Just bought 323/500 off EugeGall

[frenchboy]

Hey fellas!
Just bought No. 323 off Eugene.

It's got a few more miles on it than i would've liked but I needed a car for work next week so I had to get a move on.

My last car was a Subaru 03 WRX PPP. It was a company car and I've just changed jobs so had to give it back. I had it from new and it was a bit sad to see it go. The handling wasn't great but the performance is very addictive. I'm going to miss the turbo power delivery but I'm not going to miss the fuel bills (£320 a month and I only live down the road from work!).

Before the subaru I had a mk 1 172 so I know all about the joys of Renault ownership (even so I'm back for more :wink: ).

So I had a quick blast in the trophy this morning and here are my first impressions:

I know it's damp at the moment but there's a lot more torque steer than I remember. It felt almost as bad as a CTR and not quite as sorted as the car I test drove a few months ago (but that was in the dry). As I think Eugene allready mentioned, this car does seem to squirm a bit under heavy braking which does make me wonder if it's set up properly. I think I might try and get it into Renault sometime in the next week or so for a quick once over and oil change. It goes pretty well as long as you keep it cooking around 5k but until I can get the set up looked at I'm going to struggle to find it confidence inspiring.

I know these cars are a handfull in the wet/damp, and it will take me a while to get used to driving a snappy FWD car again - especially after the ridiculous ease with which you can drive a Subaru (anyone that crashes one of those things has to have been driving like a complete cnut!). In 2 years I never had one incident where I thought the I was going to lose it - 4WD hides a multitude of bad driving sins! The car had more grip than I had guts.

In terms of looks the trophy is a pretty good looking car - I'm not too sure about the tints that Eugene put on - but at least they don't look too obviously boy racer :wink:

Anyway I'll keep you posted and I look forward to hearing from you guys.

Cheers,

FB

 

[Duq]

Welcome too the site mate

 

[Slugger]

Hi frenchboy

The damp is the worst condition. When it's proper wet with spray you will find it has an amazing amount of grip for the wet. When it's dry you should also find the car an amazing amount of grip and will instill you with confidence.

I have also had a Mk1 172 and a 172 Cup as well as now having a V6 and the Trophy gives the most confidence of all of them.

Haven't had any problems under heavy braking. As long as you ease into the heavy braking rather than just stamping the brakes immediately to the floor it should be fine.

 

[frenchboy]

Hi frenchboy

The damp is the worst condition. When it's proper wet with spray you will find it has an amazing amount of grip for the wet. When it's dry you should also find the car an amazing amount of grip and will instill you with confidence.

I have also had a Mk1 172 and a 172 Cup as well as now having a V6 and the Trophy gives the most confidence of all of them.

Haven't had any problems under heavy braking. As long as you ease into the heavy braking rather than just stamping the brakes immediately to the floor it should be fine.

Whereabouts in Bucks are you slugger? I was tempted by a V6 255 myself.

 

[hyb]

Welcome There seems to be a lot of people coming from scoobies? I had a wrx myself

 

[Slugger]

Hi frenchboy

The damp is the worst condition. When it's proper wet with spray you will find it has an amazing amount of grip for the wet. When it's dry you should also find the car an amazing amount of grip and will instill you with confidence.

I have also had a Mk1 172 and a 172 Cup as well as now having a V6 and the Trophy gives the most confidence of all of them.

Haven't had any problems under heavy braking. As long as you ease into the heavy braking rather than just stamping the brakes immediately to the floor it should be fine.

Whereabouts in Bucks are you slugger? I was tempted by a V6 255 myself.

Milton Keynes. Are you in Bucks?

 

[frenchboy]

Hi frenchboy

The damp is the worst condition. When it's proper wet with spray you will find it has an amazing amount of grip for the wet. When it's dry you should also find the car an amazing amount of grip and will instill you with confidence.

I have also had a Mk1 172 and a 172 Cup as well as now having a V6 and the Trophy gives the most confidence of all of them.

Haven't had any problems under heavy braking. As long as you ease into the heavy braking rather than just stamping the brakes immediately to the floor it should be fine.

Whereabouts in Bucks are you slugger? I was tempted by a V6 255 myself.

Milton Keynes. Are you in Bucks?

I'm in High Wycombe but the job that I start on tuesday is in MK.

 

[eugegall]

hope everything goes ok bud.

enjoy your car

 

[oliie]

Welcome to the forum!

I too have torque steer and squirming under braking, but only on surfaces that are not flat - I don't think that there is cause for concern. It's a FWD car with not much weight over the front axle and has a heavy front brake bias with relatively (for the size of the car) wide rims/tyres thereby increasing its tendency to naturally tram line.

That said you do make mention to the fact that you've had a 172 in the past, so you should be well placed to know if the symptoms are cause for concern or not.

Hope you enjoy your new toy and don't miss the power of the WRX too much - I am sure it must have been quite addictive!

Cheers
O.

 

[mr StinKa gob]

Not wanting to turn this into a my cars better then your car thread, but since when has torque steer been normal? Both my Williams' and Jills 172 do not show torque steer tendencies. Personally i think squirming under breaking is a bad thing too. Id expect the back end to go light, but not sqirm.

Personally if your car has it i think its a sign of poor tyre choice, worn tyres, incorrect steering geometry (camber / castor / toe in / toe out / alignment) or (shock horror) an inherently badly set up car. Of course it ciould be due to just too much power, but as jills car doesnt do this with the same power to weight ratio id suggest this isnt the case.

As far as im concerned if i press the accelerator and i get anything other than straight line travel, i have a good look at whats wrong with my car.

 

[oliie]

As far as im concerned if i press the accelerator and i get anything other than straight line travel, i have a good look at whats wrong with my car.

Even over an undulating surface?

Wow, your car defies the law of physics!!

O.

 

[matt the cat]

hi frenchboy, welcome to our forum.

When i got my trophy, the steering wheel was slightly off centre when in a straight line even though the tracking was fine. Anyway i took mine to an alignment specialist that had the 'hunter' laser wheel alignment that checks every aspect of the geometry. Everything was spot on just that the wheel musn't have been dead straight when renault set it up. I got a print out of every detail on the settings. Why dont you take yours to a vendor with the hunter machine and you can have a copy of my settings for reference because it has none of the symptoms you describe, except torque steer on undulating surfaces - and this is normal, dont let anyone tell you any different!

pm me if you require the data sheet and i will scan it in and mail it to you.

kind regards

Matt

 

[frenchboy]

Cheers for the replies fellas.

I'm prepared to reserve judgement on the torque steer until I can get it on to a perfectly dry road.

I will be getting the geometary looked at though as thats always a good idea, a lot of people don't tend to appreciate just how much difference it can make to a car.

I think the car needs an oil change asap aswell as I'm not sure whether this has been done yet on this car. It's always good to change the oil regularly on a new car to avoid the build up of engine deposits.

Looks like I'll be borrowing the missus's car next week while it goes in to Renault for a once over.

Cheers and Happy New year!

 

[TheJesus]

Not wanting to turn this into a my cars better then your car thread, but since when has torque steer been normal? Both my Williams' and Jills 172 do not show torque steer tendencies. Personally i think squirming under breaking is a bad thing too. Id expect the back end to go light, but not sqirm.

Also worth remembering that in order to get torque steer you need to drive the car over 2.5k rpm. Mine with PE2's torque steers like crazy in the wet especially. Also worth noting it's had the suspension completely replaced within the last 5k if that.

 

[mr StinKa gob]

Not wanting to turn this into a my cars better then your car thread, but since when has torque steer been normal? Both my Williams' and Jills 172 do not show torque steer tendencies. Personally i think squirming under breaking is a bad thing too. Id expect the back end to go light, but not sqirm.

Also worth remembering that in order to get torque steer you need to drive the car over 2.5k rpm. Mine with PE2's torque steers like crazy in the wet especially. Also worth noting it's had the suspension completely replaced within the last 5k if that.

As the article on f7power states, the PE2 will induce torque steer as they are the wrong type of tyre for the Williams. They are a sports tyre, and the williams was set up and designed to run a touring tyre.

Replacing the suspension will help but unless you get the chassis welded up, you will have a soggy chassis and its wont be as stiff as a new williams was. A strut brace wopuld help, but to get a factory fresh williams you would need to seem weld the chassis.

 

[Nik]

Welcome to the site mate

Was speaking to Neil yesterday and he said you'd just got a Trophy and had pointed you to the site. Hadn't realised that you'd bought Euge's car though.

I remember your WRX from a rolling road day at G-Force I went along to with Neil a while ago. Just dug out a pic, I think this was you (stalker alert! )

Hope you enjoy the car, i know it doesn't have that kick like the scooby, but get it on a track or some twisty B roads and its so much fun.

 

[frenchboy]

Busted!

Yep that's me. Got a crap result that day - 227 bhp that was with the PPP! Got prodrive to sort it out for me a month or so later and at the next rolling road I got 259bhp with 271 lb/ft - much better (particularly the torque).

I'm sure I will enjoy the clio, I think they're actually a lot more fun to drive than Scoobs. A lot trickier to get the best out of - but thats the enjoyment of driving them.

 

[Nick_r182]

Nice car!
I will keep an eye out for you if you pass through aylesbury.

 

[hyb]

Busted!

Yep that's me. Got a crap result that day - 227 bhp that was with the PPP! Got prodrive to sort it out for me a month or so later and at the next rolling road I got 259bhp with 271 lb/ft - much better (particularly the torque).

I'm sure I will enjoy the clio, I think they're actually a lot more fun to drive than Scoobs. A lot trickier to get the best out of - but thats the enjoyment of driving them.

I think the biggest shock after changing from a scoob is how much of a difference 4wd makes, i went from wrx to s2000, you had to go so much slower round the twisties. Not to say iti wasn't fun, but the confidence level dropped loads. Compared to the trophy though, my situation I think its the best car i could have, its nice and fast, corners superbly, great fun, plus its cheap to run! If i had the money to spend i'd get a sti +ppp but the petrol bills are stupidly high. I remember when getting my wrx, the scoobynet forum told me i'd get on 1ts name terms with the petrol station attendents, they were right!