Another French shed! Peugeot 306 XSi Targa rally car!

Helpimonfire

Paid Member
I originally wasn't going to post anything about this car until I'd been through it and tidied it up, but it needs a lot more work than expected.
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1998 Peugeot 306 XSI, 135bhp, just over 1000kg and set up for Targa rally, nav rally etc...
Story behind this one is that I owned this actual car from 2012 to 2014, I'd just come home off the back of a 6 week job away and the poor thing had run out of MOT, needed more work than I could do over that weekend so I sold it to a friend of my father in law's. He threw a bit of time and money at the car and it's been a reliable targa/nav/road rally car for the past 9 years, when I heard he was selling up I knew I had to buy it back.
So 1 poorly thought out plan later, I took ownership of my old 306 again! From a quick look over I've already made a list of jobs and parts needed, there's a lot of old man "engineering" (bodges).
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Seat subframe - The current one is strips of mild steel with pigeon shit welds and held down with M6 bolts and repair washer.
Proper half cage - The half cage in it is a universal one and not suitable at all, I can't get the seats in the right place at all unless I use the scabby OMP one that's fitted, however that one is too small for my large bottom.
Front bumper as this one lost a fight with a badger and has been repaired with liberal use of self tappers and something resembling fibreglass/body filler.
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General tidy up, get rid of the moss build up on the car, repair the boot latch and go through the brakes and suspension, stick it through an MOT and see what happens!

There's an event near me in March that I'd like to do so that's my aim, it's 12 separate events across a mix of tarmac, gravel and mud on MOD land so it should be pretty cool!
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It's currently sat on the trailer still as the weather and lack of time/space has been against me, however the Christmas break will be ideal for this so it'll get a good going over. Of course it'll be used for a trackday or 2 because it'd be rude not to!
 
Finally started work on the 306 today. Partly because I want it on the road as a daily (6 miles each way down B roads aren't the best for the poor Mondeo) and also it opens up the possibility to actually use it for the purpose it was originally bodged together for. Sorry. Built!
Anyway. No pictures of the seat install because I was busy swearing at the floor repairs I was having to do but I've now got my old seat from the Clio in the drivers position and it's on runners so the missus can drive it!

Anyway, onto the important bits.
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How cool does it look on the big ol' mud and snow tyres? Proper cool looking.
I have been looking at the car often and the thought that was always there, was that it looks very low on the front end, I found out why while replacing the wheels...
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That needs some work. The shock isn't as bad as it looks, the majority of that is mud from the last even the car was used on, somewhere in Wales about 18 months ago.

While I was sat in the drivers seat I was looking at the bits fitted for the navigator
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Nice little timer on the dash with a stopwatch and also a map light which is dash operated.rn_image_picker_lib_temp_f55db3ab-4344-4f9b-8ca0-771298253d78.jpg
You can see in this photo the button on the passenger footplate, this operates a pair of LED lights above the passenger window for map checks on time control points. Nice little touches from a seasoned targa rally driver. Sadly they're all very bodged and all a bit sketchy. Main thing at the minute is to get it running properly, driving and stopping well.

To do list:
Fit replacement cat
Buy and fit new front springs
Sort through the stack of wheels, tyres and spares to see what's worth keeping and what needs binning
MOT

I'll need at least 1 tyre for the MOT I think, there's 3 Michelin PS3's but the 4th has gone AWOL. There's several sets of wheels here now but the mud tyres won't be good for the MOT as 1 has a bulge in the sidewall. Then the other tyres I have for it are all between 4 and 14 years old... Most are cracked and split so I can't currently make a full set.
 
I once had a four door XSi Phase 1 with 121 hp. It was a good car with full leather and all the Gucci. Sold it to a friend for a bargain.

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Looking forward to see what you make out of yours. Good luck!
 
Got around to fitting a new battery and the car fired into life with no issues at all.
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A few weekends ago I got around to fitting the replacement cat and get a part number off the springs. Once the car was in the air I could see the bodgery that's happened to put the underbody protection plates on. Oh boy...
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One area of concern is the rust, there's a lot of it at the front of the chassis rails. To the point it's got a lot of layers of metal peeling away. So as it stands the car hasn't had an MOT. It will, however, go into dry storage for a bit until I learn to weld, there's a new kid on the block and that has an MOT...
 

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