing skills normally permit.



Up next: suspension and wheels!

 

Those round things on all 4 corners that hold the tires...

 

Thanks! I used to be a photographer, but hardly take any pictures nowadays. I do make car videos for a living, but never get around to doing stuff with my own car.

 

All is not well... when going full throttle, I'm getting misfires at around 5500-6000rpm. If I limit the throttle to 80-90% I can take it up to the rev limiter no problem. Maybe they havn't gapped the new spark plugs correctly? Also seem to be getting some oil spots on the back of the car, so back to the dealership tomorrow morning. Needless to say I'm rather pissed off...

 

Spark plugs were replaced (with original ones) at the service 1.5 weeks ago, car was running fine before that. I did fill up with fuel last week, but that was with the same BP Ultimate 98 I always use (at a different petrol station though).

 

Happened in 2nd and 3rd, ESP in Normal and in Sport... one time as I was coming out of a corner in 3rd it stopped the moment my steering wheel went straight, but I put that down as a coincidence. It has been colder and wetter over here, and the current tires are old and quite worn down. No ESP-notification on the speedo display though.

It's down to half a tank right now, so I'll fill up at a station that sells 100 Octane and will give it a go with ESP fully turned off.

 

I did, and it's dry and sunny today: same result. Filled it up with 100 Octane (was down to 1/3rd tank of 98), same result, both in 3rd and 4th gear. So I guess they have something to explain to me at Renault tomorrow...

 

Car is booked in for wednesday.

 

Dropped it off at Renault this morning. Had to take a mechanic for a quick spin to demonstrate the issue, bit interesting to hit 5500rpm at full throttle with rain and busy morning traffic...

 

Just picked the car up again, issue hasn't been solved. Timing was checked, just as coils and spark plugs. It's booked in again for Monday, someone will take it for a spin with Clip attached while driving.

 

Bonus: I did find a extra cigarette lighter connector tucked away next to the shifter while looking for the OBD connector last weekend. Neatly soldered and everything, makes for a neater install of my phone mount.

 

Dropped of the car again this morning, instructed them to have another good look at the sparkplugs after reading about people having similar issues on here...

Just picked up my car again, turned out to be a faulty sparkplug, all 4 were changed under warranty, car runs flawless up to the redline again. Wasn't charged anything (I came prepared to battle them, just in case) and the new OBD port lid that I ordered was thrown in free of charge as well. Not too happy about the whole story, but at least they tried to resolve it in a way that's pleasing for the customer.

On to more modding, this came in the mail last week:

Vibra Technics Torque Link by Martijn Koevoets, on Flickr

 

I put PowerFlex bushings in the lower mount on my MINI, only gets a little annoying when running stationary with the AC on. On my previous Volvo V50 I installed the lower mount of a Ford E-Focus (stiffer, as it's supporting an electrical engine with way less vibrations) and that was only very very slightly discernible in the steering wheel when running stationary. I like the feeling it gives, more direct reaction on the throttle, smoother gearchanges and no axle hop with excessive wheelspin.

Just yesterday I was reading how McLaren decided on a little more NVH in the 675LT compared to the 650S, to make it feel more special at lower speeds. I guess that kinda describes what I like about an uprated torque mount.

About an hour after reading that I got a free sample of extra NVH in the Mégane, as the dreaded gearbox mount bolt snapped. Well, at least that's what I suspect, impossible to see it with the battery and airbox in the car. Was coming of a small roundabout at about 15kph, heard a pinging snap under the car, as if I drove over something, immediately followed by a vibrating dashboard and way more engine vibrations throughout the car. Was able to nurse it home by accelerating and shifting like an elderly person, whole doing 30kph over the speed limit as it seemed to be smoothest at 3000rpm in 6th. Even declutched whenever I had to do a tighter corner to keep stress down on the drivetrain.

Dropped the car of this morning, they are starting to get to know me. Also instructed them to fit the uprated mount from the 275 per the info I found on this forum. I know that I should upgrade it an M12 bolt to really sort this issue, but I just don't have time and room to deal with that at the moment.

On a positive sidenote: I was finally able to grab a shot of the Mégane together with a mate's Imola Yellow B5 S4
Team Yellow by Martijn Koevoets, on Flickr

To his disappointment the Mégane is way faster doing 100-170kph, so I guess he'll have his remapped rather sooner.