Twingo John's £150 Twingo Extreme Trackday Project

[CreweTube]

Hi all,

Been lurking for a while but have been following Adeys adventures over on the Twingo OC facebook group and has finally prompted me to make an account and join as i'm on the edge of making a very dumb (?) decision with my poverty spec Twingo 1.2 EXTREME 60. I'm not sure whether this is the right place so please let me know if I should move to build threads/questions.

Long story short during lockdown I picked it up as a non-runner for £150, it had been off the road for years and I thought wouldn't it be a great idea to make it into a low power toy for some track days, driving flat out all day without worry about damage sounds more fun than teetering around in more exotic cars. So I did just that over 6 months around work and I documented every step in a 28 piece YouTube series:



Last month I took it on track at Oulton Park on a taster session (20 mins for £30) just as a shakedown and had a great time and already started planning updates (bucket seat, rollcage, brakes, coilovers) when suddenly out the blue someone offered me a D4FT engine out of a GT for FREE. Now I'm no mechanic so the prospect of a driveway engine swap terrifies me but I've come this far so might as well give it a bash.

Is this madness, I don't have the engine yet (covid self isolation) but it was a runner and surely cant be worse than my 120k+ D7F...?

Thanks,

John

 

[Adey]

Hello and welcome in good to see some more Twingo owners posting up. I've also being following some of your posts over on the FB group. Great way you have gone about things, you don't need mega power to have a fun experience on track looking forward to seeing more of it, the escapades and upgrades as you go along

ps ill move this over to the projects section as I think it'll fit better there.

 

[CreweTube]

Thanks Adey, its been fun journey of experience so far. I had very limited mechanical experience at the start, enough to solve breakdowns but during lockdowns this has got me to the point where I've rebuilt the brakes, bled brakes, replaced front struts, currently 3/4 swapping all suspension over to coilovers so its been a good experience and for the same price as just renting a car for a track day.

I'll likely change the thread title at some point to reflect it and maybe do an updated post later with stills from the videos to show the progress.

 

[Adey]

up to part 5 so far

 

[DaveL485]

Hi and welcome!

If that was me i'd probably source the whole lot from a GT, wiring loom, ECU, instruments and do the full transplant. No messing, mapping, wiring...just plug and play the whole GT setup.

 

[Adey]

There's a few complete cars popping up on facebook around £500 with issues/damage that would be perfect donors

 

[CreweTube]

I have considered that too, the problem our 2 car drive already has a Skoda Octavia estate, L200 and a Twingo on it

 

[Adey]

Wouldn't take long to strip one and scrap it mind, few evenings and a weekend would cover it easy to rip out what's needed

 

[Big Steve - Raider]

Welcome all ye Lurkers!!

Great little project!!

 

[YamYamRob]

Hey john. If you dont get a tce lump before mine comes out you can have mine.
Also my gt rear beam will be out soon maybe depends on what the missus arranges in my spare time so you can have that to stiffen up the rear a touch if you want it.

 

[CreweTube]

Thanks for the offers @YamYamRob, keep me updated as FB as usual if things change.

Just installed the remaining front left FK coilover on the 58hp hero and christ it fought me all the way due to my own stupidity. Completely forgot that not jacking both sides up meant the ARB was fighting me the entire way until I realised after about an hour that if I jacked the other side up all the pressure goes away

Need to go take it for a drive to check out what it's like and get some pics but its a bit too slammed for my liking at front and suspect I need to raise the front up a bit from where I initially set it (about 0.5" from max low) as I can't get my jack under now either..

Why FK's? Well anythings better than the 120k+ mile rear ones (looked original for, both dampers shagged on inspection after) and the mismatched scrapyard specials on front. Quite amazed they all held up to 20 mins solid ot Oulton but I'm hoping these should give some actual feel and as it's a track only car don't care about harshness on road.

Next up my FB special 1998 sparco evo seat and OMP subframe.

 

[Adey]

awesome stuff, I have the suspension measurements from the RS133 somewhere. When I redid my suspension, as a starting point I set the front to rear height difference the same though about 30mm lower. Slammed is no good for handling really. That said suspension setup is very much a personal/feel type thing.

 

[CreweTube]

I think I'll whack the seat in and do another track day (either another cheap taster or full day) before settling down over winter and planning next steps.

Some obvious easy wins are spacers for front, stub axle spaced for rear, better wheel because the one in there is dire and maybe a harness. Probably a half cage too before I start considering engines.

 

[CreweTube]

Nice sunrise, but definitely too low at the front imo. Need to get all the tools out the back and take it for a sprited drive to check how it feels.

 

[Adey]

Give it a few miles to settle in then readjust

 

[CreweTube]

Suffice to say I need to get the alignment sorted, this is me driving straight ahead..



No rubbing except on full right lock which I think is the wheel arch liner thats sticking out due to the years of mud stuck behind it, so maybe it doesnt need adjusting after all.

 

[YamYamRob]

Suffice to say I need to get the alignment sorted, this is me driving straight ahead..

View attachment 158519

No rubbing except on full right lock which I think is the wheel arch liner thats sticking out due to the years of mud stuck behind it, so maybe it doesnt need adjusting after all.

If you go on national tyres and autocare website, pront yourself off the half price wheel alignment voucher. Should only cost you £15 then.

 

[CreweTube]

Tatty £60 FB marketplace sparco rev fitted, I think its a little too small for me in terms of back height. Shoulders are halfway up the harness holes which I'm pretty sure isn't good for spine compression in the event of a big moment. It's also very very snug on the hips and I'm a 34" waist so god knows who this was aimed at originally.

 

[CreweTube]

Right so nothing like a mildly stressful week at work (who'd have thought making video games was tough work) to make you knuckle down and sort out your short/mid/longterm plans for your project. Been mincing around umming and ahhing about what I want to do with it so I'll likely do one full track day with the car "as is" which is essentially same as 20 min track day taster but bucket seats, coilovers and new discs/pads, so hopefully able to really lean into the corners and conserve momentum a lot more.

After that though, as its purely a track day car (which is currently road legal but with towing law change Nov 15th likely will not stay) lots of thoughts on what to do in no particular order:

• Adding power
  • D7F 800 to D4FT engine swap..
    • This terrifies me but I did say I was willing to learn, hoping this is pretty much "plug and play" as engine swaps go, especially if sourced from a Twingo although I've seen a few Clio/Modus/Kangoo engines of same code
    • Just need to figure out what I actually need to do here and what else would need changing as I'm naive on this:
      • Need new keys/immobiliser/dashboard?
      • Exhaust presumably cannot be shared and needs swapping
      • Assume driveshafts etc will just slot back in...
      • Fuel pump any different?
  • Once the above is done, follow Adeys tuning guide here:
    • Modern - Twingo GT (D4FT) Tuning Guide
  • Ideally sit around 150hp and 850kg end goal
    • ~175hp/ton seems a good target, right in there with hot hatches for track days.

• Adding lightness
  • Starting at 925kg stock according to Renault I estimate I'm down to ~840kg currently, 800 is doable easily although thats without a cage.
    • Need to remove the dashboard and strip out remainder of all the soundproofing behind it, its mad heavy.
    • Refit dash and remove anything else of weight from it, would like to keep fans for demisting though
    • Remove rear wiper and one of the boot gas struts
    • Battery swap to Li-On and relocate inside
    • Polycarb windows, not earth shatteringly expensive but not sure how much the glass actually weighs, its pretty high up weight though
  • If we're entering realms of bigger money = more lightness
    • Lightweight wheels, currently running OEM Clio 15 alloys which are heavier than the standard 14" steels which made me cry when fitting.
    • Fibreglass bonnet (feels pretty heavy)
    • Fibreglass boot

• Making it go round a track better
  • Brakes wise I think standard Brembo HC will be fine with how light it is but will add brake ducts to be safe (and save some weight from fog lights too)
  • Ditch the standard wheel for something from OMP/Sparco, its honestly grim to hold onto from being sat abandoned for years.
  • 172/182 wishbones + ARB
  • Rear (Whiteline/PMS) ARB and/or internal brace
  • Polybush some things
  • It currently has no spoiler and its a toss up between spoiler or diffuser...why not both?
  • Cut some holes in bodywork for airflow
    • Rear bumper is a big trap
    • Obligatory holes where numberplates are
    • Potentially punch one in back of front wheel wells and exit in corner of sills, they trap shitloads of dirt anyway so might as well let it wash out.
  • Spacers (hopefully on their way) to bring the wheels out to arches better and increase track a bit
  • Half cage + harness

End result, realise I've spent way too much on a bog "standard" twingo but its gonna be fun as shit on track, smiles per miles and all that.

 

[CreweTube]

Few people elsewhere had asked what the interior looks like so took these this morning, needs a good clean to get the grime out of it but not sure what is the best way to get it all clean. Perhaps some rotary bristle job as its pretty stuck on in places and lots of wiring to tidy up.




Need to add doorcards to the above list...

Also figured out why the tracking is so far off when i was raising the coilovers at lunch, top bolt on the lower arm was in two different positions in the slot so the camber on one side was max and none on the other.