hi all, think better add my 2p to this forum and attempt to start project thread here ill try write this in order of everything thats been done/happened car is megane 225 cup, ive owned for about 18months, before I owned this the car was a mate of mines he owned for 2 years he bought requiring a few jobs turbo, timing belt, and put clutch in it.. also we decatted it and removed AC system (made own tensioner set up for this not ktec/renault kits) this went through many variants until one lasted/worked haha no pics unfortunately but does look more agricultural, function over appearance id say. then one wet early hours of morning returning from nights flyfishing he had a lift of oversteer 'excursion' across a roundabout meeting road a road sign result little accident damage bumper, bonnet wing, crash bar and radiator. car then sat at our garage for few months, until a deal was struck between us he liked my mk2 golf gti trackcar so we traded so with my new vehicle i needed to carry out abit of work so new radiator and crash bar fitted cone filter and cold air feed fitted ktec intercooler hoses & pipe kit (was on offer at time so rude not too and in yellow because why not, more colour is better as you'll see later) acquired second hand bumper which just needed painting, and i repaired and painted bonnet and wing back together was just using now and then on the road, but trackdays was the plan for this car so mate of mine is a re-mapper with DNA tuning http://www.pembrokeshireremapping.co.uk/ not plugging here I swear stg 2 mapping is done should be nice 270-280bhp (we data logged and tweaked map on trackday with wideband fitted, standard intercooler keeping intake temps down extremely well even when it was on a scorching hot day) through this having few issues with our typical random misfire codes new injectors plugs and coils and now running no BOV all is good new front Godspeed discs and EBC bluestuff pads new standard rear discs and mintex pads interior ripped out oreca bucket seat trs harnesses nice yoko ad08s fitted trackday at pembrey (Y) mates out in his vxr too in between our mapping next old exhaust getting tatty so I decided to make nice stainless system to carry on from our decat made previously (no boxes of course) self taught tig welding isnt bad mid section done, no pictures of rear section unfortunately result if IMG link shows the video... my raw supertouring car sound haha (on full throttle changes and she pops nice flames as ive been told on trackdays) next I purchased spare set of cup wheels and invested into slicks, local motorsport tyre dealer gets me ginetta and mini gp cup tyres part worn rest of year consisted of running maintenance and 3 castlecombe trackdays and another pembrey one castle combe days required bolt on silencers as was 102db favorite pictures from these days also fell victim to cold slicks and hitting first chicane at combe to quick and had nice 360 there nearly taking out 2013 gt3 porsche haha after all this and previous year in my mk2 golf on track, genuinely not being passed by much but being held up due alot to trackday rules i decided racing it is and the welsh racing driver association's, welsh sports and saloon championship was where i wanted to be and already knowing some other competitors in that series would help me on deciding to do it.. winter build time first order was suspension, cup suspension may seem stiff and does ride nice but is not ideal, to much roll not stiff enough. tyre wear is appalling on track, especially on slicks. i would use an outside front tyre every trackday as it would scrub out outside edge to canvas could part with 2k plus on ast/kw/nitron so went BC £700 with camber plates and solid topmounts next full inside gutting and polycarb windows these were provided by ACW for a previous agreed deal as they race in my series too and had spoken few months prior at racing meet next rollcage many different ideas came through planning here, also that there really isnt much choice on kit form full MSA compliant cages. custom cages or KTR also there was issues that happend, decided on getting on from custom cages for me to fit.. waited 4 weeks for a message that said theres been delay its going to be another 4 weeks.. this took me past my first test day so cancelled this left me with noone able to provide kit in time.. so i contacted companys and got put onto 2 guys 20 miles away in llandysul that ran company called single source engineering that build rally cars (turned out they used to build touring cars in dubai for the middle east touring car championship). loaded car up to drop with them and discuss cage design and in less than a week its back with full multipoint cage fitted for an extremely reasonable price (less than the multipoint in kit form from custom cages) these pics are off there facebook of them building its incomplete in some.. i havent taken many pics also decided to repaint my slick wheels wanted wild colour so decided on this car is thrown back together now for test day out at pembrey which was on 15/03/15 4 days after car coming back from cage being done.. suspension height corner weight and geometry set up with help from another wrda racer Giles beck (looks after 2 tyrell classic f1 cars and races e30 bmw.. meet all kinds of people attending race meetings haha) car weighed 1200kg 65/35% front to rear towing parallel front camber plates at maxed out at -2 degrees (was thinking id get more) test went well forgot the gopro and got no photos unfortunately .. cars completely different now with even tyre wear, lap times slashed and lift off oversteer bites harder now haha and slicks are not forgiving for though's who have never tried them limit is on/off no in between so had nice 360 onto the grass but if your not crashing your not trying... so now after test car it stripped again cage needs painting numbers and series stickers fitting need new rear calipers (lazy/siezed) new front pads service brake fluid change battery relocation MSA compliant stuff fitting, kill switch, extingusher system bit more mapping and datalogging (having issue with car going into limp mode if i hit the limiter so gotta sort that) more of a diet inside the car sorry for the long post could be illegible as its late and been typing a while ill add more and correct anything in morning haha
limit of 20 pics per post so had to delete some so heres few favorite trackday pics bolt on silencers look awfull but was only way on that day
thought id give the car abit of air and bring outside and work in the sun, also chance to get few pics Todays job was separating the loom and remove all unnecessary circuits nice and tidy now and think i will remove some more stuff from it soon after i get some pins for boot.. can remove all the lock and release electronics all this came out
I think this is the first Megane I have seen prepped for racing. Keep us posted on the progress and how you do at the race days!
You'll have fun removing the sound deadening now you have the cage fitted. Use clip to disable the airbag faults too. You'll get an ABS/ASR fault too now as you've removed the rear abs sensor wiring
Cheers guys and all sound deadening is gone.. And had abs asr fault for 18months as rear sensors have been knackard and disconnected since before I owned it Airbag lights been on since I owned.. Gotta love renault electronics haha
Well more wiring has been removed in past few days.. will be glad to see the end of that then I have been cutting What I can from the shell.. When it still weighed in at 1200kg I was alittle dissapointed.. I know I have a heavy multipoint cage so there's gonna be a diet going on with the shell... doors are heavy so they are gonna be gutted out too then ive stripped nearly everything off ready to paint once diet is done.. cage and interior is going orange like the wheels.. Brave I know but why not..
Na 1200 was with car built up ready to race one the day before my last test day.. Hopefully get some more out now over next few days and get it on the scales then..
Great thread Josh, Thanks for sharing, Love these types of builds and it looks like your doing it properly. Don't envy you with the loom lighting though, I detest electrics so ill be getting someone else to do mine LOL!
Most of it just comes out when you take the tape off.. So not that bad.. then just sorting the common earths out
The boot pins arnt fun. You can cut quite a lot out the boot too. I've put my pins on the removable plastic part so it looks the boot down.
Yes I was looking at that type and they looked pain.. But seen Charles-Hyde bird and James winters racing meganes and countless other cars on Monday at combe using this type which look easier and simplest way http://www.jjcraceandrally.com/oval/bonnet-pins-fasteners/sparco-spring-hooks
Well past few days progress in evenings as back in work now.. been hoovering, prepping and keying the cage and interior and masking all up ready for paint
Well finally finished the prep and masking.. Due to the task in hand being one of the hardest paint tasks to get full coverage on I enlisted a mate to paint the cage.. So got the primer (with hint of the orange top coat in it to help deepen the top coat when it goes on) on the inside and cage.. Can't wait to see it in full orange now.. Having some issues with our extraction fan in the booth, the ducting is too small for our fan so it's not pulling the overspray fully when painting for this amount of time.. so couldn't go full wet on wet with primer to colour.. So colour tommorrow now also looking at this would you think I have a trackday week Sunday lol gonna have to work flat out..
Well painting done now and looks amazing.. Better than I though so rebuilding time now and my now simplified loom is almost hidden in car..
Cheers Jamie it was a gamble that paid off definatly Only been out once since the cage and coilovers.. But about 5-6 on stripped out standard car with remap and some slicks.. At pembrey on Sunday now on trackday final testing before racing starts for me in may
Well update of last few days new steering wheel fitted along with dash (needs bit of tidying up still) loom in tidy but have got some more braided sheathing on its way to cover it all.. only done a test bit and like it so ordered a reel fitted new calipers on rear as they were cooked.. Pipe was corroded solid so shear off so had to re do that length to rear n/s New CL rc6 pads and brake fluid arrived today and braided lines.. boot lid refitted with boot clips as rear release and loom is gone (ignore dodgy looking exhaust.. Bracket snapped and melted bumper last time out haha) new possible sideexit to Come in near future..
so had terrible weekend.. trailer i was borrowing turned up Saturday evening (look like a child made it) and was slightly to narrow so i had to take grinder to it and it just went on (scratched my wheels!!) and caught my exhaust pulled out my sleeve joint on centre pipe.. pissed off but on trailer ready to go... Sunday morning, hitched up and on our way to pembrey for some testing, umm.. i mean trackday .... got about 20miles into the 40mile journey blow out on trailer great, no spare was on this trailer.. so had to limp it home no outing for the megane.. back up decision was to get my mates abf mk2 golf and drive it there and show and teach him track driving, this recovered a shit morning as was good fun car (used to be mine), highlights - having to steer the car under heavy braking as was very light on backend and mate trying to offroad it on esses exit.. monday.. get car off trailer, new tyre.. fuck the nightmare off.. front bumper caught and pulled partially off (angry few mins with new profanities invented) so yea.. 1 step forward 2 step back... racing may 23/24th.. got bit of work to do..
i know was at garage solid for week getting sorted too.. as also pembrey was so quite and would have easily been quickest there lol... i got some decent gopro footage from the golf ill put up too..1.14 laps in 174bhp golf is pretty good so held up ok.. moral of story.. buy own trailer lol
josh don't buy any more cable protective braid cos I can get you some mate from work, unless the stuff you get is so cheap then no worries, can get you sizes from small to quite large , just pay postage , ok amigo and good luck with ya racing )
ah cool was gonna order some today.. id be up for that.. need some that will go over the multiplug so id say that prob open up to 40mm ish and some smaller stuff then (Y)
ok josh no worries, It would be easier for me to ummmmmm borrow it lol if I had the lengths you require too, bare in mind the more it stretches the smaller it gets lol, if you pm me the lengths sometime today, I am in work tomorrow and will try and get what you need, I can also get you some heat shrink too mate to finish off the ends if you like instead of insulation tape (awkward if they still have the connectors on though and you don't want to unplug em) )
One suggestion mate is that on the real small looms with the large connectors you may be better off with black spiral wrap , simply because the braid will have to be so large to get over connector if you don't want to take it apart and wont pull small enough to look nice. will try n track some down for you ok
ill be up garage later ill work out some lengths and sizes and let you know... the tape was the test i got heat shrink for them.. i nearly had a nice reel of multicore from the instrumentation department at my work the other day haha but it got locked away before i made my move on it...
been lacking updates lately been busy getting car ready.. well made it first proper outing today.. qualifying and one race for the pembrey anniversary cup.. then the welsh sport saloon championship tomorrow qualy and 2 races.. will post some pics and all after weekend but as for today qualifying ended early for me as had some horrendous judder came in and wheel bolts had worked abit loose (rookie rushing error) but got minimum of 3 laps done but no fast one as was bedding in brakes on first few only a 1.12 which positioned me in 11th.. race was bit daunting and nervous going into first rolling start finished 9th but had a lock up and run off going into hatchetts hairpin.. was in 8th at that point.. with fastest lap of 1.09.. but can go faster wasnt getting tyres to work in race lots of understeer down to tyre pressures too high didnt have enought time out in qualifying to find this out. but 9th weren't bad seeing as cars ahead were (bmw z4 silhouette, 2 450+ sierras, 2 300bhp red top westfields, ariel atom, mid engined mini silhouette)
Again been busy so not updated but been out racing this weekend again for second round of the pembrey 25th anniversary cup.. And rounds 5&6 of the Welsh sports and saloon car championship. We were supporting the classic touring car club series with plenty of very nice cars in that from the pre 66 Anglias to the boss series ford falcon Aussie v8 supercar.. started weekend giving the car a needed clean and polish after a check over only new items from last rounds were replaced tie rod, wheel studs and some Pirelli slicks (normally use michelins) so Saturday arrived, set up And went through scrutineering ok (was worried as studs I got are very long) fuelled up and off to the assembly area for qualifying (15mins) while in assembly area though noticed the fuel gauge had dropped red light was on (french electrics had lied to me earlier so was on brink of having enough fuel but carried on anyway) did few laps came into pits for quick wheel nut check and pressure check then back out did 2 laps and car hit fuel cut due to very low level through high speed corner so backed off coasted back to pits where it was end of session anyway.. Managed a 1.08.4 which a is second faster than Ive been before so very happy qualified me 10th overall and 6th in class (class wise I'm punching above my weight everything is either half my weight or twice my power haha) will carry on first race and Sunday's event later got to go to work
Nice update! - would love to see this beast in action! Met a really nice chap with a LY200T the other night at Knockhill - mentions he had been on track with you before!
I second papps, would love to see some in car footage. I am getting massive track action withdrawal symptoms this year and need you guys and youtube vids to keep me going. Car looks fantastic btw, same colour as my 944 S2 race car.
Cheers and I have got few videos from Saturday I'll try get uploaded tommorrow and type up rest of weekend.. Got 3rd in class in last race.. Here's vid from someone else with me in http://youtu.be/boJGdqhg9P8 the vento is a very fast car but he was having issues but as were in same class he was blocking good and proper as it was for 3rd place in class you'll see once I found some aggression and past I was gone.. I'd shredded my from slicks so had to go half and half for that race and it wasn't let's say 'predictable' with ad08s on back..
