Puma's replacement (Picture heavy)

[FlashBastd]

Thanks! The car was brilliant, such great fun. The 888's are really great tyres, once hot they were really sticky! The brakes were so hot they were smoking, but they never changed their feel.

There was a guy there in a VX220, who was pretty handy, but once I had a feel for the track I could pretty much stick with him. The only stuff that really went past me was an Evo, Scooby, some 911's and some lightweight stuff, 7's, and a D-type Jag.

I will definately be doing more track days, just wish I could be guarenteed the kind of weather we had there, conditions were perfect!

 

[Neil]

Looks fantastic - I love that car

 

[FlashBastd]

Cheers! I really like it, still jelous of your turbo torque and near 40mpg though!

Still to come is a ported and polished inlet manifold, which I am probably going to get powder coated before fitting, haven't decided what colour yet though. I really fancy bright red like the rocker cover on a Cossie, but don't think it would go with my blue silicon pipes, so will probably end up with a pretty blue, or anthracite.

Also fancy getting some more speedlines for road use, but will only do that if some come up cheap.

 

[FlashBastd]

So nothing especially exciting to report, but I have just fitted an auto-dim mirror from a Laguna 2, which was pretty straightforward, also took the opportunity to hard wire the TPMS display, phone cradle, and prepared for a nav unit.

Couple of pics from my recce to Buttertubs on my way back from Glasgow yesterday;

TPMS now hard wired;

Phone cradle with the wiring now tucked away;

And a couple of the auto-dim mirror;

The car is absolutely filthy at the moment, it hasn't been washed for ages (work on house, holiday, week away on a job, etc.), so please don't judge from the pics!

Also as I knew I would be ferrying two colleagues around this week, I removed the boot tray thing, which really helped the versatility of the boot, especially with the full sized spare, so I don't think that will be going back in, for now at least.

Also I rewired the car kit, using the ISO plugs tucked away behind the head unit, rather than running the whole lot under the drivers seat, and back. The only additional wires that now go to the tuner part are the mute wire, and the four line-in wires, which makes it much neater.

Still really like this car, I have a few minor revisions to make over the coming weeks, GPS mount, and the odd rattle to pin down, but nonetheless, it is a brilliant little car.

 

[Supersonic]

Glad to hear you're still enjoying it, these things get under your skin don't they!

I've had mine for over a year now and I still love driving it, though I have a 'to do' list of almost constant length, no matter how much I get done.

 

[FlashBastd]

Nothing exciting to report at the minute, just recevied this today;

Will be fitting soon, at the same time as applying some Second Skin Damplifier to the front doors and trims.

 

[FlashBastd]

I haven't updated this for a while, and though nothing significant has happened, there have been some minor developments;

Firstly, the Pioneers are ok, but if I was doing it again I wouldn't bother, if only as replacement tweeter covers are £45 each if (when) you break one removing the original tweeters.

Managed to leave one of my key cards in my jeans the other day, I was only alterted to it by my wife questioning the knocking noise from the dryer - miraculously though it still seemed to work, which I think was a bonus and has saved me some messing about.

I have a second inlet manifold which was port matched by APD a couple of months ago. Unfortunately when I received it back the vac nipple by the TB was badly bent and cracked, and snapped off when I tried to straighten it, I sent it back to Craig and am hoping to get it back this week.

On the subject of the manifold, I am planning on getting it powder coated, and am open to suggestions, I am currently torn between anthracite, bright red, or a bright / candy blue? While I obviously want it to look good under the bonnet (with blue silicon hoses), I don't want to limit it's appeal when I put the car back to standard and come to sell it (the inlet). Also I am not planning on getting the lower inlet coated as you can barely see it, does this sound sensible, or cheap?

Finally, in preparation for all of this, I set to removing the "Renault Sport" badge today, as follows;

Fan assisted oven @ 200C for 10min, then carefully remove using a wallpaper scraper. Once cooled, removed adhesive by rubbing, using brake cleaner to soften.

It has come off very well, and should be fine to refit once the manifold is powder coated.

Pics;

inlet with badge removed

upper and lower

gasket on lower

gasket on upper

PTFE Vs OE gasket

PTFE Vs. inlet to head mating face

Of course these pics would mean more when compared with an unmodified mani, but those pics will have to wait.

The PTFE gaskets seem to have mixed reviews, but I have to replace it anyway, so it isn't any extra work.

Couple of weeks ago I made some rally style mudflaps for the front of the car, started off with some 4mm black rally flap material, made a template using cardboard, and fited into place using two self-tappers, the original screw for the liner, and two Ford mudflap clamps that I had knocking around.

If I am critical, I haven't quite got the angle right, the bottom corner sticks out a touch too far, but at this time of year that is no great problem, I will probably give them a tweek at some point. Good news is that both came out of a single piece of rally flap material, so I have some left to have a crack at the rears.

The latest news (from today) is that the little car got its first drive for about a week today, took it to the RR day at RS Tuning. The results were probably about what I expected @ 176.4BHP, I would have liked 180+, but can't really complain, the curve was relatively smooth, and the car is quick enough to drive, so at the end of the day it is just a number.

I saw 2 200's get tried, one made 181, the other 191 (interestingly with it's airbox lid removed?), so my 176 isn't too bad. I plan on taking it back when I have had the APD inlets fitted, to see if they make any difference. I think a couple more 197's rolled in just as I was leaving, so it would be interesting to know what they made.

I will get the graphs scanned on Monday, but in the meantime here are a couple of (rather poor Blackberry) pics of the car on the rollers;

 

[Scotty1.7]

Intresting flash

So you 97bhp is at the fly- in theroy an transmission loss through the ront wheels is neigh on 28bhp?

Any clutch issues?

I would of though it would be closer then that- its over 10% transmission loss?

 

[FlashBastd]

No, ATW was 145.9BHP. The car should make 194BHP at the fly (197PS), but pretty much none of these make book power, take the example of the guy with the 200 who's car was only making an estimated 181 @ the fly, when it should have been making 197BHP (200PS).

 

[Scotty1.7]

Hmm- Wonder how renault get the to run 197bhp???

They have to justify and prove that don't they to be allowed to publish it?

 

[FlashBastd]

Who knows, but like I say, very few, if any do hit the published power.

Interestingly of the two 200's that I saw, the one that hit 191 was running without an airbox lid, if I go for another run I might try this to see what if any difference it makes.

 

[FlashBastd]

Update time!

There was a queue outside the carpark after work one night, so while I was waiting I decided to try taking some dodgy pics;

These are the best of a bad lot, really need a better camera (and perhaps a better photographer...) for this kind of thing.

Changed my spark plugs, great service from Opie Oils for the new ones, think they cost just over £37.

The car had a 72k service in May, around 6,500 miles ago, shortly before I got it, which apparently included plugs, however these bad boys look older than that...

To be fair it was driving ok with the old plugs, but they may have contributed to it being a bit under power on the RR.

After change the plugs, I visited the garage, planning on doing an oil & filter, and finally getting around to fitting my APD inlet manifold. Also wanted to remove a redundant resonator.

Firstly I had quite a job getting out of my road, due to the light dusting of snow overnight.

Cutting to the chase, I didn’t leave in my car; only two things went wrong, but one of them is more expensive that I had expected!

1. Trying to remove the MAP sensor from the original inlet, I managed to snap off the flange, which was rather annoying, especially as a new MAP sensor is around £90! Should have one for Tuesday though, so fingers crossed.

2. Removing the under tray, I managed to shear off one of the rear bolts, very annoying, but not unheard of at this time of year.

In addition, due to the 4mm PTFE inlet mani gasket, one of the mounting bolts couldn't be refitted, which was also annoying.

Anyhow, crucially the inlets are now fitted, oil is changed, and the new MAP sensor arrived in time for me to collect it just before Christmas.

Given that I am still considering getting my upper inlet powder coated, if anyone has any suggestion as to how to remove the MAP sensor in future without breaking it, I would be delighted to hear from you!

Once I got the car home I fitted new Valeo pencil coils, and am looking forward to see how the car drives, with a view to getting it back on an RR in the new year. Reading about the coils they are only designed to have a 60k miles life, so despite mine seeming fine, they were about due for replacement. Will keep the old ones as spares though, just in case.

The car got a wash late last week, and hasn't really been driven since, so was still presentable enough for a couple of pics, nothing particularly new, aside from the inlet manifold and new ignition coils, neither of which are especially photogenic, I have finally got around to fitting Jase's s/s inlet pipe and the silicone hose to join it up.

I have been running the car on VPower, and it does seem easier to drive when cold, which was an unexpected but seemingly common result.

I also re-jigged the wiring the phone kit, took out the drivers lower dash and glovebox, tidied things up a bit and solved a loose connection.

Thanks for reading, comments always welcome!

 

[Scotty1.7]

awesome matey love it