Roland Rat's 225/R26 Track Toy Build

[roland rat]

Hi Everyone,

Just a bit of background before we start,

I use to own a very nice Liquid Yellow R26 for over 2 years but sadly I couldn't sell it for what I wanted for it so stripped it for parts at the beginning of this year.



Stripping Megane 225/R26's is nothing new to me as I've been doing it since buying the Liquid Yellow R26 as I like to know how a cars put together so what better way to learn than taking one apart right? ?


Anyway back on track, I've just become the owner of @Ricardos old track prepped 225 Lux. The car has some very nice parts already fitted such as the BC coilovers, Megane R26.R alloys and Renaultsport Sabelt bucket seat to name a few.


So what's the plans i here you cry? Well I've just breaking an accident damaged R26 and have taken the following bits from it to put on the 225 Lux



*R26 rear beam (has Anti roll bar fitted unlike 225 Lux/Cup models)
*R26 steering rack (believed to be different from 225 Lux model)
*R26 Front Anti Roll Bar (21mm compared to 20mm found on 225 Lux)
*Standard bootlid and spoiler
*Nearly new Fuel Pump
*Milltek 2.75 Exhaust system






Other plans are to Sell the R26.R Alloys And Carbon Fibre R26.R spoiler to fee some cash up for Decat, Intercooler, 630cc Injectors and Remap. Once thats all fitted im hoping for 270/280 bhp and similiar torque figures.

 

[josh11490]

Probably still couldn’t keep up with a crashed 106.

Kept this quiet.

 

[ilovewilly]

Give you until Xmas before you break it for parts x

 

[roland rat]

Probably still couldn’t keep up with a crashed 106.

Kept this quiet.

We will have to see

Give you until Xmas before you break it for parts x

That long! most last 2 weeks ?

 

[roland rat]

So made some progress today on the car.

Sadly the R26.R Carbon Spoiler has been sold but it was always my intention to sell fancy bits like the spoiler and alloys so I could spend the rest on an R26 LSD gearbox and performance upgrades.

So spoiler removed (started to pee down so no time to swap bootlids over)



Then my next breaker turned up



And I found a goldmine of parts in the boot! the seller said he had a few bits he was going to include but didn't think it would be all this.




So now I have a full Powerflex handling kit for the car along with full Powerflex engine mount kit along with a brand new Direnza black intercooler!

 

[roland rat]

So spent last weekend stripping the Inferno breaker ready for buyer of engine to collect later next week.



While snooping through the service history i came across a recepit for a recent clutch fitment within the last 2k.



Was pleasantly surprised to find this fitted and like new!








looks in great shape and as I'm planning on winding up the power up it will come in handy!



Got a few purchases to pick up this week to move the project on so planning to take it off the road.over winter and have it done ready for next year.

 

[mossyv6]

Great work mate but that LY looked far to good to break up

Don't suppose you have an original chrome gearknob 6 speed insert and r26 rear brake discs for sale do you?

 

[roland rat]

Great work mate but that LY looked far to good to break up

Don't suppose you have an original chrome gearknob 6 speed insert and r26 rear brake discs for sale do you?

I was gutted to split the LY R26 up but needs must

I think I've got a chrome top somewhere bud, I'd have to have a look through the garage to make sure but I know I don't have any R26 rear discs sorry

 

[roland rat]

So I've got some time off this week and in between painting/DIY I'm hoping to do some bits on the Megane

First up was changing the boot lids over. The one that came on the car when I bought it had a genuine Carbon Fibre R26.R spoiler that I sold to raise some funds for other goodies for this project.

After said spoiler had been removed and sold it left some unsightly holes and glue residue from standard 225 spoiler.



Que me digging through my pile of parts harvested from a previous R26 that I broke and 10 mins later we had a new boot lid fitted with no more nasty holes!

Still need to solder all wires up etc but looks better already IMO




Only other thing to report is that the postman kindly dropped some Powerflex ARB bushes through the letter box. These with all the other Powerflex goodies I have I hope will make it onto the car sometime this week.

 

[mossyv6]

I was gutted to split the LY R26 up but needs must

I think I've got a chrome top somewhere bud, I'd have to have a look through the garage to make sure but I know I don't have any R26 rear discs sorry

If you could find the chrome top that would be awesome buddy - thanks so much.

 

[roland rat]

So having this week off has worked out well for me so far. Granted not much DIY has been done and the O/H will no doubt give me a ear bashing but it means I've had more time to do car stuff.

A lad was breaking his R26 on Facebook and was selling the parts off quickly as he needed the cash for a new car so cue a 3 hour drive to Telford for these



The all important gearbox code



And some Deka 630cc injectors ready for when its remap time

 

[roland rat]

So the buying bug continues! Spotted these on a Facebook Megane sport page and had to have them as they were silly cheap.



Those who know the Megane 225/R26 range know that the cars already come with Brembo 4 pot calipers as standard so why buy these I hear you cry?

The ones pictured above are actually from the Megane RS 250/265/275 range and are bigger and as I keep telling SWMBO bigger is always better right? The kit in production means I can used the 342mm discs from the 250/265/275 range for better stopping power over the standard 225 set up.

 

[roland rat]

So bought a few bits for the Megane RS250 brake conversion.

Spigot Rings 68.1mm 60.1mm Wheel Spacer Set of 4 Alloy Wheel Hub Centric Celica | eBay


M8 M10 M12 & M14 Metric Fine 10.9 Grade High Tensile Self Colour Steel Hex Bolts | eBay


FOR MEGANE MK3 SPORT RS250 RS265 RS275 TROPHY FRONT BRAKE DISCS BREMBO PADS 340 | eBay


I know I can buy a kit off the shelf for this to work but this is meant to be a "budget" track car so where ever I can save money towards more bits I plan to. A mate who's a CNC engineer is going to make some brackets for me ready for the calipers for some beer tokens.


Next step is a rollcage of some description!

 

[JamesBryan]

You'll need your mate to elongate the bolt holes on the discs to match the 225/R26 PCD.

 

[roland rat]

You'll need your mate to elongate the bolt holes on the discs to match the 225/R26 PCD.

Cheers for the heads up mate, hes going to take care of that as well.

 

[JamesBryan]

Cheers for the heads up mate, hes going to take care of that as well.

The mk3's are 5x114.3 and the mk2 is 5x108, so they don't need too much work.

 

[197.]

Very interested in the Megane 250 brake set up. Will it be a one off set of brackets/brake disc spigot rings or something that you may start selling as a kit to others?

 

[roland rat]

Very interested in the Megane 250 brake set up. Will it be a one off set of brackets/brake disc spigot rings or something that you may start selling as a kit to others?

There's already a kit for sale at £360 but ive managed to keep the cost so far to half that. just a few beers for my mate and thats the spending done.

 

[JamesBryan]

I know the guy who makes the 250 conversion kits @197.

Let me know and I'll put you in contact with him.

 

[roland rat]

So after talking to a fellow Megane owner about the conversion we have found something that we think will surffice as a bracket/caliper spacer without having brackets made up.

M14 Clearance Aluminium 1" O/D ( 25.4mm ) spacer / bush PICK LENGTH 8mm - 35mm | eBay

Hopefully 4 of those and bobs your uncle!

 

[Danith]

Haven't you done all this lark about 120409 times before?! ha. You planning on coming up here to do Oulton park next year? Will get on it with you.

 

[roland rat]

Haha this actually is my first proper track car build do i want to see this one through ☺

Aiming to have it track ready come march/april do buying bits and storing them away atm. night out sounds like a must!

 

[Danith]

Haha this actually is my first proper track car build do i want to see this one through [emoji5]

Aiming to have it track ready come march/april do buying bits and storing them away atm. night out sounds like a must!

I'm in

 

[roland rat]

So it looks like I've bought myself an expensive climbing frame for the build.

wasn't planning to go this mad but a well speeced shell has turned up for not far of the cost of a half cage

 

[JamesBryan]

Mad how cheap you can pick these up these days.

 

[Simon998]

I think I'll be after one of these after the clio. Class build so far.

 

[roland rat]

Sadly the full cage shell isnt going to feature in this build as I'm stuck for space to have 2 cars laid up while I transfer all the bits over. ?

But never the less I've been doing a few minor things with the car.

First up was the purchase of some engine bay bling to cheer me up.

Next up I spent a morning tidying up the garage and found a few old Forge goodies that came off my old LY R26 I'd forgot about that can make their way onto the car too.

Other than that I've been sorting a few issues out on the car. On the drive back from the previous owner the speakers barely worked and it was rather unpleasant with no tunes on the way home.

I decided to have a look at what was causing this when I was greated by horror number 1! ?

So removed the dodgy screws to see horror number 2.

Wires just tided together! So raided the parts bin and had 2 original speaker clips to solder into place with a bit of heatshrink to tidy it all up.

Dug out some standard speakers and jobs a good un.

Final thing was to swap the cloth door bin over for a leather one I had in the parts pile

Before

And then after

Plans are to stick it in the garage now and start bolting on the goodies over winter ready for next years track days!

 

[roland rat]

as with everything in life the only constant is change.

That is no truer than the track project!

An R26 turned up local and very well priced so i just couldn't say no!

Buying it means i get a car already fitted with better beam, bigger front arb and the limited slip diff plus its lower mileage and already slightly tuned.

I'll take all the parts I want from the black one and fit them to the LY and then sell the black one on.

Here's a picture of the 2 together

 

[gez 172]

Jesus, your crazy!
I thought you recently had a LYR26?

 

[roland rat]

Jesus, your crazy!
I thought you recently had a LYR26?

I did but no one wanted to give me a fair price for it and i knew id get good money back in breaking it so thats what i did!!! ?

 

[roland rat]

So with the run up to Christmas etc I havent done anything of late on the car.

Today I had a day off so decided to sort out a few bits while it was dry.

When I bought the car there was a few issues that previous owner hadn't sorted after a bump they had a while back.

First was that there was no lower bumper grille fitted as it had been lost by previous owner.

Secondly the drivers side Xenon headlight didnt work so while the bumper was off it made sense to swap them over for the working pair from the Black 225.

While bumper was off it made sense to swap the standard intercooler for the uprated black Direnza one I had to fit.

Then it was time to fit a new horn as the old one sounded like a mouse farting!

And a picture with her face back one in one piece.

Only other thing was change the passenger door lock cover with a good one from my spares hoard.

And voila!

Hoping to get a few more hours on the car over the festive period as I want to get the Sabelt seat and BC coilovers on asap.

 

[Cookson]

Looking well. I really do like these meganes

 

[gez 172]

What the heck are you doing with this now? Breaking it!? Lol

@roland rat

 

[roland rat]

What the heck are you doing with this now? Breaking it!? Lol

@roland rat

Yes, long story short life is changing for me so no free time for track cars

 

[197.]

Are you selling the MK3 megane brake conversion too? ?

 

[gez 172]

@roland rat I believe he is ^ ? @197.

 

[roland rat]

Are you selling the MK3 megane brake conversion too? ?

I am indeed. Drop me a pm if you want