Kangoo Compact (aka Racevan3)

TDLR - im an idiot and keep buying scrap Renaults and a new project is in stock

A few months ago in my old job i had a 68reg Kangoo, got it with delivery mileage brand new. Noted pretty crap in diesel form, and handling average however i had heard that the underpinnings were very similar to meg/mk3 clio, and confirmed when having a look underneath briefly.

Said van

Returned when i left the job, good riddance to tracker and 62mph speed limiter. Thought to myself that it would probably be sound, with more power and better handling.

At the time i still had my old Kangoo 172 (Racevan2), which was leagues ahead. Lacked a bit of straight line speed, and deep down im a turbo man missed the turbo torque so sold which stuck some money back in the pot.

With the drive looking less cluttered and bank balance up a few quid said no more projects until my Extra (Racevan1) is back on the road.

Had the idea of a Megane rs powered Kangoo2 for a while, and seen the compact version. The compact is the same length as Clio2. Compared to the usual ml version of the Kangoo2 its like a micro machine.

Press pic of the compact next to ml

Thinking this would be a great project to do once the Extra is done, sat on the idea. The compact is rare to find for sale, as from what i gather nobody bought them with the 4 foot load space in the rear making them pretty useless as a van.

Mrs was looking and seen one for sale on Facebook marketplace, needing a new engine and only down the road. Made the mistake of going for a look, looked pretty unloved but bodywork quite good, engine totally shot. Stuck a low bid in, scrap money and the fella was up for it.

Collected on the back of my mates truck this week

Short arse

Cleaned up and roof rack removed and pushed into position.

Current engine bay half a dci lump with melted pistons on cyl 1 & 4

Had a good look round and the subframe looks pretty identical to meg2 or clio3. Meg rs track control arms, hubs and brembos bolt on as one as already been done, so handling should be great. Mounts look identical to megane, so in theory a meg lump and ndo box should go in (pk box fits).

Wiring may or may not be tricky, however i have been thinking about this, and there is a few options, if all else fails standalone ecu and stack dash.

So will get the Extra done, and then start on this. Watch this space

 

what would the weight be there for?

 

what would the weight be there for?

Keep the arse end down without anything in the back

Over 50kg is mental😂

 

8.5 Stone is mental! 😂😂

 

Still cant believe how much it weighs. Id need to strip the full interior to get similar weight out

 

It's going to blow away in the wind now without that

 

Damn it´s heavy! Free horsepower

 

Updates

Front Ast's are fitted. I took an educated guess that megane 2 rs top mounts would bolt straight up and it absolutely paid off.

One issue i had noticed with the Kangoo is that the strut tops get covered in water, as they are under the scuttle panel which has loads of holes in. The oem ones were quite rusty, and not wanting these to follow suit as it might stand about a bit in winter, i needed a solution.

After sniffing round the clio3 has a strut top cover. Took another gamble and ordered one. Modified to suit and fits quite well, should keep most of the weather off them.

Coilover fitted. Was very straightforward bolt in no modifications required.

Next step was set the rideheight and camber. I can have this quite low but from a geometry perspective ive tried to keep the track control arms level and in turn that should keep the driveshafts a bit happier.

Had to dig some blocks out as too low to get the jack out initially

I took the same approach of setting the shocks so they have 1/3 travel for droop and 2/3 travel available for compression. Set camber at -1.5deg using some trigonometry and a spirit level. I also checked driveshaft plunge available at the rideheight, and there is around 12mm per side at least so thats all good.

Whiteline adjustable droplinks fitted. Probably didnt need these as the drop link height is adjustable on the coilover. Fitted anyway, set the arb with zero preload when at the correct rideheight. Tegiwa coilover sleeves fitted and everything coated in xcf50 corrosion block.

Initial rideheight set and cleaned the wheels as had black hand prints all over after removing several times whilst sorting rideheight. Its around 25mm lower than before and still has a bit of rake, with the shocks in the correct operating range. Rideheight is set level at the moment, might not be optimal from a cornerweight perspective but ok for initial running.

Toe not set up yet as will do it on the local hunter so it does not kill the tyres before i get it set up properly.

Initial test run and the difference is staggering. No more front end lift on boost. Back end still squats but totally acceptable/normal for the power. Turn in feels really sharp and you can feel the lsd working great. It actually feels like a fast megane.

The best thing is that you can actually lay the power down in 3rd gear now without it wheelspinning all over. Its still got a bit of torque steer but 90% improved and you can safely overtake stuff on full throttle without thw worry of it wanting to swap lanes.

The suspension overall feels solid as expected with the top mounts, but very compliant for road use, no crashy ride. In comparison to the bc's i fitted to our old 250 cup, this is leagues ahead.

Ideally it could probably do with more positive castor but that will involve modifying the strut tops to allow more movement. Thats one to leave to the people who set the geo up for me.

Sits quite nice too.

Only one casualty, lost a centre cap out of my front wheel on test run. Got several spares so not to worry.

To add to the updates, Chris @ Efi reprogrammed my shift light last week. Im running clio 200 clocks and you could see the shift light flash on occasionally when clipping the limiter. After a bit if head scratching he sussed it out and i get the shift light flashing around 6900rpm with the limiter around 72/7300rpm. I believe im the first person to have a shift light working on megane s3000 ecu and clio 200 clocks. Nobody else has ever asked Chris to look at adjusting it, and as usual he managed it easily, excellent service.

Thanks for reading!!

 

You are fully to blame here on out for any further modifications to mine 😂 looks the absolute dogs b****cks at that height!

 

Updates

Fitted some lock stops to the steering rack as had slight tyre to coilover rub on full lock. This appears to be a known issue on ast coilovers on megs from a little research. The stops are double the thickness of oem and knock onto the tie rod ends tight so quite a nice bit of kit.

Its not the ideal solution as lost a bit of lock, its not clio v6 turning circle bad but have to be a little bit more mindful when parking etc, but tons of clearance on tyres now. The other options would have been to run a spacer up front or lower et wheels but i like the comps and not really a fan of spacers.

Lost another compomotive centre cap too but replaced from one i have in stock.

Had the toe set yesterday at my local for mates rates on the hunter anlignment.

Toe was miles out as expected. From memory massive toe in on drivers, toe out on passenger side.

Toe et close to parallel, the setup is not agressive, camber is a little bit less than planned -1.5deg but even so ill take that as i set that prior with a spirit level and some trigonometry.

Rear not bad at all, could do with a slight shim however will need custom shims as massive 60mm bolt spacing and 21mm bolts holding the stubs on.

I can report that for the first time since conversion it pulls straight on boost. The difference in drivability is amazing. All torque steer has gone which ive been fighting since converting it, you can hold the steering wheel with one hand on boost, where before it was hang on for dear life as the lsd would pull it about on any slight bit of camber. First time ive actually properly enjoyed driving it since getting it on the road, and dont need to concentrate on focusing on holding it in a straight line.

Ive been battling torque steer since conversion, with the old suspension setup it was all over the place if hitting camber on the road and lsd scrabbling for traction. It was that bad that it could put you into the next lane if hitting a bump on full throttle so had to be very careful. If it was wheelspinning then it would go straight but that defeats the object.

I renewed all the bushes and steering components up front and fitted r26 22mm arb, toe set parallel which made little difference on the old suspension.

Next step was purchasing the Ast's and fitting them made a 90% improvement although it would still be a bit skitty in certain circumstances and feeling like it was swapping power left to right although not pulling all over the place. I was at the point of pulling the box to get the lsd checked or replaced or getting the van on a chassis jig to see if the shell was straight, as had checked engine and box was mounted straight/level etc. Still can not believe the toe set up has cured all issues and on the plus side the steering has a nice weighted feeling as it used to go light before.

Its been an absolute ball ache to get right but we are 100% moving in the right direction now.

Thanks for reading!!

 

I love this van. Great to hear it’s behaving itself now

 

Now we need videos of it out hunting 😁

 

Updates, not moved much as been mega busy but had the occasional run out. No issues to report running great

Bought another set of compomotive centre caps to have in stock for when another one goes awol

Give it a good clean up and a coating of Gtecnhiq c2v3, AG trim gel on the bumpers.

Need to start prepping it for cs festival soon. List is not too bad, oil and filter change, fit new front discs and ds1.11 pads/flush brake fluid and renew with motul rbf600.

Thanks for reading!!

 

cant wait to see it on track

 

Quick win

High level brake light had a chunk missing out of the corner. Ive been looking for a replacement for a while but not easy to find as it has a washer jet fitted for rear wiper and most panel vans do not have it, and couldnt be arsed spending £50 on a new one. Anyway a used one turned up on ebay at a reasonable price so purchased it.

Had a bit of overspray on so give it a quick going over with some compound and the da

Old one with chunk missing

New one fitted.

Thanks for reading!!

 

Long time no update.

Still not done much and a list of bits to do before CS festival, thought id better make a start now back from hols.

Started with a trial fit of the Technomagnesio champion 201B wheels wearing 235/40/18 Yokohama A048 Medium hard compound semis. Got these refurbed a couple of years ago for the blue meg for track use and not used them and have been sat in wheel bags in the garage.

As the Kangoo needs a lower offset than the meg on the rear for clearance from inner arch a spacer is required. I dont need to run one with the mo6 as its a staggered set with lower et on the rear approx et50, i believe the technos are et60.

I have a pair of 10mm pms slip on spacers in stock which work ok as the hub centre is massive so plenty left to locate the wheel, and clearance is good. Should be epic on a dry track with this combo😁

Liking the look of them fitted now its suitably low. The wheels are like a cross between oldskool flat faced compomotive mo5 and speedline corse 1822, nice motorsport look.

Still got the front discs to change for new brembo hc, fit ds1.11 front pads, flush brake and clutch fluid for motul rbf600. Also need to change oil and filter and modine seal whilst there as weeping slightly. Not much to do but enough at the last minute, but will be done in time

Thanks for reading!!

 

Properly looking forward to seeing this in person!

Getting posh now though mate, even have wheel bags

 

Love reading the updates on this. Also those Renault wheel bags! Where does one come across such things!

 

Cheers all. I got the wheel bags from rofag via ebay a couple of years back, they were reasonably priced at the time but cant see them for sale anymore. Generic wheel bags that look similar are dirt cheap though £5-10 a set.

 

They look like the Richbrook tyre bags but Renault branded.

 

so looking forward to seeing this at blyton @Brigsy

 

Updates

CSF prep almost done

New brembo hc front discs fitted, ferodo ds1.11 front pads, system fully flushed with motul rbf 600 fluid.

Discs come pre painted on the bits that rust in anthricite and look well.

Pressure bled brakes in sequence and the pedal went a bit long for some bizarre reason was no issues prior. Give them another bleed and air came out of the rears and now the pedal feel is wicked. Flushed clutch hydraulics too.

Technomagnesios on now longer bolts have arrived for rears due to 10mm pms spacers. Black ebay special centre caps fitted as only had 2 of the silver ones in last pics. £6 delivered for them, bargain

Took it out this morning to bed the brakes in and once some pad material was on the new discs the stopping power is unreal.

Quick stop by the old woodyard in M/boro whilst brakes cooled a little.

The handling with the Yoko a048s on feels awesome. Solid and planted.

Went back home and changed oil and filter and modine seal. Id been putting this off as access is tight. Pulled front end off and was very easy to be fair. Modine bolt torqued to 44nm as per workshop manual and mocal sandwich plate torqued to 25nm as both were a little loose for my liking when removed.

Dry as a bone now as it had a slight weep in this area. Filled up with Millers Cfs motorsport 5/40.

Took it out for a test run and done some pulls with RsTuner hooked up for datalogging, whilst keeping an eye on afr gauge. Feels quick as and very planted in higher gears thats all im saying. Checked logs and the consensus is all good.

Small jobs left to do, nimbus heat shield above turbo and clean up, couple of hours work then its a case of fill the tank and go. Im actually a bit excited as not done a trackday since 2020 and not used this in anger yet.

Thanks for reading!!

 

Fitted a nimbus heatshield to the upper scuttle yesterday. It had a crappy bit of carpet sound deadening fitted originally which was looking ropey so took it off when i first done the conversion. Thought it was worthwhile fitting something right above the turbo to reflect some radiant heat.

Scuttle off and some riv nuts to hold it in place, daft hour job before the weather was scorchio. Nimbus is class, so easy to work with, moulded around the contours of the scuttle dead easy with minimum fuss.

Thats all the bits done for CSF apart from quick wash and fill up with fuel.

Thanks for reading!!

 

Looking good dude!

I've got your mats all packed and ready in my car btw bud

 

Looks awesome!

 

Awesome work.

This and @Adey. ‘s Twingo are at the top of my list to see at CSF. I absolutely love both of them.

 

Awesome work.

This and @Adey. ‘s Twingo are at the top of my list to see at CSF. I absolutely love both of them.

@Brigsy 's cars are all fantastically built, mine on the other hand will be a disappointment lol, but thanks 😊

 

@Brigsy 's cars are all fantastically built, mine on the other hand will be a disappointment lol, but thanks 😊

Yeah, but both of them have fully maxed the “power to shoe” ratio look and approach.

I could wear one on my left foot and one on my right. Like high powered roller skates 😂

 

Looking good dude!

I've got your mats all packed and ready in my car btw bud

Cheers mate. Collar me on the day so i dont forget 😘

Looks awesome!

Cheers mate, its slowly getting there. Got a few more bits planned but can wait for now until winter.

Awesome work.

This and @Adey. ‘s Twingo are at the top of my list to see at CSF. I absolutely love both of them.

Cheers mate. Adey's twingo is class, i cant wait to see what it goes like. It was a riot when i took it out at the last CS festival with tuned 1.2 lump, so should be epic now.

@Brigsy 's cars are all fantastically built, mine on the other hand will be a disappointment lol, but thanks 😊

Dont downsell the twingo mate, i think its awesome, and well built👌

 

Cheers mate. Collar me on the day so i dont forget 😘

Cheers mate, its slowly getting there. Got a few more bits planned but can wait for now until winter.

Cheers mate. Adey's twingo is class, i cant wait to see what it goes like. It was a riot when i took it out at the last CS festival with tuned 1.2 lump, so should be epic now.

Dont downsell the twingo mate, i think its awesome, and well built👌

I will try, look for the midget that looks angry all the time with a can of hipster beer in his hand carting around a larger than life Coleman coolbox x

 

CSF update 2022

Cleaned up and sat in the garage all week to stay clean. Pulled it out the garage ready to go and torrential rain started straight away so waste of time

Filled up with fuel and gear, uneventful ride down to pick the Trophy up en route via Leeds. Noted max 30mpg at steady 70mph so not the best/not the worst, 630cc injector life.

Trophy collected, took it straight to the airbnb and out for a pub dinner. No issues finding a spot that it fits in!

Sat comes and we arrive at Blyton, His and hers parked up.

Track time booked for the afternoon. Do the relevant pre flight checks and clear all the shite out the back. Playing safe as its looking like the hottest day of the year so hook up the RsTuner to datalog the engine ecu parameters and get in the queue.

Go out with a few steady laps planned and to get the feel for the setup. Ill be the first to admit that ive never used this in anger on the corners and had no idea what to expect. Will it be planted? Lively on the rear? Fall over on the corners? Who knows

Get on the circuit and my track driving is a little rusty as not done any track driving since September 2020. Moderate pace first lap to get some heat into the medium hard compound semis and get the oil up to temp.

2nd lap get on it a bit and start testing the handling. Feels very solid, not snappy on the rear. Start opening it up, after the wiggler get on the throttle and on the straight its really moving. Start using the full track on the corners, progressive on the throttle and its picking up a wheel on inside rear exiting Bunga Bunga as can hear the shock drop to full droop. Get on the throttle again and short shift from 3rd into 4th at 5.5k before Port Froid as i want to see what the higher speed cornering is like and not run out of rpm. Its feeling solid so apply more throttle, a little agressive as the boost/power ramps in mid corner and lights the inner tyre up with the lsd. f**king crazy but it does not move off the racing line so put it down to spring, rebound or setup or even just driver error (too much throttle input). Hard on the brakes for Ushers and the Ds1:11 absolutely deliver the goods.

I do another 3 laps of varied pace and tyres are hot/pressure too high so cool down lap and go in to check datalogs. Coolant temps, oil temps are looking OK considering, Air to fuel ratio is very good 12afr in mid range going to mid 11s on higher rpm. Noted that id gone from a full tank of fuel to above 3/4 in that time lol.

Get laptop out and check datalogs. Coolant temps are stable ish at 98-99deg, not horiffic but up there a little which is to be expected with high ambient temps. Air intake temps are good, excellent really around 30-32deg on boost so a few degrees above ambient.

The bad news is that something was not happy and the datalogs show engine is consistently pulling 3-5deg of ign timing on slow correction. Average cyl knock counts look ok in the mid range but spiking at higher rpm, not too excessive which is either false knock, or engine is unhappy and its doing its best to keep it in one piece. Ive noted its dropped ign to 4deg on boost/higher rpm so safe in that respect, which at this point im worried if it pulls more ign will egts go sky high, im no expert on the matter but im concerned sustained hard use may hurt the engine in the high ambient temp, and id rather not damage it so call it a day at that. I was told off a couple of people to just send it as the ecu is keeping it right, but if it all goes wrong then it'll be dead until i get time to rebuild it.

Still i always classed this as a shakedown and its given me data, and proof that once i get the small issues sorted it should be quite the weapon.

Still enjoyed the rest of the day, took @Adey. s twingo out and had a riot in that, and passenger in @DaveL485 s V6 which was epic. Picked up another set of 18 Comps off @Moggy_rs and some other bits. Back was quite full on the way home!

Also got a pic with @Mcaff s Kangoo back to back. Shows how short it is compared to normal ML Kangoo!

Plan is diagnostics on the dyno and map tweak if it needs it, rectify the issues if any hardware faults and get it booked in for some more track action before summer is out.

Thanks for reading!!

 

I think it has been covered but what clocks did you swap over to from the original dials?

 

I think it has been covered but what clocks did you swap over to from the original dials?

Ive got mk3 clio 200 clocks in mine. All mk3 clio clocks plug in and work, but if originally for a keyless car then reprogramming is needed so the clocks shut down properly on the normal key. The door open, temp gauge, mpg, warning lights etc all work spot on.

Mk2 meg clocks also plug in but surround needs trimming.

I have a set of 197 clocks that i used originally before fitting the later 200 clocks. Cheap if any good?

 

How would the rev clock operate as it is a diesel engine in mine still or does the ECU sort all that out and shows the correct revs despite the petrol clocks going higher? I think I explained that in the most awkward way, being diesel will the revs show 1k, 2k, 3k etc correct for what the engine is revving at?

 

Rev counter is operated via canbus on these so id imagine it will work fine and read correct, but only downside would be 8k rpm on the cluster and only using 4k or so as diesel not capable of same rpm. In effect a bit like some of the clio2 diesels that have 7k on the cluster as share the petrol setup, but you can only use up to 4k really.

 

I always wondered why that was that even on the derv the rev count went to petrol heights lol

 

A few pics of the Kangoo on track at CSF and a few static shots.

 

Done a bit of b road blasting in the Kangoo last week as had to pop over to North Yorkshire to pick up some fitted oem Renault mats for it, so took advantage of the good weather and great roads.

The Ast 5100 suspension is phenominal, perfect balance of compliance and handling, combined with 378 hp is absolutely epic. Love it!!

Mats fitted. Clip in so no movement like the old ones.

Also bought a set of ambla & dinamica black leather Recaro cs seat covers for the recaros. They were designed to fit the Recaro cross sportster low which i always assumed these were, however the corsa base foam is different and would not fit so bit of a fail on my behalf. Ill eventually get them retrimmed in the same material to suit.

Thanks for reading!!

 

Done a bit of b road blasting in the Kangoo last week as had to pop over to North Yorkshire to pick up some fitted oem Renault mats for it, so took advantage of the good weather and great roads.

The Ast 5100 suspension is phenominal, perfect balance of compliance and handling, combined with 378 hp is absolutely epic. Love it!!View attachment 1605514View attachment 1605515
Mats fitted. Clip in so no movement like the old ones.View attachment 1605518
Also bought a set of ambla & dinamica black leather Recaro cs seat covers for the recaros. They were designed to fit the Recaro cross sportster low which i always assumed these were, however the corsa base foam is different and would not fit so bit of a fail on my behalf. Ill eventually get them retrimmed in the same material to suit.View attachment 1605516View attachment 1605517View attachment 1605519

Thanks for reading!!

I'm toying with the idea of building another track car, but not a race car this time. Something I can drive daily and then nip over to Croft and have a blast.

ASTs are on my list so would you say they're going to be gentle enough on my spine on my daily drive to Darlington?

The Spax uprated suspension on my last one was brutal on public roads.

 

I'm toying with the idea of building another track car, but not a race car this time. Something I can drive daily and then nip over to Croft and have a blast.

ASTs are on my list so would you say they're going to be gentle enough on my spine on my daily drive to Darlington?

The Spax uprated suspension on my last one was brutal on public roads.

The damping is excellent on the Ast's, id be happy using this for daily driving. This is really good with solid bushes and solid top mounts on 70nm springs all round with damping set relatively soft for road use, not crash bang just rides the bumps nice.

The Bilstein b14s are nice on the clio's for road use too, running them on the trophy and its nice and compliant so could be an option.

 

I'm toying with the idea of building another track car, but not a race car this time. Something I can drive daily and then nip over to Croft and have a blast.

ASTs are on my list so would you say they're going to be gentle enough on my spine on my daily drive to Darlington?

The Spax uprated suspension on my last one was brutal on public roads.

I have AST 1500 track on the 172 and with the damping set to 6 (I could do with coming down a couple of clicks to 4 or 5) it's a really nice drive with solid top mounts. Then when you get to track, crank them up and it's a whole different beast!