Flame Red Megane 275 Cup-S

300trophy

RMS Regular
OP
300trophy
Messages
3,730
Location
Belfast
Drives
Megane 275 Cup-S
Haven’t updated this in quite some time! In truth I haven’t really driven the car since the last update, between rubbish weather at winter and now COVID-19 the car had been SORN for a couple of months.

I did take it to @RubberLover place (Ivan Kerr) just before Christmas for a wheel alignment / cracking set up and really guys down there. Very informative whilst carrying out the alignment - top service!

C7453A10-7668-40B1-9773-3CF6444C59C9.jpeg


It was the SORN immediately after the wheel alignment and taxed again in March. In the meantime I had been longing after a new set of wheels. The 19 inch Speedlines are a lovely OEM wheel but I wanted something with a better offset to fill out the arches - they also had to be 18 inch. Having had OZ Ultraleggera and Alleggerita on my Clio I was close to buying a set of the latter but couldn’t warm to them on a Megane. I did also like the Evo Corse Sanremo so I ended up buying them at the beginning of January - special order so they took around 4 weeks to arrive from Italy. I went for ET47. Standard wheels are ET65 so the Sanremo fill the arches much better!

Fitted the tyres from the 18 inch Tibor wheels which where fitted to the car from factory and have since removed the stickers. I coated the wheels with Gyeon Rim having used Gtechniq C5 on the last 3 sets of wheels...

34C35541-83AA-44D8-B146-183AEB858C51.jpeg


I had noticed that some careless **** had lightly marked the driver rear quarter. Thankfully the car was booked to have a top up of Exo applied by @big_pete so the guys at PMG kindly removed any trace of the mark and due to COVID they delivered the car back. Top service once again!

5B689F97-5303-47AB-8CC2-CB57EAA2C172.jpeg


A couple of days later I decided it was time to remove the Speedlines and fit the new wheels. Whilst removed I quickly cleaned the wheel arches (and decided that I would freshen up the brake disc bells...at a later date).

Out with the old (but recently fitted PS4S which have now covered a grand total of around 40 miles!)

FF47838F-1B7C-4D24-9181-E7E37C4B61C7.jpeg


On with the new and tyres dressed with Fireball Tyre Wax

F605CAB6-E703-4683-8144-D6710F9D92BB.jpeg


Drove a couple of hundred yards away from the house to take a few photos

C7224ADC-FBFD-412D-BD1A-F6EE958B93A4.jpeg


CE76F7DF-202D-4656-8FB5-9B863647CF9A.jpeg


E869194D-5F0A-4C5D-910B-DF8CD2D815E7.jpeg


66945A87-C418-4B86-A940-424B240B1D38.jpeg
 

300trophy

RMS Regular
OP
300trophy
Messages
3,730
Location
Belfast
Drives
Megane 275 Cup-S
I also had ordered up some other bits and pieces over winter. One being a BMC air filter and replacement bulbs as both headlight bulbs had blown. Previous owner had fitted Osram bulbs which in my experience never last so I changed to Philips bulbs.

B95BA7E7-2332-4F42-8796-C02370805A09.jpeg


Old & new. Standard filter was only replaced during the last service a couple of thousand miles ago

55444CCE-D8DF-4119-9A1E-7F00FC0A4231.jpeg


Underside of the bonnet is very dusty. So I spent about 15-20 minutes giving it a quick going over.

6726E81F-C190-4454-9191-6078A1240A87.jpeg


7D019BE3-7FD0-4875-BFB2-BFD7F43EAD20.jpeg


FFDE8654-DB95-45DE-BFD9-57F78FC81CD9.jpeg


Cleaned down with some BH Surfex HD, agitated with a brush and rinsed off. Sticker on the battery cover had been annoying me since day one and I bought a replacement a year ago so fitted popped it on

977A63BF-D470-45DF-8248-5D325778D1B3.jpeg


602CC876-AF80-43CB-A1D2-ADDECFC3F227.jpeg


1AF9805A-EB86-4455-9DAA-096F16CE0BCD.jpeg


Engine cover was then wiped over with Hybrid from Anachem and plastics where dressed with Trim from Anachem

3A29371D-350D-4B94-82D5-CFD892710FA0.jpeg


Not bad for 15-20 minutes. I love cleaning cars but don’t like cleaning the engine bay so this will do for another while.
 

300trophy

RMS Regular
OP
300trophy
Messages
3,730
Location
Belfast
Drives
Megane 275 Cup-S
I had mentioned previously about painting the brake disc bells. In an ideal world I would have liked the brakes to have been removed and then painted them with a rattle can but I opted for one of the kits from E-Tech. Decent little kit. Comes with paint (obviously), brake cleaner and a brush. The bells are coated black from factory so I kept them black having been considering silver.

873095DC-0765-4F9F-87B4-0D8A0734FB48.jpeg


Front (pre wheel arch clean) and rear

F00076A0-CD0E-4C43-9E17-A704B238A153.jpeg


CAB09D7E-4F4E-4C06-A1DD-BBDAC702AE45.jpeg


I didn’t really go at them with the wire brush I didn’t want to be too aggressive so I used the steel wool (have a couple of grades), cleaned up with brake cleaner and got to work. I applied two coats leaving around 30-40 minutes between coats.

CD3FCC7C-EEB3-42D6-A172-DA75BB8E8813.jpeg


8BA112D6-FF5E-4E19-B2B4-95738116F87C.jpeg


Couple more photos showing the difference with wheels fitted

0D3DBECD-19C0-468A-9FDF-E865B6B5D1FF.jpeg


356BE7AC-0B78-4AD0-81A1-4A67F680F80C.jpeg


6D5DB80E-2FCC-4D43-93D6-F487CF5917C9.jpeg


8E8D8733-9C4C-4AEE-8456-7236CE9837A8.jpeg


That’s it for now.

Up next I will coat the plastics on the front end with Gyeon Trim. I also might try my hand at wrapping the interior vents etc in piano black wrap if anyone has any tips on how to do this?
 

Lee A

RMS Regular
Messages
8,573
Location
Bangoria
Drives
Accord types k24
looks great that, love the colour of the car. Wheels look the part also. Considering buying the Gyeon trim, have you used it before?
 

300trophy

RMS Regular
OP
300trophy
Messages
3,730
Location
Belfast
Drives
Megane 275 Cup-S
looks great that, love the colour of the car. Wheels look the part also. Considering buying the Gyeon trim, have you used it before?

Cheers! I haven’t used it before. Will probably be the weekend before I get round to applying it, will update this once it’s applied 😀
 

300trophy

RMS Regular
OP
300trophy
Messages
3,730
Location
Belfast
Drives
Megane 275 Cup-S
Not a hugely exciting update but service time has come for the Megane.

With the car turning 4 in July it is due a major service. Despite only having 13,200 miles I’m changing everything that is due at this age/mileage. So new engine oil, oil filter, pollen filter, spark plugs and gear oil will all be renewed. Seems a bit of a shame to change oil that has only covered 1,300 miles since its service this time last year! For years I have just stuck with OEM ELF 5w40 but Renault recently changed to Castrol and I decided that I would have a look at other options too! Two names kept appearing, Fuchs Titan Race Pro S and a Millers alternative - in the end I went with Fuchs.

Will hopefully have the service carried out by the end of next week and have promised myself to cover more miles this year!

87D1F137-5DD7-4D85-B4AD-CA28ADC85350.jpeg


Other than the above the only other thing I have done to the car is fit a KTec induction kit. I had bought an ITG previously but the front bumper needed removed and the filter sat very low and was susceptible to flood and standing water so I picked up the KTec alternative. Bit of messing around to fit but looks pretty tidy in the bay.

2BE93A51-E5AC-4653-B571-23AEB1FF5BBA.jpeg
 

Woodcutter

RMS Regular
Messages
31,236
Think @Woodcutter does the fireball range. I've tried the shampoo and the hydrophobic snow foam and the products seem great.

We let the Fireball brand go last year as getting stock was a disaster. We now stock Gyeon instead and it has been superb for us.

They do 3 Tyre products, first a tyre cleaner, then an Si02 based tyre shine which is amazing. They also do a Tyre Express product for regular use.
 

Boydie

RMS Regular
Messages
53,464
Location
Co.Antrim
Drives
S3 Revo
Some wheel nut covers would be ideal on those I would think eg blank ones on VW's or hexagon's on Audi's
 

300trophy

RMS Regular
OP
300trophy
Messages
3,730
Location
Belfast
Drives
Megane 275 Cup-S
Cheers for the comments!

@Boydie Yes wheel nut covers and either replacement standard bolts or lock nuts will be ordered to replace the rusty lock nuts.

@stevey_boy The Fireball tyre dressing is good but there are better alternatives out there. I’ve applied it to a few different tyres on different cars recently and found it didn’t last all that long. I would use Wax Planet Black Brite now but would occasionally use Gyeon Tire Express (which is very good considering it can be applied to wet tyres) though again it wouldn’t last too long. Gyeon Tire is meant to be very good also but I haven’t tried it yet!
 

300trophy

RMS Regular
OP
300trophy
Messages
3,730
Location
Belfast
Drives
Megane 275 Cup-S
It has been an eternity since I have updated this thread. A bit like the last update in July 2020 there hasn’t been anything to report in terms of changes to the car.

It has now just over 14,000 miles so has covered 800 miles since July last year. Has been SORN since December and was only driven (on trade plates) recently to be put through its first MOT. I keep saying I’ll tax it but life has been busy and I just haven’t gotten round to it!

Despite the above I have no plans to sell. I have been contacted as the Cup-S is holding value well but haven’t entertained any offers.

So in December I met up with @Reno_LV as he was running a photoshoot offer. I’ve always wanted to have some professional photos taken and let’s be honest is there anyone better? Reinis smashed it with the photos and it was great to see the various techniques & amount of photos that are taken to come up with the final result!

EF9F4D27-2BA9-46E5-927E-6327ECD72D92.jpeg
D9BBE1EA-9AE4-4CBB-816E-1CF2A45B3F62.jpeg

8B61EA0F-4DD2-4B8B-9696-229195303828.jpeg


After the photoshoot with Reinis in December the car lay parked until April. It ran out of MOT in January and I wasn’t planning on using it so kept it SORN and eventually put it though MOT. Unfortunately it failed due to lack of cat! So I have been forced to remove the work of art inconel downpipe and go back to standard. They are too much of a pig to remove and reinstall each year that the exhaust will now remain as is!

Since you cannot enter the MOT centre and take the obligatory photo of it up on the ramp I cleaned it and took a couple of snaps!

6626A307-8F3E-4F05-B526-4FC1DEF6645E.jpeg
7AD98B11-8EBC-47CE-9BB5-07B4944B977B.jpeg
FE4E1E82-42B2-4A50-AF02-20E2DE165D84.jpeg


Not much else to report. Need to get the finger out and tax and drive the thing! Plan on swapping the wheels back to Speedlines for a change and will perform the annual arch cleaning routine. Service is due again in July and will probably have the belts changed despite being early. Other than that I would love a Zero Point One shifter - need to sell the downpipe and some other bits and pieces though to fund one 😅.
 

300trophy

RMS Regular
OP
300trophy
Messages
3,730
Location
Belfast
Drives
Megane 275 Cup-S
My time with the Cup-S is coming to and end in the next couple of weeks. Deposit received for the car this evening and as per buyers request the Speedlines are going back on tomorrow.

Bittersweet as it is an amazing example of a certain future classic. I’ve had some great trips in this car but haven’t driven it half as much as I would have liked the last 18-ish months due to Covid.

Next owner is getting a cracking car that’s for sure and I know it’ll be very well looked after.
 

300trophy

RMS Regular
OP
300trophy
Messages
3,730
Location
Belfast
Drives
Megane 275 Cup-S
That really is a perfect example of one, nicest colour, styled so well.

Are you staying french?

Thanks Pete. I think the Megane 3 RS suits Flame Red best also. I’d have liked it to have gone on the current wheels but the buyer prefers OEM look. Speedlines are a great wheel. Had actually bought spacers on Saturday as was planning on refitting them anyway!
 
Top