James's Black Rallye (aka Rack)

It all started on a boat, nearly a year ago, heading home from a trip to my favourite German destination, and being slightly dissatisfied with how my oversized 106 replacement had performed.

'I need a 106 again'

So I went on the internet on my phone, had a five minute look on the forums...

'Rack's for sale, I'll buy that'

And sure enough, a couple of months later, I'd got the money together and flown up to Newcastle to pick it up

First thoughts: That bonnet's got to go, along with the poopoo condition decals. Paintwork and general body condition is decent. It's quick for a standard engined 103bhp car. The suspension setup's fudging epic! No music is boring.

So there it is:







Spec at this point isn't far off standard. Suspension was sold to me as Bilstein B8s and Eibach Pro -20mm springs, though they turned out to be PIs. Also turns out there's a few purple bushes underneath too It's got a leather GTi steering wheel which feels nice but could do with being smaller. There's a broken Sony headunit, which goes straight in the bin.

Now having two cars and therefore a negative amount of money, I set about a few little jobs which were either cheap or free.

The poor engine bay had a clean and tidy. So this...



...plus cheap black top oil cap, some tyre shine (LOL) and an ECU cover became this...



...and eventually with a freebie Raceland manifold ended up here.



Next up, interior. I've never been a fan of the blue carpet, though with my car being LHD, I was left with no choice. Off I want to meet some dude in Holland, who gave me a carpet for free. WIN! This, coupled with Mr Jones' 'special' old seats and a set of Roland Garros seat belts that happened to be in my shed gave me an interior that was pretty unique.

A day down on the rollers at Powerstation revealed it to be running a very healthy 116bhp.



Next, my mission was to get the outside up to my level. The worn decals were removed and some controversial 16"s were employed until I decided they were too big (using the 45 profile tyres off the 306) and too much of a PITA to clean



In the meantime, a replacement bonnet was sourced from a chav in Reading, not perfect still but with the addition of a graphite grey badge it looked better than before.



106RR's discount section came up trumps with some dirt cheap Rallye decals just when I needed them, and along with some other stickers I had to go on the rear end looked just right.



Another plus for uniqueness, I got my OE Clarion stereo sorted out, and managed to fit a discreet 306 headunit stalk

Finally to bring this all up to date, I ended up with a bit of a running deadline with the car to get a few bits done, namely fitting this box of goodies...



...266mm 306 S16 brake setup and getting new rubber on the steelies.

Starting off, mid April I got four brand new Kumho KU31s delivered (bargain at £139!) and promplty fitted and balanced for free



Next day, on went the brake setup. And due to them being a seriously tight fit, off came the wheel weights!

First impressions, not brilliant. So, I got them all re-bled, bedded them in a bit and they seemed to improve.

Next day again, wheels re-balanced (after telling the goon that they wouldn't fit on the inside and him doing exactly what I told him not to!). Then found excessive play in the front wheel, with just five days before my deadline, uh oh!

Luckily, I have my contacts and a new wheel bearing was on the way for the tidy sum of £25, just in time to be fitted the day before it was needed.

Old wheel bearing was absolutely knackered, which unfortunately meant me limping around at 30mph for a few days and missing out on Castle Combe where I was hoping to give the car a bit of testing on the track.

Never mind, at the 11th hour, the car was prepared: new tyres, new brakes, wheels (almost) balanced and wheel bearing replaced

And so, at 1am on a Tuesday morning a couple of weeks back, I set out for a 12 hour journey to that favourite German destination again, to see if the switch back to the 106 had been worth it

Car performed impeccably on the track, the suspension setup is out of this world compared to anything I've had on the 306 and my old 106. Once warmed up the brakes came into their own, very nice and responsive. I got four good quiet laps in between Wednesday and Friday, one of which my mate timed (although I didn't realise at the time) at a very impressive 11:06!



Also had some great feedback about the car, friends commenting that it feels very quick for an 8v and even people in the Nurburgring car park looking round it and taking photos when there's Porsches and Ferraris all over the place!

On the bad side, I'm having trouble with my fans still, something to look into. And I've also noticed it leaking a bit of gearbox oil, so something else to keep an eye on.

Next trip wont be until September/October time but I can't wait to get back out there, and even onto UK tracks starting with Llandow in July.

So, what's next? I have a 'small' list, lol.

Pugsport 2" exhaust
Smaller leather steering wheel
Track wheels (Chris' XSi wheels all being well)
Possibly another set of road wheels, if I can ever decide on something (this has currently fluctuated from Speedline Chronos or banded steelies to a nice 8J set of Schmidt Modern Lines at the moment)
and a few small bits to tidy it up (arch liners, bonnet badge, mats)

Then 'Phase 1 - The tidy up' will be complete and 'Phase 2 - getting a new daily driver and going more extreme' can commence

Good read! You've done a good job with RACK James, look forward to seeing it if I make it down to Llandow

Looking forward to phase two

Looks good and liking the work done to it!

Looking good

looking very tidy james, gonna get confusing at llandow

nellers2001 wrote:

Looks good and liking the work done to it!

Errm is that you complimenting a frenchy mr Nell?

woz_106 wrote:

looking very tidy james, gonna get confusing at llandow

Not really... His doesn't leak.

it does, read his thread...like two peas in a pod

Meh Gearbox oil is a lot less important

who caused the chuffing leak in the first place

Haha, was going to say, mine leaks too

I should be sporting some dark XSi wheels (with a twist ) by Llandow to tell us apart anyhow

I try to be friendly about French cars as long as they look tidy and have mods!

Rallye James wrote:

Haha, was going to say, mine leaks too

We're going to have to be careful at llandow. Mine leaks to although i hope mine is fixed before then!

tbh it's going to be a big pool of oil

french cars can be nice if the exterior mods are kept simple, it's mainly when the fibreglass comes out that they become awful.

OEM+ is the look I mostly prefer

One giant track-shaped skidpan!

I love the OEM+ look, I still reckon my white one on the Cyclones looked better than this one, aside from it being scruffy. Then again, I do like a few controversial mods, lol

Slightly boring update time.

Firstly, giving the car a tidy up, some new parts have arrived this evening, costing me just under £50



New rocker cover gasket as mine's perished and leaking. Also have a little plan for the rocker cover



New arch liner to replace one that was missing when I bought the car - is this all it is or do I need another part?



And a shiny new badge, which I don't want to fit because it looks so mint Will use this one with the steels and use the graphite one when I've got the graphite wheels (which are coming soon...) on.

Oh, and something completely different, I made and fitted this yesterday :p





Tomorrow I will be £430 lighter as I've got tax due and should have a Pugsport on order, hoping it turns up in time for FCS, not that that really matters though!

Love the air freshener James.

They add like 20bhp because of the rallye colours lol. But on a serious note they do tell you how much g you pull in the corneres

Haha, yes, Magic Tree G-force meter FTW!

I think everyone should join my amazing Facebook group

Fitted the new parts over the last week, thought I'd give the rocker cover a fresh coat of paint as I was changing the gasket.

Was going to be red, but the red ran out half way through, so I rummaged in the paint box and found the Fiat Cinquecento yellow that my old Speedlines were. Finish isn't great as that ran out towards the end, but the lacquer came up nice and shiny







Also got this one at La Vie En Bleu last weekend with the new bonnet badge on

Looking good there james, is the mini rack on the rocker cover a vinyl sticker. Looks cool.

It's part sticker and part sharpie pen. Plan was to do it all in pen but it was a bit fiddly, so cheated a little, lol.

Does look good mate, I haven't got the patience for that though if I'm honest. Lol

Lol, me neither. 6 hours painting a rocker cover FFS.

Messed it up totally first trying to brush some Hammerite on a primer layer and to hide the rust patches on the back. That looked awful, so I put some gloss white spray over the top. It reacted. Then I wiped everything off, started from scratch and then had the problems above with running out of paint!

I made this in Photoshop from the 'Ring picture which I used as a template

Lol cool idea mate, seems you have similar luck as I do with regards painting things. Lmao

Looking good

Rocker cover looks good! Don't worry about the paint. If you get any runs you can then use a fine sandpaper to rub it back a bit once dry!

Spot the difference...

Before



After

the air freshener

Haha, no it's the same air freshener, it's black on one side.

I bought something subtle on Sunday

the rangerover sport?

Slimline number plate

Imaginary prize goes to Huw (who probably saw it on my Facebook last night )

Shhhh! Does look good though.

I was going to guess windscreen wipers, tax disc or dirt. lol

Bought from Rockingham? did you get out on track?

Car's looking good

Fairplay that looks sweet as a nut mate

Cheers, yeah I got the plate at Rockingham, was only a tenner

Didn't go out on track, can never be bothered at shows, too much running around for 15 minutes on track.

Did wander up the B4T stand a few times but there was never anyone about.

You coming to combe?

Probably not, just got so much on in September

Got Trax first weekend, 'Ring trip starting fourth weekend and two Combe events (Rally Day and action day) and a military vehicle show on the other two weekends that I need to decide what I'm doing!

Rallye James wrote:

Did wander up the B4T stand a few times but there was never anyone about.

Were there any car's when you went up?

Also who you going to Trax with?

Just the AX most of the time, did spot you just as you were leaving for track I think.

I'm with Performance on Track for Trax

Ah Telfs car, think he left early though when i came back from 3pm session he'd gone.

Well, it's been an eventful day.

Started off early with the MOT booked for 9am. Car sailed through relatively easily, slight play in a drop link and a front and a rear wheel bearing needed soon. Also found out the number plate lights were both blown - I check all the lights most evenings when I park up, in the reflection of my mum's car, but I've never thought to check the number plate ones!

Then we got to the emissions test. Oh dear! Way over, proving my suspicions that a high rolling road result was partly due to the cat not really doing much. Luckily, my good friend doing the MOT test for me still gave me a little green piece of paper, I've just got to find a cat from someone in the next week or two and get the test passed for the paperwork.

Next up, I got the track wheels tyred up, had six odd 185/60/14 tyres put aside for me in the garage as I'd asked for some free part worns for Llandow, just to save my road tyres. They'll be slightly higher profile that my road tyres but shouldn't be a problem. No issues with the first three, until we got the last, which split as it was going onto the machine. Not a problem, we thought, and got the next one to go on. Put the tyre on, started to blow it up to get it into shape, up to about 40 PSI and then all of a sudden - BANG! Jesus, I've never heard anything so loud, I think my ears are still ringing! No idea what caused it but it put a massive split all the way up the sidewall, so obviously this one was binned as well. Thankfully, the sixth and final tyre went straight on!

Next problem, and I knew it was coming, balancing Turns out the XSi wheels go fine over the 306 calipers, but again, no weights on the inside rim. They've just been done as near as possible for now, will see about getting them done again in the week, but otherwise, I'll just do Llandow with them unbalanced.

So, back home, and the rest of the day is spent in the garden with my sharpie pen again Also now found a thick black marker to make my life easier and a Tippex pen for some other details. So another 3-4 hours spent and now I'm nearly there, they'll be finished tomorrow.

Also added some tyre shine, of course



Spiral wheel now has some more detail.



And the basics of third wheel are done, more detail to be added tomorrow.



However, I then noticed a bit of dip in one of the tyres that I'm a bit concerned about Not sure whether it's safe really, so I may just end up on two of the better XSi wheels and stick a couple of steels on the back.

James I love these wheels!
I really hope they are all on for Llandow.

those look awesome James, well done to ya for even having the patience!

Talk about patience!

Are you going to laquer them now??