Martin_172's Twingo GT TCE

[Martin_172]

After all the hastle i had with the Clio 200 and me also wanting to get out of the car finance loop so i can start saving for a house deposit it was time to get rid of the Clio. As i still had outstanding finance on the Clio the easiest option was to find a car in a dealership and trade the 200 in. Was looking at MK3 DCI clios but they were either high miles and low spec or expensive so was struggling to find anything, Then this popped up and fitted the bill perfectly so went and had a look at it, was happy with it so done the deal!

The car is a 57 Plate GT with the 1.2 16v Turbo engine, 100bhp and around 115lb/ft and should be good for 45-50mpg! Weighing less than a tonne means it shifts pretty well, its by no means fast but is effortless, 30mph in 5th gear up hill it will quite happily accelerate. Trying to resist the temptation of a set of 182 injectors and RS tuning remap for 145bhp but need to keep in my head thats not what this car is about lol!!

first thing was to give it a tidy up now im no detailer but heres what i used to get the results which im very happy with...
A good wash using the 2 bucket method with Meguiars washmitt and Meguiars Ultimate wash wax, Dryed with a Sonus drying towel, Clayed using a Meguiars clay kit, polished using the new formula Auto Glym SRP by Porter cable rotary polisher, washed again as above then waxed using Meguiars tech wax 2.0. Wheels cleaned with bilberry wheel cleaner and tyres dressed with AG instant tyre dressing.....

next up was philips silvervision indicator bulbs

and then onto the exhaust!, didnt spend to much time on it today but a quick clean up with a scotch pad and then quick polish with some metal polish
Before...

After...

going to have it booked into my mates bodyshop to sort some dings on the boot lid (looks like someones been opening the boot in a garage or something with a low roof and hitting it off something, and also the drivers side sill resprayed as its been kicked and scuffed with someone getting in and out quite badly.

 

[aldo_87]

This is for your GF to drive eh?

 

[jamier27]

Great little car tbh, we had one for new for a year and loved it round town... didnt realise 182 injectors would go in.. a map was about 120bhp i think when we had it...

150 bhp/ton would be hilarious

 

[The Chubby Pirate]

Why didnt you buy a 133 you absolute raving bender?

(I actually like that btw )

 

[Martin_172]

This is for your GF to drive eh?

your pushing me towards modding just to whoop your ass boyo lol

Great little car tbh, we had one for new for a year and loved it round town... didnt realise 182 injectors would go in.. a map was about 120bhp i think when we had it...

150 bhp/ton would be hilarious

yeah loving it so far!, yeah they were pushing injectors to near the 130bhp mark but now its found the 182 ones fit straight in, few guys are running 160hp+ but its not really known what the internals are rated for, an extra 60% more power is pushing it imo, renault arnt really known for over engineering haha!

 

[aldo_87]

In all seriousness, Callums clio tce is daft with a remap so this should be a riot when its mapped!

 

[Martin_172]

Why didnt you buy a 133 you absolute raving bender?

(I actually like that btw )

because this was less than £4k, 133's arnt that great on fuel, cheaper tax, tyres, brakes etc and easily capable of the same power if i get the itch!

 

[aldo_87]

Its got the makings of an amazing sleeper... Thats all im saying!

 

[Beef-Mc]

Renaultsport Trackday approved too!

Can't say fairer than that for 4K!

 

[Martin_172]

Its got the makings of an amazing sleeper... Thats all im saying!

already its proving better mpg than the GT DCI and just as quick!

 

[The Chubby Pirate]

160bhp LOL.

What do these weigh?

 

[aldo_87]

Slammed, 2118's and a map! Full of "win" as the young ones say!

 

[Martin_172]

160bhp LOL.

What do these weigh?

980kg!

 

[The Chubby Pirate]

If you can get it to 160bhp its about the same bhp/ton as a 1*2...

 

[Martin_172]

aye and with 160lbft @3000rpm against 145lbft! @ 5500rpm or whenever it comes

 

[arg_carra]

Looks very clean.
Great little cars tbh. Drove a Turbo Twingo once - it does have a fair bit of oooomph.
Big sunroof too I see

 

[Paul.M]

Love these little cars, good luck with it!

 

[Martin_172]

Renaultsport Trackday approved too!

Can't say fairer than that for 4K!

no doubt it probably will end up on track for a laugh at some point lol

Looks very clean.
Great little cars tbh. Drove a Turbo Twingo once - it does have a fair bit of oooomph.
Big sunroof too I see

yeah i was really worried about it doing the usual renault sunroof creak or leak but so far looks sound!

Love these little cars, good luck with it!

cheers mate

 

[Claire90]

cant imagine you in this. can see why though. looks clean

 

[Martin_172]

had it out a wee blast tonight as i was bored with no plans! took it down a few backroads and it genuinely handles really well, pulls really well, the overboost comes in at 4500rpm giving you an extra 5bhp/5lbft for 45 seconds in 2nd, 3rd and 4th gear, which makes it quite fun as you feel it get that bit more keen to rev (feel simillar to the old 5k kick in 172/182's!) however driving like that is probably only giving 30mpg lol!!!

it doesnt have an MPG display, but working it out manually i recon im on track for an average of 40mpg for the current tank which is pretty good considering ive been testing out its performance a bit tonight!

 

[Martin_172]

used around half a tank now and working out at around the 43mpg mark although ill have an accurate reading when its empty

 

[danzel]

Smashing wee car imo and the TCE engine is great. Faster than the Clio too! Only thing I'm put off by the RST remap & 182 injectors is that the life of the clutch is halved... Plus what sort of driving do you do? I'm urban about 95% of the time and I average 37mpg...

 

[Joeh]

Love these, really shift for what they are too

 

[Martin_172]

Smashing wee car imo and the TCE engine is great. Faster than the Clio too! Only thing I'm put off by the RST remap & 182 injectors is that the life of the clutch is halved... Plus what sort of driving do you do? I'm urban about 95% of the time and I average 37mpg...

there seems to be a lot of people mentioning clutch issues, the car uses the same gearbox as the DCi100 and id imagine a fairly similar clutch which i was putting 130bhp/190lbft through for 20k hard miles! i think its one of these internet roumours where someones been launching the s**t out the car and done the clutch in and suddenly there is a lot of bad press on running more power though it. I could be wrong however!! Either way clutches are cheap and id change it myself (its staying standard though!!!! lol!!!!)

im mostly just nipping about the town in 30's with the odd blast here and there, maby worth noting going from Clio 2 172 to Clio 3 200 and from Clio 2 DCi100 to Clio 3 DCi106 on both ocassions i was 10MPG less on the MK3 cars over what i got in the MK2 cars, i can only assume down to extra weight and size!

 

[daydotz]

quite smart shame you wont map it

has it got bluetooth tunepoint or climate control you normally have a knack of finding high spec cars

need one of these http://www.scangauge.com/

 

[JCC]

Slammed and Compomotive MOs.

You know it makes sense.

 

[Martin_172]

has it got bluetooth tunepoint or climate control you normally have a knack of finding high spec cars

need one of these http://www.scangauge.com/

unfortunately it doesnt have climate or bluetooth so that ends my run of finding massive spec average cars lol!! altho the full pano roof couldnt have been cheap! and they dont creak or leak which is good, also when its open you dont really get any wind noise just a nice breeze, much better than the leccy sunroofs on the non RS clio 2!

looking out for a cheap scanguage to do mount it somewhere tidy and factory looking as it also reads boost!

 

[.GAZ.]

HEAVY BENT!!!

 

[PP200t]

Looks really nice. 182 wheels would suit it too.

 

[jamier27]

160+ bhp and stiffer springs would be full of win!

Hope you get that itch!

 

[Martin_172]

Raced an Iveco van today and won... just! awesome! lol

 

[Jjay]

Martin... Who is hitting 160+ and what have they done? Turbo is only good for 150, fuel pump at 150. Highest I've seen anyone hit so far is 141hp and 153lb/ft... I'd love to know who is hitting higher and what with :-D

 

[Martin_172]

new mats fitted today, didnt have time to hover it, ill do it at the weekend!

Martin... Who is hitting 160+ and what have they done? Turbo is only good for 150, fuel pump at 150. Highest I've seen anyone hit so far is 141hp and 153lb/ft... I'd love to know who is hitting higher and what with :-D

He ran a lower figure on run 2 which to me would say the turbo is at/past its limit and intake temps are suffering, but a slightly better turbo would give you more scope for power while still retaining low spool up times, fuel pump wouldnt be an issue to uprated too!

 

[Ged]

you at least need to stick a map on it! and then compare it to the dci106 engine... Would love to know how it stands

 

[Martin_172]

you at least need to stick a map on it! and then compare it to the dci106 engine... Would love to know how it stands

standard its just as quick id say as the DCi106, but it needs 6000rpm changes to match the same performance as the DCi106 doing 3500rpm changes, as the 106 has bucket loads more torque, but remember this probably weighs 200kg less, with a map and a big increase in torque it would definately be a good bit quicker i recon!

 

[JackJack]

Nice little cars but the interior put me off.

 

[Martin_172]

interior isnt too bad, simple and basic, no where near as nice a place to be as my GT DCi and 200 but no worse than my 172's were!

 

[Englebert]

Desperately needs a few tweaks; looks like noddy's car.

 

[ant_r27]

Looks like a smart runaround. Back when I had an RS Twingo, it always annoyed me at the thought that the TCE could potentially be a lot quicker than my RS with a remap.

I got one as a courtesy car once when my RS was in; and it honestly felt quicker in day to day driving.

One thing I never liked though were the silver bits around the fogs. They remind me of ridiculous side-burns for some reason. Colour coded it'd look pretty sweet though I think.

 

[Martin_172]

removed the twingo badge and fitted some phillips blue vision ultra bright 501 sidelights today, no pics of the sidelights yet ill get some tonight! (im not into LED sidelights thats why i went for these for just a bit cleaner and brighter look than OEM)

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