Megane 265 full fat cup

Hi All,

Its been a little while, a crazy month and a bit. Unfortunately my father died before Christmas so everything has been on the back burner. However onwards and upwards they say and finally time to fit the remaining parts I had lying around and sort out the terrible knock on the suspension.

So it was off to a friends garage to tackle a couple of the easy jobs, Wagner intercooler fitted and also powerflex black top engine mount.













The next jobs I left to the professional. First was to fit the miltek decat and luckily as the front suspension was coming apart it meant that drive shaft could be removed and the old cat could come out in one piece. (£300 currently for the old cat )

Then on to the big job of a total front overhaul. I already have new shocks and springs so why not replace all the ball joints and bushes..... wow this took some doing.

Parts fitted:

Upper and lower hub joints - From Rene
Wishbone ball joints - From Rene
Powerflex black front and rear wishbone bushes
new anti rotation links

in hignsight maybe the rs 250 wishbones would have been an easier quicker option however all parts replaced are uprated so its a good thing.....


















Now these bad boys took some battering to get out, honestly the smallest amount of rust at the top keep them firmly from budging. once finally cracked they came out with zero problems.













The car feels fantastic now and zero knocks, also with the decat it sounds very asbo in sport mode which i love but actually not to bad in normal.

And finally I popped out thursday to a FWD thinking event at Caffeine and machine, it was a good evening with lots of cars. A photographer managed to take some fantastic pictures of the Megane also which was nice.

 

A quick video of the decat and blanking plate/engine noise

 

Handling seems to be much improved, much stiffer and direct however will have to see what its like on track. Im booked into Anglesea in May.

Its a bit cold which is why the car is so loud, in normal mod the only real difference to the exhaust is that it does pop a little when warm on gear changes and is a tiny bit louder than what i had before. In sports mode its totally different, pops, bangs and is loud enough to wake your deaf grandmother

Also thanks for the kind words Manugtt, life is so short so enjoy what you can. Hence the focus on the car and booking more track days.

 

Finally dropped off the 18" Keza wheels to be refurbished in red. Also ive had these arrive so i will have a nice set of track wheels and tyres .

To all the tyre snobs out there, yes these are Accelera 651 Sport extras, a semi slick 100 treadwear tyre. I just couldnt resist, with the latest offers ive just paid £314 for 4 x 235/40/18 . Looking at reviews I cant really see any bad ones, apparently they are meant to be better than NS2r and ADO8rs which if they are for that money its a no brainer.

I mean I currently have Zestinos on my Steev's which were another budget semi slick and they performed really well on track.... Lets hope the Accelera live up to expectations

 

Finally picked up my track set of wheels from refurbish, ceramic coated and trial fitted them. Its pretty bold to say the least but on track it will look fantastic .

I think it massively transforms the look into something more fun.

 

Small update,

Ive still been having a knock within the drivers side front suspension. Its not been easy to identify what the problem was but after much investigation it came down to the silver project top mounts.

Unfortunately the adjustable top mounts are of a poor quality, the bushes had perished after 200 miles ish and the whole design is not fit for purpose.

After some research I chose to purchase some Compbrake adjustable top mounts, the quality of these top mounts are fantastic and on inspection you can just tell that they will be so much better.

Coilovers was an option but the cost was still too much and the car does handle fantastic on cup shocks and lowering spring with some camber. I'm sure I will have coilovers at some point so which is why I opened up the hole on the top of the strut.

New top mounts are fitted and a rough setup was done giving me -2 camber with +1 of caster. The garage are waiting on a full string geo setup to arrive so once it has ill have everything checked and I might push the camber a little further.

 

Another little mod, was concerned with the reports on vibrations but its not bad. You know its there while pulling off but then it settles down. A defo improvement on gear shifts etc, also only took me 20 mins ish

 

Track day number 3 complete, each time the car has been improved and impresses me more and more.

The track was Anglesey Costal circuit.

First I was in need of some prep, this includes the obvious clean, stripping out the rear seats so I can fit my wheels in and all the other essentials for the day.







However before leaving I noticed a heatshield type noise, luckily I was joining BIB performance and some friends so I could pop the car on the ramp for a good look around. Wow I was lucky, it wasnt the heat shield it was the Decat hanging on by one stud as the rest had worked their way out. Luckily BIB had some studs and nuts so we managed to sort it before leaving.... Phew!




4 hours journey later, a stop over at a local Premier inn and only 2 Pints it was the morning and ready to experience this iconic track.

My thoughts on the track: Its fantastic but more tricky than first thought. The views are stunning but you have zero time to appreciate them as your concentrating on driving. This track I would say is much more suited to rear wheel drive, its an understeering beast and really took its toll on my passenger front tyres.

Unfortunately I dont have any footage this time as it wouldnt work but managed a 1.24.86, certainly not blistering but ok.

Anyway heres some track photos:

























and as always my friend in his beast of an M3 bullying me on a lap:



And then thought it was funny to add some novice stickers to the boot.... cheeky sod:



The heavens then opened up around 3pm so decided to steal a garage, change wheels around and pack up:




Overall a very epic day, more mods required to one day beat that M3 HAHA.

 

I was hoping to be updating you all on my remap at EFI however covid has hit the EFI team and its been delayed for a week.

After Anglesey and really struggling with understeer I needed to make some changes. So back to my pal at BiB motorsports for some much needed rear shims and a few suspension changes.

We went ahead and added some rear camber and some toe out to the rear, maxed out front camber and re done the allignment.

The car is now sat with -2.2 degrees camber on the front, +1 caster and 0.05" tow out. Rear now has 0" toe and -2 degrees camber.

 

To test out the new suspension settings I managed to book onto the Donnington GP circuit for an evening session.

All packed and ready to go:



Donnington is a fantastic track, second favourite now. One thing I noticed with this track is you need to have a decent level of bravery, this took a little while for me and as it was an evening session I ran out of time to be fully satisfied. Its such a fast track and you need to be full on committed and braking very late.

So how did the upgrades do... fantastic, the car turns in so much better. Having a back end that I can step out if needed is really useful.

Not that times are ever a goal but I managed a 1.59 on the full gp circuit. The car did what it needed to do and those Accelera tyres were doing a great job for their price. My talent or lack of is what let the timing down. I need to brake much later and fully commit to some of those sections. I think on a full day I could have achieved a 1.57 easily.

Anyway a fantastic session and the car really is performing well. Remap in a week and then back to the allmighty cadwell, finally a chance to see if I and the car have improved .

Some action shots:

 

A tiny update, noticed some horrible noises coming from the rear brakes so after inspection ive cooked my rear pads on the last track day. Im wondering if I left the T/C on for a session by mistake as the rears did have about half life left. I have a 200 mile round trip tomorrow to EFI for a remap so luckily I had my old brembo pads from when I bought the car.

So quickly swapped these over... the PBS pads were very low and the noise i think is the top of the pad hitting the disc... eek. I suppose 4 tracks days and 4k miles thats not bad wear for a softer compound. Ive order a fresh set of PBS race as I really liked them and for £120 the price is very good.




I think I might look at replacing the callipers, the paint from the rears are peeling off and their not bad priced.

Efi tomorrow for a remap, I cant wait to finally have a proper map on this car to really unleash its potential and smooth out the drivability.

 

Huge update... Im now the new owner of a Megane RS 265.... Confused?


Well what an interesting and long day Friday was. The car was booked in to finally have a proper remap which with all the modifications it desperately needed. After some research and a vote on facebook it was quite obvious that EFI was the place to have this done.

So I set off nice and early to make the 120 mile trip to EFI in Runcorn, Arrived 5 mins just before the owner Chris arrived.

Chris really was amazing, he started off by asking the history and modifications to the car, also wanted to know future plans etc. He asked what I was wanting and expecting from the remap. Quite simply I wanted Chris to do what he does best, no silly crackles and pops i just want as a safe but power map that suits the car on track. I explained that the car already had a plug in generic map which has been on the car for some years from the previous owner. I did say that the claims were meant to be around 290bhp but i wasnt sure, either way I wanted the map gone and a proper map put on instead.

First off was to get the car strapped to the dyno and do a couple of pulls to see where the car was at, i think he was intrigued on how the Blufin map was doing.

First pull.... terrible. so two issues, 1. The first lambda sensor at the top of the engine bay wasnt reading anything and was dead. Not an issue as this wont effect the map but will need replacing as soon as possible. This would also explain the slightly lumpy idle and the terrible fuel consumption... not that they are good on fuel.

2nd issue and a big one... I had a huge boost leak. The car made 245bhp and about 290ftlb torque.... shocking. Even though ive had this car for just over a year I had no idea. I also felt like the car was pretty quick and ran very well. I was a bit embarrassed that I hadn't spotted this. So this is where Chris really was amazing, he spent a good hour plus looking for the problem, taking hoses off etc etc. Most places would have said sorry come back when its working but not Chris, he knew id been waiting a while for the remap and also that i came quite a distance. Anyway he finally found this issue, the main boost pipe that bolts to the block was loose, it was missing two bolts and the seal was popped out. Ive never been near this area so it must had been like this since i bought it. Anyway all fixed and new bolts put back in, time to re run the dyno.

Finally a first full pull, again terrible. 280bhp and about 300ftlb, the generic plug in blufin map was meant to be "stage 1
300bhp. My car is actually at "stage 2" with the decat and intercooler so you would expect atleast 300bhp.... goes to show how bad these generic plugin maps are. However that wasnt the bad part, The map itself was terrible, not smooth or safe.

I wont pretend to understand quite what AFR is but i know if its too high then engines go bang. Chris had said that around 11 is nice and safe, we peaked at over 16. So im now worrying thinking that my engine will be toast as ive done 3 track days etc etc. Chris did explain that the engine seems in great shape and that the standard map will prevent it from detonating more than once which protects the engine. I did read on this forum that the Blufin map has had mixed reviews however it was documented that it would run lean. I can confirm that the blufin map on mine was running lean.

Anyway thats why I was at EFI to put a much better and safer map.

Now the car was ready for Chris to do his magic, I was expecting this to take 20 mins but Chris must have ran about 5-6 revisions to get the map perfect. The attention to detail is why he is so well recommended.

So final results, 308.2bhp and 348.5ftlb torque.... wooo . good figures. I dont really care about the figures its more on how the car drives. Also there are other tuning companies within the UK that would have achieved an unsafe or not accurate 320bhp etc. The main reasons I went to EFI is that the dyno he uses is very accurate and Chris is also a guru and will not allow a car to be tuned to the point where its unreliable.

Before paying Chris insists that I take it out for a spin. Now just remember that I thought my car was a rocket but I was running 245bhp due to the boost leak. OMG the car is bonkers, it scares the crap out of me. The difference in how this car performs really is night an day. The power is so smooth and unlike before it keeps going through the full rev range. Also Im glad I was on an industrial estate because it went like stink, it hit some big numbers pretty quick.

So Im pretty happy with it .

The map costs £360, thats a bargain especially as he fault finds and repaired the issues.

A few days in and im still not used to this car, it is literally like the first day ive owned it, it truely scares the crap out of me and I cant wait to get this on track and really see its true potential.

I have a couple of snaps from my trip, plus the dyno read outs. In red will show you the previous map.... its not good.









Then finally a snap of one of Chris's pride a joys. Its either the fastest or one of the fastest FWD cars in the UK. Running the megane RS engine but with many many upgrades and a HUUUGE turbo. does the qtr mile in 8.6 seconds doing 170mph. Thats what 1014bhp gets you

 

Ha ouch, however 240 mile round trip @1.98 per litre of 99 ron and averaging around 29mpg is still a looooong way and an expensive trip .

I suppose again this is why Chris is so good, he sticks with what he knows and does that well, he doesnt want to start mapping diesels which he doesnt have the knowledge of.

 

30 minutes... you did well... I do waffle .

Certainly ups and downs but the ups are worth it.

Order direct from compbrake themselves, give them a message first with the suspension your looking to get so they can confirm fitment:

https://www.compbrake.com/product/r...p-cap-pair-ultimate-3-piece-fully-guaranteed/

Ive always wondered how to bilsteins would compare again cup shocks and lowering springs. BC are meant to be terrible, not to bad on track but on road are meant to be horrid. This is why ive stuck with the cup shocks, lowering springs and adjustable top mounts as id want some KW or Nitron coilovers but with so many other mods required I couldnt afford them.

 

BC have their place just like most low end parts. Im going to wait it out for something better and stick with my Cup shock and lowering spring combo with camber adjustment. seems to do well for now and my driving needs quite a bit more improvement before ill be chasing times and needing a better setup

 

Oh I've got no chance. That m3 is incredible, 3 track days with it and it's pretty much the fastest thing on track. He's due to stroker the engine next so will just add a ton more torque. Its a beast.

However I'm back at cadwell next month so I will truly be able to see if there has been an improvement. I was their with an almost standard car so can't wait.

 

Glad to know. I've got a list of upgrades so coilovers are not on the radar yet. Half cage, buckets and harnesses next. I also want to try some better tyres like ar1's and then will sort some coilovers. Probably kw's

 

Same story as me, the generic map was also running dangerously lean and on the verge of det. It was always a concern when I got the car and wanted it properly mapped but waited untill I had all my performance mods in place first.

Chris is a legend, i couldn't recommend him enough

 

small update.

Finally got a set of pads for the rear, seems to be some delay on the PBS race so decided to opt for some CL RC5+. I hear great things about their performance but horror stories about the noise they make . However im all up for performance over noise, my fronts can be pretty loud at times anyway.

Will be keeping my spare brembo set as a back up for track days, tons of life left on them, not that they will last long on track.

All went well but two jobs added to the list. Drivers rear bleed nipple is almost rounded off, managed to get it tight after the bleed but 100% needs replacing next time round. Also the callipers are looking a mess, even though they function perfectly the paint is flaking off the rears and have faded on the fronts. I believe refurbished callipers are pretty cheap so might be worth swapping them out rather than refurbing them myself. Anyway something for the future.







And then a full flush of RBF660 as the fluids done a year with 4 track days. Using an easy bleed system which was fantastic.

 

The Winmax on the front squeal a bit but braking are epic, id imagine they compare to RC6. I think the PBS race are meant to have a little more stopping power than the RC5+ but i feel that the reviews on the initial bite and general feel are better on the RC5+.

Either way i get looks all the time, pops and bangs and a few squeals from the brakes.... but it certainly is race car

 

Hi all,


A nice update on a very successful day out at Cadwell park. This is my first time coming back to a track with this car so a perfect chance to see if things have improved. I was last at Cadwell in Sept 21 and managed a 1:50.9 laptime which was on a fairly standard car.


Fast forward to Friday last week and ive managed to achieve a 1.47.5 which is almost 3.5 seconds a lap quicker… that’s HUGE! The car as always was fantastic, with the remap really impressing me as this car just pulls so strong. Tyres were holding up very well, id like to go with some AR1’s next time but these Accelleras are fantastic value for money, a real budget price that competes with mid-range is awesome.


Not much else to say apart from I’m certainly enjoying life in the Megane RS lane and hoping to get a couple more track days in before the summer ends.