Bumblebee 2 featuring LY R26

Looks great, shame your not taking the extra this weekend but I’m excited

Renny 5 said:

Looks great, shame your not taking the extra this weekend but I’m excited

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Cheers mate. Looking forward to it!

Just me in the r26 this year as the mrs aint coming now as not mobile enough. Its a shame the Extra aint prepped or i could have done full day in it.

CSF done!

600 mile round trip in total. 130miles of that on track and the car performed well with hardly any issues. New brakes felt mega, and current ar1 tyres lasted the day.

Only casualty was bonnet pull failing at lunch time. My car ocd was going into overdrive worrying about fluid levels, but my pit garage mate said the bonnet is shut, not open - no problem there just send it 😅

Had a bit of faith in it, as it usually keeps the fluids in the right places, done all afternoon and drive home without opening the bonnet, dash oil level still showing max and coolant temps normal.

Got home and popped grill out and got it open in ten mins losing some skin in the process. Bonnet release cable had split at the joint under the bonnet, clipped it back together and zip tied to stop it happening again. Fluids still on max so didnt need to worry!

Passenger grill out


Latch puller

Crap 2 piece cable join

Fixed for good hopefully.

A few pics from the day.Before bonnet latch cable fail

Cars mint mate, drives well 👌🏼 love it

Renny 5 said:

Cars mint mate, drives well 👌🏼 love it

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Cheers mate. It does everything i need for a track car to be honest, fast enough, handles great. Poor mans R26R 😅

You was definitely not hanging around. That exhaust....sounds fantastic 😍

Nobby87 said:

You was definitely not hanging around. That exhaust....sounds fantastic 😍

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Cheers mate. I love the sound of it for a modified stock exhaust. Just the right tone in the car not too invasive.

A few laps of the International layout in the morning.

A few track pics from CSF, thanks to everybody who took the pics 👌

Mega day. Honestly think this car does it all for me. Fast enough, handling is unreal and drive to the circuit and home in comfort.

So selling the rest then yeah? 😂

MLB said:

So selling the rest then yeah? 😂

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Everything is for sale at the right price 😁

Updates

Quickly washed it on Friday whilst i had the gear out. Rubber marks all over it from Anglesey, i think every panel had a reminder on it
With its intended use for track/fun/fast driving, i expect a few marks but everything came off quite easy. The coat of c2v3 i give it last week definitely helped.

Also give the spare set of compomotives a clean to get the dust off and a coat of Gtechniq c5 wheel armour yesterday to help with maintenance.


Thanks for reading!!

Updates.

Had my new Ar1's fitted to the Technomagnesio alloys a couple of weeks ago. Give the wheels a mega clean as they absolutely needed it.

Cant beat fresh rubber.


Bagged up and on the wheelstand, ready for another day.

Its had plenty of use recently as a daily.
Nothing to report apart from one of the chinky spec keys i coded when i first got the car failed. Would start the car but intermittent on locking, so binned off for the other spare i coded. Normal service resumed.

Done a few bits yesterday.

Polished the headlamps whilst i had the kit out doing the kangoo. They were starting to look tatty and light output on this aint great when they are faded. No pics before take my word for it, they werent looking the best.

Polished and protected with ceracote wipe.


I had a quick look at the rear bumper trims which are faded to fcuk on this, with the aim to restore with a ceracote trim wipe. When looking closely they looked terrible, drivers side one looked like it had started to melt a little. (Could be due to hot lapping Spa last year or the sustained 150mph+ on the autobahns on the way back from the Nurburgring!?

Anyway beyond trim restorer. Note white bit looks melty.


Went on the spray paint shelf and was going to use bedliner paint, had ran out of that so it was vht black or vht wrinkle black. Vht wrinkle black was chosen as its darker.

Scotched the surface and blasted it on. Mid curing, heatgunned it to wrinkle.


Was unsure if the wrinkle finish would look ok but these were getting beyond saving so nothing to lose.

Fitted. Hard to get a good pic.



Looks ok, does not offend the eyes anymore. Not a bad result for an hour of work.


Thanks for reading!!

Part of me misses my Megane when you see them from behind. Such a cool car

Updates

Basically done nothing to this since Anglesey apart from clean and drive, it all works so there was no real need to do much.

Renewed insurance for the year with Greenlight. Still cleans up decent and using the di vessel for rinse really makes the yellow pop.



With a Spa Francorchamps trackday coming up in the next few weeks i made an effort to get it jacked up and checked over yesterday.

Small list to do.

1. Steering rack bush on passenger side. To be fair this had developed a little bit of play before Anglesey, but time was not on my side to change it. Its pretty minor but will do it.

2. Both rear wheel bearings have developed minor play. This pains me as the discs and bearings were changed for quality snr before Anglesey and torqued to the correct spec of 220nm. It could be due to the semi slicks and extra load on the bearings, but this will be the 3rd passenger side and 2nd drivers side rear bearing swap its had in my ownership. Ive fitted tons of bearings with success so its not a technique issue, and stub axles look/measure fine.

I went a bit tighter on rear hub nut torque yesterday which took the play up to a degree but looks like ill be changing them.

Discussed this with people i trust and its apparant that the quality control on snr has slipped/bad batches. As bad as the usual chinese crap.

Apart from the above, everything else seems good. Half days work at worst for the minor jobs.

Whilst on the jack, i changed the oil for fresh valvoline synthpower 5/40 and purflux filter.

Engine bay wiped over.

Will get the above sorted in next couple of weeks.

Thanks for reading!!

Updates.

Changed the steering rack bush yesterday, easy yet fiddly to do. Its not my first go as done the one on the blue 225 several years ago.

All come apart easily. Tierod tool to remove inner.


Inner tie rod was still in great nick with no play, which is a good thing as its only done around 10 thousand miles and now £100 a side from Ren for new.

Old bush in situ.

New bush fitted. 2 person job as its a bit of a nightmare to get back in..needs a bit of persuasion. Loads of silicone grease to lube.

The bit of play in that area is now gone. Steering was a little stiff initially but a good run out lastnight sorted that out.

As that only took an hr or so replaced the rear speakers. Ive upgraded the speakers all round for pioneer custom fit, doing the front door and tweeters last week. Rears however, bit of a carry on with half rollcage fitted. Managed to pull the rear part of doorcard out, getting hand in to change them over.

Quite an improvement all round, stereo sounds decent now. Front drivers side door speaker was knackered, and rear passenger was not connected, rest had rattly cones. Its no high end system but improved to acceptable levels.

Geo to do today..i marked it up so its still pretty much there, id imagine it will need a small tweak.

Thanks for reading!!

I gave up trying to get the rack bush out of the clio, it didn't seem like it was meant to come out at all!

Clio_fool said:

I gave up trying to get the rack bush out of the clio, it didn't seem like it was meant to come out at all!

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Steering wheel fully to the left. Seatbelt through a spoke if your doing it solo. Screwdriver to pop ears in and pull with angled pick.

Brigsy said:

Steering wheel fully to the left. Seatbelt through a spoke if your doing it solo. Screwdriver to pop ears in and pull with angled pick.

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Maybe next year, I've bolted all the bits back on that side now 😂.

I did theegane one with 2 small screwdrivers, popped 2 of the prongs out and then did the other ones. Was a bit of a c**t to do

Speedo Gonzales said:

I did theegane one with 2 small screwdrivers, popped 2 of the prongs out and then did the other ones. Was a bit of a c**t to do

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C**t to get it back in. I ended up sending it back in with deadblow hammer

Updates.

Bought a centre console with cloth armrest a while back to replace the povo r26 centre console.

Unfortunately it was not complete, and was missing the gearstick surround, obd cover etc. I thought the non armrest centre console parts would fit but totally different so put it to one side.

Found the right parts at u pull it a few weeks ago and finally got round to fitting today, and give it a quick hoover out.



Refitted the r26 plaque to the new centre console.



Small upgrade. Armrest is standard fit on our ph1 225, no idea why ren made the r26 so povo spec.

Rear abs rings have arrived so will fit the rear bearings this weekend.

Thanks for reading!!

Updates.

Renewed rear wheel bearings last weekend. Straightforward job, half hour a side with the press. Ive went oldskool on the torque settings and the hub nuts are now ft, as there is still noteable play at stock 220nm. See if they survive more than one trackday eh.

Anyway it all drives good. Geo this Sunday and we are good to go to Spa.

Thanks for reading!!

Updates.

Took the r26 down my mates garage for geo on Sunday. They were super busy as short on staff but geo ramp was free. Asked my mate if it was ok to have a crack at it myself and he said crack on. So i did.



It was a nice easy job to do, i have seen my mate do it a million times before so knew the drill..only thing i struggled with initially was seeing the geo screen but that was fine when i put my glasses on

Set toe only to ten mins toe out overall. I could lie and say i got it right 1st time, but steering wheel was a degree or so off to the right on first attempt as i think i knocked the steering clamp when getting out. 2nd attempt and i got the band perfectly straight. My mate give it a once over as a 2nd set of eyes and said all good. Asked when im starting working there now im time served 😅

Took for test run and it drives great. I thought this is ready for Spa.

Get home and pop to the garage later on in the evening. Walk past the meg and can hear hissing.




Fucker. It looks fixable though. My mate has said im learning to fix that myself so next lesson in tyre removal and puncture repair coming soon. Last time i chnaged a tyre was in the late 90s so a bit rusty.

Thanks for reading!!

Updates.

Washed the r26 whilst i done the 250 yesterday. Brake dust on the wheels/side of the car was horrendous.


Much better. Just under 2 weeks until Spa Francorchamps, cant wait.

Thanks for reading!!

Updates.

Spa this week so done a bit of prep yesterday, including a quick clean inside and out. Started packing, bit of wheel and parts tetris in the back.

Weather is looking good too. Roll on Friday.

Updates.

Spa and Nurbugring trip done!

Set off Wed afternoon, short trip to Newcastle for the overnight ferry to Amsterdam.

Pre trip pic.


Looks low as on its arse with tools, 4x track wheels etc.


Arrive at the port.


18 Hour prison.


After a s**t nights sleep due to noisy b******s arrive in Amsterdam Thurs am. Steady drive down to Spa, a test day was on so had a good walk round and enjoyed the views.

Best circuit in the world imo..


Entrance pics.

After the walk round, went to check in the hotel which was a short drive, 7 mins from the circuit. It was supposed to be a shared house, the owner however give us a free upgrade to the wooden chalet which was mega.

WIth that sorted it was dinner time.

500g steak on the hot stone at Domino steak house in Spa.

Friday - Spa trackday.

Weather forecast was dry and sunny, which did not dissapoint. Get to the circuit early am, sign on and get set up in garage 30.

Went out on road tyres for sightseer laps and 1st few laps when open, as the ambient temps were still low and wanted to see if any damp spots on the circuit so road tyre grip would be best to avoid any code brown moments early on. Being honest, the car was flying on the pilotsport5 but knew they would fall off a cliff fast and It looked dry as a bone so came in and changed to Ar1.

On entrance to the pits, a clio 172 breaks down blocking the pit lane. So end up getting out the car and giving him a push and the mrs drives the r26. Fcuk me that small incline on the pit lane is hard work pushing a dead clio. All this way away from home and im pushing a broken down french car, at least it werent mine😅



After wheel swap, filled up the tank in prep for hot laps. I still had around half a tank of tesco 99 in so decided to brim the tank with excellium 102, as the 98 is iffy at best from experience.

"Wont cost much for half a tank"



33ltrs for €134. Felt arse raped, did not learn from previous year 😅

Went out on the circuit straight away with the idea of doing a few moderate paced laps to scrub in the new set of Ar1 fitted to the track wheels. Out of the pit lane, moderate pace into Eau rouge, Kemmel, turn in at Les Combes and back end f***s right off at low speed due to lack of heat and that new tyre sheen. Luckily was on it with the driving, got it back fast and continued for a couple of progressively faster laps to get some heat in.

Pit selfie. Prescription sunglasses were the correct eyewear as the sun was blinding coming up eau rouge.


Pic courtesy of Wife Bond/shamelessly stolen from Andy's post, entering pit lane. Note incline on pit lane which nearly give me a heart attack pushing the clio on my own.


Got the tyres nicely scrubbed in and they switched on fast.

Had an excellent day and the r26 performed without fault.

Driving standards were terrible overall with too many wannabe race drivers overtaking mid corner etc, was dissapointing in that respect. Loads of red flags in the pm but ended up getting a fair few clean laps in without traffic which were awesome.



Went out for 6-7 laps at a time, approx 25-30miles a stint. No issues with the car, it just takes it lap after lap.

Following on from the Spa trackday on the Friday, went to the Nurburgring on the Sat. Its only 1hr 20 or so from Spa, so no brainer for a sightseer.

Arrived mid morning. Weather had cleared up from and the sun was out. 1st stop complex.

Track was only open 2:30-4:30pm so had a bit of lunch then over to Brunchen to watch. No laps, as the car was full of gear.
Brigsyspec racing stickers carefully placed in various locations across germany.


Next stop Adenau, fill up with Aral 102.

Checked in our apartment in Adenau which was awesome. It was St Martins Day, and there was a parade/fair on which lots of the locals participated in, so half the town was blocked off which was a pain as the apartment was on the main road so had to drive round some barriers to get there

As per Nurburgring there is nothing to do on an evening apart from drink and eat. Stocked up on some bits from Rewe

PistenKlaus for steak on the stone. Ive been to the pk loads of times over the last 15 years, and apart from one miserable waiter a few years ago, its been consistently good service and food. Did not dissappoint.

Strudel for after

On the Sunday Am had a bit of a sleep in, as needed to be in Ansterdam by 4pm so no rush to get going. Weather was wet, which was dissapointing as wanted to do some fast autobahn driving.

Anyway quick stop at ED tankstelle at Döttinger Höhe.

Interesting one. Pulled up and there is a few people parked up and stood about as usual. Mrs says "cars getting a bit of attention". A lad comes over and says hello and asks how Spa was. Get talking and he is from Brazil, his friend follows me on insta and sent the lad a pic over of my car from my story update. Small world eh!

Anyway buy more crap from ED and get rolling. Autobahns were wet so 130kmh speedlimit in force initially which was a bit dissapointing, but 80mph in wet conditions is better than uk 70mph. A few miles in and the conditions improve so the speed boards change to unrestricted, and can make a bit of progress.

Traffic was a bit busier than usual so no vmaxx, just steady 130-140mph for a number of miles following a german Range rover sport.


Autobahn driving is one of my fav things on these tours. Nothing better than getting your foot down a bit and making progress.
Sadly next min your in Belgium and it feels like your stood still. Even slower in Amstsrdam with 100kmh limits through daylight hours.

Get to the ferry early ish albeit hitting mega traffic in Amsterdam. Upgraded room on the way back to a sea view cabin and actually had a reasonable nights sleep.

Up early am with the boat announcement alarm clock. Almost back on uk soil.


Boat docks in Tynemouth 9:15am. Get rolling and back home 10:30am.

852 miles, done. Great trip.

Looks like a great trip. Absolutely love the Nurburgring, it's such an amazing place, even just to visit and watch.

That said, I think I'm the only person in the world who thinks Pistenklause is totally over-rated. The place itself is nice with all the memorabilia, but I think the food is bang-average. It's one of those places that I'd go to tick a box but, if I wanted a decent meal, Blaue Ecke or Restaurant zur Nürburg are way better. There's a nice Asian place in Adenau too. Been a long time since I went though.

Updates

Washed the r26 after spa. Brake dust was horrendous and down both sides of the car. Good dose of fallout remover sorted that.

I think its pissed down with rain every day since cleaning.

Fitted an autodimming interior mirror. This is a plug and play upgrade, well it should have been but the original mirror was tight as fcuk and i accidently pulled the bracket off the screen when removing. Luckily did not crack the screen, amazon to the rescue for loctite 319 window bond which has set rock solid.
On the plus side the auto dim is good and was worth the hassle.

I have also fitted a freshly retrimmed sterring wheel from Otto Retrims. Ive had this one done in alcantara and perforated nappa with yellow stitching and band.

Quality is excellent as usual and nice change from the full leather one i had previously.

Have sent gearknob away for retrim in nappa with yellow stitching to match.

Thanks for reading!!

Any videos from spa ? Need to do a Trackday over there

The steering wheel turned out great!

Filipe Dias said:

Any videos from spa ? Need to do a Trackday over there

The steering wheel turned out great!

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Cheers mate! Had a look through the gopro footage and it was pretty crap sadly. I only put it on later on in the day and it was red flags every 2 mins. In and out of the pits

Updates.

Tdlr - car number 9 arrives

Some of you might have noticed that the passenger side arch on my yellow megane r26 is rusty. Mk2 meganes dont rust?! They do when they have had a new rear qtr fitted badly in the past and its full of bog.

Ive been looking for a solution for ages. I found a full rear qtr at not alot of money, but the problem is the inner arch panel is also rusty. This will require repair or replacement and its nla from renault as expected.

With the above in mind i thought the easy solution would be buying another bog standard spec megane mk2 3 door to cut a qtr panel off as i thought there was loads about and cheap, well a lot cheaper than the rs models. Ok'd the repair with a good local bodyshop who are willing to take it on before looking.

Started looking on FB, Gumtree etc for a full car to buy to cut up. Its apparant that 3door megane mk2 non sport are quite rare now and most for sale are 5 door, or convertable.

I looked at a silver 08 reg one locally and it had a dent/scrape across the arch but no rust, rest of the car was scrap. Being fussy i passed on it, regrets as would have been perfect with a bit of work.

Went to Lincoln to view one which looked good initially from pics, dci 350k on the clocks.

Got underneath the car and rust🫠car was a non runner so with recovery and sale price, i would have been around £600. Not good enough to use.


I then kept an eye on facebook market place for a while. Mostly overpriced bags of shite coming up for sale with dented to f**k rear qtrs or rusty. Ive come to the conclusion whatever mk2 megane 3 door base spec that are still on the road are mostly piles of shite, prob due to age.

Also tried breakers. Most are unwilling to let you cut the qtr or take the shell to cut or mess you about.

3 months worth of looking and nowt had come up which worked. Had the mrs looking for me and she spots a cheap 56reg silver megane 225 on Gumtree. Only down the road, fire the seller a message through the week asking if still up for sale and answer is yes. Price is a bit higher than i wanted to pay, so its got to have a good rear qtr and decent engine and gearbox to claw some money back from breaking it.

Arrange viewing for 12pm Sunday. Get up, bit of food, diagnose blue clio, quick poo and out the door. Its sunny and dry for a change so go in the yellow megane r26.

The car is in Hartlepool which is only 35mins or so away from me, and i know the area from working around there previously.

Arrive at the sellers house and the silver 225 is outside. Look at the rear qtr straight away ignoring the rest, looks spot on which im absolutely amazed at so im now interested.

Looked round the rest of the car having a laugh with the seller at a few bits. The advert was honest stating various issues including knackered front arm bushes etc, various electrics not working, handbrake fooked, clicky cv joints etc so i already know that its going to be a knacker. I accidently lock the drivers door on the keyless, and it wont open from outside.

Note it looks like the car has ran through temu with loads of stick on shite. Open and close boot and numberplate light falls to bits. Open bonnet, engine is typically oily megane rs and it has a forge blow off valve. Try to shut bonnet and bonnet catch bounces so me and the seller have to free it off manually so it will close.

Fire it up, and engine sounds sweet. No warnings on dash or nothing, was expecting check injection or airbag lights at minimum.

Take it for a quick test run round the block. Seller says its been mapped and do note it does go pretty well with one wheel peel on damp roads/s**t tyres and the essentials work ok, brakes, goes etc.

Go back and money changes hands, fire some temp insurance on it and set off on home journey. Didnt even need to put petrol in as had 1/4 of a tank of fuel.

Drive home was rather uneventful. I couldnt be arsed trying to work the chinese spec crap double din stereo so opted for turbo noises. Nothing falls off, temp gauge solid on 1/4 like they all are etc. Brakes derust fast, brake pedal feels fine.

My mrs was following me in the yellow megane r26, so we have a little race down the local dual carriageway near home, megane rs vs megane rs. My yellow meg is 270hp and the seller claimed this was stg 1 with exaggerated 300hp on stock turbo, stock intetcooler and still has the cat in, obviously not 300hp but can tell its been mapped as ive driven loads of megane rs over the years. The yellow meg pulled away from me, but not by a massive amount, taking a guess its probably around 250hp.

Overall the engine is pretty strong in it and pulls well.

Anyway your probably thinking less talking bollox and get some pics up..this is what you get for sub £1000 megane 225.



Doesnt look too bad from a distance eh!? Tat all over and loads of bodged bits.


Decent enough for the money, the engine seems pretty good and its rot free, in some respects it does seem a shame to chop it up. But realistically, it needs fckk loads of work to make it good. I reckon it would need £1-2k to put it 'right'.

Chop chop soon, engine and box out and a few bits off and the rest is going over the bridge.

Thanks for reading!!