BG 182 track day toy

[charltjr]

I'm on call this weekend so stuck at home, and it's raining so I can't go and tinker with the cars. I thought it was as good a time as any to put a "project so far" thread together as it's already gone way, way beyond what I thought would happen with it. Also I made some pretty classic mis-steps along the way because I thought I knew what the best thing to do was, but actually didn't.

So rewind about a year and I've really got a hankering to do a few track days on a tight budget. As usual it boils down to MX-5 or Clio 1*2 as a starter track day car. I don't fit in MX-5s but I can just about squeeze into a 1*2 and I know they're a grin a minute to drive so I start half-looking for one.

Over on PistonHeads a guy mentions that he's thinking of selling his so I drop him a message and we end up doing the deal on my BG 182. It's far from perfect, but it's very cheap and has just had a good going over at Ren-Tech. I end up paying the guy what he'd spent on the car in maintenance over the previous 12 months, can't argue with that :smile:

So here she is when I first got her home:

The front bumper had been cracked and filled but not painted. I thought I'd probably get that sorted out at some point (still haven't :wink: ) but before the car arrived I'd bought all the bits to give it a full service, a retrimmed Snappy steering wheel and a new instrument cluster as the temperature gauge wasn't working.

A week or two after taking ownership I took the dash apart for the first time, now I reckon I can probably strip and refit a dash in about an hour but it took me a hell of a lot longer the first time!

What a mess:

Still, it went back together easily enough and the new steering wheel looked the absolute nuts:

It looked the absolute nuts, but the driving position just wasn't right and the steering wheel was still too big. I really wanted to keep the OE look at this point, so decided to go for one of the GS wheel spacer kits from here but that didn't really work for me either. It improved things hugely in terms of reach but the wheel was just too big. I went off in a sulk to have a bit of a think and got the 182 booked in with a local mechanic to find out why it idled like a pig and to get some track day prep done........

 

[charltjr]

.... got the car back from the mechanic with a reasonably clean bill of health. New HT leads, new plugs, new brake fluid, the exhaust was blowing because it had been shoddily fitted originally and the idle problems were due to a bad injector. I also had the spacers from under the driver's seat removed which definitely helped with the driving position.

I also ripped out the rear seats, I was never going to carry more than one passenger and they were just useless weight. I say "I did", I got the bases out but the bolts holding the backs in place needed a bit more persuasion than I could manage, so I took the lazy route and got my mechanic to do that too.....

I was booked to do my first track day at Bedford and at the last minute decided it just wasn't going to work with the "bus" steering wheel so made a few frantic phone calls and bought an Oreca wheel from K-Tech. The night before setting out for Bedford I was fitting the new wheel, not ideal! Still, it turned out to be exactly the right thing to do.

I couldn't do without my cruise control though

I got a fair bit of stick over that, not least when it was MoT'd. Best MoT advisory ever?

Had a great time at Bedford. Unfortunately it turned out my newly fitted rear tyres really weren't up to track work, I got four or five laps at most on the short SEN layout before this would happen:

It was like driving on fudge. Eagle F1's, great for the road, useless on track....

Still, I had a *lot* of fun:

Then I tried to kid myself that I was just going to change the rear tyres, or possibly just find a set of 15" wheels and then run the car like that for a year or so.

Yeah. Right.

 

[charltjr]

I decided to pick myself up a cheap set of 15" wheels. I made a total mis-step and bought a set which were the wrong width to take any decent track tyres and which probably wouldn't even have fitted that well, so got shut of them pretty quickly. Duh.

Problem was the upgrade bug was biting and I ended up splurging the cash on a whiteline ARB, a set of 15" wheels with Yoko AD08 tyres and a decat pipe. The ARB was, and still is, probably the best thing I've ever done to the car. The wheels and tyres were also a huge step forward, much lighter than the OE 16" wheels and I really rate the AD08 especially the newer "R" version.

The decat was a bit of a mis-step to be honest, sounded like a good idea but other than the extra noise I can't say it did anything for me. Because the noise was pretty much constant it had to go.

Here's the car as she stood after those changes:

The ungrateful little thing then decided to reward me for all my care and attention. See those dark spots just under the front of the car? Yeah, the radiator had popped. Back to my friendly mechanic and luckily it wasn't too expensive a job.

I then went off to Brands Hatch for another track day but unfortunately it was damp and greasy as hell. By the time the track was halfway decent I was knackered, so all in all a bit of a disappointment. Definitely want to go back for another crack at it in the dry as it's quite some track, really challenging.

It also turns out that a Clio which has been semi-stripped for track use makes a very useful mini-van:

I then got to give the car a proper tryout at Bedford, this time on the GT layout. Now we're talking, it was mostly dry and the car performed really well. I was still running standard pads so was a bit limited by fade when really working the brakes but it was an absolutely great day.

The car was just so good, but I knew it could be better, and probably without spending too much money too.

Doomed? Yeah. Completely doomed.......

 

[charltjr]

I may have got a touch carried away.

New front and rear shocks, wishbones, DS2500 pads, CookSport springs, PMS solid top mounts and a strut brace (still not entirely sure why, other than I love a good strut brace), camber bolts, polybushes for the ARB, rear beam and rear shock mounts.

Enough to be going on with? Yeah, you'd think so.

Mmmmm R888's on new wheels. Again, not really sure why, I just wanted them.

Still not entirely sure how I'm paying for all that! Anyway....... Another visit to my mechanic, an oil change, a full geo setup and she's looking pretty damn good.

Next stop was Castle Combe and the car was nothing short of brilliant, so, so much better to drive at the limit.

I was by now well aware that I had very much crossed the line from this being just a cheap track day toy to a car I was in danger of really going over the top with. I decided that there were just a couple of further things I wanted to do and then that would be it apart from maintenance.

 

[Jekyll]

It will ALWAYS cost money!!

 

[charltjr]

It will ALWAYS cost money!!

Amen

So the last bits to buy were the Fatty's induction kit, which is just awesome value for money, and the RSTuner remap. I also decided I wanted to strip out a little bit of weight and improve the brake cooling, not because I'd had a problem since the DS2500's went on but just because every little helps and to be honest it was a bit of a project to fill another on-call weekend with.

Induction kit fitted:

Wheel arch liners modified, carbon canister and original intake pipework both removed, foglights removed, horn relocated, all to give better airflow to the brakes:

I know it's not as good as proper ducts with deflector plates, but it's not like I'm actually competing in the car so hopefully this will be more than sufficient.

Final piece of the puzzle:

Then off to Thruxton!

Definitely not as good looking as before I took the foglights out, which is a shame, but hopefully the improved brake cooling makes up for it.

Thruxton is definitely not an ideal track for the 182 because it's so quick, but I still had a great time. The intention now (and, yeah, I know I've said it before ) is to run the car as-is for the next year or so and then decide what to do.

I'm hopefully back on the Bedford GT circuit in about a month so that will be really interesting as I'll be able to check just how much of a difference the mods have made.

I've got so much information and inspiration from the CS forums since I've had the car so hopefully this will be of use to someone else, I'll keep it up to date.

Cheers,
John

 

[debussetti]

I got a fair bit of stick over that, not least when it was MoT'd. Best MoT advisory ever? :smiley:
View attachment 130289

LOL!

 

[imprezaworks]

Car looks great. And lol at the advisory, I guess you know the tester

 

[charltjr]

I don't, but my mechanic does, which is always useful!

 

[172stu.f]

Good read! Tempted to follow suit and track my 172 just need to be realistic with the budget, it's pretty obvious one can get carried away!

 

[charltjr]

Oh yes, it's easy to get carried away :smile:

To be fair, if I look at my spend and exclude the second set of wheels and tyres which really are just a "nice to have" and the Snappy steering wheel and spacer which were purely down to impatience and were a mistake I should never have made then it's really not so bad.

Which is one way of leading into the latest mod, got my modified Scenic shifter from Ash fitted today. I've only had a very short drive with it on the car but it's great, the lever falls to hand much better than the original one and the shift is hugely improved. Looking forward to trying it out properly at Bedford on the 20th.

I've also fitted a CG Lock which even on the road I've been very impressed with, keeps you held in the seat much better than the belt without one fitted. Will be interesting to see how much difference it actually makes on track.

 

[Akay]

Looks good mate, got myself a CG Lock to try out.

 

[scotty10]

Christ, nothing like splashing the cash.

What fault were you getting with the broken temp gauge?

 

[charltjr]

It just didn't work at all, no reading whatsoever. The sender was OK so it was easier and cheaper just to replace the clocks than to try and get them repaired.

Did Bedford yesterday, the CGLock worked really well and the new gear lever was brilliant. I was much, much quicker than last time out so the mods definitely helped. It was huge fun too :smile: