If you’ve been keeping track of auctions of late, you may have noticed that our very own PH Project Car, the Mk5 Golf GTI we turned into a track car that was almost(ish) capable of keeping up with a Mk8 R, has found a new owner. Having been the GTI’s custodian for the best part of a year, its resurfacing on our auction platform brought mixed emotions. On the one hand, I was happy to see that its former owner kept it in the same state we left back at the end of 2023, and that it had plenty of bidders eager to get their hands on it. But at the same, it did remind me of all the bits I’d wanted to do at the time but couldn’t make it work in our strict £10k budget - including the car.
For starters, it needed a limited-slip diff. Quite badly, in fact. Coming out of tight turns, the inside-front wheel would spin up with the most delicate of throttle squeezes, which shed loads of time to the much more advanced R. That would have blown a huge chunk of our budget, as would have stripping the interior and fitting a pair of bucket seats (although I really did like the cream leather for daily use). And finally, I’d like to have put a bit of time and money into making it look like a proper track car, and not just a slammed GTI. Had we done all of that, we may have ended up with something like this massively track-focused Renaultsport Megane R26 that’s for sale.
Okay, so maybe we wouldn’t have gone quite as extreme on the looks as the former owner of this Megane has, but there’s no denying it stands out from all the other R26 builds. Besides, it’s what’s underneath that counts, and boy is there a lot to go through. Unlike our track build, this one’s packing a Quaife LSD, which is paired with an uprated clutch, flywheel and driveshafts. It also benefits from a Brembo brake conversion (the standard car also came with them, but these look a touch beefier), and a set of Nitron dampers with remote reservoirs for some serious track work.
Then there’s the engine, which is a real work of art. It’s the same 2.0-litre turbocharged four banger as the standard R26, albeit its been forged and now puts out an impressive 307hp ‘with everything turned down’ but, according to the ad, it’s capable of 380hp ‘plus’. Coupled to that is a four-inch stainless steel exhaust by K-Tec Racing, and because it’s turbocharged it (probably) won’t trouble those pesky track day decibel limits.
Surprisingly, it still resembles a Megane inside, if only just. Yes, there’s a full roll cage with buck seats and harnesses, but it’s still carpeted and much of the dash remains in tact. That said, the steering wheel has been chopped in for a racing one from Oreca, as has the gear stick for a custom shifter. Whether it’d make a good daily or not would depend on your tolerance for noise and a (likely) firm ride, but it’d surely get you to a track day and back with relative ease.
According to the ad, around £40k has been pumped into to project, significantly more than what we were able to do with our GTI. That’s also nearly double of what’s being asked for it, with the seller looking to get £22,990. Still, it’s a fair bit more than the going rate of a regular R26, as this very tidy 2008 car demonstrates. Then again, it’s far cheaper than an R26.R, and given how they’re an appreciating classic now, you’d be brave to go and rag one out on track. And if you think of it like that, this example here begins to make quite a lot of sense.
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