Silver VTS Road/Track, Brembos & Raceland on!
 

Have already been doing lots of reading, asking questions and trying to help peeps already, but today I started working on the car so thought I'd start a progress thread which I can update as and when I finish things, hopefully with a few pictures which can act as a guide for anyone doing the same as me!

Bought a couple of weeks ago, took me a while to find as I wanted a clean and tidy mk1 VTS, don't like the front end of the mk2s at all. Had a 106 gti a few years ago so I knew what I was looking for, and found this one a 1999 T plate with 89k for a good price :)







It already has fitted:

Black Team Dynamics Pro Race 2 wheels with Toyo Proxes T1R tyres and Wolfrace 20mm spacers.
Lowered 60mm on Gmax springs and shocks front and rear.
Full Magnex stainless steel exhaust, with stainless decat, centre silencer and 3 inch backbox.
K&N panel filter, pioneer speakers, few other bits and bobs.

Plans are as well as it being my daily car to get it on a few track days, so I've got the following planned for it:

New pads and drilled and grooved discs all round, upgrading the front to Brembo four pots with 306 gti discs and MC.

Bin the Wolfrace spacers for proper hubcentric ones.

Decent quality enclosed induction kit, 4-2-1 exhaust manifold, ph3/708 cams and a proper rolling road remap.

Hoping when I've finished it'll be a punchy road and track weapon with 150ish bhp that I can still use every day. I'll see how I get on with the Gmax suspension, and I can't decide if I should raise the rear slightly or not, but time will tell.
I also want to replace all the gear selection bits, I know I want a quickshift and the three selector rods from Kam racing, but I haven't been able to find anywhere selling the main long selector rod and the bell crank arm new as these are worn on mine, guessing they'll be a Citroen main dealer job!
Also when I get and fit a manifold I'm going to try refitting the backbox so the exhaust tip doesn't stick out quite so far, its a sleeve and clamp fitting thats just not been slid on quite far enough so i reckon if it goes in another couple of inches it'll look a lot better.
Any comments or suggestions will be greatly appreciated!

Thanks

So today I've jacked the back of the car up and took both rear wheels off. I've got drilled and grooved Mtec discs to go on the back with Mintex pads, so I've painted the disc centres, spacers and the brake calipers all black with Simoniz Engine Enamel. While I was waiting for the first coat to dry I crawled underneath and had a look at the sticky out exhaust.

The backbox was already slid on as far as it'd go, so I got the angle grinder out and took an inch off the centre section. The stainless pipe is pretty thick and good quality hardened steel, so took a while to get through it but I got there and it looks a lot better all reassembled now.

I'm letting the paint dry properly on the brakes overnight tonight then I'll be cracking on with changing the discs and pads tomorrow. I'll get some pictures of everything then for a decent update.

looks nice that mate love the rims really suit it, whats the rear spoiler looks a little high for the proper vts spoiler??? looking forward to your pics matey

I like the spoiler really finishes off the car, I think it is just a standard Mk1 spoiler, they made them a bit smaller with the mk2 which is a shame. I'm going to take pictures as I do the brakes tomorrow so I'll get a shot of the new and improved exhaust as well and post them up! :)

Well did a bit more work on the car today, got my new Mtec drilled and grooved discs with Mintex pads for the rear. Couldn't find the lead for my camera so some crap phone pictures will have to do, it's pretty dark where I've been working but you get the idea!

Started on the back brakes, I painted the disc centres, backplates and calipers with black engine enamel to keep them looking good for a bit longer:



So then I jacked the car up and wire brushed the calipers and backplates before giving them a first coat of paint. Getting the old brakes off:



Then I stripped the caliper sliders, re greased everything and got the new disc on:



Then all assembled back together with the pads in:



Did the same the other side, the finished result:







Really pleased, it's amazing the difference it makes having nice clean shiny brakes behind the wheels, has transformed the back of the car when you look at it from the side! I've still got old calipers and discs on the front which lets the car down a bit, but hopefully I'll be going Brembo four pots on the front soon so they'll be even better. That's why I decided to go for black caliper paint and not red.

I put two coats of engine enamel on, so inbetween spraying rather than sit there with my thumb up my arse I decided to have a look at the exhaust. If you look at the pics in the first post the backbox sticks out a good four inches, and it really annoyed me so while the car was jacked up I decided I'd do something about it while waiting for the paint to dry.

I got underneath with the angle grinder and cut down the centre section by about two inches. This meant the backbox could slide in a bit more, with the clamp done back up and on all its hangers nice and straight it looks a lot better:





You can still see the last couple of letters of the Magnex badge:



Much tidier and less in your face now, love it.

Few pictures of what I spent the rest of the day doing, balancing carbs on my bike:







And my other car, a 1991 Defender 90 just back from a weekends off roading. A pheasant knocked the spotlight out!



So next plans are, unless some Brembos come up cheap in the meantime, to sort out the floppy gearstick. I've been to Citroen and got prices on a new control arm and the main selector arm underneath, so those coupled with some Kam gear rods and a GMC/Compbrake quickshift should tighten it up nicely. I'll post some pictures up when I get all the bits together and get round to fitting them. :)

Love the MK1 VTR, looks a lot harder than the MK2.

You've got a similar line up to my mate, he has a W reg defender, a 106 GTI track car and a 640cc KTM bike!

Couldn't afford a W reg Defender they're big money!

Have just bought some 306 GTI calipers, discs and pads as a temporary upgrade for the front brakes, they'll do until some Brembo four pots come up cheap! Also received my Raceland induction kit in the post today so will get some photos of that fitted :)

306 GTI 6 calipers:



MTEC discs and pads:



Quick question, does anyone know if I need the bigger master cylinder for these front brakes? A few threads I've found have said they're fine on the standard setup and a few have said they're not? Same for brake hoses, a few have said they used standard hoses fine and others have had trouble?

Received my Raceland induction kit a few days ago, but I had to re do some brackets and stuff today so got some fitting pictures. To start off with, the engine bay before I started:



The box of goodies that arrived in the post:



Getting the standard airbox and piping out of the way:



So had a few trial fitments to see where I wanted everything to sit, first time I tried fitting it it sat a bit high in the engine bay and not being bracketed down has rubbed a tiny bit on the bonnet :(

The K&N filter fits inside the airbox nice and snug:





So then I bolted up the casing all nice and tight with new stainless nuts and bolts courtesy of Screwfix!



And onto the fitting, the kit came with one dodgy bent metal bracket but it wasn't dodgy enough on its own, so I decided I needed two! A couple of shelf brackets did fine:



And when fitted held the airbox nice and tight without rubbing on anything. Due to it touching the bonnet and marking the top before I decided to mount it a little bit lower and spaced out slightly from the slam panel, I can always adjust it later if I need to though.



All on:



Which just left the power steering reservoir left to sort, so I decided to modify the bracket and bolt it to the new Raceland mount I'd made.



None of it looks overly pretty but it's all rock solid, well put together and should hopefully do the job. I'm not going for looks really I just want something I can put round a track reliably, looking forward to getting finished.

Can't say I've noticed a massive increase in performance having fitted it, the throttle response seems a bit sharper but that could just be the massive amount of extra noise fooling me :hug: Either way it seems to be doing the job so I'm quite pleased :)

Next up will be fitting the GTI 6 brakes on the front when they arrive.

Bit of a bump, I'm considering replacing the polished alloy 90 degree bend with a silicone hose bend so I can move the airbox in a bit. That means I'll be able to sit it in between the battery and the cam cover, and perhaps tuck it in between the slam panel and the top of the rad to improve airflow and keep the top away from the bonnet. Has anyone got any pictures of their racelands fitted in this way to give me some ideas?

yooo

good progress mate, thank god you sorted that exhaust out :) magnex sound nice
not sure wether i like them alloys though. looks like your doing things with detail though will be rapid if you cam it too :) mk1 ftw, just wait till i get a vts woop

Yeah definitely looks a lot better now, done a few other bits today, this arrived in the post:



And T cutted the rear badges as they were starting to annoy me:





Few other pictures:









Going to get some proper cleaning stuff to really give it a good wash and polish soon.

Just got round to fitting my new 306 GTI front brakes and I've encountered a problem. All was going fine until I attempted to fit the new caliper carrier onto the Saxo strut. When trying to fit the carrier it bottoms out on the brake disc, as if the disc is too big for the carrier. Bit tricky to get photos of but I've tried my best, it looks as though it needs to move in a good centimetre for the mounting holes to align up, so is obviously designed for a smaller disc. I've measured the disc and it's definitely 283mm across. I already knew they'd require a bit of grinding to fit but I'd need to take half an inch out of these to get them to fit, and the carriers are way offset as well so they look like they'd rub on the outside of the disc anyway.







These are with the carrier held in the same position as the others, with the disc all the way in as far as it'll go, still nowhere near the bolt holes lining up.





Bit hard to read any numbers off the caliper, they're stamped Lucas, 57 and the part number which I can't quite read, if anyone else can identify it feel free.



The link to the auction is here http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/250882963082 where he does state they're an upgrade for 205s and 106s and will bolt straight on. The only thing I can think of is if these are GTI brakes, is that maybe they're from a PH1 GTI and need a smaller disc? I did ask and he said they were from a 1997 car so I took that to mean a PH2 as the PH1 GTIs were few and far between.

Might have to just go straight for some Brembos if nobody has any ideas, please help me out! Thanks a lot!

Few cheeky pictures of my updated engine bay, the induction pipe that came with my 2nd hand Raceland wasn't long enough to get it sitting where I wanted it, so a few bits from Ebay have got it sitting much better. A modified slam panel for a bit more airflow and it's a definite improvement.







Some pictures of how I've done the brackets, slam panel has been drilled and I've bolted them into it. Power steering reservoir bracket was knocked up quickly it's not the tidiest but it works!





And some pictures of what I've done to the slam panel, you can't really see it and I was in a rush so it's not the tidiest job, but it works and I'm sure I can notice a difference. You couldn't hear any noise before with the panel blocking the airbox but now at idle if you crouch down you can hear air whistling through the grille, and in the bottom picture you can see the silver front of the K&N through the grille so there's nothing blocking the airflow to it at all.





Still think I want to get a twin cone air filter for a bit more air flow, but having trouble finding one the right size, they all seem to be 150mm wide and I think it needs to be 120/130mm max to fit in the Raceland housing. I know you can get a Green filter that fits but I haven't been able to find anywhere that sells them on their own, any ideas?

Can see in the engine bay pictures the Xsara VTS master cylinder I fitted, had to swap the reservoirs over as the Xsara reservoir rubbed on the bonnet when it was shut.

Bought some Kei Racing hubcentric spacers from UkTom, decided I wanted to go for proper bolt on spacers for track use instead of just using extended bolts, plus these are 25mm not 20mm so the wheels fill the arches a little bit better.

Jacked the car up and got the wheel off:





Spacer bolted on with a dab of loctite on the bolts:



And the wheel back on:



Also changed the oil and oil filter, wanted to fit new plugs but pay didn't quite stretch far enough, will have to wait until next week. The finished result of today's work (after a bit of a clean)











While underneath I found a few bits that are starting to show surface rust, so sprayed the lot with super cheap poundland paint until I can get round to rubbing it down and Hammeriting it properly. Also had a good look at my gear linkage which I'm going to replace soon, although all the linkage needs replacing there's play in the selector arm on the box too. Have posted another thread asking if there's any way to change the roll pin on the car and take out the play, anyone done it themselves? Any other suggestions or ideas would be cool too!

car looks awesome mate! definately looks ten times better ;) i shall leave you itrader when im at a computer mate, on my phone atm :n: glad youre happy with your purchase though!! :D

Lookin gd, proper lookin lil track weapon!! U thinkin at engine mods at any stange, mani, cams, bodies etc!??

Jon

Plans I'd like to do in the future include:

Change the K&N for a green twin cone filter
Upper strut brace, too low for a lower one at the mo
PH3/708 cams and a remap, will have to wait for the £££ though
421 mani will definitely be happening soon
Change the gearbox arm roll pin, fit my GMC quickshift and all new linkages
Few cosmetic touches, I'd like smoked jewels on the back and I want to get a decent soundsystem for off-track!
When the current Toyo T1rs wear out I'm going to sell these wheels and get some TD Pro Race 3s in black, I like these TD wheels but prefer the 3s, spoke design is better IMO.



And sort the suspension out properly, Gmax stuff is okay for now but I'd like to raise the back to about 40mm with an Apex kit, or maybe go Bilsteins and poly bushes. Might look into 23mm torsion bar we'll see how I get on and what I want to change.

Any ideas or suggestions for things I should do would be appreciated!

like this a lot mate.

RE: twin cone green filter ---> http://www.kamracing.co.uk/citroen/c...roen-saxo.html

I'm awesome I know ;)

Legend mate, hadn't realised how expensive they were though! Gonna be over fifty quid including delivery, wonder if it's worth it for the extra 3 bhp. Is there any companies that make the same thing cheaper? I'm not fussed if it's a genuine Green one or a knock off as long as it fits in the airbox!

Uprated gear linkages and a Raceland stainless 4-2-1 manifold ordered! Going to order the gearbox roll pin, selector and control arm from Citroen tomorrow, and I've already got a GMC quickshift waiting to go on so when I've got all the bits together I'll put up some pictures of it all going on and maybe do a how to guide! Then I think I'd like to get some smoked jewel lights for the rear and an upper strut brace and the car's done for now.

Until I find the money to cam it anyway.

:)

loving the pro 2's but as u say think the simple design of the 3's will suit the car betta!!

jon

Yeah, easier to clean too! :P Just can't decide if I should sell my current wheels while the Toyo tyres have still got some tread on, or just wait till they've worn out to put them on Ebay, not sure which way will save me the most money!

Ul prob get more money wit tyres that are alrite as ppl can bolt them straight on!! But then u wanna make sure u get that Lil bit extra for them and dnt let um go to cheap!! Or make the most of the tyres on there now knowin u prob take a bit of a hit when sellin wheels only!! U got any other wheels to put in if u move the pro 2's on now!?

Jon

Nope that's the thing and with the Brembos I can't just get cheap VTR wheels they've gotta be 15s. I can't afford to get some Pro Race 3s and fit decent tyres on them right now, otherwise I'd do that first and sell mine.

Been to the Peugeot dealership today and was lucky, they had the selector arm, control return arm and the gearbox roll pin all in stock so I've got the lot! Have today and tomorrow off to fit it all so going to get some pictures and hopefully my gearchange will be like new! Still waiting on my uprated gear linkages but they can be put on afterwards easily enough!

Also have a Sparco upper strut brace on the way, so when I get all my parts and fit them we're looking good to go :) Credit card isn't looking the healthiest though :(

very nice car mate silver FTW haha :y:

These are the bits I fitted today, my GMC quickshift and Citroen parts. Still waiting for the uprated gear rods but they can be fitted after easy enough so won’t cover them in here.



But you may not need all the bits I did, the only way to tell is by getting underneath and giving everything a good wiggle to see where the play is. If you’re unlucky like me and everything is shagged then you’ll need the lot!

So to start off with, I jacked the car up to a decent height and dropped it on sturdy axle stands under each wishbone. You don’t have to do this straight away as there’s a bit to do inside the car first but it’s up to you, I like to get it out of the way at the start. You want it to be this high really so there’s room to lie under it. Make sure the car’s solid and won’t drop on you, I always chock the rear wheels and give it a rock to check.



So inside the car:



The gaiter around the gear stick can be unclipped from the centre console and lifted up, you can remove your knob at this point if you like but I left mine on as my gaiter had a pop button on it so I could pull it over the top. There’s a single T25 torx screw holding the console down, when this is unscrewed you can lift it up and pop the window switches out:



With the drivers seat all the way back and the handbrake down, the centre console just slides backwards to free it from under the dash, and can be pulled out between the handbrake and the seat.



The four 10mm nuts holding the lever housing down can be unscrewed, then the housing can be rotated enough to get at the pivot on the selector bar underneath:



A 10mm and a 13mm spanner will undo this, don’t drop the bolt underneath the car as it’s specially fitted to the pivot bush, it’s not a normal M8 bolt. Once that’s disconnected the lever will lift out.



If you’re replacing this for a quickshift, you’ll need to unclip the plastic locking collar.With this done the lever can be pulled out of the black plastic housing, don’t throw away the old housing though you’ll need it later. You’ll notice the white nylon ball on the gearstick, this will need removing to fit the shaft in the quickshift if you’re fitting one. I used an angle grinder as it was the closest thing I had to hand, but a hacksaw will work just as well. A cut down each side of the ball and you’ll be able to split it with a screwdriver and pop it off.



At this point there’s not much else to do in the car, I stuck the quickshift together quickly just because I was impatient to see what it felt like, but the final adjustments will have to be made once everything else has been done.

So underneath the car first thing I did was remove the exhaust heatshield. If you’re fussed about keeping this it’s probably worth squirting the fixings with WD40 or similar a little while before attempting to remove it, but every single stud snapped off on mine so I decided to bin the front section. I hope my Magnex system and decat won’t create as much heat as a standard system and cat so we’ll see. With the heatshield off you can see the base of the lever where it attatches to the selector arm. Mine was refitted from inside the car as I was playing with the quickshift but yours will already be disconnected here.



So once disconnected at the back, the only thing holding the front of the bar on is the gear rods. These can be popped off their sockets using an open ended spanner:



And the bar can then be slid off the nylon ball on the control arm:



And pulled out forwards underneath the engine:



The control arm is held on with two 13mm nuts, one in each corner. There is a bracing strut to the top wishbone plate that needs to be moved first, the top bolt can be removed then if the bottom 16mm nut is slackened it can be pivoted enough to allow the control arm to be unbolted and removed:





Then there’s enough space to manoeuvre it out:



The old vs the new, the new nylon ball fits into the new bush nice and snug with no movement whereas the old ones had half an inch of play!



Before putting them back on, I decided to change the roll pin in the arm on the gearbox next while I had extra room. If you’re lucky and your arm has no play in it you won’t need to do this, but it wears on 99% of Saxos so chances are yours will be gone too!

The roll pin is a tapered pin that secures the control arm to the gearbox. It fixes to a spindle that goes into the gearbox and then conducts some kind of voodoo magic that makes your gears work. (or so the Haynes manual says) and quite often can wear and lead to play in your gearstick. It is an interference fit which means it must be knocked in and out with a hammer and punch, simple enough as it only needs a short sharp shock to slide it out but as it’s down the back of the gearbox it’s a bit more tricky.

Probably a hundred and one ways to do it but I used a 5mm allen key bit on a long extension to begin removing it:



Through the gap in the passenger side wing underneath the track rod you can just about get a straight enough line to line up with the pin:



Make sure it’s properly lined up before you give it a twat and you should get this, the old pin is ¾ of the way out in this picture:



Once it’s completely out the arm can be slid off completely, here with the old and new pins:



It was at this point I discovered a problem. My roll pin didn’t actually look that bad, I was expecting it to have a big groove in the middle where it had worn and allowed the arm to move, but it was actually alright. I checked again and it turned out the spindle the arm sits on was moving in and out, not the arm itself. This is a bit of a bugger as it means the main cause of the play is in the gearbox itself, not something I fancy trying to fix because of the voodoo magic I mentioned earlier.

As I didn’t want to try taking the box apart and fixing all the clockwork inside just to get rid of a little bit of play in the gearstick I had another idea. If I could make sure the spindle didn’t have room to slide in it would take out the play almost completely and ‘fix’ the problem.

A bit of a bodge may be, but I drilled out a thick M12 repair washer to the diameter of the spindle. If you need to do this it would be worth using a good quality washer to avoid it wearing down quickly, and you’ll need a HSS step or cone drill to do it like mine:



The new spacer on the arm:





The spacer slid over the spindle perfectly and it was the right size to sit in the recess the arm was sliding into to stop it moving:



Then the arm on, the spacer was just the right thickness, you don’t want a washer too thick as you won’t get the holes to line up, and if you need to force the roll pin in the arm will lock and won’t rotate smoothly.



The new roll pin inserted into the hole:



And now I needed to do the same trick, a longer extension from the other side with a socket on was enough to knock the new pin into the arm:





And it’s in! There’s a tiny bit of in and out movement but that’s only because I wanted to leave a bit of room so it could turn, it’s miles better than the good few mm it could move beforehand.



So the worst of my problems fixed, a simple solution and a bit fiddly to do but it does the job fine.

So with the fiddly bit over and done with all that’s left is to refit the new bits! As I’m waiting for my uprated linkages I’ve refitted the old ones for now, but the worst of the play was in the gearbox arm, the selector rod and the ball on the control return so with those all sorted there’s a massive difference. Not even sure I needed the uprated rods, but there is a tiny bit of play still in each one so I’ll still put them on when they get here just for the finishing touch.

So the control return arm and selector rod are fitted back together, all moving parts, cups and sockets are coated in grease just to make everything feel smooth:



Not forgetting to refit and tighten the diagonal brace to the wishbone mount:



The old gear rods all popped on by hand with a bit of grease, though I’ll fit my uprated ones as soon as they arrive. With everything reassembled and working fine the car can be dropped down and the inside put back together:



The quickshift adjustment is by the two locking collars on the lever. The lever can be set at any height in the housing to adjust the throw, I played around with mine to get it how I wanted it, then when I was happy a drop of loctite on each of the grub screws and a final tightening up made it nice and solid.

I cut the back off the old lever housing to act as the bracket for the centre console, with the housing and console re drilled it can be fitted back as it was before:





Then window switches, gaitor and knob back on with loctite again and that’s it!



The difference between the new and old gearchange is night and day, a massive improvement and definitely worth doing if you’re planning on track days or fast driving. I’ve never driven a Satchshift fitted car but with how this feels now I’m not sure I can see the point!

Bad news, thought I'd got one of the last Raceland VTS manifolds about since they went under, but had a phone call today and they're out of stock at Pug1off which means I haven't got one on the way after all :(

Means I'm on the lookout for a stainless 421 mani for £150 or less, guess I'll have to go 2nd hand and keep an eye on ebay!

Isnt there a janspeed one goin in the forsale section!?

Jon

Yep but I don't think Janspeed ones are stainless and it's a stainless one I'm really after! If he's still got it when I get paid I might make him a cheap offer cos it's not what I really want!

Few more pictures after a quick clean:







Brembos again:



Have fitted a set of smoked rear jewels, with the back dewipered and tcutted badges the rear of the car looks a lot better IMO:





And the engine bay, Sparco strut brace fitted, just waiting on my stainless Raceland manifold to arrive and it'll be finished off for now: