205 spec.

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Discussion

groomi

Original Poster:

9,317 posts

244 months

Saturday 8th July 2006
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Due to a monumental ball dropping of all things administration this year my Pug is currently declared SORN, off the road with no tax or MOT. I need to do a couple of minor jobs before getting it MOT'd, but am considering spending some cash and doing all the stuff I've been wanting to for ages.

So, I have a '91 1.9 GTi in totally original unmolested condition and plan to do the following:

Fit BF Goodrich braided hoses.
Fit fast road discs and pads (Which ones?)
Refurb the wheels at Spit & Polish.
Fit new Michelins Pilot Sports?
Fit upper and lower front strut braces (Which ones?)
Fit quick-shift linkage (Which one?)

Does anyone have any answers to the above questions, comments on my choices or reccommendations of other useful mods? Bear in mind I want to keep the car as original as possible but robust enough for occasional trackday use.

Cheers!

sjg

7,454 posts

266 months

Saturday 8th July 2006
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Sounds good.

Rally Design were by far the cheapest for Goodridge hoses for my 106, and probably a good supplier for the other bits. Wouldn't bother with fancy discs, just get plain ones (RalDes do Maxtorq GpN ones cheaply that are fine) and Mintex M1144 or Ferodo DS2500 pads. Use DOT5.1 fluid, you'll be needing to bleed it all anyway when you replace the hoses - Halfords own-brand is fine.

www.strutbracer.co.uk is run by the guy who runs 106parts and is very good. They supply OMP or Sparco - upper and lower OMPs will set you back about £90 for both.

As for the quickshift, www.griffiths-engineering.co.uk/ do one for £20. You may well find that the linkage rods themselves are worn though and a new set will tighten up the feel no end. If they are gone, then a quickshift will only make them worse anyway.

If you're planning to get everything done at once, it may be worth doing suspension bushes at the same time - if they're original, they'll be very tired by now!

groomi

Original Poster:

9,317 posts

244 months

Sunday 9th July 2006
quotequote all
Thanks SJC, very useful info advice there.

I'm considering doing the rear beam too. The car doesn't need it yet, but I'm thinking it might be sensible to do it now because I'll have all the brakes etc. apart anyway.

I'll probably leave the front bushes as they can be done at any time without really having to go back on anything which will get done at this time.

The other problem I have is that the bonnet catch has 'released' a couple of times on trackdays (not enough for it to flip open, but enough to scare the bejesus out of me - happens at about 110mph! ). I don't want to fit bonnet pins because I want to keep it as standard as possible. I'm wondering if I can fashion some sort of pin which pokes through the grille rather than a hole in the bonnet... any thoughts?

sorrento205

2,870 posts

237 months

Monday 10th July 2006
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you can get a full set of 205 gear linkage rods for ~£50 from here http://forum.205gtidrivers.com/index.

combemarshal

2,030 posts

227 months

Tuesday 11th July 2006
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I'd really recomend EBD pads and Disc, They are superb on my Xantia and wear really well plus are great on the road too

combemarshal

2,030 posts

227 months

Tuesday 11th July 2006
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Oh, I don't know how soon you were planning on doing it, but At combe, on the 9th of sept we have Eurofest, shame you missed FCS a few weeks back, loads of trade stands there

Rob_the_Sparky

1,000 posts

239 months

Tuesday 11th July 2006
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Have you done the rear beam yet? Do you actually have a braking problem?

Generally brakes are pretty good as stock and do not need upgrading unless you are tracking the car or drive it Very hard on the road. Brake lines are nice to have (I have them) but no additional performance, just tighten up the feel.

Rear beams are siezed on 90% of Pug GTis on the rest they are just rough. If you haven't done it yet I'd do this before the "performace" upgrades in question. Making the rear suspension work is a better upgrade! Check out www.205GTiDrivers.com and the associated forum for technical Pug 205 GTi advice.

Rob

simes205

4,539 posts

229 months

Monday 17th July 2006
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Replacing hoses will make minimal difference but is probably worth doing as the flexi's will be getting on.
I've just fitted the front brakes from the 206GTI180 and I can honestly say they are very nice!




The sliders on my old calipers were getting knackered and what with the Mi engine I decided it was better to upgrade. However the original calipers like RTS said are good.
I'd go for Goodyear Eagle F1's.
I've had a GE quickshift for 4 years now and the Group A rods, it's a bit notchy and nowhere near as nice as the original feel of the standard one. Miles at Xsportracing does a better version.
Wouldn't bother with a lower brace, top one will make more of a difference though.

bales

1,905 posts

219 months

Thursday 20th July 2006
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I would say not to bother with uprated discs unless you are doing serious track days, uprated pads will be fine for road use however they may squeal a bit when cold, ferodo are usually recommended.

Strut braces I would say get one on the front upper especially if yours is a sunroof, but i personally wouldnt bother with lower ones as the bottom of the suspension mounts to a very stiff structure and actually already has a brace between the two sides if you look under the car.

Depends what you are going to use the car for really, if the car has never had the rear beam done then it cant be far off needing replacing as they all tend to rot after this long. It transformed my car but is not cheap unless you can get a refurbished one or afford to have your car off the road for a while. Solid rear mounts are quite good as they reduce the lift off oversteer (depends whether you want this or not) but are quite crashy and transmitt a lot of NVH.

Peugeot actually designed the rear beam to be able to yaw in relation to the body at these mounts which is what adds the passive rear steer and causes the lift off oversteer. So this can either been seen as a plus or a negative. Suspension wise I would get the car handling right on standard suspension before trying to modify things further. Hope this helps

Alex

m3pilot

3,453 posts

255 months

Wednesday 16th August 2006
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I wouldn't waste you money getting wheels refurbed at split and polish.

groomi

Original Poster:

9,317 posts

244 months

Saturday 9th September 2006
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m3pilot said:
I wouldn't waste you money getting wheels refurbed at split and polish.

OK. A few people have said the same thing, so can you reccomend anywhere else in kent? I'm driving from Orpington to Tonbridge to Maidstone to Ashford for meetings on Wednesday and would like to drop the wheels in somewhere that day to get done.

Any suggestions?

pdd144c

208 posts

224 months

Sunday 10th September 2006
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Braided hoses are a good idea, brake wise I'd be tempted to fit Mintex 1166's and leave the discs standard. If they are bedded in correctly the performance is incredible for fast road/track use. Wouldn't bother with the top strut brace, does very little to improve performance, lower one offers an improvement though. Quickshift and gear rod wise the Xsport ones do the job. The rods are available at: http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Xsport-Racin

Edited by pdd144c on Monday 11th September 08:12

Mikey G

4,733 posts

241 months

Sunday 10th September 2006
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1166's on what is basically a road car? bad advice mate. They are too hard for the road and will never warm up properly to be effective if an emergency stop is needed when popping to the shops....

As said further up the thread get a bigger disc setup and fit 1144's instead or the Ferodo equivalant DS2000 i think.

groomi

Original Poster:

9,317 posts

244 months

Sunday 10th September 2006
quotequote all
Mikey G said:
As said further up the thread get a bigger disc setup and fit 1144's instead or the Ferodo equivalant DS2000 i think.


I know that ultimately this would give the best performance, but I don't want to modify the car that much. In essence I want to keep the car standard with just one or two small but careully thought out real improvements.

Mikey G

4,733 posts

241 months

Sunday 10th September 2006
quotequote all
groomi said:
Mikey G said:
As said further up the thread get a bigger disc setup and fit 1144's instead or the Ferodo equivalant DS2000 i think.


I know that ultimately this would give the best performance, but I don't want to modify the car that much. In essence I want to keep the car standard with just one or two small but careully thought out real improvements.


And 1166's will give bad performance, wear out your standard discs before the pads aswell probably. Great if the car is going to live on the track but i doubt you will get them hot enough to work well on the road.
Bigger discs require less work to slow you down, therefore you can run cooler pads which work better from the off and not require hooligan braking to get the most from them when cold.
If you are just going to change the discs and not increase the size a set of Black Diamonds and some 1144's will do for occasional track use and maybe stepping up to 1155's if you are very hard on them and struggling over a longer period. Never jump straight onto hard pads if you have no experiance of them and using standard discs as they will not cut it.

groomi

Original Poster:

9,317 posts

244 months

Sunday 10th September 2006
quotequote all
Mikey G said:
groomi said:
Mikey G said:
As said further up the thread get a bigger disc setup and fit 1144's instead or the Ferodo equivalant DS2000 i think.


I know that ultimately this would give the best performance, but I don't want to modify the car that much. In essence I want to keep the car standard with just one or two small but careully thought out real improvements.


And 1166's will give bad performance, wear out your standard discs before the pads aswell probably. Great if the car is going to live on the track but i doubt you will get them hot enough to work well on the road.
Bigger discs require less work to slow you down, therefore you can run cooler pads which work better from the off and not require hooligan braking to get the most from them when cold.
If you are just going to change the discs and not increase the size a set of Black Diamonds and some 1144's will do for occasional track use and maybe stepping up to 1155's if you are very hard on them and struggling over a longer period. Never jump straight onto hard pads if you have no experiance of them and using standard discs as they will not cut it.


Thanks MikeyG. I was referring to the larger discs in my reply rather than the hard pads which I wouldn't be keen on for the reasons you stated.

I've used BlackDiamond discs on the missus' MR2 and with great results, so would have confidence going that route.

sorrento205

2,870 posts

237 months

pdd144c

208 posts

224 months

Monday 11th September 2006
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1166's are fine, I use them on my road car.

DiscoStu

205 posts

213 months

Monday 11th September 2006
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I have fitted a Hi-spec big disc conversion and i use them with Mintex 1144's. This is a cracking conversion and the results are fantastic. Perfect for the road and the setup has also been successful on the track.

Also, i am using these on an Mi16 so shud be even better for a standard gti

simes205

4,539 posts

229 months

Monday 11th September 2006
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sorrento205 said:



That link to the main site recently made me spend a lot of money, but the car stops amazing well!