Performance french cars 2018

SUPERCHARGED 200 BOOSTED

BY BELT!

DS3 RACING 270BHP AND FORGED

www.performancefrenchcars.co.uk

T H E U K ’ S N o .1 R E N A U LT, P E U G E O T & C I T R O Ë N T U N I N G M A G A Z I N E

TURBO SPECIAL TUNING TURBO CARS AND CONVERTING NON-TURBOS

197 TURBO

DIY 250 CONVERSION WITH OVER 440BHP!

MEGANE 275 TROPHY-R

EVEN THESE AMAZING CARS CAN BE IMPROVED ON...

106 TURBO BIG BOOST BEAST

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2018

PLUS: CLIO TROPHY WELSH WEEKEND ROAD TRIP • RCZ TURBO PROJECT • TRAX SHOW REPORT • READERS CARS • NEFCO CLUB PROFILE

£4.50

French Car Specialists Citroën l Renault l Peugeot

Established Since 1988

www.cituninguk.com

Sales Hotline:

0115 978 4148 We have in-house manufacturing facilities and are happy to quote on unique projects, so please contact us

www.primaracing.com Milltek Stainless Steel Exhaust Systems Exhaust Manifolds & Sports Cats 1800cc Stroker Conversions Forged Pistons & Con-Rods Competition Bearings, Cambelts, Multilayer Headgaskets Fully Modified Cylinder Heads Billet Lightweight Steel Flywheels Engine & Gearbox Re-builds

ECU Re-Mapping by Superchips Direct to head Throttle Body Kits Clutch Kits – Competition & Standard Spec BMC, Pipercross & Green Induction Kits Full Engine Machining Facilities In-House Engine Conversions Tar-Ox Brake Kits + 6 Pot Conversions Aeroquip Brake Hose Sets

Lowering Springs & Gaz Coilover Kits OMP Strut Braces & Rollcages Morette Quad Headlamp Conversions Stylish Bodystyling, Rear Spoilers & Accessories 4 Wheel Alignment & Suspension Geometry General Servicing & MOT PL Alloy Wheels ‘Speedline Replica’

Prima Racing, Palm Street, New Basford, Nottingham, NG7 7HS Fax: 0115 979 2427 MAIL ORDER – SECURE ONLINE ORDERING – WORLDWIDE DELIVERY

www.performancefrenchcars.co.uk www.frenchcarshow.co.uk EDITOR: Simon Comins chip@performancefrenchcars.co.uk SUB-EDITOR:

Russell Fitch russ@performancefrenchcars.co.uk ART EDITOR: Mark Baker mark_baker04@yahoo.co.uk ADVERTISING ENQUIRIES: Mark Dow mark@performancefrenchcars.co.uk SUBSCRIPTIONS & ACCOUNTS MANAGER: Jennifer Dow jennifer@performancefrenchcars.co.uk MANAGEMENT – FCS LTD PUBLISHER Mark Dow mark@performancefrenchcars.co.uk CONTRIBUTORS AND PHOTOGRAPHY: Lauren Tayla, Adam Walker, Chris St Denis, Chris Wallbank, Mike Ridley SUBSCRIPTIONS, BACK ISSUES & DISTRIBUTION: Available at www.performancefrenchcars.co.uk NEWSSTAND DISTRIBUTION: Warners Group, West Street, Bourne, Lincs PE10 9PH PRINTING: Warners Midlands plc, Bourne, Lincs Can’t find PFC Magazine in shop near you?

Email: jennifer@performancefrenchcars.co.uk Alternatively you can guarantee your copy and save money by subscribing online at: www.performancefrenchcars.co.uk FCS Ltd ,Old Community Centre, Midfield Terrace, Steelend, KY129NB Registered as a Limited Company in England & Wales.

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Disclaimer: Technical features: Readers wishing to carry out any of the tasks outlined in technical or ‘step by step’ features should ensure they have the necessary skills and equipment to do so safely. FCS Ltd accept no responsibility for any injury or damage incurred in the process of following one of these features.

WE WANT YOUR CAR! PFC is on the hunt for quality feature cars.

So if yours has got what it takes, we want to hear from you. Email pics and a brief spec to features@performancefrenchcars.co.uk and if it hits the spot, you could get your car in the mag.

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JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2018

WELCOME TO PFC Well its that time of year when all the shows have finished and the weather isn’t great for trackdays sadly; But the good news is that means it’s also a great time to get out in the garage and get on with building something for next summer of course!

So if you have a project you are working on over winter then be sure to let us know all about it in case it would make a good feature car or readers rides car when you have finished it.

Also if you did any good road-trips this year and have collected plenty of pictures along the way and might be interested in writing it up for the mag (like the Clio Trophy lads have done for this issue with their fantastic welsh weekender) then drop us a line as we might be able to feature a couple of readers roadtrips over the winter/spring issues of the magazine; To give people some good inspiration for planning their own trips.

We’ve just confirmed with the Clio Sport Owners Club that their next weekender will be in May at Blyton Park, so if you have a Clio or other Renault Sport model then pop onto their FaceBook group at www.facebook.com/ClioSportOC/ and have a chat to them about track-time with your own car.

French Car Show planning we hear is well under way now. We expect to be able to give you all the details for the 2018 event in the next issue of the mag.

Here’s hoping Santa brings you lots of goodies for your car!

Simon ‘Chip’ Comins Editor

PERFORMANCE

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SPECIALISED CUSTOM TUNING

FOR RENAULT, CITROEN, AND PEUGEOT CARS MOST MAKES AND MODELS CATERERED FOR FROM SERVICING TO FULL CUSTOM BUILDS

IN-HOUSE DEVELOPED CUSTOM REMAPPING PERFORMANCE PACKAGES ADVANCED 2400 BHP 4WD DYNO DYNAMICS DYNO CELL FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK TO SEE OUR PERFORMANCE TUNING. SEARCH RS TUNING LIMITED

info@rstuning.co.uk  www.rstuning.co.uk

Call +44(0) 1132 436444

CONTENTS

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42

MEGANE 275 TROPHY-R Even these amazing cars can be improved on...

PRODUCT FOCUS ������������ p10 A selection of our favourite goodies

SUPERCHARGED CLIO ���� p13

Boosted but differently so!

TURBOCHARGERS ����������p28 RCZ TURBO ������������������������������ p66 Steve from RCZ Performance’s own car

197 TURBO ������������������������������ p72 DIY 250 engine and lots of tuning

Converting to a turbo, and how to get more power

TRAX ��������������������������������� p51 We take a look at the iconic show

CLIO TROPHY WEEKENDER ��������������������p80 Welsh road trip

READERS RIDES �������������p88 A selection of our readers cars

NEFCO �������������������������������p95 106 TURBO ������������������������������ p20 Kev Ingram’s big boost beast

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2018

DS3 RACING ���������������������������� p56

North East French Car Owners Club

The hottest DS3 made scorching

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e Original Groovers In 1983 Tarox revolutionised performance brake design with the world’s first ever grooved brake discs. Today, hundreds of thousands of people around the globe benefit from Tarox technology. Every disc that leaves the Tarox factory in Italy is cra­ed from the highest quality European steel, before being heat-treated and balanced by hand to create an optimum surface. For a brake manufacturer with innovation in its DNA, look no further than Tarox.

Since 76

Tel +44 1706 222 872 / www.tarox.com / sales@tarox.com All Tarox products are manufactured in Italy under stringent ISO9000 and TUV regulations

Not just standard parts!

We offer a huge range of performance and styling products from all the leading brands!

Available from stock.

Online, Click & Collect or visit your local branch

www.eurocarparts.com/performance-cars-styling

Got a new product? Then email chip@performancefrenchcars.co.uk

PRODUCT FOCUS

RENAULT CLIO 197/200 SCORPION EXHAUST SYSTEMS - FOR CARS WITH MEGANE 225-275 TURBO ENGINE CONVERSION

After high demand, Scorpion technicians have now completed development on a new range of exhaust systems for tuners looking to carry out the F4rt engine conversion on the Clio 197/200.

The T304 stainless steel turbo back exhaust system features mandrel bent pipework, resonated and non resonated centre section options, de-cat or sports cat turbo down pipe and an acoustically developed rear silencer to help eliminate drone.

The 76mm 3in turbo back system includes a full fitting kit and tailpipe sections to suit both 197 / 200 rear diffusers.

The downpipe will bolt upto both the 225 turbo and the larger turbo on the later 250/265/275 engines as well. And this is a complete system right from turbo to tailpipe.

This is the exact same exhaust as used on our 197, we have the resonated version and its very refined on motorway journeys and still gives a sporty note when at full throttle, but if its more of a weekend car or trackday car than a daily then the non resonated one sounds even better.

CONTACT: www.scorpion-exhausts.com PRICES: Sports Cat + Resonated exhaust £1179.00, Sports Cat + Non Resonated exhaust £1099.00, Decat + Resonated exhaust £999.00, Decat + Non Resonated exhaust £899.00

GAZ ADJUSTABLE RACE DAMPERS FOR CLASSIC PEUGEOT 205

WORX ALL-NATURAL HAND CLEANER – TOUGHER THAN THE JOB YOU’RE ON!

Damar International is one of the UK’s most trusted suppliers of professional grade tools, toolboxes and other essential automotive hardware, yet the firm is also able to supply an array of equally important yet all too often ignored products, including its latest offering, Worx All Natural Hand Cleaner.

It’s all too easy for mechanics and automotive technicians to overlook, or at least forget, the fact that they work with potentially harmful substances on a daily basis. Every car, from the oldest Punto to the most immaculate Ferrari, is stuffed with potentially harmful contaminants, liquids and other substances.

Worx All Natural Hand Cleaner is an effective solution.

Worx All Natural Hand Cleaner’s green credentials aren’t merely good for the environment, it’s good news for your skin! Worx is 100% free from borax, phosphates, harsh solvents, petroleum products or mineral spirits, alcohol or antimicrobial agents, pumice, sands, soaps, nuts or legume shells, not something which can be said of less green alternatives from rival firms.

PRICE: 6.5oz Bottle £9.00, 1lb Bottle £12.00, 3lb Tub £29.00, 4.5lb Tub £42.00 CONTACT: http://shop.damar.biz JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2018

Although mint condition Peugeot 205s are now commanding record prices there are still bargains out there for those who are prepared to look.

The search is well-worth it as, with a little work, this little hot hatch makes a great entry level race or track day car.

One of the jobs necessary would be to replace the ageing rear dampers with GAZ fully adjustable GT Race Dampers.

GAZ fully adjustable GT dampers enable the damping bump and rebound rate to be adjusted to suit the conditions and driving style by means of an easily accessible knob on the side.

GAZ GT dampers feature a black zinc plated body and have a protective plastic sleeve to keep them looking good and working well for long into the future. All units are individually tested before leaving the factory for added peace of mind.

PRICE & PART NO. GAZ2004 LH A/S, each costing £162.58 plus VAT. Rears are not handed and can be ordered as part number GT8-2186 £69.59 each.

PRICE: £163.80 inc.VAT PERFORMANCE

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AUTOGLYM WHEEL PROTECTOR

WOLFRACE UNVEILS CLASSIC MULTI-SPOKE MILANO ALLOY WHEEL

Marked by its aggressive, 10-spoke face, the Milano screams motorsport chic. It is an exclusive wheel and can only be ordered in one, suitably high-end finish, Titanium, a colour which serves to underline its sporting nature. The Milano can be ordered in an impressive selection of different sizes though, with the smallest, a svelte 5.5x14in, being ideally suited to hot hatches and other compact performance models. Even the largest version of the Milano comes in at a comparatively compact 7.0x17in, so this is a wheel very much aimed at owners of smaller cars.

Wolfrace has long been known for the quality of its products and the ruthlessness of its development process (the Milano is fully TUV certified, meaning it's passed Germany's famously strict type approval process), but the company is also wholly committed to customer satisfaction. This commitment is clearly reflected in the industry leading, 12-month warranty, one which can be extended by 4 extra years simply by registering said wheels online.

Size: 5.5x14in, 6.0x15in, 6.5x15in, 6.5x16in, 7x17in Finish: Titanium. PCD: 4x100, 4x108, 4x98, 5x100, 5x105, 5x108, 5x110, 5x112, 5x114.3, 5x115, 5x120 PRICE: From £90.00 per wheel CONTACT: www.wolfrace.com, sales@wolfrace.co.uk, 0845 330 9896

"CRAFT A BREW" BEER MAKING KITS

As well as building yourself a new project car this winter why not start creating your own batch of homebew as well?

No one drinks that mass-produced froth anymore. It’s all about craft beers and microbreweries these days. Better flavours, better people, bigger beards, we love all that stuff. And now with ‘Craft A Brew’ Beer Making Kits you can even give it a go yourself.

PRICE: £49.99 CONTACT: www.thefowndry.com/products/ craft-a-brew-beer-making-kits

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In the fight to give the world ever-cleaner motors, Autoglym’s boffins decided that the best way to keep wheels clean was to stop them getting dirty in the first place. Their solution was to create a super-hydrophobic, durable barrier which actually minimises brake dust adhesion to the surface of your wheels. This spray is so hydrophobic in fact, that it actually causes beading on the wheel surface! The result your wheels will stay much cleaner, for much longer.

Once the wheel is scrupulously clean and bone dry, simply spray a sparing coating onto each rim and allow it to dry. Acting as a sealant, Autoglym Wheel Protector then simply prevents a large proportion of brake dust and dirt from sticking in the first place.

CONTACT: www.autoglym.com PRICE: £10.25

ARMOR ALL MICROFIBRE DEMIST PAD

Misty glass decreases visibility, makes a mess of the vehicle’s windows and delays drivers in the morning when they need to get to their destination. An easy way to handle this situation is to use the Armor All Microfibre Demist Pad. The easy care demist pad is made of a non-scratch and lint free micro fibre which is suitable for vehicles and households. Conveniently, the demist pad is machine washable and dryable, providing enhanced performance and longevity.

PRICE: £3.99 CONTACT: Amazon/eBay

ARMOR ALL LUXURY ALLOY WHEEL BRUSH

For those that think that any job worth doing is worth doing properly, the Armor All Luxury Alloy Wheel Brush will help them get into every nook and cranny, perfect for complex wheel designs and hard to reach areas. The soft rubber grip handle and non-scratch bristles allows for a superior wheel cleaning finish.

PRICE: £8.99 CONTACT: Amazon/eBay JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2018

Feel, hear and live the power of Scorpion.

You only have to hold a Scorpion exhaust to appreciate the premium design and construction qualities, which translate into tangible gains in both performance and reliability. Hand crafted in England and widely regarded as the best exhaust on the market today, Scorpion has become one of the most popular upgrades a driver can make.

The real difference is the way a Scorpion feels. No other exhaust is created with our passion, expertise and experiences. Everything that we have put into developing the world’s best exhausts over the years is designed to be shared, felt and experienced by you.

EXPERIENCE RED POWER NOW FIND YOUR NEAREST DEALER AT: WWW.SCORPION-EXHAUSTS.COM CALL US ON: 01773 744 123 EMAIL US ON: SALES@SCORPION-EXHAUSTS.COM

/SCORPION

@SCORPIONEXHAUST

SCORPIONEXHAUSTS

SCORPIONEXHAUSTS

SCORPION MK3 RENAULT CLIO RS200

CHARGED RS200

Words: Chip Photos: AJ Walker

GOING AGAINST THE GRAIN STEVE HADJICOSTAS DECIDED THAT HE WANTED AN AWESOME MK3 CLIO THAT WAS A BIT DIFFERENT TO THE NORMAL MEG CONVERSIONS, AND HE HAS CERTAINLY ACHIEVED THAT GOAL COURTESY OF AN RS TUNING SUPERCHARGER CONVERSION THAT REALLY MAKES THIS ONE STAND OUT FROM THE CROWD.

S

teve’s first car was a Clio, a base model Mk3 with a nonturbo 1.2L engine. It was fine for building up a bit of no claims bonus and was decent as daily transport, but it was never going to set the world alight with its performance; so although he did a couple of minor JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2018

modifications such as upgrading the wheels and swapping out the exhaust back-box, he always knew it wasn’t worth sinking much cash into - it wasn’t going to be around for long. As soon as the insurance company would let him, he got out of that Clio and into the next step up the ladder, a Mk3 GT with a 1.2L turbo engine in it.

The GT was worth modifying as they are quite tunable out of the factory, so Steve set out to do a few bits and pieces to it.

He started with a few cosmetic mods, and then onto some basic engine tuning bits such as a decent exhaust, a dump valve, and an uprated intake. But then he started to look at the RS200 instead PERFORMANCE

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“ TO REALLY EXPLOIT ITS HANDLING ABILITIES IT REALLY NEEDS SO MUCH MORE POWER THAN THEY LEAVE THE FACTORY WITH”

and realised that one was now in reach, at least cost wise and insurance wise, so he decided to stop putting money into the GT and focus on that instead.

As he started to get into the RS200 plan more and more he started looking around for inspiration, and one of the people he followed was the previous owner of this car. At the time, it was still sporting its original shiny black paint that it left the factory with and although it was heavily modified in a way that Steve really liked it wasn’t actually for sale at the time.

Then, after a while the owner hinted in an online post that it might be up for sale soon, so Steve started chatting to him about it. The previous owner was after

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about £10K for it, which was a premium of about £2K over a similar, standard and tidy low mileage example, but the modifications on it made it a real bargain at that price. So Steve talked the guy into holding onto it for a couple of months until his insurance on the GT was due for renewal and he could start a fresh policy with an extra years no claims on the 200.

Spec wise, the car was pretty close to perfect for a 200, it had a K-Tec 330mm big brake conversion, it had a Quaife ATB differential, a lightened flywheel, a K-Tec Clutch kit, and it had awesome suspension courtesy of a full set of KW Variant 3 coilovers.

Steve really enjoyed how the car drove

on its way back home from Exeter where he collected it from, especially after that long couple of months wait! He immediately set about putting his own stamp on it visually.

The major change was the Matte Black wrap, which he managed to get a partial sponsorship for from a local wrapping firm called X1 Automotive in Billericay, who did a really fantastic job. The matte black really suits the shape of the car and is a little bit different from the Raider ‘flat’ option that Renault offered. The good thing about getting your car wrapped in the matte version of the current colour is that when you pop the engine bay, or open the doors, it all flows together quite nicely between the gloss black inside and matte black outside.

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2018

CHARGED RS200

To complement the colour change, he set about a few carbon touches, and then he turned his attention to the elephant in the room - the lack of power.

The “problem� with these cars is that they really do handle fantastically, despite being quite heavy... good handling might not sound like a problem, but it means that to really exploit its handling abilities it really needs SO much more power than they leave the factory with. Tuning on the F4R engines has never been a trivial thing, at least not in N/A form, and so people with the F4R engine fitted to the 172/182 variants could never see huge increases in power, and despite the upgrades Renault Sport did when coming up with the 197

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2018

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variant it still doesn’t lend itself to massive N/A power increases. So it was going to have to be boost, but Steve really loved the revvy nature of the Clio engine, especially combined with its close ratio box, and was worried that a Megane conversion would take some of that pleasure away. Not to mention that Steve does like to be different, and the turbo conversions are becoming so common now it doesn’t feel like it will be long before there are more Meg’d Clio Mk3s

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“THE BEST THING ABOUT THE CAR FOR HIM IS THE SHEER DRAMA OF DRIVING IT” than ones running their original engine!

So Steve started looking into Supercharger conversions instead.

Eventually, he decided to go with the RS Tuning offering, which came complete

with the Rotrex c30/94 supercharger.

This charger works especially well on a revvy 2.0L engine as it is so capable of still delivering boost at the very top of the rev range. The car was dropped off at RS Tuning for what is normally around a 1 month turnaround, but sadly Rotrex had a big backlog of orders and with no chargers currently in stock it resulted in a big delay. This was then made worse by the UK distributors messing up the order as well, so in the end it was an agonising 4 months by the time it was finally finished and ready to collect!

As well as the charger itself, the conversion also features a set of 630cc injectors, and it works nicely in conjunction with the 402 CatCams that had already been fitted by the previous owner. A billet bracket mounts the charger to the engine, and it then passes the boost through a Forge Motorsport intercooler before it arrives at the engine via ASH silicon hoses. To prevent the supercharger from producing too much boost there is a custom machined airflow restrictor installed as well.

The result was a very credible 300bhp JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2018

CHARGED RS200

and 245lb/ft of gorgeously-smooth torque.

Steve hurried on up to Leeds to collect it, and describes the first drive of it as “crazy” - not just the extra power, but all the noises that come from the supercharger conversion as well. Unlike a turbo with its wastegate control, there isn’t a way to slow the compressor wheel down on a supercharged car, so when you’re at JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2018

high rpm the charger is flat out, even if its not needed. This means that whenever you rev the engine up you get the whine of the charger, and then as soon as you back off you get an endless whoosh for as long as you are at high revs and part throttle. It was still Steve’s car, and it still fundamentally drove the same, but the transformation in performance

was even more than he had expected.

Steve says that even now, the best thing about the car for him is the sheer drama of driving it - every journey just feels special and so entertaining. Although, when asked about the downside to it he says the same thing again, the sheer drama of driving it as compared to, for example, his Mk4 RS200T, which does make the Mk3 feel like PERFORMANCE

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TECH SPEC

“WITH A FEW TWEAKS TO THE SUSPENSION SETUP IT COULD BE DEVASTATINGLY QUICK” hard work as a daily driver. All the things like the noise, and the super responsive throttle, that make it amazing fun also make it a bit of a pain in traffic. The same goes for the KWV3 coilovers, and expensive to run 330mm Brake conversion, which although it felt amazing on track at Blyton Park recently at ClioSport Festival, it does feel a bit over the top for road use. As a consequence, the car is sometimes parked up for weeks at a time, and only taken out when Steve is really in the mood for it, which does make sense as then it stays special when he does drive it. Steve says that despite the car certainly having all the right parts for a track-day car, he uses it mainly as both a road car and a show car. But he doesn’t doubt that with a few tweaks to the suspension setup it could be devastatingly quick in the right hands.

It seems to have nearly endless grip from the suspension setup, even when running on just a “fast road” type tyre like the PS4s it has on it currently (he had ADO8Rs before, but found they rubbed due to the shoulder profile). The big brake conversion is massively confidence-inspiring, with the combination of a good ABS setup and so much braking force really being able to haul the car to a halt in an insanely short distance - “the brakes have saved me a couple of times now”, adds Steve. Power

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delivery from the engine also happens without any loss of grip; the combination of a super smooth torque curve and the Quaife ATB diff really do combine to provide stunning performance. Steve says that 1st gear actually feels a bit too short now, as just the slightest blip of the throttle and its gone. Once into 2nd and 3rd gear though the performance is absolutely amazing, and you actually have to keep an eye on the speedo, as you really are doing 90mph+ long before you would expect to be, which is fine on track but could be a real licence loser out on the open road! n

ENGINE/ EXHAUST Rotrex c30/94 supercharger, Siemens 630cc injectors, 402 Cat camshaft upgrade, Billet supercharger bracket, Setrab oil cooler, Turbosmart dual port DV, K&N air filter, ASH silicone pipe joiners, Custom machine’d air flow restrictor, Forge Motorsport intercooler, Scorpion decat, Oreca Motorsport full system, VibraTechnics engine mounts, Powerflex torque arm bushing, Clio diesel Map sensor, K-Tec Coolant hoses SUSPENSION/ STEERING KW V3 coilovers, KTR Front strut brace, Ultra racing C3 lower front brace, Ultra racing lower rear brace, Front + Rear Powerflex anti roll bar bushes, Custom carbon fibre steering wheel TRANSMISSION Quaife ATB Differential, KTR lightweight flywheel BRAKES KTR 330mm Big brake kit, HEL braided brake lines TRACK / SAFETY Oreca turn one 4 point FIA harnesses, C3RS roll cage 4 point STYLING/ INTERIOR K-Tec floor mats, K-Tec boot mat, Custom aluminium pedals, Full Oracal matte wrap, Renault sport side skirts, Renault sport cup rear spoiler, RDX front splitter, Heko wind deflectors, Recaro seat upholstery to red leather, Wolf Race JDM 18’’ wheels, HID main lights, Rear wiper delete with carbon fibre blank, Carbon fibre from stream line carbon: Front and back diamond badges, Door badges, Exhaust trim, Fog light surround, Tail light trim, Gear knob insert, Wing mirror caps, Front wing trim, Dial surround

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2018

Words: Chip Photos: Chris Wallbank

BIG BOO

NO COM

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JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2018

106 TURBO

OST, LOW WEIGHT,

OMPROMISE

KEV INGRAM IS PRETTY WELL KNOWN IN SAXO/106 CIRCLES NOW, HIS PREVIOUS SUPERCHARGED SAXO WAS A GREAT CAR, BUT WHEN THIS TURBO 106 BECAME AVAILABLE HE DECIDED IT WAS TIME FOR A CHANGE, SO HE BOUGHT IT AND SET ABOUT COMBINING THE TWO INTO WHAT YOU SEE HERE.

W

hen this AT Speed Racing built 106 came up for sale it was perfect timing for Kev. He’d just come back from the ring in his previous Supercharged Saxo, and the trip although amazing fun and one of the best holidays of Kev’s life hadn’t gone entirely to plan. A bit of car to barrier action had left his Saxo looking a little less pretty on the way home than it looked on the way out there, and to add insult to injury it then decided to blow up on the way home!

Kev had actually taken the Saxo over on a low loader recovery truck, for a nice hassle free trip, but then when a mate’s Clio blew up he let them use the truck to recover that while he drove the Saxo home, what could possibly go wrong? Well yeah, everything really....

Still every cloud has a silver lining and with the Saxo being out of action at just the right moment to swap over to the 106, at least that bit fell into place nicely. The Saxo was certainly repairable but Kev had been fancying trying a bit of turbo power and a bigger spec for a while anyway. The 106 was originally built by AT Speed Racing but had been bought by Richard McPherson to use in Time Attack. It wasn’t really quite the right spec for the regulations of the series though and Rich decided that rather than try and re-engineer it to suit he would instead sell it and start with a fresh slate. Truth

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2018

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is Kev had been considering turbo for a while anyway, just in terms of it being a bit different to his previous setup.

So Kev bought it and decided that he would swap some bits from the Saxo over to improve it, along with also using it as a good excuse to buy some new goodies that were better than either car had; Obviously if you are pulling your car apart anyway swapping some bits over then why not do a few more upgrades as well into the bargain?

First thing to go were the seats, it had some Imolas in it which aren’t a bad seat, but these were well beyond just “well used”.

In fact Kev joked that they looked more like they had come from a tank in a war zone than from a trackday or race car. Kev actually runs two sets of bucket seats, as like a lot

“KEV HAD BEEN FANCYING TRYING A BIT OF TURBO POWER AND A BIGGER SPEC FOR A WHILE ANYWAY...”

of people his main set of seats are winged head restraint types which means that they aren’t allowed to be used on TF days over at the Nurburgring. So as well as a pair of winged Sebrings he has another couple of seats without the wings, one of which is an Imola (driver) and one is a Suzuka (passenger) which are what were fitted when we took these shots at French Car Show.

While sorting out what to sit on, it was also time to sort out what to hold onto; the previous steering wheel was a little bigger than Kev likes, so he swapped over the 300mm from his Saxo.

Suspension on the car was Gaz, but were changed over to a Bilstein setup which was spec’ed by Satchell and custom made to suit. Brakes were 4 pot Brembos when Kev first got the 106 but have now been swapped to slimline 6 pot calipers and a massive (for 15” wheels) disc which is a two piece item and comes in at 310mm, this was created for Kev by HiSpec; Kev sent them a leg and wheel and they made the biggest setup fit that they could.

Mike Edwards built the exhaust from the turbo v-band back, which included the downpipe and full system. The downpipe had to be custom made slightly different to standard due to the satchell front arms brace. In fact even with the custom downpipe the arms needed slight modification too, due to it being 3” diameter on the downpipe which is a

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lot more intrusive, space wise, than the manifolds that the brace and arms were ever designed for. If all the changes had been just on the downpipe alone it would have ended up touching the oil pan and heating the oil up. Once the downpipe and brace were all sorted then the rest of the exhaust was custom made to marry up to it and then miss the satchell rear suspension setup. Kev says that with regards to the suspension and chassis setup he made the very sensible call early on to NOT make

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too many decisions about what it should be himself, and instead just gave Satchell a completely free hand to make the car work as well as he could with whatever it took; Then it was a case of just tailoring the spring rates etc to Kev’s driving style.

When first built it was running 420bhp, and never one to do things by halves Kev promptly hammered it at 12 trackdays in a period of just 2 months. This was all still on the original engine that Colin from AT Speed had built when the car

was his before selling it to Rich, a real testament to how solidly put together it is.

The gearbox however didn’t last quite as well, and was the first significant issue that Kev had with the car. The gearbox gave up on the Thursday evening at Snetterton, which was pretty much the worst possible time for it to happen as he was leaving to go to the ring on the Saturday morning.

A plea for help went out and good friend Matt Russell drove down and leant him a box, and then joined him on the trip

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“NEVER ONE TO DO THINGS BY HALVES KEV PROMPTLY HAMMERED IT AT 12 TRACKDAYS IN A PERIOD OF JUST 2 MONTHS” as well. “Car Friends” at its best!

All went well on the trip over and Kev started to smash in some great laps, really enjoying how the car was driving but then started to lose power. Luckily it was only a minor failure; it turned out that a sparkplug had dropped its porcelain insulator, so that was easily sorted. But then he had another issue where an injector had stopped working. This was a real headache to diagnose as the Omex closed loop was increasing the fuelling to the other 3 cylinders not realising that one had gone and it was trying to chase its target AFR values of course. This meant that it didn’t just lose the power from that one cylinder but was losing loads of power from the other cylinders as well as they were all now running too rich as a result. It still made it home (and to be fair even missing a cylinder and running not quite right it was still a fast car by most people’s

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standards) but it kept cutting out at junctions and things like that which was annoying.

At Adinkerke in Belgium he was talked into doing a rolling burnout by the guy in the fag shop, and promptly blew up first and second in a gearbox that he had borrowed from Matt and he’d just done it with Matt in the car!

Whoops, but despite all the issues they still managed to limp it all the way home minus a couple of gears and with it misfiring like mad!

This is where things started getting pretty expensive, as then Kev had to pay to fix two boxes in one go which would have been a painful bill by any standards, but made worse by him deciding if he was going to be killing boxes often he needed a spare so he actually ended up paying for 3! But at least now he always has one in the car and one spare ready to go in so if the box fails he can swap it straight over and then get a rebuild done on the one that came out.

With the new box in it was time to put the car back where it belonged so it was straight back out for a summer trackday harassing his mates in their Porsche GT3 RS etc; He went out running Full boost of 21psi on what must have been one of the hottest days of the year, with the outside temps showing 35 degrees.

Unfortunately late in the morning the wastegate blew apart and he lost all boost.

Not one to take things lying down, at lunchtime he got it welded up at a nearby garage that he found and was back out in the afternoon again. Then just before the end of the day, it suddenly lost a chunk of power and that was that! Game over, the engine completely blown, although with Kev still smiling as “at least it made it onto the trailer in one piece” and to be fair it had literally been eating a diet of GT3 RS’s all day at that point. So he took solace in the fact JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2018

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“...IT HAD LITERALLY BEEN EATING A DIET OF GT3 RS’S ALL DAY”

he had been managing to ruin some of his mates in Porker’s GoPro videos by having to explain why their 230 grand Porsche just got overtaken on the video by a 106.

When the engine was inspected the chamber temperature had got so high that one valve lost its head which then threw shrapnel into a nearby cylinder as

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well via the inlet manifold so took that cylinder out as well, doing in 2 pistons and 8 valves. Although amazingly the head was only slightly marked and could be cleaned up with just a very light skim.

Kev phoned Colin at ATSpeed up and let him know that apparently now Kev would now be paying for his wedding...

Colin got straight onto the case and luckily DP Engineering had one set of the correct pistons in stock so there was no delay getting the parts together. So in no time at all the engine was rebuilt and just 22 days after the original failure it was back out on track again at Silverstone to really test the new engine out on the big straights at Trax.

All went well although at this stage it was only running gate pressure as he was just finishing off running the engine in (290bhp @ 14psi on a very conservative map).

Then it was time to get the new engine mapped properly at full power again, but at this point Kev decided he needed more control from the engine, but the Omex just wasn’t capable of offering what he needed. He spoke to some other manufacturers first but eventually decided on a Syvecs S6 and a Toucan dash.

This gave him proper exhaust temp control to avoid the problem that he had at Snetterton where the outside temps and elevated intake temps and ultimately excessive combustion temperatures JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2018

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TECH SPEC ENGINE Fully blue printed tu5j4 engine, Balanced crank, Lightweight billet steel flywheel, Wiseco pistons, DP rods, ACL hyper-x bearings, Sinus oversize valves, Catcam full race custom camshafts, Catcam valve springs, Catcam retainers, Catcam solid followers, BDT Cosworth shims, Terry Dolpin ultimate turbo spec cylinder head, Baffled sump, DP engineering stainless manifold, 3” DP alloy intake, Edwards motorsport 3” exhaust system, Owen Developments GT2873hta turbocharger with Tial v band exhaust housing and Billet compressor wheel, Turbosmart Ultragate 38 wastegate, ProAlloy custom intercooler and radiator TRANSMISSION BE4R gearbox with 205 gti 1.9 internals, Gripper diff, Helix 7-1/4 inch twin plate clutch, Satchshift

without the Omex being able to do enough about it, and he also included dual lambda control as well. Another new addition was a Flexfuel sensor which allows him to run with an alcohol mix if he wants in the fuel, or potentially if mapped for it at a later date even to go as far as running on E85 (very popular in Europe so ideal for ring trips).

Spec’ing it up to be capable of running E85 required bigger injectors as well, as alcohol has a lower calorific value than petrol.

In terms of extra control to make handling of the car more predictable the Syvecs also runs traction control, and has boost by gear and boost by throttle angle, which really does give it an almost “NA” feel to it with it massively easier to put just the right amount of power down when coming out of corners; It’s a cliché now but the old “Power is nothing without control” line really does apply in a big way to a lightweight 106 with over 400bhp to try and get to the tarmac!

In total it ended up taking Northampton Motorsport 2.5 days of mapping, but the results are well worth the effort.

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The map also includes various different settings for different conditions to tame the power down on wet days etc.

It doesn’t make any more power than before (414bhp compared to the previous 420), but it does make far more effortless progress around the track, the previous map Kev described as great fun but almost like a 2 stroke with the way that it had a such an all or nothing powerband as it came on boost.

On the road the difference is absolutely massive too, Kev’s Mrs drove the car after the mapping session and announced that for once it actually felt like a proper finished car that could just be driven like any other car rather than constantly having to drive around all sorts of power delivery issues.

So the engine now finally does the same thing that the chassis does in terms of just performing hard but without too much drama needing to be involved, so Kev can concentrate on driving knowing that he can rely on the car to do what he tells it to and be predictable, that is FAR more important than just big power. n

FUEL SYSTEM Turbosmart fpr 800, Asnu 1000cc injectors, Bosch 044 and m3 intake pump, Full Teflon lines and AN fittings ELECTRONICS Syvecs s6+ ECU, WRC-spec wiring loom using silver plated copper wire, MSD coil, Magnecor custom lead set, Race-spec interior loom, JT innovations Toucan dash, Dry-cell battery BRAKES / WHEELS Front : hispec R126 6pot calipers with 310mm discs and Carbon Lorraine RC6 Pads. Rear : Lorraine carbon RC5 pads.

Compomotive CXR 15” or Team Dynamics 15” wheels, Dry tyres: Dunlop DZ03g/ Yoko A048, Wet tyres: Avon CR28’s SUSPENSION Satchel engineering pushrod setup, Bilstein dampers INTERIOR Seats: Carbon Suzuka / Imola, Custom rollcage, Fully stripped, Snap off boss, OMP 300mm steering wheel

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TURBOCHARGED PERFORMANCE FRENCH CARS

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Words: Chip Photos: Various

TUNING ENGINES IS MAINLY ABOUT TWO THINGS, THE FIRST IS GETTING THEM TO SWALLOW AS MUCH AIR AS POSSIBLE, AND THE SECOND IS ABOUT FINE TUNING HOW MUCH POWER IT CAN MAKE FROM THAT AIR. ONE OF THE BEST WAYS TO GET AN ENGINE TO CONSUME FAR MORE AIR THAN WOULD OTHERWISE BE POSSIBLE IS TO TURBOCHARGE IT. HERE WE LOOK AT SOME OF THE PRINCIPALS INVOLVED IN FITTING A TURBOCHARGER TO A NON-TURBO CAR AND HOW TO TUNE AN ENGINE FITTED WITH ONE.

B

efore we start talking about Turbochargers themselves, we need to cover a bit of background on tuning engines in general and before we do that we just need to very briefly cover how an engine works.

A petrol 4-stroke engine generates power by burning petrol which it has ingested along with air from the outside world containing oxygen to use in which to burn that petrol. We have an induction stroke where the engine breathes in, then we have a compression stroke where the petrol and air are squeezed together to make them more dense and better able to burn, then we fire the spark plug to ignite the mixture and then on the next stroke the expanding mixture which creates more and more pressure as it burns pushes the piston downwards to actually produce the power output; Then the final stroke is an exhaust stroke on which the spent gasses (along with any unspent ones from an imperfect burn) are then pushed out of the engine and exit to the outside world via the exhaust system. Petrol as a fuel makes most power at a quite specific dilution of fuel to air (it will vary slightly but sits at approx 12.513.0:1 by mass for most engines, although

FOUR STROKE CYCLE ENGINE

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Stoichiometric (Ideal)

RICH

LEAN

Maximum Power Air-fuel ratio = 12.6:1 Lambda (λ) = 0.86

Fuel consumption

Power

Best fuel economy Air-fuel ratio = 15.4:1 Lambda (λ) = 1.05

Air-fuel ratio = 14.7:1 Lambda (λ) = 1

in some cases we will need to run richer in order to help control temperatures) due to the limited amount of oxygen available with which to react within that air.

So when you are tuning a petrol engine it means that unlike a diesel you can’t keep hosing in more fuel with the same amount of air and expect power to increase, in fact if you run too rich you will actually LOSE power very quickly as the Air-Fuel ratio drops. So gains from tuning on a non turbo engine need to come in terms of efficiency improvements from things like fine tuning the ignition timing to increase peak cylinder pressures, or increasing compression ratio so we can squeeze the fuel/air mixture a bit harder to get more power released from it as it burns. All of these “fine tuning” aspects of trying to get more power have a very limited effect though, gains are often in the single digit percentages despite costing hundreds or even thousands to achieve.

So, swallowing more air is clearly the way to go, there are two basic ways of doing this, the first is to spin the engine faster, so it swallows air more times per minute, and PERFORMANCE

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the second is to improve the volumetric efficiency of the engine, so that it swallows more air on each stroke of the engine.

Now as you can imagine, there is a very finite limit with regards to how fast you can rev an engine before things go horribly wrong. It might be that components fail such as conrods, or it might be an even more fundamental issue than that, where the piston ends up simply moving so fast that the burn above it no longer pushes it down very hard. A typical 2.0 road engine is doing similar piston speeds at 8000rpm as the old N/A Formula 1 cars of a couple of years ago were reaching at 20,000 rpm simply because a road car stroke length is typically more than double the distance for the stroke of those F1 engines, so it must travel far further on each rotation which means piston speeds are far higher for the same RPM. Therefore, if we can’t just make more and more power by simply spinning the engine faster and faster to consume more

air we need to look at getting it to consume more air per revolution of the engine.

But swallowing more air per revolution is quite difficult to achieve, especially on modern engines which are fairly well tuned from the factory in this respect. Longer duration cams can help at higher rpm, and a very direct induction path like throttle bodies can improve breathing over a typical standard inlet for more of the range, and so can things like a better exhaust or a modified cylinder head; But while modest gains can be had from all these things, even when added

Turbine exhaust

Compressor inlet

Compressor discharge

Turbine inlet

Exhaust manifold

Intake manifold

Charger air cooler

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together getting massive gains are generally not possible; For example, to try and get 300bhp from a 2.0 engine in Naturally Aspirated form is somewhere between expensive and almost impossible depending on the base engine that you start with, and the lifespan of the engine will be drastically reduced even if you do manage it.

This is where forced induction comes into its own, with forced induction (in this context that means either turbochargers or superchargers, or even nitrous use) we get more oxygen to burn the fuel with into the engine simply by forcing it in under pressure, rather than relying on the engine breathing it in naturally; In this article we take a look at by far the most popular form of forced induction, turbochargers.

No doubt most of our readers are well aware, at an overview level at least, of how Turbochargers work, but it would be negligent in an article such as this if we didn’t cover the basics first so bear with us while we go over it.

A turbo charger is made up of 3 key components, the first is a compressor fan that blows air into the engine, it is driven by the second key component which is a solid metal shaft which is driven by the third key component which is a turbine fan that is blown by exhaust gasses coming from the engine.

What happens is: as exhaust gas is pushed out of the engine it turns the exhaust turbine wheel (which is a specific type of fan designed to turn air movement into rotational force, like a wind turbine) and the gasses then cause that turbine wheel to spin. The turbine wheel is mounted on the solid metal shaft which therefore spins with it, and on the other end of that JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2018

TURBOS shaft is a compressor wheel (this is the type of fan that is designed to move air when turned, a bit like in a hair dryer or leaf blower) which pushes air out of the turbocharger and towards the engine (normally flowing through an intercooler to cool the hot compressed air from the turbo on the way). There are then a host of other components such as the wastegate which allows air to bypass the turbine wheel to prevent over-boost and an actuator that opens and shuts that wastegate.

TURBO ALREADY? If your car came from the factory with a turbocharger already fitted to it, then luckily for you the hard part of the work has already been done, but what are your options if it didn’t?

Broadly speaking, there are, 3 ways to convert a non-turbo car to be a turbocharged one. Attach a turbo your existing engine, fit a turbo engine, or build a very modified engine.

For the first option, in most cases you can bolt a turbo onto your existing engine without making many other changes to the engine itself. Power increases will generally be quite modest if going down

this route, partly due to the strength of some of the original components but more likely due to the excessive compression ratio of the original engine limiting the tune that is possible (as compression increases it means that timing has to decrease, and that has negative effects, which we will get to later in this article).

At a minimum if going down this route you will require a turbocharger which will need to be fitted to the engine with an appropriate exhaust manifold and then a downpipe will be needed to get the exhaust gasses away from the turbo; You will need either to change your management to aftermarket which can be programmed for boost, or you will need to get your existing management reprogrammed if it is capable of understanding boost. In addition, you will generally want an uprated exhaust which can flow more freely to copy with the extra gas volume. It is almost unheard of for anyone to do such a conversion without also fitting an intercooler (power gains without one are dramatically less typically) so you will need one of those too. You will also need to provide an oil supply to the turbo, and a drain for the oil back into the sump. In most cases you will need to have the engine coolant passed through the turbocharger

to cool it as well, either by T-ing into a high pressure point of the water system (such as where it goes into the car for the heater) or by adding an auxiliary electric pump specifically to circulate coolant through it, and then of course you need a return back to a low-pressure area of the cooling system, such as the heater return or the main lower radiator pipe that supplies water to the water pump itself. Fuel injectors will often need replacing even for low boost as well, especially if you are running fixed fuel pressure as in that scenario they will now flow LESS fuel than before due to the reduced pressure differential between the fuel rail and the now pressurised inlet once the boost builds up inside it.

Second option for converting a non-turbo car is that you can remove the complete original engine and swap it with an engine and turbo setup from another car that was already turbocharged from the factory. The amount of work involved in this will vary depending on how different the engine you are removing is from the engine you are replacing it with, things like for example if the engine bolts up to the original gearbox or if you have to also swap in a different gearbox and potentially different driveshafts etc as well. You then need to either

Original 172 engine with a “bolt on� turbo kit from Engine Dynamics.

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also swap in the management from the turbocharged car you took the engine from, or you need to fit aftermarket engine management to run the new engine instead.

Additionally, you will need to do things like either make a custom downpipe to join the turbo to the exhaust of its new home, or you need to join the turbo downpipe to the original exhaust (if it can flow enough), or more likely make a custom exhaust to suit.

Then things like the intercooler either need to be moved over from the donor vehicle or an aftermarket one utilised instead.

Thirdly you can turbo your existing engine or swap in a new engine to turbo, but this time with a very much modified version of the engine in question. This is invariably the route that people will take when going for a lot of power, as very few engines from the factory in turbocharged cars are capable of running massive power without things such as forged internals. Often when going down the route of chasing big power it actually makes more sense therefore to use the original engine than to swap in a different engine. As if you are going to be replacing the rods and pistons with forged ones, and you are going to be replacing the turbocharger with a larger one, and replacing the exhaust or inlet manifolds with better flowing ones you end up at the stage where nearly all the differences between the N/A engine and the turbo engine you are fitting have ended up in the bin anyway. So for example if you are going to fit a Citroen XM turbo engine into a 205, its brilliant if you want to double the

205 fitted with a Citroen XM engine swap.

original power output of your car or so but it doesn’t make much sense to do so if you are chasing 400bhp; So for massive power in a 205 you would be better off swapping in a Gti6 engine with its superior head that flows far better and then to fit forged internals and a large turbocharger and aftermarket management to that engine instead of trying to forge the 8v turbo unit then struggle with flow through the head.

COMPRESSION RATIO When it comes to this task of getting big power from a turbocharged engine

what are the techniques and parts that we need to employ to do so?

As we briefly mentioned earlier, one key aspect of an engine which will restrict how much power it can make is the compression ratio of that engine. The compression ratio describes how hard we squeeze the fuel/ air mix inside the engine before we ignite it, burning the petrol and hence release power when the expanding gasses released and heated by the burn are pushing down on the piston. The higher the compression ratio the more power that you can ultimately release from the fuel/air mix, but there is a limit to this, and it is one dictated by the type of fuel

Mk3 Clio fitted with a Megane engine.

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that we are running. When we are talking about normal petrol station fuel for a road car, we will quite quickly reach a problem if we run a high compression ratio at the same time as we are running much boost; The reason for this is that the fuel is relatively volatile and can spontaneously ignite if pressure gets too high. This spontaneous ignition goes beyond a mere burn though and happens so quickly that it actually turns from a burn into an explosion, and that is something that will very quickly damage the engine as well as lose you power so should be avoided completely. To a small extent it can be combatted by retarding the ignition timing, but this has its own drawbacks in terms of lowering efficiency and increasing heat, as so much of the burn happens when the piston is too far down the bore. In an extreme case of far too much ignition retard, much of the burn doesn’t happen until the piston is on the way back up on the exhaust stroke; Which means you will get less power than you were making with less boost even aside from the safety concerns of the heat buildup, so you very quickly hit a point where more boost no longer equals more power.

There are several options for lowering the compression ratio of an engine to allow us to solve this problem and run more boost safely; One of the simplest techniques is that you fit a thicker headgasket, this increases the space above the piston at top JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2018

“VERY FEW ENGINES FROM THE FACTORY IN TURBOCHARGED CARS ARE CAPABLE OF RUNNING MASSIVE POWER WITHOUT THINGS SUCH AS FORGED INTERNALS”

Base model 206 that has been engine swapped to a 2.0 16v N/A engine modified and fitted with a turbocharger.

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Clio engine swapped to a Megane turbo engine and then highly modified and fitted with a turbocharger.

dead centre by physically lifting the head further off of the block. Another popular option (as done on the 205 turbo technics conversions) is to remove the pistons from the block and machine some material off the top of them to increase the combustion chamber volume that way instead. The downside to thicker head gaskets is that a property of the shape of the cylinder 205 converted by Turbo Technics in a factory approved conversion.

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head and how it marries up to the shape of the piston is called the “squish band�.

A different squish band will influence how the burn progresses and can negatively impact the ease with which the engine will detonate. The problem with machining pistons instead is that you will be weakening the piston itself when you remove material, unless you do so very carefully and even

if you start sectioning the piston to work out exactly what it is safe to remove.

You also run the same risk of negatively impacting the squish band as well in order to take enough volume of metal away.

Swapping the pistons out completely for ones designed for boost is a good way to drop the ratio, as by casting or forging different pistons in the first place they can be made with a thick (and hence strong) piston crown and yet also a lower compression ratio by lowering the base of the crown itself and having a dish into it which is only in the middle where the squish band is affected the least and the outer edge can still be nominally at the original height.

Once we have got peak cylinder pressures under control by lowering the compression ratio to allow us to run a large

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TURBOS amount of boost without having to run too much ignition retard, we can then consider the rest of the components inside the engine and replace them as necessary.

TORQUE One common difference in terms of how power is created between turbo engines (especially high boost ones) and N/A engines is that the peak torque will be much higher, for example a remapped Megane 225 engine running high boost will make more than double the torque of the Clio 197 engine with which it shares the basic block design. The risk here is that these engines also share the same conrods, and there are two ways in which conrods commonly fail in a well-tuned engine (ie one without shock loads from detonation), the first is that they stretch on the beginning of the exhaust stroke due to excessive RPM (this is clearly something we don’t need to worry about in a Megane as its running less RPM than the 197 in the first place), but the second common method of failure is the conrod bending and snapping from excessive force pushing down on it, which is strongly related to torque. There are some techniques to reduce a particular conrod’s risk of failure, such as smoothing and shot-peening the rods to reduce stress raisers, but it tends to be expensive for a minimal gain unless you can do the work yourself, and so generally the best way to combat rod failure is to swap to forged steel rods instead. There are some fantastic brands out there such as Arrow or Saenz who make rods for most high-performance French engines but even the cheaper Chinese made rods that you get on eBay

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“A REMAPPED MEGANE 225 ENGINE RUNNING HIGH BOOST WILL MAKE MORE THAN DOUBLE THE TORQUE OF THE CLIO 197 ENGINE WITH WHICH IT SHARES THE BASIC BLOCK DESIGN” etc. are massively stronger than any cast OEM rod tends to be (just make sure you get tolerances etc checked as production standards can vary a lot on cheap rods!).

Once we have the core components such as the rods and pistons strong enough, we then need to start thinking about the next point of failure, which is often the valves.

Valves in most engines (even turbo ones from the factory) are two-piece construction and have a tendency to fail on the weld between the two parts if they get too hot. One common mistake that people make is to watch their EGTs and think that this is telling them directly about valve temperature; But the key thing to remember with regards to valve temperature is that as the engine is running the valve is continually giving up heat to the head via the guides and continually absorbing heat from the gasses it is in contact with (particularly the exhaust valve which experiences them on the lower stem as well as the head).

What this means is that even if you keep the exhaust gas temperatures the same after a turbocharger is fitted as they were beforehand the valve will still increase in temperature, as although the air it is in contact with is the same temperature as beforehand it is now more densely packed and hence a higher mass of air will contact the valve so there is more total heat energy transferred into its core even for the same temperature. So swapping valves out is PERFORMANCE

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often the next thing to consider in terms of reliability. These are quite well catered for generally, and Pug1Off for example do a fantastic range of valves for Peugeot / Citroen engines. These vary between valves that are similar material to the original valves but are one-piece to prevent weld failures, right through to valves made of exotic materials like Inconel which became popular in turbocharged F1 engines, as the material itself is so much better at dealing with extremes of temperature.

Right: Tubular manifold.

Below: Log manifold.

MANIFOLDS Most OEM turbos will be fitted to the engine via a cast “log” type manifold or a slight variation of the same theme, as are most cheaper aftermarket turbo conversion kits; These manifolds sit the turbo conveniently close to the engine, they almost never crack, they are cheap to make in large volumes, and the unequal spacing between the ports (as the turbo sits nearer to 2 cylinders than the other 2) can be tuned to help with spooling a turbo sooner by making the pulses collide to increase pressure at a particular RPM just before the turbo would otherwise spool. This is all round great news for a modest boost application; When it comes to running big power though these benefits start to become a hindrance instead. For big power we want very equal pathways from the cylinders so that pulses are equally spaced and don’t arrive at the exhaust housing at the same time, this is worse for overcoming the initial inertia of the turbine wheel and starting it to spool, but it can be very beneficial when it comes to flowing lots of gas with minimal restriction when running high boost at high rpm. This lower pressure for the same flow in the exhaust manifold results in a drop in pumping losses from the engine (as it doesn’t have to work so hard to expel gasses) and also allows the tune to be

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better optimised as all the cylinders will have much more similar characteristics than on a log manifold which will always result in a compromised tune on some of the cylinders.

So, a very powerful turbo engine build will almost invariably feature a tubular steel long branch manifold with as close to equal lengths/volumes as possible. These are available off the shelf for some applications such as the K-Tec and RS Tuning offerings for the Megane turbo models, or if one isn’t available to suit your application you can talk to a company like RaceTech who will custom make them to suit.

CAMSHAFTS In terms of the core engine block itself and the crankshaft, most performance French cars (and most cars in general) are quite well catered for. It’s very rare to see a block

or crank failure from the standard items even when running quite a lot of boost on a well-tuned and properly built engine, so while performance crankshafts are certainly available, generally they are not required.

Talk to your engine builder though to confirm this for your specific application.

When it comes to the breathing capability of the engine itself, most OEM Turbo applications will run camshafts which are milder than the N/A variant of the same engine, this is partly to help with spool and partly to help with emissions as the hotter cams are simply not required for modest power outputs. This doesn’t mean though that if you turbo an N/A engine that you should automatically put milder cams in, as the sort of compromises that the manufacturers make when fitting milder cams are rarely relevant to an enthusiast doing a turbo conversion, so we would recommend that in general you stick with the N/A cams. For example if you are turbo’ing a 172 we would NOT advise that you swap in the milder cams from the turbocharged Megane version of the same engine, and in fact often it makes a lot of sense to go the other way, so in that example we’d be inclined to fit N/A Clio cams to a turbo Megane for example, as it will improve flow at the top of the rev range.

One thing to be aware of though is that on an N/A engine generally there will be a fairly large amount of overlap where the inlet and exhaust valves are open at the same time to try and make use of the scavenging effect of the exhaust gasses to help draw inlet gas in, and on a turbo engine that isn’t normally appropriate so you generally want to swing the Lobe Centre Angles of the cams apart slightly when you turbo an N/A engine. The simplest and most effective JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2018

TURBOS way to do this is to retard the inlet cam a little. Going back to our previous example of N/A Clio cams when you turbo that engine, a simple way to achieve this is simply to unplug the Dephasor solenoid so that the VVT system doesn’t advance the cam. If you have quite sophisticated management though you can play around with leaving it connected but advancing the cam only until the engine starts to come on boost and then turning off again once on boost as a way of tuning for a good compromise of cam timing between what is best for spool and what is best for flow at high rpm. In fact the final evolution of that F4R engine which appeared in the Megane 250/265/275 does feature inlet cam timing control for this purpose of achieving a combination of spool and flow that would otherwise not be possible, although it was also incorporated for emissions reasons of course which is a common theme on modern engines!

INJECTORS AND PUMP Fuel injectors and fuel pumps are another common area that almost certainly will require upgrade as we start to chase a lot of power from a turbo car or even when we are looking for a modest amount of power if it’s a turbo converted N/A car. As a general rule of thumb, based on approx 3 bar of fuel pressure above manifold pressure, you will want an injector roughly 6 times the size of the BHP you want it support in order to keep duty cycles down to sensible levels.

So for a 400bhp engine with 4 injectors you would be making 100bhp from each injector and hence would want a 600+ CC injector, with a common size above this being 630cc. If you are running an in-tank fuel pressure regulator then it will not rise along with manifold pressure and hence your 3 bar regulator can end up only being 1.5 bar above the pressure in the inlet if you are running 1.5 bar of boost and hence your injectors will need to be at least half as big again (fluid dynamics is a complicated subject but halving pressure loses approx a third of the flow as a rough ballpark).

Your fuel pump needs to be big enough to very comfortably exceed the flow of all your injectors added together. Most pumps are sold in terms of lbs per hour which makes the conversion sound a little tricky, but luckily the numbers are almost such that the units are ten times different from each other, and the slight difference from ten times is in the right direction (cc/min is 5% higher than ten times lb/hour), so if you add up your injectors and divide by ten it’s a good ballpark to be in for minimum pump size. So 4*630cc/min = 2520cc/ min, so a 250lbs an hour fuel pump is just about able to cope. Bear in mind though that if you start chasing more power from a set of injectors by increasing the base JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2018

“YOUR FUEL PUMP NEEDS TO BE BIG ENOUGH TO VERY COMFORTABLY EXCEED THE FLOW OF ALL YOUR INJECTORS ADDED TOGETHER”

fuel pressure then that increase in flow will raise the injector flow but lower the pump flow (pumps flow less fuel with more resistance), so you need to start thinking about a much bigger pump than a 250lbs if you are going to run 630cc injectors but at 5 bar of base pressure. The same is true if tuning an engine that requires lots of boost to make good power due to a poor flowing head or small engine size or similar (like a Renault 5 GT Turbo which needs a lot of boost for even modest outputs) as this will also result in a rise in pressure required from the pump when it’s a pressure responsive fuel pressure regulator. If in doubt, go bigger on the pump not smaller.

One other thing to be aware of when choosing injectors, is that some are high impedance, and some are low, the high impedance ones tend to be driven by a solid 12V supply whereas the low impedance ones are driven open by a peak current and then a lower voltage is applied to keep them open. Most injectors these days are high impedance but check what your ECU is expecting and make sure the injectors match that. For very large injectors, the “peak and hold” nature of low impedance ones means that they can open more quickly so if you are building something with massive injectors like 2000cc ones (for a huge power alcohol fuelled engine for example) you might find you have to go low impedance in order to still get a decent idle due to the slow response times of high impedance injectors, but that’s rarely going to be relevant in the context of a French hot hatch!

with is that 10lbs an hour of airflow is approximately 100bhp. So, for a 400bhp engine you will need a 40lbs an hour capable turbo. Turbo flow is a complex subject that we don’t have space to cover fully, but if we take a very quick look at this compressor map we can point a few key things out.

The line formed on the left of the islands on the map is the “surge line”, this basically means that if we try and make an amount of power at an amount of boost that puts us onto this part of the graph the turbo will start to make a chattering noise (like it does when you back off, sometimes misleadingly referred to as “wastegate chatter” as Jeremy Clarkson used that term and it kind of caught on). The “Islands” on the graph that sit inside each other each represent a different level of efficiency, and you want to try and be inside the inner few as much of the time as possible. Ideally you will pick a turbo where the max power you are going to make is towards the righthand side of a fairly efficient island for the boost you are going to need to make that power. For example,

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if you are going to be making 400bhp at 1.5 bar of boost, then you need to make sure that when you plot that data (2.5 for pressure ratio, and 40lbs for flow) that it is towards the righthand side of something like a 70% or greater Island and then at other power levels you should aim to be well within the most efficient of the Islands, like it would be on the graph example above.

You will find when you look at different maps for different turbos that generally the newer technology turbos (such as the example above) will have islands that stretch up higher along the pressure ratio Axis than older technology turbos and as such are particularly suitable for running very high boost (ie 2 bar+).

If you get the turbo sizing wrong and the turbo is too small it will start to become inefficient at max power and your power output from the engine will drop as a result, if you size the turbo too far the other way though and end up with a massive turbo you don t need then you will pay the price in terms of it being much slower to spool. There really is no substitute for experience when it comes to sizing turbos, as obviously before you actually build and run the engine the best you can make are educated guesses in terms of how much power your engine will make at a given boost pressure, whereas if you can talk to a tuner who has built a lot of the same engine as yours they will have direct knowledge of what works well and what doesn’t.

“RENAULT REALLY WERE A VERY EARLY ADOPTER WITH TURBOCHARGER TECHNOLOGY IN THE MAINSTREAM”

RENAULT Renault really were a very early adopter with turbocharger technology in the mainstream, they first used petrol turbo engines in the Renault 5 (1987) and the Renault 21 (1988), they also used a V6 turbo in the Alpine which in its later guise gave a (massive for the time, far more than Cosworth Sierras etc) power figure of 280bhp.

The Renault 5 of course was the one that really captured the public’s imagination and sold in huge numbers. Then with the rise of the modifying culture in the 1990s it started to be one of the core

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cars that was modified, with the little 1.4 turbo engine frequently being tuned to in excess of 200bhp which was a massive power to weight ratio at the time.

Another route that people took with

the R5 was instead of tuning an already turbocharged 1.4 R5, they bought a 1.7 N/A one and then swapped the engine for a Volvo turbo engine (which was based on the same 1.7 N/A engine the 5 used) this was a great way to go for getting more power reliably in terms of the mechanical side of the engine but it was harder to tune with its two early and very basic ECUs, one for fuel and one for ignition, and this stopped it being more popular to use compared to the mechanical carb setup on the Renault 5 1.4 turbo engine which was far simpler to alter.

The tried and tested Renault 5 1.4 turbo engine has also found its way into other cars, conversions into Mk1 Clios for example were relatively common as a cheap way to get turbo power into these cars, although it’s a bit of a flawed strategy in that you are replacing a 1.8 16v engine with a 1.4 8v engine purely to JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2018

TURBOS

2.0 Williams Turbo power courtesy of Engine Dynamics.

get a turbo, so it’s not a route we would recommend taking with the Mk1 Clio really.

That leads us on rather neatly to the Clio itself, which didn’t ever come from the factory in Petrol Turbo form sadly until the recently released 200T and 220T Mk4 Clios.

There are a variety of different routes that people take to turbo the earlier Clios. So seeing a turbo one these days is now quite common. In the case of the Mk1 Clio by far the most common choice was to turbocharge the existing 1.8 16v engine (or even the rarer 2.0 Williams one) back in the early days. More recently though we have also seen them with turbocharged engines from the 225 Megane shoehorned into them as well; And even the later 172 engines retrofited to them and then turbo’d. The 172 engine is very well catered for in the aftermarket in terms of bolt on turbo conversions, Engine Dynamics do a very popular kit and K-Tec also have turbocharged a large number of these cars as well.

Elsewhere in the early Renault range; The Renault 19 and then the Megane Mk1 were very closely linked to the Clio and came with similar engine options, with the 19 getting the 1.8 16v like the Clio Mk1 had, and then the Megane Mk1 had a 2.0 16v N/A engine which was very closely related to the the Mk1 Clio Williams 2.0 16v, so all

the same tuning options tended to apply. although they never quite gained the same sort of number of owners into tuning them so were less common to see turbocharged.

Moving forward with the Megane to the Mk2/Mk3 the Renault Sport versions all came from the factory already equipped with a turbo, so conversions were not required and it was just about tuning the engine already in there. The same will be true of the Mk4 Megane which is due out very shortly and also comes with a turbo from the factory (and an engine it broadly shares with the new Alpine, so it will be interesting to see both of those being modified).

The 225 Mk2 Megane (and the R26 which shares the same engine) is a very popular car for tuning. They can bend rods and pistons if pushed too hard, so most tuners will limit themselves to about 280-300bhp and similar torque unless you are swapping the internals for forged ones, the turbo itself is also no good for getting past about 280bhp. The later Mk3 Megane though, the 250-275 variants, have a larger turbo that is sometimes retrofitted to the Mk2 to increase their potential, and the engine itself for the 250-275 is much stronger as well, 450bhp is possible on these engines with standard internals although that level is generally considered by most tuners

Bonkers Group B version of the 205 was mid engined and turbocharged and started at around 350bhp, rising to near 550bhp in its later evolution.

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as taking a risk, and most people opt for stopping at around the 380bhp or so range which can be reached fairly easily with a hybrid turbo such as the ones that RS Tuning sell. If going forged though there is huge potential in the later engines as both the inlet and head flow better than the earlier ones and they also have variable cam timing as well. RS Tuning do a Garrett turbo swap onto the standard Mk3 exhaust manifold that is good for around the 500bhp region and still relatively simple to fit.

The smaller Twingo did get a turbocharger on the 1.2 version but the sports model was a 1.6 N/A engine, although we have seen people turbocharge these now and 200bhp seems to be a reasonable figure to expect from standard internals.

PEUGEOT/CITROEN Citroen and Peugeot were a little later to start using turbochargers on their hot hatches in the mainstream than Renault.

Although they did venture into the world of turbos early on with the 205 in terms of the T16 version that came out in 1984 that they used in Group B rallying and then later on in Rallycross. The T16 was also offered for the road in small numbers to homologate it for competition use although only with around half the power of the race cars. Peugeot

Citroen XM Turbo is a popular donor car.

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RCZ-R came with 270bhp.

DS3 was a popular home for the THP engine.

also offered a factory approved conversion done by Turbo Technics on the normal 205 Gti as well, but again sales volumes were too low for it to really be considered a mainstream turbocharged hothatch just yet.

One popular car for donor conversions into early Peugeot and Citroen cars is the XM, which gained a turbocharger on the 2.0 8v XU10 engine in 1992 and left the factory with a power output of around 140bhp (later cars were slightly more) but can be easily tuned for another 100bhp or so on top of that, the Xantia also got the same engine as well, so thats another potential source.

Although late to the party in terms of mainstream turbo hot hatches, when Peugeot / Citroen did arrive they did so in a big way with the THP150 (quickly becoming the THP 163/175) which first saw the road in 2006 in the 207 CC/GT models.

This engine spread extensively across the range shortly afterwards and was utilised in numerous other cars. It was used in hot hatches such as in the 307, 308, C4 and the DS3, and then later on found its way into the 208 as well. A hotter version of this engine was used in the DS3 Racing which took it over 200bhp and then late on it was also extensively modified to be used in the RCZ-R which features a massive

270bhp, which is really impressive for a production car 1.6 turbocharged engine!

Missing out on the turbo fun from the factory, the Saxo and the 106 have managed to make up in the aftermarket what they didn’t have to begin with. With tuning companies like Pug1Off and AT Speed now doing a huge number of conversions on these cars. From mild to wild they make a great fast road car with a modest conversion but can be an absolute weapon on and off the track when running high boost. The later engine tends not to be swapped in when converting these cars, instead people generally forge the internals on the original engine and turbocharge that, and then look to aftermarket management to control it properly.

The core N/A engine is such a fantastic one in the first place that it really does end up a really serious contender when gaining a turbocharger. 400bhp is surprisingly straightforward to get if you know what you are doing (don’t confuse straightforward with cheap though!) and it can still be fairly reliable at that level as well, which is incredible really when you think of the size of the engine as it the same amount per litre as getting 500bhp from a 2.0 engine of course.

That’s not to say that the 2.0 16v

engines in the Peugeot / Citroen range aren’t suitable for turbocharging as well though, we have seen numerous examples with massive power over the years but even more important is how well they can work at the 300bhp or so range with only a fairly basic build. Particularly in things like a 205 of course if you swap in a GTi6 engine and then turbocharge it you end up with fantastic power to weight and a very drivable engine. In fact in many ways this has to be one of the ultimate turbo French cars money can build, the amazing handling and retro-cool looks of the 205 combined with a modern 2.0 16v engine fitted with a turbocharger means you end up with the best possible combination!

Turbos are undoubtedly here to stay, and in fact it seems very likely that we will never see a serious contender in terms of performance French cars ever released again, so whether you are converting an older car to become turbocharged or whether you are buying the latest hot hatch about to be released, it will almost certainly feature a turbocharger. The driving force behind this is that smaller engines with a turbo can be more fuel efficient, but the very welcome side effect is that it means great cars in terms of modifying potential! n

A highly modified 106 turbo engine, built by Pug1Off and making 340bhp.

Bright yellow 500bhp 205 16v turbo – Job done!

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R E N A U LT M O T O R S P O R T PA R T S S P E C I A L I S T Race engine parts and ancillaries n Air-conditioning deletion kits n Uprated engine mounts n Throttle body kits n Clutch and flywheel kits nP erformance engine packages and kits coming soon...

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TROPHY WINNER WHEN YOU’VE BEEN COMPETING SUCCESSFULLY IN THE TIME ATTACK SERIES SINCE 2008, HOW DOES ONE END UP WITH SOMETHING AS ‘SIMPLE’ AS A MEGANE, EVEN IF IT IS A LIMITED EDITION TROPHY R, LIKE THIS FINE EXAMPLE? WE JUST HAD TO FIND OUT.

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Words: Russ Fitch Photos: AJ Walker (unless stated)

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ime Attack. You are no doubt well aware of it; The racing series where cars, mainly with upwards of 600bhp, do battle to see who is the fastest. So how did Lee end up going from flame-spitting track monsters running at the front of this series to this lovely Trophy R? Our story begins back in 2008, when Lee started competing in the Time Attack series. Back then he enlisted the help of a man named Tony Cox (who used to be race engineer for some chap named Tommi Makinen) who built him his first Evo, which is where his number plate originated from. They then built a limited-edition version known as the GT Sprint, which ran 680bhp, fitted with a carbon wide body and was a serious tool, but ultimately proved to be

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341BHP MEGANE 275 TROPHY R

too expensive. When it reached the point where Lee had been through 6 dog boxes, even with changes and improvements being made, he decided to call it a day, and sold it to a chap named Phil White. As luck would have it the car actually ended up being very reliable for Phil, and he won Time Attack the next three years running!

So where to go from here? Lee decided to pick a car that would be more suited to the job; a better base to start with than a modified saloon car, something that was bound for track use from the off. So after some deliberation he turned to KTM, buying an Xbow direct from their factory in Austria.

Here he had a car with half the power of the Evo, but was much more reliable, and had a lot less weight. Lee took it to ABG Motorsport who he knew had experience

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“...WITH THE CAR HANDLING SO WELL ON THE ROAD HE WAS EXCITED TO GET IT OUT ON TRACK TO SEE WHAT IT COULD REALLY DO!” Photo: Kieron Sykes

with the Xbow. Once fettled, the car proved to be highly effective, doing the next 6 years of time Attack with very little maintenance needed; in fact, after 5000 hard miles on track it still had its original front brake discs on! That car was so quick in Lee’s hands that Lee still holds the Time Attack record at Brands, with a scarcely believable 48.2 seconds lap under his belt.

So how does this pure race pedigree lead us to this lovely Megane? Well, at the end of 2015 Lee and his family received some of the worst news anyone could receive; his partner found out that she had developed cancer. This obviously meant Time Attack took the back seat so that Lee could care for her, and the Xbow, support lorry, and all the extras were sold on. This in turn led Lee to look for something he could use on the road, but also carry onto track days, which he would still do a few of when his

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341BHP MEGANE 275 TROPHY R

Photo: Paul Sanderson - Motorsport in focus

schedule allowed. He knew about Renault’s fabled handling and found himself looking at Megane’s, and this Trophy R fitted the bill – he drove down and bought it the next day.

The Trophy R gained critical acclaim for capturing the Nürburging front wheel drive lap record of 7”54.36 seconds, an extraordinary feat for a production hatchback, especially with ‘only’ 271bhp (275PS). The 275 Trophy came with a 10hp increase over the Megane 265 it was based on, and also saved around 101kg in weight over the 265 (when specced in two seater, with the Akrapovic exhaust system). Plus, with only 30 coming to the UK it was always going to be in demand with such short supply available.

Being based on the Trophy, which comes with the now well known ‘Cup chassis’ setup that adds stiffer springs, a larger-diameter anti-roll bar, a lower ride

height, and a GKN mechanical limited-slip differential, it would have normally been shipped with the Cup dampers also, but for this R version, they are swapped out for a set of adjustable Öhlins dampers, which feature hydraulic compression stops.

Some of the ‘normal kit’ you would expect to find in a road car has been removed to help achieve the the weight saving, waving goodbye to the air conditioning, stereo, multimedia system, rear wiper and even the automatic headlights. The Allevard composite front springs save a further 4kg, plus 18kg in soundproofing, and 5kg saved thanks to the Speedline alloy wheels.

Visually, some stickers make it stand out, as well as a painted front valance to complete the look of this limited-edition machine.

Roll on to Lee’s first track day, and with the car handling so well on the road he was excited to get it out on track to see what

THE BUILD

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it could really do! But here came the first issue; whilst it was great out on the road, on a nice fast track such as Donington he was actually less than impressed. ‘To be honest, the car felt like s**t’ says Lee, coming in after his first session, noting that the rear end felt very skittish, and didn’t suit his driving style at all. He was wondering if he had made the right choice at all with the Trophy R. So they spent a little time in the pits playing around with the Öhlins, trying different settings, and while they managed to improve on it compared to his first session, it still wasn’t right; though coming from the Xbow we can’t say that we’re surprised!

So what now? Lee did consider selling the Megane, but was so impressed by its overall capability that he decided to work on the handling. So after making some calls to various places he decided to call on K-Tec Racing to do the work. But what exactly did he need them to do? He picked up the phone to a lovely gent named Olly Clark (if you don’t know who he is, Google his name and the word “Gobstopper” and all shall be revealed), who offered his advice and suggested fitting a set of Nitron R3’s.

K-Tec received them shortly after the order was placed, but given that these were the first set ever produced for a Megane K-Tec suggested some minor modifications to help with fitment, such as lengthening the hoses

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341BHP MEGANE 275 TROPHY R

so the canisters could be mounted correctly.

So Nitron took the advice and remade them with the suggested tweaks, and once the dampers were back with K-Tec they were able to get them fitted for Lee over the course of a couple of days. Being the first set fitted, Lee took the option to book a hotel to allow for any hiccups, but K-Tec did an outstanding job and had it done in no time. While the suspension was being fitted, K-Tec lent Lee a new Clio 220 Trophy to use – we will come back to that later.

Back home, Lee let the new suspension settle in for a few weeks, then took it for a proper alignment setup. The Nitrons are fully customisable with regards to the

configuration available, and also feature fully-adjustable top mounts, although K-Tec needed to make some modifications to the strut mounts to allow top mount adjustment without the need to remove the units. Lee then had to take the car back to Donington for a second go. While needing a few bits of fine tuning on the day, the Megane was transformed, and the skittish back end was gone; the car now feeling safe and planted at any speed he dared hit the track at.

One thing he took the precaution of doing, given the car was carrying so much extra speed, was in terms of upgrading the brakes – here, he didn’t go too mad, swapping the discs for

Tarox 2-piece items combined with a set of Carbotech XP20 pads up front, and with Ferodo’s faithful DS2500’s on the rear; yielding improvements over the stock setup without breaking the bank like some of his previous cars had!

Now of course, while the Trophy R has a little more poke than the car it’s based on, Lee wanted to match the cars straight line speed to its new and enhanced ability to perform in the corners. For this task he turned to RS Tuning; thankfully they’re only half an hour up the road from him, meaning that any tweaks in the future didn’t require a 6 hour round trip like K-Tec would have required. Paul Murray Photo: Paul Sanderson - Motorsport in focus

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Photo: Paul Sanderson - Motorsport in focus

“NOW THE CAR HAS THE POWER, THE BRAKES, AND THE HANDLING TO REALLY FULFIL ITS POTENTIAL, AND LEE ABSOLUTELY LOVES IT” from RS Tuning is one of the most well known Renault tuners around, so Lee had no doubts that he was in safe hands.

The thing is though, Lee didn’t want some flame spitting, two-million horsepower monster; he had done the power thing with his Evo, and while it was great fun it was also expensive to maintain. The Megane did such a good job in terms of being able to drive it to a track, kick its head in all day, then drive home again, he didn’t want to lose that reliability. So while a hybrid turbo, Pro Alloy intercooler, 630cc injectors, an ITG induction kit, and finally a decat made their way onto the car, that’s where the

mods stopped. Lee also asked Paul, when mapping it, to not compromise on safety just to get every single last horsepower out of it, minimising the chances of an expensive bill, despite wringing its neck on track. The final outcome is 341bhp and 365lb ft of torque – plenty to have fun with, but not too much to easily turn it into an expensive paperweight.

Now the car has the power, the brakes, and the handling to really fulfil its potential, and Lee absolutely loves it, especially when teamed up with the cars stunning looks, which give it presence both on and off the track.

Finally, remember the Clio loan car from K-Tec that got a mention earlier on? Well, Lee enjoyed that so much he went out and got his Mrs a Clio 220 Trophy of her own! Being an automatic meant it was easy for her to drive, and it’s also great fun for him when he uses it (bearing in mind, Lee’s daily driver is a 340hp Brabus D6 Vito – Google it, you’ll be amazed!)

At the time this article was written, Lee and his partner got the best news they could have ever hoped for, with her getting the all-clear and on her way back to being fit and healthy again – that’s what we call a happy ending! n

TECH SPEC ENGINE Hybrid turbo, Pro Alloy intercooler, 630cc injectors, ITG induction kit, Decat, CAE quickshifter, RS Tuning remap – 341 bhp/365 lb/ft BRAKES Tarox 2 piece front brake discs, Carbotech XP20 front pads, Ferodo DS2500 rear pads, Braided brake hoses front and rear SUSPENSION Front strut brace, Nitron R3 Race suspension WHEELS/TYRES 18x8 Evo Corse Sanremo alloys, Toyo R888R tyres

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TRAX 2017

Words: Chip Photos: Show: Chip, Track: Chris St Denis

TRAX 2017, SILVERSTONE

TRAX SHOW ONCE AGAIN RETURNED FOR A HUGE DAY OF MODIFIED METAL ON DISPLAY, WHILST TRACK-DAY SESSIONS AND DRIFT ACTION TOOK PLACE ON THE TRACK ITSELF. ALTHOUGH IT’S NOT, STRICTLY SPEAKING, A SHOW THAT’S FEATURED IN THE FRENCH CAR CALENDAR, IT IS STILL ATTENDED BY A VARIETY OF FRENCH CAR CLUBS, SO WE HEADED ALONG TO CHECK IT OUT.

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he show is completely open, there’s no specific genre or theme, it doesn’t matter what you are into - you are welcome at Trax! Hardcore track-day cars nestle amongst air-ride equipped show cars with paint so deep you feel like you could fall into them. All makes and models of cars are represented to varying degrees, and there are few other places you will see a restored and modified 45 year old VW Beetle one moment and then a Crazy drift-spec Nissan 200SX the next; So if you haven’t been to Trax before we recommend you do so. With so much variety on offer it’s pretty much guaranteed that you will see things JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2018

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you are interested in, especially if you keep an open mind; although the other side of that variety is that you will probably find a few things you really think “WTF?� about as well, but that can be part of the fun!

The format is a massive open show area where clubs display their cars, with a separate competition area for show cars.

The track is open for track-day sessions most of the day, with drifting demonstrations in between those sessions for some very cloud pleasing, tyre smoking, sliding action.

The weather this year managed to hold off throughout the day, despite some showers before the show started, and it seemed like a good day was had by all - both on and off the track. Overall it was a great event and a good end to the show season for most people. n

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“WITH SO MUCH VARIETY ON OFFER IT’S PRETTY MUCH GUARANTEED THAT YOU WILL SEE THINGS YOU ARE INTERESTED IN”

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DS3 RACING++ THE DS3 RACING IS ALREADY A VERY POTENT PERFORMER FROM THE FACTORY, BUT DAN HAS TAKEN IT A STEP FURTHER, AND MODIFIED HIS WITH A FORGED ENGINE BUILD, MAKING IT EVEN MORE OF A SERIOUS CONTENDER.

D

an has been a fan of the DS3 since they first launched, partly for the very unique look that they have, but also for what they represent as such a great all round hot-hatch package.

His very first car was a DS3, it was a 155THP model, which comes with the 1.6 turbo engine and a 6 speed box, and as a first car, that’s pretty good going.

Dan’s obsession with cars pre-dates his DS3 ownership though; his older brother has always been heavily into modifying cars, so Dan has grown up watching him changing bodykits, swapping out wheels, and tuning his cars etc. Dan also went along with his brother to car meets, so even before he got his provisional licence, he was already thinking of what he wanted from a car and how he was going to modify it.

So getting a starting point as promising as a DS3 155THP was certainly getting off on the right foot, and he wasted no time in

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personalising it. The first mod on the 155 was to remove the centre exhaust box, which made a lot more noise, but didn’t do too much for the performance, but it was a good first step towards learning for himself.

Dan’s quite lucky in that his local garage, EMP Performance, are interested in modified cars, so he always has somewhere local to help him out with the basics if he gets stuck. One of the guys at EMP Performance owned a 207GTi (which shares most of the mechanical components with the DS3) and he introduced Dan to his car and showed him some of the bits he had done to it. He steered Dan towards Forge Performance for bits, from whom Dan bought a dump valve, induction kit, hard-pipes, intercooler, etc. and EMP did the fitting for him.

Once all these bits were fitted and the car was remapped by a local remapping specialist it was making a very respectable 200bhp, and really did go very well for what it was.

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Words: Chip Photos: AJ Walker

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“...RATHER THAN ENTER THE PISTON AND CON-ROD LOTTERY AGAIN, HE WOULD GET THE ENGINE FORGED BEFORE TUNING IT ANY FURTHER”

Dan had really encouraged the mapper to push the limits as far as they could with tuning it, mainly because as at this point Dan was blindly chasing performance and hadn’t really thought about the consequences.

Sadly, it wasn’t long before the turbo died; it failed dramatically on the way back from a local car meet and was later diagnosed as turbo overspeed - the turbo had snapped the shaft as a result. It was at this point he realised that being without his own transport wasn’t good! Once he had got the turbo replaced he then had the boost turned down and the map put back to standard, maximising reliability.

Whilst Dan was deciding what route to take with the car he saw a DS3 racing for sale; these cars are pretty rare (partly due to the over £23K new price!), and as a DS3 fan he has obviously always loved the idea of these cars, so he arranged a

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test drive and fell in love with it - it was quicker than his was, even with the mods.

Dan says, that in his opinion (and it is one we certainly share!), that it really feels like Citroen Racing built a car they would actually want to drive themselves; the modifications above a standard DS3 really do transform every aspect of its performance, braking ability, and handling; it’s not just a tarted up car for marketing purposes with a different trim (like some special editions are), it’s a properly engineered car that really works well.

For those not familiar with them, the key changes between the normal turbo DS3 and the Racing variant are that the Racing comes with 30mm wider track, 15mm lower suspension, 4 piston Brembo calipers, switchable ESP, different wheels, power increased to 204bhp, and a whole host of carbon fibre goodies.

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After the test drive, Dan’s mind was made up, he had to have it! He put his old DS3 back to standard to sell on and put all the parts to one side until the DS3 racing warranty was up.

DS3 petrol turbo models, although generally reliable, do have a well known issue with pistons failing (with DS3 Racings being tuned more they suffer more, but even the THP can do it), the bottom of the piston snaps off near to the gudgeon pin and takes a couple of ringlands along with it, so Dan was always nervous about the prospect of pushing the engine too hard and causing a failure. As it transpired though, it was a rod that failed first in Dan’s case; rather than just replace individual failed components, Citroen decided to fit a whole new engine to it, this got him a new one year warranty and also a great start for tuning later on by having all new valves, lifters, bearings and pumps etc.

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Once the warranty period on the new engine was up he decided that he would gather up all the bits he had removed from his old car and fit them onto the Racing himself. Dan had learned quite a bit taking it all apart so he felt pretty confident about doing it himself, plus he knew if he got stuck EMP would be on hand to help him out.

Then, once it was equipped with all the previous car’s Forge goodies, it was fitted with a de-cat pipe (from Cobra Performance) and Dan had a custom made exhaust system from the de-cat back created by EMP Performance (who among other things are a PowerFlow dealer). At this stage, another modification done was to move over to PowerFlex uprated engine mounts; this really helped with controlling engine movement, and as a result there was less of a shock load when Dan was going on and off the throttle, helping

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with power delivery. Using PowerFlex mounts is a mod he really recommends as it made far more real world difference than he ever expected when doing it.

Dan decided that rather than enter the piston and con-rod lottery again, he would get the engine forged before tuning it any further. He talked to various companies, including Pug1off who he says were particularly informative and helpful, but then one of his brother’s mates who is a dab hand with engines introduced him to a local company called ProAlfa (who normally work on Italian cars). Despite not usually working on Citroen’s they do a lot of engine builds on other cars and offered to do a really fantastic deal on a piston and rod swap for him, using Wössner forged pistons and ZRP con-rods. Whilst this was happening, Dan sent the turbo off to Turbo Dynamics who modified it into a hybrid turbo.

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The car was sent to ProAlfa for a month, and during that time they fitted quite a few other parts on-top of the rods and pistons.

In terms of the engine itself they fitted forged Wössner pistons mated to ZRP conrods, and attached a SPOOX Motorsport billet alloy bottom pulley. On the turbo side it was a Turbo Dynamics hybrid K03 turbo with K04 internals, attached to the engine via a John Cooper Works exhaust manifold (the core engine is shared with the MINI too).

To keep an eye on the boost they fitted a ProSport LCD boost gauge. Finally, to make sure it had enough fuel supply available they fitted a Walbro uprated fuel pump. Whilst it was there, they also worked on some of the aesthetics of the car, fitting 2016 facelift Xenon headlights, carbon fibre fog light surrounds, and the front splitter was painted Brembo red to match the brakes.

At the end of the month it came back to

Dan and he did a steady 1000 miles driving to run it in, all while still on the standard map. Then, the car went to S2Smarts for a remap, and got a nice healthy 230bhp - with a good spread of torque.

Once the car had been mapped it was then taken back to EMP Performance who fitted coilovers to it and set it up properly. Dan wanted the suspension firmer than standard, but got them to set the ride height roughly at a standard height; the reason being that going too low can effect the roll centre and adversely effect the handling, and also as this would be catering for his daily commute he needed for the car to cope with speed bumps and some bumpy rural roads, which meant he didn’t want the car to be scraping everywhere. Next up was a gearbox upgrade

by Competition Transmission Services, which involved the fitting of uprated

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“...IT WAS NOW REALLY STARTING TO SHOW THE TRACTION LIMITS OF THE STANDARD SETUP, WITH IT SCRABBLING FOR GRIP”

bearings and a thorough check over, but thankfully the gear-set itself was all in really good condition so could be re-used.

Dan was really happy with how it drove now, but he knew that the engine and turbo had far more potential than he was currently making use of. So to continue to improve the engine even further Dan went hunting for more power. At this point he once again ended up on the phone to Citroen and Peugeot specialists Pug1off. It was decided that the next step would be to fit some uprated camshafts, a job best left for the experts, so he had Pug1off supply and fit a set of CatCams. Whilst it was at Pug1off, Dan made the most of the cars time there and also had them upgrade the brake lines to braided ones at the same time.

The car then came back to S2Smarts to have the map tweaked to suit the uprated cams, but initially it just wasn’t making the power it was expected to. This turned out to be a weak turbo actuator, and after an uprated one was fitted it started to hold boost properly, and once mapped it delivered a respectable 272bhp.

The clutch wasn’t going to last long at this level, so Dan had a CG dual-friction clutch fitted along with a Pug1Off steel billet single piece flywheel as well, by EMP Performance.

When he got the car back though, it wasn’t driving quite as well as Dan had hoped - it was now really starting to show the traction limits of the standard setup,

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with it scrabbling for grip when all that power was unleashed. Dan started to talk to Competition Transmission Services about the options for a Limited Slip Differential; they recommended a Quaife unit, which would be supplied through Pug1Off. In the end, Dan decided that it was easier to just take the car directly to Pug1Off and have them supply and fit the diff, which involved the gearbox removal, the fitting of the diff, and refitting of the gearbox. At the same time they checked over the clutch to make sure it was coping ok, which thankfully it was.

It now effortlessly delivers the power to the road, and Dan says it really does tend to surprise people with its performance; while you can’t really call the DS3 racing a “sleeper” based on its looks, it can still certainly perform way better than people expect, even from something that they would expect to be fairly quick in the first place - as its far more than just that now!

For now, the car is staying as it is while Dan just enjoys it, but he is considering the option to get a different car as a daily and push this one a bit further; Pug1Off do a hybrid version of the RCZ-R turbo that would allow it to make a fair bit more power again from the forged engine internals, but doing so is probably going to mean swapping to a full paddle clutch and start to get less suitable as a daily, hence the reluctance to do it just yet, so for now its just a case of driving it and enjoying it! n

TECH SPEC ENGINE AND PERFORMANCE Engine forged by ProAlfa, Forged Wössner pistons, ZRP steel con-rods, CatCams fast road camshafts, Forge induction kit, Forge front mount intercooler, Forge oil catch tank, Forge hard pipe kit, Forge dump valve, SPOOX motorsport bullet alloy bottom pulley, Walbro uprated fuel pump, Turbo dynamics hybrid K03 turbo with K04 internals, Custom made wastegate actuator, JCW exhaust manifold, HGK ignition coils, Cat back exhaust system with PowerFlow centre and back box hand fabricated by EMP Performance Cobra 2.5” de-cat down pipe, Custom rolling road Remap by S2Smarts TRANSMISSION PUG1OFF steel billet Single mass flywheel, Quaife ATB differential, CG dual friction clutch, Uprated gearbox bearings HANDLING AND BRAKES Eibach pro coilovers 2.5”, DS3 Brembo calipers painted red, Goodrich braided brake lines STYLING Carbon fibre fog light surrounds, Front splitter, 2016 facelift Xenon headlights, 2014 updated led tunnel brake lights, ProSport LCD boost gauge

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LIGHTWEIGHT STAINLESS STEEL PERFORMANCE EXHAUST RENAULT CLIO 182 2.0 16V CUP & TROPHY MODELS increased power lightweight custom design

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ClioPnP

Plug ’n’ Play Implementation of the ME221 ECU from Motorsport Electronics

SJM Automotive’s tailor made ClioPnP Mk2 Clio ECU is a direct plug and play replacement for the original ECU on the Ph2 Clio 172 and 182, and with a few changes to the wiring plug on the cars loom will also do the same for the Ph1 172 as well!

The capabilities of the ECU itself are huge and we dont have space to print everything it can do on this advert but here are the key highlights: n Runs the powerful 32bit ME221 EMS Core n Supports all factory sensors, as well as aftermarket sensors (MAP / TPS / Temp etc) n Truly PnP with supplied OEM style basemap - just plug it in... n Supports factory DBW system & cruise control (on DBW version) n Supports OEM dashboard / CAN stream n 16x16 VE based fuelling algorithm with 0.001ms fuelling resolution & 0.01* timing resolution. n Advanced idle control/ startup strategies n Regular feature updates via free FW updates. n Spare sensor inputs and lowside driver outputs for additional features such as closed loop boost control, launch control etc n Digital Knock control full percylinder windowing n No expensive dongles or expensive tuning leads (9 pin serial or USB with an adaptor) n Free Professional tuning software It talks to the standard Uch/Dashboard so no need to piggyback the original ECU like some conversions and no need to swap to an aftermarket display, your car can look as standard inside as

you like, although if you wish to run an aftermarket dash like a Race Technology it will of course support that too.

As it arrives it will run the engine completely standard as a starting point, and then allow you (or more likely your local rolling road!) to map in any changes as you do them such as cams or after an induction kit / exhaust are fitted. More importantly though its been designed using the ME221 core from Motorsport Electronics which has been specifically designed for running boosted engines and throttle bodies engines, so it lends itself particularly well to much more heavily modified projects as well and is even flexible enough to allow you to run a non Renault engine if you wish while

still talking to the standard dashboard.

For those wishing to run throttle bodies or a cable throttle as fitted on the Ph1 172 there is a cut-down version of the product available at a reduced cost that does everything else the same but for a cable throttle instead of drive by wire.

Its possible to send the ECU back for an upgrade later on if you buy it for an ITB car and then want to go ETB and boost for example.

Another update that will be arriving free of charge soon, is that when Motorsport Electronics have finished building their Android App for the ME221 ecu that they are working on currently this ECU is also fully compatible with that thanks to the shared Core.

PH2 / ETB Version: £1050.00 PH1 / ITB Version: £800.00

More information can be found at www.ClioPnP.com

• SERVICING • CAMBELTS • MAINTENANCE • TUNING • MODIFICATION • ENGINE CONVERSIONS • DIAGNOSIS AND REPAIR • WIRING LOOMS • RACE AND TRACK PREPARATION Friendly and personal service, always happy to take on interesting projects large or small

Phone: 07834 692 507 Email: Beanie0880@hotmail.co.uk www.facebook.com/beaniesport BeanieSport, Unit 15 Broughton Grounds, Broughton, Milton Keynes MK16 0HZ

Words: Sophie Ree Photos: Luke Hardy

S STEVEN ANSELL IS THE OWNER OF THE MOST UNIQUE PEUGEOT RCZ 200THP GT WE’VE SEEN IN THE UK, AND AS THE FOUNDER OF RCZ PERFORMANCE, HE’S BUILT A SOLID REPUTATION WITHIN THE RCZ COMMUNITY. THIS IS HIS JOURNEY IN THE AUTOMOTIVE SCENE, AND THE SECRET BEHIND CREATING SUCH A STUNNING EXAMPLE. 66

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teven was born in the UK, in London, and moved to California when he was 14. Four years later he bought his first car; a 1971 Mercury Cougar. Packing a 351C V8 engine, it was the perfect specimen to learn about the engine, how it worked, and to improve the performance.

Steven completely rebuilt the engine, adding headers and exhaust. A year later, Steven joined the US Air Force, and so begun his next project. With only the body and frame of a 1970 Ford Maverick, he performed a tricky surgery of transplanting the 351C engine from the Cougar into it. Of course, being a tight fit, it required some fabrication.

The car was transformed into a pro-street style car with the 351C built to be much stronger with a tunnel-ram, topped with two 4-barrel carburettors. The rear of the car was narrowed to fit the wider wheels and tyres.

It was insanely fun to drive as a street and drag-strip car, with it being loud, not only in exhaust note, but in colour – bright yellow.

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a 5.0 Ford Mustang. He transported this to the UK and owned it whilst stationed at RAF Alconbury. It was a great car to drive in the UK, but it did use one hell of a lot of petrol! After leaving the USAF in 1992, Steven moved back to California, shipping the Mustang with him. It got the nickname of “The Speed Demon” project, which is a nickname he is still known by and he always gives to his car by extension of that. During that time Steven also owned a 1999 Porsche 911, which he also modified and painted a colour he referred to as ‘Speed Yellow’.

After 5 years of hard work on the Mustang, Steven had achieved 700bhp from the supercharged 351W. The car was built for high speed and track racing, equipped with all the necessities; full rollcage, racing seats with harnesses, gauges, safety fuel cell and fuel cut-off etc.

Steven returned to England in 2010.

One may ask ‘Why would he leave the glorious sunshine of California behind?’, but the answer was simple – family; and after all, England is his home. He did find JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2018

it hard to leave the Mustang behind, but it just wasn’t practical for use in the UK. Shortly after returning to England, Steven bought a Peugeot 206. However, less than a year in and the engine blew up. Not such a great start in French car ownership, but thankfully this didn’t deter him! One day, Steven was sitting in a pub and looking out of the window he glimpsed a car parking up that he’d never seen before, and it certainly caught his eye. He finished his drink and popped outside to have a closer look. WOW! This car had smooth lines, and was well designed, especially with the look of the unique, “double-bubble” rear window. It was at this moment that Steven fell for the curves of the Peugeot RCZ. Within a week, after some research online, and joining the Peugeot RCZ Forum to get some insight into pros and cons, Steven went to his local Peugeot dealership. He ordered his RCZ just the way he wanted it, without even accepting a test drive. He knew this was ‘The One’…

And so, 25 June 2011 was ‘The Day’.

Steven arrived at the dealership to find his new RCZ in the showroom draped with a satin cloth; like a ‘gift’ waiting to be unwrapped. Under the cover sat a shining, bright, white THP200 GT Peugeot RCZ awaiting its new owner. Steven drove away from the dealership with the biggest smile on his face, already imagining the mods he could make to his new beast – The (next) “Speed Demon”.

At first, Steven was disappointed with the lack of parts available for the RCZ online. After some hunting, he found Ruffer Performance in Germany for exhaust systems, and just had to have one! He spoke to Guido at Ruffer about the car, and within just two months of ownership, Steven’s RCZ was the first in the UK to be fitted with their exhaust system – a back-box replacement with large twin tips on both sides. It certainly changed the look of the car and sounded great. Over the next few months, Steven also added some bodykit parts, such as a front splitter, rear valance, side skirts all made by Ruffer, as well as PERFORMANCE

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KW v2 coilover suspension. Ruffer soon approached Steven to become an official UK distributor for, and this was when Steven decided to open ‘RCZ Performance’.

On 2 April 2012, RCZPerformance.com was launched. Shortly after, Steven opened the RCZ Performance shop online, where you could find everything to treat your RCZ; engine tuning, exterior modifications, suspension upgrades, exhaust systems, lighting and much more. It was an immediate success with sales for parts from all over the world (almost 50 countries). Steven connected with several companies and individuals within the automotive trade industry so that he could get involved with the development of new parts and tuning.

With this opportunity, Steven used his own RCZ to test many of the new products and modified his RCZ along the way. Among them, Forge Motorsport used The Speed Demon for the development of silicone hoses, hard pipe kit, intercooler, and testing of other items, such as a BoV. Steven used Superchips remapping services to determine the power increase with each new addition as each upgrade found its way onto the car.

The next big change to The Speed Demon was the colour. Can you guess it?

That’s right, Steven had his RCZ wrapped in bright yellow, with black stripes down the centre. It’s safe to say Steven has a soft spot for yellow cars. Steven has been an

active member of the RCZ Forum, attended French Car show, and joined PSCUK. By attending their events, he was able to advertise his business. He made sure that customer service and satisfaction were paramount in running RCZ Performance and provided friendly advice to people who asked. Steven succeeded in running this business alongside his full-time job, and most importantly, he did all this whilst being father to his now 5-year-old son. He was busy all the time, and although at times it was challenging, he continued to support the RCZ community for a number of years.

In time, with the ever-increasing prominence of Social Media, the Facebook page for the ‘RCZ Owners Group’ started up. Steven was one of the early adopters and assisted with setting up events and annual calendars. He saw this as an opportunity to also create the RCZ Performance Facebook page, of which there are now 30k followers worldwide!

Steven continued to sell through his shop until June 2016, when just after production of the RCZ had ceased, he closed the online store. Due to the website being such a vital source of information for many RCZ owners across the world, he still keeps the RCZ Performance website and Facebook pages running today though.

One of Steven’s passions of car ownership over the years has been participating in car

“HE ORDERED HIS RCZ JUST THE WAY HE WANTED IT, WITHOUT EVEN ACCEPTING A TEST DRIVE”

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shows. It was only right he continued the tradition with his RCZ. Since 2013 Steven has met like minded people and proudly displayed his RCZ at French Car Show and PSCUK Peugeot Festival (formerly known to most of us as “Pugfest”). The past two years have seen the RCZ Owners Group show off their own club stand at FCS, with the number of cars attending increasingly steadily.

So back to the car itself. In early 2016, Steven removed the yellow wrap, taking the car back to factory white and added some extravagant exterior items to set it aside from other white RCZs, including an adjustable front splitter and large rear wing. Steven advanced on this new look in 2017, by taking the car to Laine at Mint Car Enhancements once again for the car’s current design. This time they went for something visually distinctive to catch the eye of onlookers, and to make it closer to what Steven dreamed of having; a car with almost supercar-looks. The custom design uses an eye-catching bright red Avery Dennison vinyl with gloss black accents, completely bespoke to Steven’s RCZ. After 6 years of owning the RCZ, Steven still has the same excitement as he did when he first bought and drove it. When he parks up, he still looks back at his RCZ while walking away, every time. It may not be one of the fastest cars on the road, but it is fast enough, and more importantly, fun to drive and very practical. The Speed Demon has covered over 92k miles since

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RCZ

“AFTER 6 YEARS OF OWNING THE RCZ, STEVEN STILL HAS THE SAME EXCITEMENT AS HE DID WHEN HE FIRST BOUGHT AND DROVE IT” Steven brought it home, and is used daily.

He’s modified the car substantially in regards to performance and design, and says it gets a lot of attention and admiration from all ages. Hardly surprising as the RCZ is a unique car that Peugeot put into production after the concept got so much attention in the first place. It is rare that a manufacturer makes such a move, but one that many of us applaud. During the

RCZ’s short production term of 6 years, a total of 75k RCZs were made, in various models and sold throughout the world.

The RCZ is a car celebrated by many and enjoyed by relatively few, and Steven is extremely proud to be one of them!

Steven extends his thanks to some people who’ve been instrumental in the modifications he’s made over the years. Mint Car Enhancements in Giltbrook, Nottingham,

where Paul and Laine (also an RCZ owner), provided the first bright, yellow wrap on the car, as well as the SpiVision on the lights and window tints on the sides. Automax in Banbury, Oxfordshire, where the father and son duo (Nigel and Max) assisted in changes to the Speed Demon’s mechanical areas with the installation of suspension, brakes and other upgrades. Check out the full modification history below. n

TECH SPEC ENGINE Ruffer Performance exhaust and valance, Pro-Polishers turbo shield and engine cover plate, Forge Motorsport Intercooler, Forge Motorsport silicone intercooler hoses, Forge Motorsport silicone induction hose, Forge Motorsport polished hard pipe Kit, Superchips stage 2 remap to 252bhp @ 6766rpm, torque = 349nm/257 lb ft @ 2801 rpm. Pipercross panel air filter, Mtech short-throw shifter WHEELS / BRAKES / SUSPENSION KW Variant-2 coilover system (lowered 45mm at all 4 corners). TSW Rivage 20 x 8.5 alloy wheels. Pirelli P-Zero 245/35 tyres.

H&R wheel spacers 20mm front / 25mm rear. Tarox F2000 slotted discs (340mm front / 290mm rear), Strada brake pads,

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Stainless steel brake hoses, Ultra Racing front, middle and rear braces, PowerFlex front arm and anti-roll bar polyurethane bushing.

EXTERIOR Zunsport black stainless steel front grill, AeroKit fibreglass canards and rear wing supports. C & B Auto Body front badge assembly painted to match body colour.

Carbon Mods carbon fibre front splitter kit with adjustable stainless steel tie-bars.

Rexspeed carbon fibre side skirt extensions, rear bumper extensions. Wicked Coatings carbon fibre pattern hydro-dipped canards and rear wing with black base coat. Mint Car Enhancements vinyl wrapping using Avery Bright Red Gloss and Black Gloss vinyl wrap

INTERIOR Interior red and white LED bulbs, Custom RCZ 3D projector door courtesy lamp, Pedal covers were also hydrodipped using a silver base coat.

LIGHTS Colour-coded French Power headlight eyebrows, Dipped beam upgraded to Philips Burners 8500K D1S bulbs. Main beam upgraded to ABD 8000K H1 bulbs. Fog lights upgraded to HID 8000k H8 bulbs.

DRL upgraded to Cree LED bulbs. Side indicators upgraded to smoke lens and LED bulbs. Brake lights upgraded to Cree LED bulbs. 3rd brake light flashing unit installed. Reverse lights upgraded to LED

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CLEVER CLOGS MANY UK CLIO/MEGANE ENGINE CONVERSIONS HAVE NOW BEEN SUCCESSFULLY COMPLETED, BUT ITS NOT THAT OFTEN WE SEE THEM FROM OVERSEAS. ARTHUR DEKKER, FROM THE NETHERLANDS, HAS CREATED A FINE EXAMPLE AND COMBINED SPEED AND PERFORMANCE PERFECTLY WITH AWESOME LOOKS AND STANCE, AND ALWAYS MAKES THE EFFORT TO BRING IT OVER HERE TO SHOWS FOR US BRITS TO ADMIRE.

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R27 TURBO

Words: Lauren Tayla Photos: AJ Walker

F

or many years Arthur Dekker has been active in the Renault scene, and his name might just ring a bell for a few of you, previously owning cars like a MK1 Clio Williams, an R5GTT, a Clio 172, and his ultimate car, the 330bhp retro Renault 9 (which has been featured in PFC as well).

Alongside all of the crazy builds and retro rides he has owned, he sticks with French cars, and even had a little DCI Clio for his daily commuter, as he does 160 miles each day for his journey to work (clearly the dedication and passion isn’t just for his cars!), in fact he somewhat famously video’d himself doing a sub 10 minute lap of the ring in his Clio DCI which must be the most fun anyone has ever had in one!

Despite how good the DCI was and how sensible it was on fuel and all that important grown up stuff, he still yearned for something a bit more exciting, so he made the decision to sell the DCI and purchase a Clio R27 in Liquid Yellow, which he says, “is definitely the best colour that Renault make!”

Of course, with Arthur’s track record, once

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the R27 was in his possession it didn’t take long for him to start modifying the car. Within a week of purchasing it he set to work and bought a set of H&R Monotube coilovers, followed by a set of hubcentric spacers to improve the handling and get it sat just how he wanted. A couple of months later he fitted the cup spoiler and aftermarket rear lights to finish the rear end aesthetics off. The interior was then treated to some Megane 275 Trophy Recaro bucket seats, and he decided to go with a red colour accent for the accessories on the car with a re-trimmed steering wheel in alcantara, and leather with red stitching was added swiftly after.

As many of us know, the 197 Clio has power… plenty of it… but just not enough to keep someone like Arthur satisfied for very long. Arthur says “albeit the high-revving 197 engine performed flawlessly on track, and I loved it, but the need for more power kept itching.”

With Arthur living in the Netherlands (where the Renault tuning scene isn’t as well established) he tried finding out about swapping a Megane 225

engine into the Clio; And being quite a pioneer in the Dutch Renault scene he decided to do everything himself.

RenaultSport spares are pretty hard to come by in the Netherlands so Arthur set out to look for a donor 225 Megane Sport in the UK, where they are much more common.

Promptly after the decision was made, a crashed 225 was bought from the UK and taken back home to the Netherlands - there he got to work and started stripping the car.

Of course, Arthur being a bit of an expert in this field, knew he couldn’t put the engine in without sorting some other critical mods, so an RS-Tuning single-mass flywheel and an R26.R clutch were mated to an R26 gearbox (with the LSD built in) to ensure he would be able get the power to the ground.

“Fitting the engine, gearbox, driveshafts, shifter mechanism, and other supporting hardware was the easy part… sorting out the wiring was way more confusing!”

Arthur explained. However, he managed to battle through it all, and after he had 99% of the swap completed he visited a local tuning company to do the last technical

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bits that he couldn’t do himself, such as getting the immobiliser data swapped over, and the car fired straight up!

Being a bit of a power addict, Arthur got used to the standard performance after driving around for a short while, and he decided it was time to sort out a remap. As previously mentioned, the tuning scene in the Netherlands isn’t very well represented; Arthur had self-tuned his DCI Clio before so he decided to spend many long headache-inducing nights figuring the Megane’s SAGEM ECU out.

The result was a nice and steady 300lb/ft and 270 bhp, however on the dyno it became pretty clear the standard intercooler wasn’t up to he job so he detuned it to 280lb-ft and 265 bhp for safety and reliability.

The power addiction soon struck again, and it didn’t take long for Arthur to adjust to the higher power, and pretty soon after

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“ARTHUR GETS BORED PRETTY QUICKLY AND AGAIN COMES THE TIME FOR THE CLIO TO BE IN FOR A BIT MORE POWER...”

the remap a Scorpion 3” down-pipe and Forge intercooler were purchased, and after another visit to the dyno the car was tuned to a steady 300lb/ft and 280bhp.

Now it doesn’t take long to notice a recurring theme here, Arthur gets bored pretty quickly and again comes the time for the Clio to be in for a bit more power, so a Megane 250 15T turbo and 630cc

injectors were fitted. It took quite a while to get them dialled-in and running nicely as he was still learning as he went with regards to mapping the Megane ECU, but in the end the power settled at 305bhp.

As winter was fast approaching, Arthur decided that was most power he’d try to get out of the standard 225 engine, especially with the stronger Megane 250

engines becoming more and more readily available. Arthur therefore decided he had to source a 250 engine to swap in over the winter. His biggest dilemma was which route to take - fit a hybrid turbo to it which should make it produce around 380lb/ft and 370bhp... or go crazy, and fit a tubular manifold accompanied by a Borg Warner EFR 6758 turbo… no doubt you guess

THE BUILD

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“...HE HAD TO SOURCE A 250 ENGINE TO SWAP IN OVER THE WINTER. HIS BIGGEST DILEMMA WAS WHICH ROUTE TO TAKE”

which one the power crazy guy chose!

Obviously Arthur didn’t go for the half measure upgrade… the tubular manifold was made by SAS auto customs, and all of the other bits he required were made by Arthur himself. The replacement of the 225 engine for the 250 engine wasn’t really that hard Arthur says, “most of the work was swapping sensors over, fabricating an inlet adaptor, and altering the wiring for the throttle body, though there was some hard graft involved in getting the Borg Warner turbo fitted.”

Some of the work that Arthur has completed has involved the fabrication of a custom oil feed/return, coolant connections, wastegate brackets, heat-shields and of course a down-pipe that would let all the hot exhaust gasses escape, custom pipework for the intercooler, inlet manifold, and of course the intercooler itself.

As Arthur didn’t have a full 3”exhaust system yet, and at the time there where no aftermarket options available, he decided to fabricate it all himself. He bought a hand full of v-band flanges, mandrel bends, straight pipes and flexi’s and started fabricating.

He decided it would be fun to divide both tailpipes into one silenced outlet and one

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unsilenced outlet, closed off by a butterfly valve. He also fitted a 200cell cat connected by v-band flanges, so he could remove whenever necessary. “The note of the exhaust is pretty loud even with the valve closed” says Arthur, so I imagine it kind of resembles a thunder storm with the valve open. Because of this, Arthur is going to fit a mid-silencer in the near future to get the noise levels balanced out a bit better.

With the ever increasing power, the brakes were well overdue an upgrade; to keep it cost effective, and to ensure that replacements were readily available, Arthur opted to have a set of Megane 250 340mm brake discs machined so they’d fit the Clio hubs. This wasn’t all that straight forward as the calipers had to be spaced out due to the bigger diameter. A set of adaptors and longer bolts were also required, and then all of this perfectly matched with the bigger Megane 250 Brembo calipers, fitted with Ferodo DS2500 pads. Because of the fronts being upgraded, Arthur decided to replace the rear discs with new genuine Renault discs, complimented by DS2500 pads as well.

Now with all of these upgrades it was time to start what Arthur would call “fine JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2018

tuning” the car... to make everything fool proof, Arthur decided to start off with a basic spec at first. He kept the standard Megane 250 injectors, fitted the 550kpa in-tank regulator to his Clio fuel pump housing, and used the Borg Warner-supplied 10psi

turbo actuator. Building a tune from ground up resulted in 300lb/ft and 340bhp, this was as much as the Clio fuel pump and standard Megane injectors could support.

To prevent fueling becoming an issue in the future, Arthur fitted a Deatschwerks

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“...IT ACTUALLY GETS THE POWER DOWN IN SECOND GEAR ON DRY TARMAC”

200 in-tank fuel pump and Bosch EV14 875cc injectors (so much for basic spec!).

The next limit that was found was the strength of the BW medium actuator; with boost tapering off at the top end, Arthur managed a sturdy 360lb/ft and 380bhp.

This isn’t far off what one could end up with when using a hybrid turbo, so obviously, Arthur the perfectionist, was still unsatisfied with those numbers. To maximise the options available to him in terms of different actuator springs, he decided to fit an internal wastegate actuator, specifically designed for the Borg Warner IWG turbo’s. Fitted with a 14psi spring stack it would give Arthur enough resolution to tune up to how far he dares to go on the standard Megane engine.

After a few tuning session on the Maha LPS3000 dyno he rents from a friend, he managed to get the power to 380lb/ ft and 443bhp. “It drives absolutely nuts, however thanks to the 215mm

wide Michelin PS4’s, the Clio’s great suspension setup and of course the LSD it actually gets the power down in second gear on dry tarmac” Arthur explained.

During the coming winter, Arthur is planning to pull the engine out again for a few more upgrades. This will include a 30k Megane 265 engine fitted with forged conrods, a stronger clutch setup, and the VVT solenoid wired in. Nobody has been able to get the VVT solenoid operating on the Megane ECU yet, although it has the functionality to do so. Getting the boost threshold nearer to 3500rpm is Arthur’s challenge for the next season. Powerwise, he says his goals are to make 450lb/ ft and 450bhp with an as low as possible boost threshold (currently on the street full boost at 4000rpm). So we wish him plenty of good luck and we have absolutely no doubt that this time next year it will be exactly where he wants it to be! n

TECH SPEC RUNNING GEAR H&R monotube coilovers, Megane 250 cup brake disc and caliper conversion, DS2500 pads all round, Redrilled hubs and discs for 5x112 PCD, Rear axle narrowed 3cm to cater for 9,5J wheels, 3SDM 0.01 8,5J ET45 front and 9,5J ET42 rear, Michelin PS4 215/40/18 front and 225/40/18 rear ENGINE Standard 55k Megane 250 engine, Powerflex engine mount inserts, SAS autocustoms T25 manifold, Borg Warner EFR 6758 .64 + Turbosmart wastegate actuator, Custom oil and coolant connections, DW200 in-tank pump with 550kpa FPR, 875cc EV14 injectors, Megane 225 Airtec 90mm intercooler, Megane 225 Forge boost pipes, Custom inlet with RamAir foam filter, Megane 250 boost sensors, Mapped by himself, 1.6bar boost 4000-7000rpm, 380lb/ft 443bhp GEARBOX Megane R26 gearbox with LSD, TTV lightweight SMF, R26.R clutch, Megane driveshafts, Shifter mechanism with short-shift mod EXHAUST Homemade 3” stainless down-pipe with v-band couplings, Homemade 3” stainless exhaust system with rear pipes separated by butterfly valve, Zeitronix ZT-2 monitoring EGT and AFR INTERIOR Factory Recaro sportsters covered in Megane 275 Trophy fabric, Steering wheel, gear knob and gear gaiter re-trimmed by Royal steering wheels, Bright led interior lighting EXTERIOR Renault sport cup splitter, Renault sport cup spoiler, FK automotive bright tail light

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THE CLIO TROPHY WELSH WEEKENDER ROAD-TRIP HAS NOW BECOME AN ANNUAL PHENOMENON, SO WE COULDN’T RESIST SHARING IT WITH ALL OUR READERS. HERE ANDY EDER REPORTS BACK TO US ON HOW IT WENT THIS YEAR...

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TROPHY TOUR

Words: Andy Eder Photos: Andy Eder / Andy Tims / James Harvey

F

or those who aren’t already familiar with them; The RenaultSport Clio 182 Trophy is a special little car. With only 550 being built, 500 for the UK and 50 for Switzerland, it is quite a rare sight on our roads today. Given its great on-road performance, and limited numbers, it is of no surprise it has had increased interest from a wider performance car audience, and has enjoyed quite a period of appreciation, with many finding their way into private collection as potential investments.

While it’s highly unlikely that they’ll reach the levels of appreciation enjoyed by its bonkers sibling, the RenaultSport Clio

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V6, it’s great to see that the 182 Trophy is still held in high regard by those who know their performance hot-hatches, even 12 years after its initial release.

It is arguably sad though, that many of these cars are no longer enjoyed as the RenaultSport Mesdames et Messieurs in Dieppe had intended. It is estimated that there are currently a little over three-hundred 182 Trophies on the road right now. That is quite a low number for a car that has received so many accolades over the years; A car that is often described as the epitome of hot-hatch fun. Thankfully though, it’s not all doom and gloom for this Capsicum Red B-road warrior! There’s a group of 182

Trophy owners out there who love nothing more than getting out in their cars and spanking them along some of the finest tarmac that Wales has to offer. Welcome to the Trophy Welsh Weekender 2017.

This was the third year that The Weekender had been held and, as tradition dictated, the starting point was Llangollen in North Wales. In true Welsh spirit, the lateSeptember weather wasn’t great as Trophy owners began to assemble in the car park under foreboding skies and the threat of rain. Previous years had been very kind to the group with unseasonably fine weather, but it was looking like that ship had sailed as owners mingled, routes were discussed

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and Sat-Navs routes were handed out.

Despite the relatively early start, the car park was already filling-up fast as tourists descended upon this popular Welsh town.

It probably didn’t help that 18 identicallooking red cars were occupying a significant number of parking bays, yet the owners and their cars were well received, with random people keen to ask questions and grab photos. With all attendees accounted for,

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and a light mist falling, a procession of red Clios slowly snaked its way through town, and on towards the roads that lay ahead.

The first leg of the drive took the group up and over The Horseshoe Pass, a route that often presents spectacular views across the rolling hills and valleys of Denbighshire, but on this occasion it was not meant to be. As the cars climbed up towards the summit the low clouds and

mist continued to descend, and by the time the convoy had reached the highest point of the pass the visibility was poor, severely hampering photo opportunities, and more concerning, reducing visibility down to a few tens of yards.

Thankfully, this was a relatively shortlived experience, and the clouds started to dissipate whilst making the descent on the other side. That would be the last of the really bad weather and from that point onwards it was simply about enjoying the drive, revelling in the camaraderie, and experiencing the fantastic roadgoing abilities of the capable little car.

Despite the sporty Clio generally being seen as a car for the younger generation it was surprising to see so many owners who were a few more years advanced than the demographic might suggest.

Equally as surprising was the pride and enthusiasm that the owners’ had for their Trophies. Being very much petrol heads, the group collectively owned some seriously impressive vehicles in addition to their cherished Clios; Porsche GT3’s, Cayman GT4’s and other exotica shared garage space back home. The fact that these very same people are as happy to pick up the keys to their Trophy for the weekend as opposed to immediately favouring their pricier stable mates speaks volumes. On reflection, you’d be hard pushed to find

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“LINING UP THE CARS NEVER FAILED TO ATTRACT ATTENTION EITHER, AS MOTORISTS AND PEDESTRIANS ALIKE GAZED ON...” a car that excels like the 182 Trophy on these roads, as even after all these years, and in a world of the super hot-hatch, the Trophy still punches well above its weight.

While the cars were behaving impeccably, the traffic certainly wasn’t as kind this year when compared to previous Weekenders.

Caravans, road works and oil-burning horseboxes were all seemingly intent on impeding progress. However, if there’s something that Wales has in abundance other than sheep - it’s the miles and miles of challenging and scenic roads. There were plenty of opportunities to challenge both car and driver as the planned route threaded its way around Snowdonia before heading south towards mid-Wales and Lake Vyrnwy. There was even an opportunity to enjoy a well-known triangular-shaped road network that often crops up in driving related discussions, and a certain well known motoring magazine. Various points along the route were identified as suitable places to stop; sometimes for comfort and food breaks and sometimes to simply take in the naturally beautiful views that Wales has to offer. Lining up the cars never failed to attract attention either, as motorists and pedestrians alike gazed on whilst the group further socialised and took photographs, collecting snapshots of the weekend for sharing and, no doubt, reminiscing over in years to come.

The first day concluded in the historic market town of Aberystwyth and with the customary gathering together for an evening meal. With that came the opportunity to share a few laughs, to enjoy food and drinks amongst friends, and to bid farewell to those who were only able to partake in the first day’s activities. The following JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2018

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morning would see more Trophy owners joining the group, some able to only make the second day of the Weekender.

Morning rolled around, and a familiar red swarm had assembled at the starting point.

Suitably fed and caffeinated, the convoy was soon rolling out of town. And what a great selection of roads to start the day! On a fine autumnal morning, and with relatively clear roads, the procession of Trophies was treated to a quite special drive. The mountain road out of Aberystwyth to Devil’s Bridge, and then through Cwmystwyth to the top of Elan Valley, is such a great route when weather and traffic is in your favour. A blend of challenging and winding sections along varied and changeable road surfaces, tight and narrow in some places and open and sweeping in others, cemented the notion that the Trophy was designed for this type of use. This was further enhanced by another incredibly enjoyable section of the route as the group headed south through Elan Valley, passing reservoirs and dams, and making the most of the sweeping vistas for photo opportunities. Despite not quite matching the highs of those earlier driving sections, the rest of the route still continued to deliver the thrills and variety that appeal to the driver within. The group threaded its way through the Brecon Beacons National Park and on towards an organised lunch stop with a very welcome Sunday roast. In true Sunday afternoon style, and in no doubt related to the rather large meal, the remainder of the day’s route was a somewhat more sedate affair! A steady drive would eventually bring the Weekender to an end in Chepstow whereby farewells were exchanged and people started their journeys home.

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Due to the nature of the Weekender it obviously involves a significant amount of driving, and consequently, time spent in the car. However, to focus on that alone would mean missing out on what is a very important and integral part of the event.

And that is in the social interaction and friendliness between those who took part.

It really made the weekend all the more special. Trophy owners turned up with their partners, their young families, and

with friends. Many came from far afield (including one by ferry). Best friends took part together, as did father and son. There were many new faces alongside those that were already familiar. This accentuated the family-friendly nature of the event and highlighted quite clearly how strong, and positive, a car community can be. Ultimately it’s as much about the people as it is about the drive and the cars. Plans for next year’s event are already being discussed! n JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2018

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READERS’CARS

Feel free to hit us up on our Facebook page if you want to submit your car, or better still send it in to the

features@performancefrenchcars.co.uk

email address as the images will come through better quality that way. Don’t forget to include plenty of details about each car and we will pick a selection of the ones we get in to show off in the mag each month.

ETHAN FOWLER, RENAULT 5 GT TURBO These cars are really starting to get hard to find in good condition and when Ethan Fowler bought this car in May it needed a bit of work doing to rectify issues; But it had been a goal of his to one day to own one of these cars for a long time, as his uncles Tungsten Grey GT Turbo was a major part of his childhood when growing up as a car obsessed lad.

So, he went into the project eyes wide open when he bought this GT Turbo knowing it needed a bit of work here and there, but that meant that he could also do some work to it and make it exactly how he wanted it. This car was just the right starting point as he particularly wanted one with red carpets and a sunroof and finished in Tungsten

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Grey, in fact he’d had his eye on this very car for quite a while before he finally managed to get it the day before his 19th birthday, that’s certainly a hell of a present to manage to get for himself!

The mods have all been quite subtle alterations in his ownership; Including a set of Clio Williams wheels, new grill, bailey dump valve and a few other bits and pieces. He says the best part about owning a GT Turbo is the recognition it gets on the road by other people as you don’t see any on the road these days, and even less coming up for sale because of how desirable they are to hold onto. The next plan for the car is a full restoration which will hopefully start early 2018 to get it ready for next years show season!

Spec: Forge intercooler, Baileys dump valve, Clio Williams wheels, Scorpion exhaust system with 4” tailpipe, Boost gauge and AFR gauge, MK1 sierra cosworth bonnet vents, Uprated Green Air filter, Samco hose kit.

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2018

READERS’ CARS

JAKE STONE, CITROEN SAXO Jake Stone’s Saxo started life as a 1.1, but has since had an engine conversion to a VTR engine. It still runs the original 1.1 gearbox which must give cracking acceleration although is probably a bit noisey on the motorway!

It has Powerflex lower engine mounts, a stainless steel 4 branch manifold, with

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2018

an uprated exhaust using a piper back box and 4 inch tailpipe. The dash has been flocked in black and white, and the white theme carries on with the engine itself which looks great in the bay. It has a Satchshift and OMP steering wheel, and to really finish off the go-faster feel to the interior it has Sparco bucket seats and

Takata harnesses. Hes fitted a widemouth front bumper and gone with a 2 tone paint job to give it its own unique look when combined with the smooth number plate recess and the VTS side skirts. It has a ram air induction kit and colour coded twin fans on a bigger radiator and features an OMP strut brace and HEL braided brake lines.

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GARAN THOMAS, CITROEN C2 RHYTHM Not the fastest car in the world but Garan absolutely loves this car, its played a huge role in his life; It helped him pass his driving test, then it work with him in his first job delivering pizzas which really helped him out a time he needed it most, and working on it with his Dad has brought them closer together than ever. Even now that he has moved onto a different job and doesn’t need the car during work it still is there ferrying him about to get to and from it, munching up the motorway miles for him.

It was a bog standard C2 Rhythm when he got it as he was learning to drive and the work has all been done over a two and a bit year period. During that time it’s also brought him loads of great mates through the various clubs and communities he has been involved with during that time, especially Pure Citroen which he helped Marcus Short with founding.

To keep it looking great he has developed his own wax that he makes at home and it has been in the themed paddock at FCS as well as appearing in the old readers rides in the magazine very briefly

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once before when it was much more standard so it might look familiar now we are showing it off properly for him.

Modification List SpeedLine Corse alloy wheels, with Yokohama tyres, Full Hornet Exhaust System, Direnza 35mm Sport Springs, Team Heko Wind Deflectors, C2 Rally Mudflaps, Laser high intensity LED spotlights, Colour changing LED sidelights,

Luke Towstrap, French Flag Vinyl Strip, Chrome Door handles, M3 Style Crystal rear lights, VTS Spoiler, Tinted Rear Windows, Painted Mirror Caps, Stickers all around, C2 Limited Edition Loeb seats, C2 Loeb Gear Knob, Pioneer DoubleDin CarPlay stereo with HDMI, Bluetooth and AppleCarPlay. EDGE 1200W Sub Woofer, 450W Pioneer side door speakers, Wrapped and painted interior trim, Bonnet Bra, Foglights as spotlights, Red engine tubing, Private Reg, Dashcam.

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2018

READERS’ CARS

RS265 MEGANE, CHRIS LLEWELLYN Chris has owned this gorgeous Liquid Yellow Renault Sport Megane RS 265 since may this year. It is a very clean example and came with a positively tiny 6400 miles on the clock at the time. The previous owner had already had the car mapped, and also fitted an ITG intake and some H&R lowering springs.

This worked out very well for Chris he says as they were mods that he would have been doing himself anyway so it saved him a bit of cash.

First mod Chris did once he had it was the centre silencer delete, which was a good mod for the money and unleashed the pops and bangs in sport mode. He still found the exhaust note a bit tame though so he got in touch with CGR to make him a custom system, 3” right through, 200 cell sports cat and a 6” silencer. He says he is very pleased with the deep aggressive note, plus the quality on the exhaust was top notch!

While getting stuck in with the mods he felt it would also make sense to upgrade the intercooler to keep intake temps down so he invested in an Airtec stage 1 intercooler, black with yellow logo. This was fitted the same time as the exhaust and the combination of the two really made the car feel and sound fantastic. Then he fitted a forge dump valve with a stiffer spring which gives some flutter through the intake at light throttle, only dumping at full boost lift offs which also sounds great!

His next plan is that he is intending to get a map tweak at RStuning in the new year to get the most from the exhaust and intercooler. Plus he is aiming to do his first track day next year, and he’s also considering a hybrid turbo (which we would advise he does before the map tweaks or he will have to have it mapped again anyway!)

Cosmetic mods on the car are gloss black vinyl roof wrap, maxton designs rear spoiler extension and some Heko wind deflectors.

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STEPHEN ROYLE, SAXO VTR Stephen Royle has now owned this Saxo for over 5 years. He originally picked it because it was great fun to drive and handled really well; During the time he has owned it he has continued to improve upon that starting point to make it even more fun

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to him today than the day he bought it.

He’s currently considering a 16v swap, which would certainly make it even better!

Current Spec: lowered 50mm all round, on apex lowering

kit, 4-1 manifold, Straight res-delete exhaust centre section, Piper back box, Uprated Air filter, 8k Hid headlights, Custom boot build, Axe ex8 alloys, Stretched tyres, Wrapped headlining, Flushed boot with boot popper on rear wiper switch.

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2018

G E T F E AT URE D

WE WANT YOUR CAR!

We’re looking for the best cars to feature in PFC, so, if you think your car has what it takes, we want to hear from you. We’re looking for cool performance cars with interesting upgrades, but we also like a bit of styling (as long as it’s fresh and not stuck in 2005!). Send pics and a brief spec to features@performancefrenchcars.co.uk and if it’s good enough, we’ll arrange a photoshoot. So what are you waiting for?

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2018

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NORTH EAST FRENCH CAR OWNERS CLUB (NEFCO)

WHILE NOT THE LONGEST RUNNING CLUB, THIS FRIENDLY BUNCH OF FRENCH CAR FANATICS MAKE UP WHAT THEY LACK IN LONGEVITY IN UTTER DETERMINATION AND ABOVE ALL, FUN!

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orth East French Car Owners, or NEFCO for short, hasn’t been around for a long time but has a healthy and ever growing following for us Northerners! It was originally formed in September 2016 by two best mates Callum Dawes and Tom Johnson. Callum has been a part of the Clio Sport community since 2014 and convinced Tom to get a

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2018

French car as he was looking for something fun, so he went ahead and purchased a Pearl Black Renault Megane 225. At the time, neither of the two attended or organised any car meets, as in North Lincolnshire they were quite a rarity!

With the help of a few mates and volunteers (as Callum doesn’t get much time to monitor the group as he is in the Forces), they’ve now gone from 2 members

to nearly 300, and have already had a couple of small meets with many more to come as the club continues to grow.

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GET INVOLVED

If you run a club and are organising a meet, trackday, rolling road day, or just a big night out at the local pub for a chat with your cars, then get in contact with us at: features@performancefrenchcars.co.uk and let us know about it so we can try and send someone along to cover it.

NEFCO have a great, friendly Facebook group, although vastly dominated by Renault’s there is a wide variety of people and cars - from youngsters who have just passed their test with their first 1.2 Clio’s to the veterans of the French car world, with their retro Renault 5 Turbos and Peugeot 205 GTI’s. The club covers a vast area spanning from Lincolnshire and The Humber, over towards Leeds and all the way up to Newcastle, so they organise their meets across a large area, but usually try to keep most to a central location so that as many can attend as possible.

The group really is a close community and the admins have done a wonderful job at making everyone feel welcome and a part of the club. “Now I don’t see NEFCO as my own… I created it maybe, but without the team and our members it wouldn’t be anything. I want everyone to have a little bit of ownership of the group and to have their say in what happens and how we do things” Callum says.

So if you’re interested in meeting a great bunch of people, with a huge range of French cars and you’re in the north east area, give their Facebook page a like and have a nosey into what’s going on. n

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PERFORMANCE

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JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2018

NEFCO

“ALTHOUGH VASTLY DOMINATED BY RENAULT’S THERE IS A WIDE VARIETY OF PEOPLE AND CARS”

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2018

PERFORMANCE

frenchcars

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