Cup racer project.

[Adamjwhite50]

Great project

 

[lild-200cup]

Any update on this?

 

[930Tech]

Any update on this?

I've not been standing still or neglecting this, just don't seem to find much time to get on the forum lately.

I've just about exhausted the Renaultsport catalogue parts wise now, just a few clips and bushes left to get and I'll have it all bar the big expensive bits i'll be getting from other sources. engine, gearbox, dampers and wiring loom.

The engine and gearbox i'll be getting in one big bit from a damaged megane 225/230, the dampers i'll be getting something more adjustable than the fixed rate Clio Cup stuff, the Cup stuff is roughly £450 a corner and like I say it's all fixed damping so for about £1500 I can get some multi adjustable dampers with remote reservoirs so that's a no brainer.

The wiring loom from Renaultsport is around £3000 so that's out of the question, I've been looking at kit car builders for loom solutions and can get a basic loom built for the car at around £400, you can get pre wired fuse boxes cheap nowadays to give you a good start but a nice braided loom will be on my list.

After speaking with a guy who runs jade developments about wiring and how to get the electric steering working we got onto the subject of the differences between road car and cup car suspension parts (he's built a few hybrids before) and I didn't know that the, what they call the EE bracket is different, it's the triangular part on the bottom of the inner alloy suspension part, (the bit the damper bolts to.) This is the cast part the lower arm goes into, well this alters the suspension angles and is probably why I still have wheels with not a lot of camber on them.

So after collecting another batch of parts from R-Sport at rockingham I spoke to john about this and he told me about when the Cup race cars first came out in 2007, the part they'd had made for this kept breaking and in testing people were having accidents after the breakages, it was a bad casting so Renault had to do something and fast, Renaultsport sent R-Sport the technical drawings for the part and john had to get about 70 sets of these made in an high grade alloy to get the cars back out and safe to race. he used a company in Poole who make a lot of indy car parts to machine these up at a cost of over £300 each, the Cup cars ran on these throughout 2007 and a new cast part was made and tested to ensure all was good to be used from 2008 onwards.

The good news was that he had a couple of these still sat on his shelves but of no use to any of the race teams as they now have to use the new parts, they'd be ideal for me as I'm not racing in the Cup series and offered to bring me a pair to Donington in a few weeks time.

I collected them at Donington and he did me a really great deal on these and they look the business, I'm a bit of a sucker for a nice piece of CNC machined alloy so was only too happy to buy a pair. ha.

I have all the engine mounts now, air filter bracket, found a second hand rad, now have all the shrouds in place, the lower rad mount (another cup part)

We might even finally get it into the spray booth now the weather is getting better then the build can really start.

 

[930Tech]

This is the (road car) EE bracket.



These are the proper Cup engine mounts, a bit more substantial than a set of vibratechnics and YOU CAN run without a top steady bar with these.





I'll hunt out my pics of the new CNC parts and put them up.

 

[Tutuur]

Awesome project there mate!!

 

[jacool]

those EE brackets are supposed to maintain dynamic camber on a much lowered car. If You lower the stock car your wishbone would probably have near horizontal position. While cornering, along with compression of a damper, the wishbone actually moves further up resulting with lower camber comparing to a car standing still. Cup cars' brackets move wishbones further down (at an angle) to preserve dynamic camber. You would probably need longer drive shafts and wishbones as well as tie rods to mount these. Out of curiosity as I'm preparing my track toy to be as close to cup car as possible, how much did You get those brackets for (give me a PM please). Thanks

EDIT: although wishbones should be fine, You would definitely need longer drive shafts and tie rods.

 

[930Tech]

those EE brackets are supposed to maintain dynamic camber on a much lowered car. If You lower the stock car your wishbone would probably have near horizontal position. While cornering, along with compression of a damper, the wishbone actually moves further up resulting with lower camber comparing to a car standing still. Cup cars' brackets move wishbones further down (at an angle) to preserve dynamic camber. You would probably need longer drive shafts and wishbones as well as tie rods to mount these. Out of curiosity as I'm preparing my track toy to be as close to cup car as possible, how much did You get those brackets for (give me a PM please). Thanks

EDIT: although wishbones should be fine, You would definitely need longer drive shafts and tie rods.

Your right I will need longer driveshafts, I'm looking into having a diff made up to allow me to run the standard length megane shafts though, i'll have to weigh up the costs of going either way.

The rest of the front suspension (bar the dampers) is all cup spec stuff so evo arms (2009) with spherical joints, anti roll bar, anti roll bar links, anti swivel joints and the subframe itself, all Renaultsport stuff so all correct for the job in hand.

The anti swivel joints look to be lengthened, the anti roll bar links look to be shorter, the anti roll bar is thicker (23mm, road car 22mm) and the subframe is beefed up, stich welded and altered around the fixing points and also has mounts for the lower alloy brace, the steering rack, another Renaultsport part is quicker, mounted a touch higher with some slim spacers and, I only found this a few weeks ago the sleeves sitting in the swivels for the track rod ends to go into are bigger/thicker to alter the angle back to something like because of the lowering of everything else.

The cast EE brackets that all cup cars now run are around £180 each and these new old stock alloy ones cost me a little bit more for the pair IIRC.

Not been on here for about 4 month but the project still takes up most of my spare time and is coming along nicely, still wanting to get some paint on it and start the build properly, not just a dummy build trying things out to make sure they are right before boxing them back up or back on the shelf.

I'll try and dig out some pics.

 

[930Tech]

 

[930Tech]

^^The two alloy EE brackets.

Managed to buy some camber plates off ebay.

Correct cup dash.

Battery box.

Seat brackets.

 

[jacool]

Your right I will need longer driveshafts, I'm looking into having a diff made up to allow me to run the standard length megane shafts though, i'll have to weigh up the costs of going either way.

The rest of the front suspension (bar the dampers) is all cup spec stuff so evo arms (2009) with spherical joints, anti roll bar, anti roll bar links, anti swivel joints and the subframe itself, all Renaultsport stuff so all correct for the job in hand.

The anti swivel joints look to be lengthened, the anti roll bar links look to be shorter, the anti roll bar is thicker (23mm, road car 22mm) and the subframe is beefed up, stich welded and altered around the fixing points and also has mounts for the lower alloy brace, the steering rack, another Renaultsport part is quicker, mounted a touch higher with some slim spacers and, I only found this a few weeks ago the sleeves sitting in the swivels for the track rod ends to go into are bigger/thicker to alter the angle back to something like because of the lowering of everything else.

The cast EE brackets that all cup cars now run are around £180 each and these new old stock alloy ones cost me a little bit more for the pair IIRC.

Not been on here for about 4 month but the project still takes up most of my spare time and is coming along nicely, still wanting to get some paint on it and start the build properly, not just a dummy build trying things out to make sure they are right before boxing them back up or back on the shelf.

I'll try and dig out some pics.

I'm realy looking forward to see some progress on this as I'm heading the same way considering suspension mods. I've read about a french guy who simply lenghened the original driveshafts to fit EE brackets. BTW aren't Cup car ARB 22 mm in diameter compared to 21 for standard car with cup suspension package (as sport has even lower diameter: 19 or 20 mm) ? I have one in my garage waiting to be fitted but haven't measured it yet.
cheers

 

[Yiannis197]

Great progress Wayne. We need pics mate!

Yes @jacool the cup racer anti roll bar is 22mm, the 197 and 200 non cup is 19mm and the 200 cup is 20mm.

Also these steering rack raising shims are about 9mm. I've got them on mine.

 

[mark_1873]

Coming along nicely mate, I've Pm'd you too :thumbup1:

 

[nath&alex]

Any update on this? It's a good read so far :thumbup1:

 

[930Tech]

Yes yannis they look like the ones.

No updates as such but still going, all rolling now and it WILL get painted soon lol

Now i'm off work for a while i'll get some pics sorted and do a propper update.

 

[karbonCup]

Update please [MENTION=3155]930Tech[/MENTION]

 

[930Tech]

Only real updates at the mo concern the steering.

I cant make the clio ecu on the steering work so looked at other options, a few mates have mk2 escorts and chevettes and have used corsa electric power steering units, i paid a visit and took some measurements and once back in my place decided i could make one work.

Across from me is a breakers yard so they gave me a damaged corsa column to play with and see what i could do, it fits after not a great deal of faffing and it's a good deal lighter too, it's less bulky so easier to move about and sooner than cut the clio up i made a bracket to mount it in the original position.

I bought a weld on stub to mount the quick release steering wheel to and decided to get it threaded instead of just welding it on, this way i can pin it before welding so in effect making it removeable (after grinding two welds off)

Just waiting on a local engineer remaking the (corsa) bearing carrier, it needs to be slightly bigger so i can use the clio upper mount to attach to the roll cage.

The good bit was that the corsa knuckle that joins the column to the steering rack fits the clio rack, well it did after grinding off a small lip on the clio part.

 

[930Tech]

Good news, well for me at least. I've moved forward now and progress is being made.

After two job changes, the second one for the better I now find myself with spare cash and spare time to work on my dream car, might not be other peoples dream car but I'm not building it for them lol.

I'm working in a fabrication shop now and they have a paint shop, a mate of 18 years got me the job and he's the main painter there (he was always going to paint the car for me but we never got the same time to do it) he got me all fired up for the car again and along with another old friend who works there we hatched a plan.

Getting a good discount for panels I bought a new rear quarter from Renault, we spent about 7 hours removing the old quarter panel,, a little straightening of the front edge of the wheel tub and the whole panel was fitted, no joining halfway around the window on this job, it was fitted as Renault recommend. trapped under the roof skin and just one joint halfway along the sill.

All spot welded in nearly all the original places and looking very factory once finished. pleased with the result is a bit of an understatement. My mate had painted the inside of the quarter a couple of days before this so now the inside looks the same both sides.

I found a new unused tailgate of eBay for a bargain price, this is now mounted ready to paint, I wanted a new glass in this so as you don't get the two different looks when it rains (were the wiper has swept) so ordered a plastic formed window from plastics4performance that shocked me when the total popped up in the checkout process, OUCH!!

Next after finding out how cheap ALS can sell a new rear bumper for I used my works discount again to save around £45 so it's swings and roundabouts.

The passenger door is now off and in the paintshop, I've had about an hour rubbing down the inside of the door (it's red and i'd like to get most of the paint off) after hours then my mate will paint the inside of the door, i'll take that back to mine and bring the drivers door to do the same with and when both are hung and the car is in one piece again it'll get ferried back to work and over the course of one weekend it WILL GET PAINTED at the end of January. I have the paint code it has no glass, it will get a full hit. finally.

I don't have many pics as my old computer broke and all of my pics are stuck on there. so I only have these few to share for now.

 

[930Tech]

These are the only pics for now.

New panel from Renault.



Car in the bodyshop around 10am.



It would have needed a few tubs of filler.

 

[930Tech]

Let the stripping commence.







Quarter was painted beforehand.



Nearly ready.



Trail fitting



On and ready for tea time, about half five and a productive day.

 

[Northloopcup]

Cracking build so far!