Renault life. Van life - Extra van does Croft Circuit

[Brigsy]

Updates.

Extra van passed its mot yesterday, taxed and back on the road.

Weather was good and warm ish, so instead of doing my classic long route of 6 miles home from mot station and putting it back in the garage,  i stuck some fresh fuel in and actually took it for a run out for a few hours last night. Some moderate paced driving on the b roads to Whitby and back covering 60ish miles to check all is good after recent surgery. 

I can report all is good and its still awesome to drive. No abs, no pas, windy windows, no problems.

Small service and its good to go for a map tweak at Efi Parts on the 22nd.

Thanks for reading!!

[Brigsy]

Updates.

Sent the Kangoo and yellow megane r26 gearknobs and gaitors off for retrim to Otto Retrims recently. Received them back this week, sexy fresh nappa leather.

Had a spare hour on Sat so stuck the kangoo gaitor and knob on.

Looks mega, and the new supplied gear gaitor frame otto sourced for me actually clips in as the old one was broken. The steering wheel needed a quick clean as it was starting to look shiney, so give that a quick once over.

Not got round to fitting the megane one yet but its on the never ending list.

Todays job was to give the clio dci's a clean up. Ive been using the orange dci this week as the blue one is currently parked due to heater matrix starting to leak. Its giving the sweet smell of coolant inside the car again, 30 thousand miles after replacing it. The one i fitted was nrf brand, and its full fucking dash off to fit, was hoping it would last the car out but shite aftermarket parts strike again. Ive got a nissens one to fit this time but cant be fucked this week, full days work to remove/refit dash so can sit a little bit until i get some motivation.

It was up to its eyes in shit so give it a clean, so its broken but looks alright 😄

 

Orange dci is running well. I brimmed the tank on Monday and its done around 300 miles last week, daily running and work commuting. I have noticed the drivers side carpet is a little bit damp so done some investigating in the scuttle area today to see if any blockages. Wipers were corroded on/tight as fuck and came off with a bang with wiper puller on them. Scuttle area was suprisingly all clear, so assume its come in via drivers door or heater fan. Whilst in the area, I partially stripped the wiper mech and greased the pivot as was a bit stiff, this is now nice and free so bit of preventative maintenance

I wet vac'd and hoovered the inside so will monitor leakage for now and revisit if needs be.

It was also pitted in muck/covered in black shite and sahara desert sand residue from whatever had been in the air the other day. Not been washed since before xmas so it was well overdue a clean.

Still scrubs up well for 22 years old.

Thanks for reading!!

[loserone]

Really nice seeing this fleet getting some love

[Brigsy]

53 minutes ago, loserone said:

Really nice seeing this fleet getting some love

Cheers mate. Mot time for everything soon, motivation is getting there now weather has picked up and longer daylight hours.

[adey]

soon be out spanking everything (y) 

[Brigsy]

2 hours ago, adey said:

soon be out spanking everything (y) 

Cant wait. Roll on 22nd for map tweak

[vtec-e]

I clean out the scuttles every year now. I cant believe how much debris the Clio collects in there. Hope you sort out the leakage.

The car looks superb!

[vaughant]

Some lovely metal there. 

I think there's a guy on my estate with a clio 182 in that orangey red colour yours is. He parks it out on the road the crazy fool 🤣🤣. Meant to get a picture last week but kept forgetting.

[Brigsy]

On 12/03/2026 at 22:08, vtec-e said:

I clean out the scuttles every year now. I cant believe how much debris the Clio collects in there. Hope you sort out the leakage.

The car looks superb!

Cheers mate. I need to check carpet tomorrow after yesterdays biblical rain to see if any worse. 

 

19 hours ago, vaughant said:

Some lovely metal there. 

I think there's a guy on my estate with a clio 182 in that orangey red colour yours is. He parks it out on the road the crazy fool 🤣🤣. Meant to get a picture last week but kept forgetting.

Cheers mate. I always wanted a orange 182 but never scratched the itch, The dci i have is the poor mans version😄 makes a great daily though so cant moan

[loserone]

I definitely missed my 182 a little on the way home tonight.  205 probably a bit more comfortable and slower being ragged everywhere, even if a bit less safe and more thirsty.

[Brigsy]

12 hours ago, loserone said:

I definitely missed my 182 a little on the way home tonight.  205 probably a bit more comfortable and slower being ragged everywhere, even if a bit less safe and more thirsty.

205 still a great drive, i almost ticked that box. I was going to swap my old astra gte for a 1.6gti 25 years ago but the deal fell through. Car was mint too and seen it in the scrapyard wrote off a few weeks later sadly.

Also had a go in a track prepared 205 gti, mi16 converted running twin carbs instead of injection. Felt rapid.

[Brigsy]

Updates.

Extra van on the dyno at EfiParts last Sunday for map tweak.

Last time it was tuned, in 2020 was for max power. It was to see what the engine and turbo were capable of when pushed, it made good power 249hp at 27psi. The tune was very close to the edge being close to knock at high rpm, and egts around 1000deg peak. Basically every component in the engine was pushed to the limit with stock pistons, conrods and liners running double stock hp.

Its been super reliable using 12psi low boost for trackdays, and i ended up turning the high boost down to 24psi which was OK on short sprints and hillclimbs. High egt's were finding a few weak spots, wiring starting to melt with radiant heat off the manifold etc..

The goal for Sunday was not max power, but reliable power for hard sustained circuit use with plenty of safety, so essentially a detune in some respects from the previous dragstrip/max power tune. A nice high boost setup that would take lap after lap of abuse.

Chris worked his magic and all goals were achieved. The engine was run with no cooldown and long pulls on the dyno to get max heat in and simulate track use.

Boost pressure was kept at sensible levels 21psi on high boost, to allow more ignition timing to lower peak egt's which are now 880deg max. Fuelling richened up slightly to also help with cooling, and rev limiter kept at a more sensible 7200rpm.

Wastegate pressure 12psi/173hp.
High boost 21psh/226hp.

 

Dyno run on vid below

https://youtube.com/shorts/9U5tBaSBXoE?si=9CYT9Pna6IAvUDnA

Its still as fast as f**k being honest, does not feel any slower on high boost. It drives lovely with flat torque curve on boost and no traction issues. Low boost feels the same as before but even safer.

Ready for a few trackdays this year with Croft booked on Good Friday. Cant wait, should be able to absolutely send it like the old days.

Thanks for reading!!

[Brigsy]

Croft Circuit on Good Friday in the Extra van.

Weather a bit iffy in the morning..steady drive over approx 35mins. Unload the gear, and noise tested 101db @ 4500rpm.

Ready for sightseer laps.

This did not go too well. On the 2nd lap of the sightseer's i lose the clutch. The pedal was half functioning but soft as fcuk, to avoid embarassing tow of shame on the sightseer laps crash box it back to the pits and did not need to stop luckily.

Get it in the garage and whip cable off, and examine. It had not snapped but the inner sleeve had pulled through the bulkhead grommit. I had feared the clutch pedal ratchet had failed and it would be day over.

Clutch cable fail on these is common ish but does not happen too often when using oem cable, i carry a used oem cable in my trackday box for situations like this. Stuck the cable on and reset the clutch ratchet, fingers crossed and it was working ok again. Tbh, when i arrived at Croft i could barely get it in reverse to park up so should have clocked that something was wrong. Anyway, lost an hrs worth of track time, was raining heavy at that point so no real loss.

Now that it was working again, the plan was to send it. The weather conditions improved with rain stopping, and track drying out fast. The grip was good on damp circuit on Ar1/low boost settings, done a few laps and turned it up to high boost for a lap, to monitor egt and afr to make sure all good.

High boost was mega as it was the difference between pulling away slowly from some cars and then watching them go backwards in the mirror quite fast with extra 50hp on the button.

This was short lived however as 2nd session on track, clicked it onto high boost and it did not respond. So i was stuck on low boost of 12psi all day with a big fcuking turbo doing nothing, well 173hp but 50hp less.

Assuming mac valve, switch or wiring has failed. I really could not be arsed looking at it with the earlier repairs, so just drove it like i stole it on low boost and had loads of fun. In comparison to modern stuff its hard to drive, you have to let it slide a little and have confidence in the handling. So good letting it sing to 7600rpm.

Track was quiet at the end and hot lapped it for the last hour until the fuel gauge was saying 1ltr left, had to call it a day at that as had done around 60ltrs of fuel/150miles on circuit.

Tyres look a little battle scarred and ive melted more paint on the front wheels. Ive cooked the brake fluid as pedal is a bit longer, so that needs changing for something more suitable. Rad fan wiring failed on the way home, power wire snapped off at the alternator connection due to fatigue at a guess? Luckily does not run hot/did not hit traffic on way home.

Eventful but awesome day. Roll on the next one!

Thanks for reading!
 

[vaughant]

Love that van, it's amazing. Especially with a turbo conversion 😱😱😱