R26 Track Day Build

Having been bitten by the track day bug and deciding my Mercedes C63 AMG wasn't the ideal choice as a focused track car I decided to buy an R26 Megane.

I looked at a few cars one of which the garage was deluded at what he was selling for and saying it was immaculate when it was far from it........but I settled on a black one with 66k on the clock and knackered brakes.







The discs and pads were knackered which made for an interesting journey home trying not to hit the brake pedal!! The garage said they would replace them but I didn't see the point when I was going to upgrade them anyway so I just got them to knock £500 off of the price.

I replaced the front discs with Black Edition Grooved discs



For the back I just went with standard drilled discs



Front pads are CL RC5+ and rear pads are Ferodo DS2500

I also replaced the brake lines with KTR braided hoses and used PFC RH665 fluid



We ran into issues straight away with one of the locking wheel nuts decided to disintegrate so we had to drill it out. Then a couple of the bolts holding the calipers in had welded on so I just replaced all of them to stop any issues in the future. Following that the original brake lines were a nightmare to undo resulting in one of the calipers needed to be rethreaded.

Next job was to strip out the back and take out the double din stereo ready for a day at Brands Hatch. I also changed the tyres for some Federal 595RSR and had the wheel alignment checked.

 

The day at Brands went well with the car performing excellently, it's not as quick on the straights as my C63 but much quicker in the bends. I had a small moment in the afternoon going into paddock where the car was moving around under braking and felt floaty which was due the tyre pressures being too high.
The standard Recaro bucket seats aren't supportive enough for me so I will be replacing them very soon for some fixed buckets.

Today I ordered a weld in Oreca roll cage with a harness bar and door bars but that won't be arriving until January

 

Thanks Louis, it seems these cars were made for it

 

Not really Brands is 1hr 45mins from me, Goodwood is my closest track......Bedford and Castle Combe are 2hrs away

I did Goodwood a few months ago in my merc but they were really restrictive with noise and only allowed 7 cars on track at a time. They also did sessions instead of open pit lane which restricted how much track time you got

 

I've had a bit more progress on the car, I purchased a KTR induction kit and a new intake pipe in red as I want to stick to a black and red theme with the car.

Pic of the parts:



Its a bit annoying trying to do anything at this time of year due to it being dark when you get home from work but i nosed the car in under my porch in front of the garage to give me some light.
I stripped out the battery, battery tray, ECU and existing air box ready for new induction kit....it was a bit fiddly getting everything out of the way.

In Progress:


Next came the bit that tested my patience lol.........getting the existing intake pipe out was a real pain, particularly getting to the jubilee clip which is round the back of the engine which you need to find using touch alone.

After locating the screw I couldn't get a screwdriver onto it and I couldn't quite get a small socket wrench onto it and turn it. I was close to giving up but I persevered because it made sense considering I had everything taken apart. I tried for ages and after carving up my hands and arms I managed to get it to move using a socket and my fingers.

So everything went back in and this was the finished article:

 

Hello Danith....thanks for the heads up, I am going to sell them I just haven't got anything to replace them with yet. Next trackday isn't until the 20th of February so I could do without any seats in it for a bit.

 

I was thinking that when i put it in although there's not much room, I left the original pipe from the old airbox to help. When you moved the battery into the boot what did you do with the original connections?

 

To be fair the engine bay in the megane isn't a pretty site as standard.

 

Nice I'll have a look into that....I like the look of your new battery tray replacement

 

I've sold the original Recaro seats so I thought that would be a good opportunity to strip out the carpet and sound deadening in the front of the car.
I was a bit surprised to find the foam was wet on the drivers side foot well and when I took it out there was some water in there







Anyone know what this is below........its under the back seat??

 

Next will be to fit these.......

 

I remember reading something on here about the scuttle drain I'll have to have a look when I get a minute.

Aaaaahhh yes that would make sense about the fuel pump

 

Is this the guide you were thinking of http://rsmegane.com/threads/250-265-275-scuttle-drains.7684/

 

I've pretty much weighed everything i've taken out of the car and it comes to 131kg....almost the weight of two people! I still need to remove the rear seat belts, the head lining and a bit more foam sound deadening.

The new bucket seats weigh 10kg each and the roll cage going in will add a fair bit of weight.

 

Yeah I have I'll dig it out and post it here


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Wow that's quite a lot


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As requested this is a list of stuff I’ve removed from the car to lose weight….and gain some noise lol

I've also noticed I cant count, I originally said 131kg

All figures are in kg

Stereo - 1.6
Parcel shelf - 1.6
Rear floor matt - 5.3
Spare wheel - 19.3
Jack + wrench + foam holder - 2.0
Passenger seat - 23.7
Drivers seat - 23.8
Rear seat bottom section - 5.1
Rear seat back section and belts – 22.9
Parcel shelf brackets both sides – 0.4
Spare wheel insulation – 0.6
Rear quarter panel including speaker both sides – 4.6
Boot matt over spare wheel – 1.0
Rear floor matts – 0.7
Boot side fabric panels both sides – 1.0
Front carpet – 6.7
Front foam sound deadening – 5.5

Total = 125.8

 

A pair of KTec sub frames arrived for my seats yesterday so I can get those in the car now. The sub frames weigh 3.6kg each

Next track day is booked for the 3rd of February at Brands Hatch

 

I hadn't planned on it but I may take out the glove box. If I was going to use it for racing it might be different


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Had a good day at Brands Hatch today (3rd Feb) the car was performing well. I had it on the limit which ended with a few hairy moments lol [emoji23].
The new bucket seats are much better than the standard seats but I still need to fit some harnesses. I need to get some money together to fit some coilovers, seeing that gap in the wheel arches is killing me


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That's a shame it would have been a good comparison. I didn't have any timing equipment but from the video it was around 58seconds on a good lap.
Have fun tomorrow [emoji1303]


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Hello David, good to meet you too. It will be interesting to see what you think when you get the car back from Ktec.

I would love to do Goodwood but my wife will be giving birth on the 9th of March so it's a bit close to that.


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Couple of pics from the day......looks like I could do with cleaning it