Benno's UR197 & Meg 250
- Thread starter Benno
- Start date
Oh, so it was you who delayed my train this morning?!
https://www.kentonline.co.uk/faversham/news/train-hits-car-at-level-crossing-192152/
Looks like you're playing chicken there. How many pictures can we get before the train comes?
Well that’s a bit of a mess...
Nah, same as anything in Wiltshire on a Sunday. That stretch of track is used 3-4 times a day on Sundays, nothing around the time we went up there either! I wouldn’t risk it otherwise!!!
Hey that looks ace....number plate is a bit 'kevlar' love it - question though did you seriously park it on a level crossing to take photos
Are the renault decals staying or going? nothing personal, but I hate those renault ones on the bottom rear...bit to 'ebay' for my liking!
Kev!!!!! Can’t believe I missed this!
They’re still on there...will be coming off soon.
Will PM you when I’m home for Christmas and pop over for a catch up, been a while!
Ultimate thread revival....sat here distraught over Forest Green losing one of the most epic playoff games so thought I'd do something I've been meaning to do for a longgggggg time.
So as most people that know me on here know, I picked up an Oyster Grey Meg 250 Cup back in October 2018 (wow, time flies..), however I've only posted a handful of pics on here so time to update. It's a whistle stop tour with some pictures included, I'll revive this properly with more current updates once I've reached May 2021 in my timeline!
Until just before Covid, I was still up in Birmingham and all over the place working so this thing was used and abused for the most part with little modding going on apart from things that needed fixing. Cue a new job on the railway and me returning home in Feb last year - meaning some funds being freed up to do what I'd wanted to do for a long time, replace what I had in the Clio as a proper track toy and put it in a Megane.
Firstly I wanted two sets of wheels again, I didn't fully utilise this with the Clio but could clearly see the benefits. @Big Ben my ever-present courier in the East, picked up some cheap as chips Rota Force wheels that were in need of some TLC...I took them back to Birmingham with me and they came out really nice in bronze!
These were going to be my track wheels, then last Easter a set of Evo Corse wrapped in Cup 2s came up on Facebook for a price I couldn't refuse, @Big Ben sorted me out once again(!) and met me at South Mimms with the wheels, a jack and a wheel gun. Yes - they looked bloody awful on standard springs but it meant ditching the standard Cup wheels which I was over the moon about.
Lockdown boredom and a few prior purchases meant I had the chance to gut the car, rip the rear seats out and roll in the big boot carpet I'd picked up from someone on the Megane forums. Under the seats was absolutely grim, found a burner phone too!
Post clean shot (4x4 mode activated)...
Didn't want to waste the Cup 2s so swapped them onto the Rotas, with PS4s from my cup wheels going onto the Evos. Fast forward to July and a well needed visit down to @R27WTF at Supreme in South Wales. I wanted to get the car to a point where it would readily handle whatever I threw at it on track, with a better map and a bit more power, but first on the list was handling. I stuck to what I knew on the Clio and went for Gaz Golds, along with fitting of an Airtec Intercooler, ITG Induction Kit, Properfekt recirc, decat, 4 point harnesses and the obligatory sunstrip!
With the car now ready for mapping and a trackday booked at Cadwell with @Beany and @Big Ben - a very well timed group buy for RS Tuning landed very nicely in my favour. Booked a hotel in Bradford the night before, then drove straight across to Paul in Leeds for mapping. I wasn't looking for silly power, but knew the car had been played with before as it was giving some very loud pops and bangs after Matt fitted the decat. Paul immediately spotted a Superchips map and pulled it off the car, it was overfuelling massively and in one sense I was kind of lucky it hadn't done any damage to the engine. Paul mapped it brilliantly, pulling figures of just over 310bhp/350ftlb, very nice numbers and with a switchable map on the sport button meaning it was still nice and smooth for daily driving, with full torque just a flick of a button away.
The suspension also needed setting up, with Covid Matt's usual alignment guru was still off work, so a few feelers out on Facebook and I found Track Torque Racing, outside York so not a million miles away from Leeds or where I was staying in Doncaster pre-Cadwell. Within an hour, I was back out on the road running a nice cambered setup, 2.5 degrees on the front, towing out slightly. It didn't need much from how Matt had eyed it up to be fair to him, but it felt absolutely unreal straight away. Cadwell was great, a little dicey in the morning with some rain, but the Cup 2s came into their own and I had one of my best ever stints with @Big Ben for 6 or 7 laps. This turned out to be the only day the Rotas went on the car!
So as most people that know me on here know, I picked up an Oyster Grey Meg 250 Cup back in October 2018 (wow, time flies..), however I've only posted a handful of pics on here so time to update. It's a whistle stop tour with some pictures included, I'll revive this properly with more current updates once I've reached May 2021 in my timeline!
Until just before Covid, I was still up in Birmingham and all over the place working so this thing was used and abused for the most part with little modding going on apart from things that needed fixing. Cue a new job on the railway and me returning home in Feb last year - meaning some funds being freed up to do what I'd wanted to do for a long time, replace what I had in the Clio as a proper track toy and put it in a Megane.
Firstly I wanted two sets of wheels again, I didn't fully utilise this with the Clio but could clearly see the benefits. @Big Ben my ever-present courier in the East, picked up some cheap as chips Rota Force wheels that were in need of some TLC...I took them back to Birmingham with me and they came out really nice in bronze!
These were going to be my track wheels, then last Easter a set of Evo Corse wrapped in Cup 2s came up on Facebook for a price I couldn't refuse, @Big Ben sorted me out once again(!) and met me at South Mimms with the wheels, a jack and a wheel gun. Yes - they looked bloody awful on standard springs but it meant ditching the standard Cup wheels which I was over the moon about.
Lockdown boredom and a few prior purchases meant I had the chance to gut the car, rip the rear seats out and roll in the big boot carpet I'd picked up from someone on the Megane forums. Under the seats was absolutely grim, found a burner phone too!
Post clean shot (4x4 mode activated)...
Didn't want to waste the Cup 2s so swapped them onto the Rotas, with PS4s from my cup wheels going onto the Evos. Fast forward to July and a well needed visit down to @R27WTF at Supreme in South Wales. I wanted to get the car to a point where it would readily handle whatever I threw at it on track, with a better map and a bit more power, but first on the list was handling. I stuck to what I knew on the Clio and went for Gaz Golds, along with fitting of an Airtec Intercooler, ITG Induction Kit, Properfekt recirc, decat, 4 point harnesses and the obligatory sunstrip!
With the car now ready for mapping and a trackday booked at Cadwell with @Beany and @Big Ben - a very well timed group buy for RS Tuning landed very nicely in my favour. Booked a hotel in Bradford the night before, then drove straight across to Paul in Leeds for mapping. I wasn't looking for silly power, but knew the car had been played with before as it was giving some very loud pops and bangs after Matt fitted the decat. Paul immediately spotted a Superchips map and pulled it off the car, it was overfuelling massively and in one sense I was kind of lucky it hadn't done any damage to the engine. Paul mapped it brilliantly, pulling figures of just over 310bhp/350ftlb, very nice numbers and with a switchable map on the sport button meaning it was still nice and smooth for daily driving, with full torque just a flick of a button away.
The suspension also needed setting up, with Covid Matt's usual alignment guru was still off work, so a few feelers out on Facebook and I found Track Torque Racing, outside York so not a million miles away from Leeds or where I was staying in Doncaster pre-Cadwell. Within an hour, I was back out on the road running a nice cambered setup, 2.5 degrees on the front, towing out slightly. It didn't need much from how Matt had eyed it up to be fair to him, but it felt absolutely unreal straight away. Cadwell was great, a little dicey in the morning with some rain, but the Cup 2s came into their own and I had one of my best ever stints with @Big Ben for 6 or 7 laps. This turned out to be the only day the Rotas went on the car!
Fast forward again...the other two trackdays I did last year. Bedford and Donington. There was a theme with all three days I did in 2020, wet.
Bedford:
Spot @Big Ben - p.s. he's behind me again.
Then Donington..
Winter didn't see many if any changes, although something that did amuse me was my Carbon Lorraine RC5+ pads just collapsing. My discs had seen better days, so we pulled the pads out and the material literally fell off the backing plate. Hadn't even been on the car 6 months but as they are 'race pads', no warranty, no discount for a replacement set, nothing. Rubbish from Carbon Lorraine, shame as I'd heard such great things and they felt really damn good on the car. I whacked my old PBS pads back in for the time being, I found some brand new EBC RP-X for a very good price and again I've heard good things, so thought I'd give them a try. I've got a caliper refurb kit off Supreme to make sure there's not an issue on that side of things too.
On a slightly different note, I've had a rather interesting time with wheels over the last few months. As mentioned, the Rotas never saw the car again, because I swapped them for a set of Turinis! I'd been looking at them for a long time after seeing them on only a few cars (compared to Team Dynamics..), so came to an arrangement with a guy from Cornwall and exchanged them one evening in Exeter. I was told prior they were flat seated wheels rather than conical or tapered and I didn't think it would be too much of an issue so I fitted them on the car. That was short lived, I didn't enjoy them and was a little paranoid and had little confidence in them being secure on the car. On the same day, a guy from Essex posted up a set of 17" OZ Ultraleggeras and asked for a swap with 18" wheels. We agreed on a deal with the Turinis and I went back down to my favourite wheel swapping location, South Mimms services.
The biggest bonus, the OZ are wrapped in Direzzas with 2 spanking new ones spare(!), which has meant technically saving on a £6-700 outlay on AR1s or MRF ZTRs for the Turinis. I was a very happy man driving away with the OZs. They've gone into the shed until we get a dry few days which seems very hard to come by at the moment....as far as the Evos are concerned, a change of colour is imminent. The red looks alright on the Oyster Grey, but I'd like something a tad less obvious for daily wheels, I'm tempted by the bronze I had the Rotas powdercoated.
Fast forward (again) to now, I've got some time booked in Matt's diary at the end of June for a fresh gearbox. I'm pretty much replacing everything, cables included. It's the one thing I haven't really got any history for, so a clutch and flywheel change was always on the cards at some point.
I've also been spending more money...the bolster wear on my Recaro has been doing my head in for months, so I decided on a seat change. After sitting in a Mk3 Trophy-R at a Cars and Coffee meet, it was only ever going to be one seat. Pole Positions...I'm over the moon. Supreme mounts have centralised the seat to the millimetre which is epic, the seat itself is just bliss and it's not awful to sit in on a long drive, the only thing I was really dreading about a fixed bucket. I've got the Ambla Leather/Dinamica Suede seat, with a second on order for the passenger side due in about 3/4 weeks. The weight difference too! Less than 5kg without the fixed mounts. On top of that, I also have a Royal steering wheel fitted now, fully trimmed in Alcantara with red stitching to keep the theme.
I've just had back a spare set of seatbelts I've had rewebbed red to match my harnesses and net, along with a few more alcantara bits to go on.
And breathe....that'll do for now. I'm planning on getting some proper pictures of the interior once the second PP is in, then I think it's time for a really good decontamination and polish. Fingers crossed for some dry weather!
Snetterton booked for August, then potentially (Covid dependent) Nurburgring in September.
Bedford:
Spot @Big Ben - p.s. he's behind me again.
Then Donington..
Winter didn't see many if any changes, although something that did amuse me was my Carbon Lorraine RC5+ pads just collapsing. My discs had seen better days, so we pulled the pads out and the material literally fell off the backing plate. Hadn't even been on the car 6 months but as they are 'race pads', no warranty, no discount for a replacement set, nothing. Rubbish from Carbon Lorraine, shame as I'd heard such great things and they felt really damn good on the car. I whacked my old PBS pads back in for the time being, I found some brand new EBC RP-X for a very good price and again I've heard good things, so thought I'd give them a try. I've got a caliper refurb kit off Supreme to make sure there's not an issue on that side of things too.
On a slightly different note, I've had a rather interesting time with wheels over the last few months. As mentioned, the Rotas never saw the car again, because I swapped them for a set of Turinis! I'd been looking at them for a long time after seeing them on only a few cars (compared to Team Dynamics..), so came to an arrangement with a guy from Cornwall and exchanged them one evening in Exeter. I was told prior they were flat seated wheels rather than conical or tapered and I didn't think it would be too much of an issue so I fitted them on the car. That was short lived, I didn't enjoy them and was a little paranoid and had little confidence in them being secure on the car. On the same day, a guy from Essex posted up a set of 17" OZ Ultraleggeras and asked for a swap with 18" wheels. We agreed on a deal with the Turinis and I went back down to my favourite wheel swapping location, South Mimms services.
The biggest bonus, the OZ are wrapped in Direzzas with 2 spanking new ones spare(!), which has meant technically saving on a £6-700 outlay on AR1s or MRF ZTRs for the Turinis. I was a very happy man driving away with the OZs. They've gone into the shed until we get a dry few days which seems very hard to come by at the moment....as far as the Evos are concerned, a change of colour is imminent. The red looks alright on the Oyster Grey, but I'd like something a tad less obvious for daily wheels, I'm tempted by the bronze I had the Rotas powdercoated.
Fast forward (again) to now, I've got some time booked in Matt's diary at the end of June for a fresh gearbox. I'm pretty much replacing everything, cables included. It's the one thing I haven't really got any history for, so a clutch and flywheel change was always on the cards at some point.
I've also been spending more money...the bolster wear on my Recaro has been doing my head in for months, so I decided on a seat change. After sitting in a Mk3 Trophy-R at a Cars and Coffee meet, it was only ever going to be one seat. Pole Positions...I'm over the moon. Supreme mounts have centralised the seat to the millimetre which is epic, the seat itself is just bliss and it's not awful to sit in on a long drive, the only thing I was really dreading about a fixed bucket. I've got the Ambla Leather/Dinamica Suede seat, with a second on order for the passenger side due in about 3/4 weeks. The weight difference too! Less than 5kg without the fixed mounts. On top of that, I also have a Royal steering wheel fitted now, fully trimmed in Alcantara with red stitching to keep the theme.
I've just had back a spare set of seatbelts I've had rewebbed red to match my harnesses and net, along with a few more alcantara bits to go on.
And breathe....that'll do for now. I'm planning on getting some proper pictures of the interior once the second PP is in, then I think it's time for a really good decontamination and polish. Fingers crossed for some dry weather!
Snetterton booked for August, then potentially (Covid dependent) Nurburgring in September.
suj
Paid Member
Good to see you back Benno! Lovely car and loving the direction it's taking.
Those PPs are making my PP rise! So jealous.
Those PPs are making my PP rise! So jealous.
Cheers Beany, like a child at Christmas I am! In hindsight I should’ve ordered both at the same time!
Cheers Suj, it’s good to be back! Life just got in the way for a while but I’ll try and be a bit more active again now things have settled down a tad.
Honestly, it’s hands down the best mod I’ve done so far. Standard Recaros are lovely but Pole Positions are just another level! The support from a seat that weighs less than 5kg is incredible...I feel the same way as you!
You still owe me
That’s what worries me!
Both me and @Big Ben couldn’t quite believe it. Can’t wait to get it on track with the Dunlop’s, should transform the car judging by what others have said! Spa 2022?
peter
POTM Winner - February 2017
Didn’t see this purchase coming, but the exhaust was one of the only untouched things left on the car. Previous owner had bodged a mid box delete somewhat but after a dodgy post-Brexit VAT experience with GT Performance trying to import an exhaust system from France, I gave up until I found something second hand at the right price.
Cue Alex Bennett posting up a CGR system a couple of weeks ago, I couldn’t resist making an offer which was accepted straight away. Off I went to Manchester to pick up this beaut of a 3” system.
Had to do a little modifying to the rear hangar as this was a little short for mine for some reason, but nothing a couple of mates couldn’t sort on the bench. Certainly isn’t quiet, it’s now a full 3” system decatted with one rear box. Luckily I’m blessed with Castle Combe being up the road from me so I went up last Friday and got it noise tested, it’s now sat at 96dB static at 4500rpm!
Thruxton is officially off the table but most other static noise limits are higher so I’m over the moon with it.
Just coming to the end of a 4 day weekend well spent, the paintwork has seen better days and took a battering through the winter, so I decided to get the DA out and give it a bit of love. Washed it Saturday, Sunday was spent decontaminating it with tar remover and my trusty clay mitt, before attacking it with my absolute favourite polish AF Tripple. Topped it all off this morning with Collinite wax to really finish it off.
Disclaimer: the wheels aren’t great because the paint on them is absolutely FUBAR’d, they’re getting a refurb soon once my last purchases are all done and on the car, will update again once I’ve returned from @R27WTF in sunny South Wales in a few weeks.
Cue Alex Bennett posting up a CGR system a couple of weeks ago, I couldn’t resist making an offer which was accepted straight away. Off I went to Manchester to pick up this beaut of a 3” system.
Had to do a little modifying to the rear hangar as this was a little short for mine for some reason, but nothing a couple of mates couldn’t sort on the bench. Certainly isn’t quiet, it’s now a full 3” system decatted with one rear box. Luckily I’m blessed with Castle Combe being up the road from me so I went up last Friday and got it noise tested, it’s now sat at 96dB static at 4500rpm!
Thruxton is officially off the table but most other static noise limits are higher so I’m over the moon with it.
Just coming to the end of a 4 day weekend well spent, the paintwork has seen better days and took a battering through the winter, so I decided to get the DA out and give it a bit of love. Washed it Saturday, Sunday was spent decontaminating it with tar remover and my trusty clay mitt, before attacking it with my absolute favourite polish AF Tripple. Topped it all off this morning with Collinite wax to really finish it off.
Disclaimer: the wheels aren’t great because the paint on them is absolutely FUBAR’d, they’re getting a refurb soon once my last purchases are all done and on the car, will update again once I’ve returned from @R27WTF in sunny South Wales in a few weeks.
Looks good mate.
You might also struggle with Bedford on that exhaust too if you plan to go there at any point? Guess it depends how loud it is on the drive by haha!
Sent from my AC2003 using Tapatalk
You might also struggle with Bedford on that exhaust too if you plan to go there at any point? Guess it depends how loud it is on the drive by haha!
Sent from my AC2003 using Tapatalk
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