2001 Saxo VTS - Yet another "Track" Car
Discussion
With my first outing on the 17th, and almost a year into getting the car ready I thought I'd put a thread up on here.
Basically I'm one of those people that likes cars, but has always paid people to do everything, but I decided to get my hands dirty for once.
On a whim I bought a 2002 Saxo VTS (not a 2001 as per the thread title) that had already been fettled with slightly, myself and a friend have spent many weekends over the last year sorting the car for use, as it stands now:
Engine
Lightened fly wheel
Piper 270 cams
Raceland manifold (Heatwrapped)
BMC CDA - Feeding from Morette inner light
Magnex backbox, decat and silenced midpipe
Kam Racing lambda sleeve
Flo Flex poly exhaust hangers
Motul X-Cess 8100 Fully Synthetic Oil
Group N engine mounts
Group A gearbox mount
Transmission
Quickshift - unknown brand
Standard clutch
Brakes
266mm 206GTi brakes on the front
Ferodo DS2500 Pads on the front
MTEC grooved & drilled discs on the front
OEM Mintex discs and pads on the rear
Exact braided brakelines front & rear
AP Racing Formula DOT 5.1 Road/Competition Brake Fluid
Suspension
OMP upper strut brace
OMP lower strut Brace
Spoox group N rear wishbone mounts
Powerflex competition front wishbone mounts
BakerBM solid rear beam bushes
New rear beam nuts/bolts/washers
Standard Shocks
Newish rear axle
Uprated front springs of some description
Wheels & Tyres
Saxo Vts OEM Wheels
Toyo Proxes 888s in GG compound - 195/50/15
Interior
OMP Eco seats
OMP Subframe / Benwh555 Custom low subframe
OMP WRC Steering suede wheel
OMP Boss
Willans 4 point 2" push button harnesses
Weight reduction (almost everything)
Jazzy door pulls
Rust in the boot
Exterior
Morettes
Dimma stye grille
Aerial bung
Rear dewiper
OE fog light blanks
Todo / Done
Fit odyssey battery
Fit New discs and pads Rear - Done
Fit Rear Exact Braided Lines - Done
Replace rear NS caliper- Done
Fit new rear discs and pads - Done
Fit OS front ABS sensor - Done
Modify & fit Moretes - Done
Underseal underneath boot floor- Done
Polybush rear beam - Done-ish
Remove rear beam and tidy it up - Done
Replace rear NS caliper - Done
Refit rear OS window - Done
Replace gearbox oil - Done
Flush PAS - Done
Additional harness points / spreader plates - Done
Change Fluids: Engine oil and filter - Done
Heatwrap manifold - Done
Fit new manifold nuts and pins - Done
Remove rear arch tar - Done
Remove footwell tar - Done
Refurb front calipers - Done
Refurb rear calipers - Done
Fit Spoox Group N'd Wishbones - Done
Fit OMP lower Brace - Done
Fit group A lower mount - Done
Fit top group N engine mounts - Done
Fit New discs and pads Front - Done
Fit Front Exact Braided Lines - Done
Fit new alternator - Done
Things I dont have / need to do
Buy / Fit Bilstein B8's
The Car

Dyno Jibblets

Basically I'm one of those people that likes cars, but has always paid people to do everything, but I decided to get my hands dirty for once.
On a whim I bought a 2002 Saxo VTS (not a 2001 as per the thread title) that had already been fettled with slightly, myself and a friend have spent many weekends over the last year sorting the car for use, as it stands now:
Engine
Lightened fly wheel
Piper 270 cams
Raceland manifold (Heatwrapped)
BMC CDA - Feeding from Morette inner light
Magnex backbox, decat and silenced midpipe
Kam Racing lambda sleeve
Flo Flex poly exhaust hangers
Motul X-Cess 8100 Fully Synthetic Oil
Group N engine mounts
Group A gearbox mount
Transmission
Quickshift - unknown brand
Standard clutch
Brakes
266mm 206GTi brakes on the front
Ferodo DS2500 Pads on the front
MTEC grooved & drilled discs on the front
OEM Mintex discs and pads on the rear
Exact braided brakelines front & rear
AP Racing Formula DOT 5.1 Road/Competition Brake Fluid
Suspension
OMP upper strut brace
OMP lower strut Brace
Spoox group N rear wishbone mounts
Powerflex competition front wishbone mounts
BakerBM solid rear beam bushes
New rear beam nuts/bolts/washers
Standard Shocks
Newish rear axle
Uprated front springs of some description
Wheels & Tyres
Saxo Vts OEM Wheels
Toyo Proxes 888s in GG compound - 195/50/15
Interior
OMP Eco seats
OMP Subframe / Benwh555 Custom low subframe
OMP WRC Steering suede wheel
OMP Boss
Willans 4 point 2" push button harnesses
Weight reduction (almost everything)
Jazzy door pulls
Rust in the boot
Exterior
Morettes
Dimma stye grille
Aerial bung
Rear dewiper
OE fog light blanks
Todo / Done
Fit odyssey battery
Fit New discs and pads Rear - Done
Fit Rear Exact Braided Lines - Done
Replace rear NS caliper- Done
Fit new rear discs and pads - Done
Fit OS front ABS sensor - Done
Modify & fit Moretes - Done
Underseal underneath boot floor- Done
Polybush rear beam - Done-ish
Remove rear beam and tidy it up - Done
Replace rear NS caliper - Done
Refit rear OS window - Done
Replace gearbox oil - Done
Flush PAS - Done
Additional harness points / spreader plates - Done
Change Fluids: Engine oil and filter - Done
Heatwrap manifold - Done
Fit new manifold nuts and pins - Done
Remove rear arch tar - Done
Remove footwell tar - Done
Refurb front calipers - Done
Refurb rear calipers - Done
Fit Spoox Group N'd Wishbones - Done
Fit OMP lower Brace - Done
Fit group A lower mount - Done
Fit top group N engine mounts - Done
Fit New discs and pads Front - Done
Fit Front Exact Braided Lines - Done
Fit new alternator - Done
Things I dont have / need to do
Buy / Fit Bilstein B8's
The Car

Dyno Jibblets

Edited by MuZiZZle on Friday 15th June 11:05
Edited by MuZiZZle on Friday 15th June 14:13
Edited by MuZiZZle on Tuesday 19th June 10:11
oops!
I'll sort a photo now!
To be honest I was all about throttle bodies and turbos, but I focused more on making it stop and handle rather than heading down that path.
I know it's still on standard dampers, but I'm green to track days so it's not going to be driven to the limits until I get used to the car a bit more, since all of the work it's only had 300 road miles put on it!
I'll sort a photo now!
To be honest I was all about throttle bodies and turbos, but I focused more on making it stop and handle rather than heading down that path.
I know it's still on standard dampers, but I'm green to track days so it's not going to be driven to the limits until I get used to the car a bit more, since all of the work it's only had 300 road miles put on it!
MuZiZZle said:
D4MJT did most of the work to be fair, I stood around & made tea, sometimes I threw tools at his sensitive area
Balls, joint effort! I've got a picture on my phone somewhere of you "axe-ing" the brakes apart!Here it is, it's all about the precision tooling

Edited by D4MJT on Friday 15th June 11:24
Looks like a nice little ongoing project / track car. They do make great track cars, especially when stripped out to next to nothing. Done 2 trackdays in mine since i got it and it ran without fault (rare for a frenchie)
Must admit seeing this gives me a little encouragement to sort mine out now as it's not been moved since November last year.
Must admit seeing this gives me a little encouragement to sort mine out now as it's not been moved since November last year.
Right then, the car had its first outing on fathers day, a 180 min track slot from 9am at Donington, while FCS was happening, prior to this:
Friday lunch I had the wheels balanced.
Saturday consisted of double checking all of the zipties, checking fluids, D4MJT fitted my lambda sleeve as I messed on taping my induction kit up.
I drilled and fitted my super low subframe from Benwh555, it's amazingly low now!
And that was that, I was worried I had forgotten something but it turns out I hadn't, the drive down, although bumpy due to the uprated bushes and whatnot, and a slight wobble from a rear wheel at high speed (grr) was without fault, and after pitting for a mandatory McDonalds breakfast we made it to FSC in good time.
After parking on the infield and offloading anything not needed on track into D4MJT's car we made our way to the pits, it was basically bumpy and very very dirty.
We couldn't find YBracing anywhere to pick up our helmets, and I had forgotten my driving licence, ahhhh, it's going to be one of "those" days!
Fair play to Book a Track, they accepted a photograph of my licence submitted with a proof of date!
Now helmetless D4MJT took the car to be noise tested while I ran around like an idiot looking for YBracing! why couldn't I find them? because they had just arrived in an unmarked white van, side door open, full of OMP goodies!
Now, with 2 helmets in hand (fnar) I legged up to the sound testing area and we got 87 on the static, which I was quite pleased with.
On track the car was fantastic, a few laps at a steady pace before picking up speed, I am still amazed at how much feedback you get from the car, the brakes are progressive, the power is steady, and no matter how hard it was pushed, the back end would not slide (in the dry). I didn't get a hint of oversteer, and no matter how hard it was pushed the back just stuck.
Faster and faster we went until we were black flagged, into the pits we went,, why the flag? 99.2dB on the drive by! with a 98dB limit
We were told we could modify the car, show the modifications and go back out, if we were flagged again that was it.
I tried every trader there looking for a baffle, nobody had anything.I returned to the pits, my only hope to blank off the induction from the headlight and double the pipe to the CDA back on itself, this and shortshifting was my only hope, and now it was raining.
All of that had eaten up about 45 minutes, so we had about 90 left, I did some laps, may have lost the back end once ;p, then D4MJT did some laps on his own, and I finished off the remaining time, sadly not pushing too hard for fear of a black flag.
I can't sing the cars praises enough!
I'll not mention the journey home though : coilpack, o2 sensor, clutch failure, towed over a huge nail, AA van

Friday lunch I had the wheels balanced.
Saturday consisted of double checking all of the zipties, checking fluids, D4MJT fitted my lambda sleeve as I messed on taping my induction kit up.
I drilled and fitted my super low subframe from Benwh555, it's amazingly low now!
And that was that, I was worried I had forgotten something but it turns out I hadn't, the drive down, although bumpy due to the uprated bushes and whatnot, and a slight wobble from a rear wheel at high speed (grr) was without fault, and after pitting for a mandatory McDonalds breakfast we made it to FSC in good time.
After parking on the infield and offloading anything not needed on track into D4MJT's car we made our way to the pits, it was basically bumpy and very very dirty.
We couldn't find YBracing anywhere to pick up our helmets, and I had forgotten my driving licence, ahhhh, it's going to be one of "those" days!
Fair play to Book a Track, they accepted a photograph of my licence submitted with a proof of date!
Now helmetless D4MJT took the car to be noise tested while I ran around like an idiot looking for YBracing! why couldn't I find them? because they had just arrived in an unmarked white van, side door open, full of OMP goodies!
Now, with 2 helmets in hand (fnar) I legged up to the sound testing area and we got 87 on the static, which I was quite pleased with.
On track the car was fantastic, a few laps at a steady pace before picking up speed, I am still amazed at how much feedback you get from the car, the brakes are progressive, the power is steady, and no matter how hard it was pushed, the back end would not slide (in the dry). I didn't get a hint of oversteer, and no matter how hard it was pushed the back just stuck.
Faster and faster we went until we were black flagged, into the pits we went,, why the flag? 99.2dB on the drive by! with a 98dB limit

We were told we could modify the car, show the modifications and go back out, if we were flagged again that was it.
I tried every trader there looking for a baffle, nobody had anything.I returned to the pits, my only hope to blank off the induction from the headlight and double the pipe to the CDA back on itself, this and shortshifting was my only hope, and now it was raining.
All of that had eaten up about 45 minutes, so we had about 90 left, I did some laps, may have lost the back end once ;p, then D4MJT did some laps on his own, and I finished off the remaining time, sadly not pushing too hard for fear of a black flag.
I can't sing the cars praises enough!
I'll not mention the journey home though : coilpack, o2 sensor, clutch failure, towed over a huge nail, AA van

haha, everything you want from a day out on the track!
It was brilliant, really really good. As stated, the car hasn't really had any road time, and the spec is pretty much a by-product of browsing the net, and going "oooh, they look shiny, let's put them on"
It drove really really well, and lasted the whole day on track. We knew it had a noisy release bearing on the clutch, and to it's credit, it took a day of hammering, and got within 20 miles of home before it gave up. Wouldn't be french motoring without a breakdown anyway!
I'm looking forward to the next outing! Suppose we'd better fix it first..
It was brilliant, really really good. As stated, the car hasn't really had any road time, and the spec is pretty much a by-product of browsing the net, and going "oooh, they look shiny, let's put them on"
It drove really really well, and lasted the whole day on track. We knew it had a noisy release bearing on the clutch, and to it's credit, it took a day of hammering, and got within 20 miles of home before it gave up. Wouldn't be french motoring without a breakdown anyway!
I'm looking forward to the next outing! Suppose we'd better fix it first..
MuZiZZle said:
StottyZr said:
From the dyno I take it the rev limiter is standard?
yeah it's not been remapped or fettled with at all, the guy at the rollers actually plugged a laptop in to check it was all OEMIt hits the limiter at around 7250, it may get amended if I ever get around to having it mapped.
I was told the fueling is spot on at the moment so for the sake of £300 I can live with a lumpy idle.
Once I reach the limit of driving it I may up the power, I'm still a novice so that could be a while!
I was told the fueling is spot on at the moment so for the sake of £300 I can live with a lumpy idle.
Once I reach the limit of driving it I may up the power, I'm still a novice so that could be a while!
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