Papps Black R26 Standard to Fast Road & Adventures along the way......

Well guys after 3 months of ownership I thought I should start a thread on my car, what I’ve done and the plans and adventures that it goes on. I’ve read loads of the old ones on the other site and also ones on this and love them, I’m no mechanic tho……..

My car history is a joke and in the early days was limited to what I could actually fit in an insure haha, fair to say I’ve owned a few sheds (97 Punto 85 Elx, 95 1.8 Vento, 99 Polo Sdi). Then I worked in London for 6 years and had no car. Back in Scotland and armed with a couple years NCB it was time to change from my 07 Diesel focus to something I can enjoy.

It all started when my bro went through some old EVO mags, and re read the ‘Best Hot Hatch’ of the 00s – which featured a certain mint GW R26 with a RST map on it, owned by Andy Bond.

Here’s the article…..

 

Once we looked at how cheap R26s were compared to other comparable performance cars the decision was made, and more digging for footage of how they handled sealed the deal.
Within 3 days of starting to look a very clean 08 came up for sale only 20 miles away from me, it needed belts done but apart from that and worn discs it was great, and bought days later….here’s the pics when I picked it up and had the best drive back of my life

 

Belts done as soon as I got the car at Rentec Autocare in Edinburgh (Brain and Barrie are both fully trained Renault mechanics and had a great rep on cliosport forums) for a lot less than 500 using OEM parts. I then had the first weekend of ownership, so I went on a few familar roads and took some pics at some places very near to me......

 

Next was some minor cosmetic changes, ordered some official Mats from Ads, and also got good quality serial numbered R26 decals for the seat mounts for 12 quid on ebay….

 

Next was to debadge the MEGANE from the rear – again this was all good fun as I’ve literally never done a single thing to a car before……



looking a lot better now , also got an aux cable from ebay for around a fiver, got the stereo out and fitted that, along with an ODB II transmitter to get engine temp read outs on Torque Pro......

 

Next in line once I found out how cheap they were was getting an R26.R spoiler, again from Ads, got it properly sprayed in deep black and then fitted by a mate using the meganesport.net fitting guide……

 

After driving about with the rear seats permanently folded down for the noise that comes from the backbox at 5,000rpm () at full chat it was time to take them out and save the weight…….even if only 25kgs... and yes its given me the weight saving bug a little haha

 

One of the first things I read about once I picked up my car was the short shifter mod and how much is changed the shift, I had to try, and I did but sadly I was just a tad too late, Andrew Jeffs was great and sent me a PM on meganesport to let me know…anyway I had a quick search about and in November time noticed that K-Tec had offered a product that basically took a new Renault Linkage and bearings and modded in a way that looks identical to the AJ mod – it was a very expensive piece of kit (£238) but F it, its awesome, and everyone was right, it gives the car a change that matches the performance, so positive and short compared to how it was as standard.

 

Discs were an advisory on the MOT when I bought the car so knew it was coming, (if anything gave me a little piece of mind that the car really hadn’t been driven like an R26, rather like a family car that they would last 6 year and 60k). After loads and loads and loads of reading and various opinions I opted to go for the R26.R discs from Ads as they were silly cheap and standard pads as I’ll be probably doing 6k miles at least before any future track use.



I plan to probably give DS2500s a shot when these wear out on the front. I was going to go for HC Brembos but then would be left with putting more expensive discs on the rear which didn’t sit well with me.


The car had a service, the short shifter and brakes fitted all round again at RS specialists Rentec in Edin. Here's the wheels now with the different discs on.....

 

Next up was thinking about the remap, which I have been thinking for some time, and at the same time to get a Milltek system and airfilter done, RS Tuning quoted me a great price for all 3, but not with the time to drive down yet, I pulled the trigger on the exhaust and pipercross filter using a demontweaks code and had them both fitted, here’s what she sounds like now……………..

[video=youtube;grxdKxIUj6Y]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grxdKxIUj6Y[/video]

I do love the sound it gives at lower revs, and the look of it, but RIP the Whistle, I loved the whistle that came from the standard exhaust and do miss it a bit lol

Front tyres were both done as well, and given how wet Scotland is till April and the fact that my rears had 6mm I just replaced like with like and stuck 235 GoodyearEagle F1s on again, had them done at Rentec (they basically match the blackcirlces price) and meant I got a steering rack bush replaced as well at the same time.

 

The car doesn’t get used much for city centre driving, and its mainly visiting mates, family and spirited road driving. So far its enjoyed the A701 Moffat road in the Scottish borders a lot, as well as networks of A and B roads in Fife, Perthshire and around Edinburgh. Here’s a few pics of the car out and about......

 

Next Plans for the car are:

Rear strut, cosmetically improve the rear interior (a mat or something), thinking about harnesses and a spare set of alloys that I can have road legal track rubber on for summer / track use.
Will probably be doing a 2 hour 1-1 tuition course at Knockhill before I venture onto track days . Going to wait for a spring to go before thinking about changing anything suspension wise....

Thanks to everyone who has contributed to the forums and the megane community over the years, I’ve probably read your posts and used a few guides that you've contributed to.

 

Cheers Steve, I have a feeling a may be getting my strut sooner than I had budgeted for

 

Cheers
Steven, I think its Jamie that has a black R26 around Livi, I've only been there a few timees with the meg, I'm more queensferry way

 

Haha yeah cheers Page - yeah, its good and bad, loads of grit salt and low temps at this time of year, however, there's a hell of a lot of good roads about, in all directions almost. The car already has the usual chips on the arches and its my only car, so it gets enjoyed whenever I get the chance as long as the temp isn't below 4 degrees.

 

Closer to Wales now tho , I have a few mates in Eccles, and near Lytham, so maybe planning a trip in the spring time and then onto some parts of North Wales

 

Thanks Will - yeah its great to have such a usable performance car that didn't cost the earth, my bank balance doesn't enjoy the car as much as I do lol, stopped smoking not that long ago and that pays for the extra trips to Shell

 

This arrived today from Steve Will probably get it painted black or anthracite and fitted in the next few weeks....

 

haha yeah, its a rear strut bar.

 

Cheers Jamie and haha yeah great spot, good place to park up on the route for some snaps! , not really ventured much further north than there yet.

 

Bring on more daylight and higher temps and thanks will do for sure.

 

Sent in one of the pics from my phone from December to Evo and got included in #mytravelmonth http://www.evo.co.uk/track-and-travel/14883/myevomonth-your-car-pictures-from-december

 

Update time:

Finally made it down to RS Tuning to get the remap done...

Managed to see a gain of 31BHP over standard map, Paul noted the plugs need replacing, so will do that asap.

Here's the graph anyway...



and a couple of pics of the car there.....




Was a great laugh, really enjoyed it, and the highlight of the day - when this rocked up haha.....

Lee in Scunny's Hard work......



Car on the rollers....

[video=youtube;jVuIGAQzzEU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVuIGAQzzEU[/video]

 

And the difference?...well everyone was right, its totally changed the car for the better - the torque comes in so much more at low revs, 5th feels like 4th, and I did get around 3mpg more for the 60 miles or so that I could contain myself. Maybe I'm just hearing things, but it does seem louder from the exhaust as well

Need to get this car on the track now.......