Twingo 2 RS on a diet

[Peegee]

Hello all, I’m new to the forum and Renault, mostly worked with MX5’s for the last 12 odd years. I’ve recently bought a Twingo 2 RS cup to use on track. The car has 16” Turinis with NSR2’s and a cat back exhaust, the plan is to properly service it, uprate the brakes, beef up the engine mounts, lose as much weigh as possible without totally stripping the car then use it and make improvements based on how the feels.
Yesterday I removed the front fog lights to allow fitment of brake cooling ducts, on the offside you have to take out the washer bottle because it’s right in the way, I noticed either side of the chassis leg there’s thwacking great weights, I’m assuming they’re there to stop vibration or reduce harshness. Has anyone come across these ? If the car‘s going on a diet removing these would contribute towards this. Any input is appreciated.

 

[Adey]

hello and welcome. The twingo is pretty light to start with but there's still a chunk that can be removed. Especially if you don't need to keep anything in the rear. There are a couple of harmonic dampeners in the engine bay from memory. you can also remove some of the bumper crash structure to whip out a few extra kg's. Every ounce counts like. Depends how far you want to go. I think i did a vid on YouTube for the weight of some of the plastics, ill try and find it.

Get some pics up too

 

[Peegee]

Here’s the weights or harmonic balancers as Adey rightly says. They look like a fair chunk, will have to investigate further to find out how they come off.

 

[Peegee]

And the air inlet ducts that replace the fog lights. I’ll fashion some pipe work once I’ve fitted the brakes.

 

[CreweTube]

You can "easily" route it around the washer bottle, shameless self promotion time:



At least on the non RS model, the engine isnt in the way enough to block it and with these had zero brake issues on a full day at Oulton

 

[Peegee]

thanks for the video, the Washer bottle’s already been removed so I’ll fashion some ducting now I’ve got the brakes fitted. Not had much chance to work on the car until today. Brake lines are now fitted along with the brake discs and callipers. I’ll post some pics up. I also removed the harmonic balancer from the chassis leg and weighed it - 6.4kg ! It’ll be interesting to see what the effects of the removal are, I’ll probably end up with a resonance that’ll loosen ever nut and bolt on the car

 

[Peegee]

Brakes all looking good. Standard rears, Clio 172 fronts which I’ve rebuilt, high carbon discs front and rear with carbon Lorraine pads, Hel lines all round.

 

[Peegee]

The balancer weight, quite a lump.

 

[Daan2d]

Hi Fellow twingo RS member.
Nice to see someone else getting on with it.
There is another balance weight, its hidden under the upper right engine mount.
See my topic for on page 3: Twingo - Twingo RS133 trackday build

Keep us updated

 

[Peegee]

Hi Fellow twingo RS member.
Nice to see someone else getting on with it.
There is another balance weight, its hidden under the upper right engine mount.
See my topic for on page 3: Twingo - Twingo RS133 trackday build

Keep us updated

Hello I read your build thread before I bought my twingo, a great source of inspiration. I’d noticed The weight under the engine mount, just need to locate the bolt that holds it in place. I’ve built a few track focused cars but never done a build thread, I’m really enjoying the whole process and meeting some great people along the way. Hoping to get on track at Blyton park UK later this month to try out the car

 

[Peegee]

Bit of a while since this has been updated, busy at work so progress on the car has been slow. The brake cooling ducting is all in place, the outlet looks tiny in the pics but are 65mm. I found some flanges on eBay which I’ve fitted into the arch liner, looks nice and neat. To keep engine movement in check I’ve fitted an insert to the top mount, nothing like this was available for the lower engine ‘torque’ mount so a complete vibratechnics item was used here. I managed to find a second hand fast eddys harness bar which I’ve fitted ready for when the bucket seats go in. Also in the boot area the sound deadening was removed from the boot floor using a heat gun, quite amazing how much weight there was in that . I also cleaned up and painted the floor as it looked a bit untidy, a bit OCD but to me I looks better now I also tidied and wrapped the wiring to keep things neat. With the engine fully serviced and the gearbox oil changed the next job was to fit the lightweight battery, this will eventually go inside the car but for now I’ve left it under the bonnet. I removed the original battery tray as the stud that should secure the battery hold down plate has snapped off, a new tray and upright was fabricated so that I could use a dedicated battery holder. Quite happy with the results, the cables etc all fit nicely and the smaller Odyssey battery is another good weight saving. I’d be interested to learn if anyone has mounted their battery inside the car and how they did it in relation to cable routing etc, anyone done this ?That‘s about it for now, I really need to get out on track and use it now, from there I can make further improvements based on how it drives, or repair it if anything fails !
I have a list of things I’d like to do in my head based on what I’ve read about other people’s experiences.I suppose the next logical thing to do would be seats and harnesses, it’d keep me safe, secure and planted behind the wheel, again any input on this would be appreciated

 

[Peegee]

Well the car’s all in one piece now ready for oulton park this coming Saturday, I’ve bedded the brakes in as per CL’s instruction and rechecked all my work.
I bought a pair of second hand seats and out of date for motorsport harnesses over Christmas, the supplier that was getting me the seat bases let me down so that’s a job for another day.
I’ll post up some pics and a write early next week, really looking forward to the track day