205 Gti Fast Road/Track Car

[205jsy]

Bacically im looking to improve my 205 and eventually track it. As it stands now its a 88' 1.9 in white with around 70k miles. Its completley standard apart from a sportex exhaust system. Im looking for a bit more power (200 bhp if possible) so im guessing ill need to change the engine (mi16, gti-6). Im also looking at upgrading the suspension and brakes. A roll cage would be nice too. As for tyres ive already got a set of r888s so thats not a problem for now. What sort of price would i be looking at for the lot? Also what brakes/suspension do you reccomend?

[106 gti]

email sent ........!!!!!lol

[Alexbturbo]

Have a read through the threads & project section on the 205gtidrivers forum as that will have all the info you need

[number2301]

For suspension for a road/track car I'd go for Bilstein Group N dampers and Eibach Pro springs at £600. In fact I did. Top that off with group N suspension mounts on the front and group A on the rear. Then you want either a bigger rear anti-roll bar or uprated rear torsion bars.

As for brakes, good condition standard calipers, braided hoses, Mintex 1144 pads and good plain discs.

That is the spec I'm working towards. Oh I suppose I'd also add strut braces onto that, they're cheap enough to give them a go.

[screwloose]

wouldnt worry about strut brases. Waste of time on a 205 IMO. I agree with everything else already said.

[number2301]

screwloose said:

wouldnt worry about strut brases. Waste of time on a 205 IMO. I agree with everything else already said.

I've no experience but I have heard that the lower strut brace is useless due to the 205 having a subframe, but that the upper one does make a difference due to the amount of flex in the shell.

[screwloose]

I reckon its the flex in the shell that gives the 205 part of its charm. It helps characterise the handling in some way

[HereBeMonsters]

screwloose said:

wouldnt worry about strut brases. Waste of time on a 205 IMO. I agree with everything else already said.

Transformed front end grip on mine. It used to judder about, shifting on the tread, now it just grips, holds and goes. Top and bottom strut braces.

As for the other bits, I went with the Bilstein streetline (or is it sportline?) dampers, and eibach springs. Cost me under £200 for that lot. 306 GTI rear dampers on a rebuilt rear beam.
Brakes - I have tried all number of drilled, grooved and vented discs, and tbh they didn't make the blindest bit of difference. When I was doing a lot of trackdays I ran 1166 pads, but as it's more of a road car now I use 1144s. Don't bother with upgrading the rears as it'll make bugger all difference. Mine is also running a 406 master cylinder.

I'd also recommend quickshift gear linkages to replace the sloppy by now originals.

If you can't decide on engine choice - have a google around, but for my money an original 1.9 alloy block Mi16 is the best bet. Adds very little weight for a lot more power. Get it properly rebuilt with some nice throttle bodies and a baffled sump, and it'd be great. Cheapest option for 200bhp is probably the 2.0 8v Turbo from a 406. Crank up the boost and fuelling, and bob's your uncle. Expensive to do it properly though as you'll need an aftermarket ECU.

I actually went with a rebuilt standard lump in mine. Fast road cam (was cheaper than OEM) and ported and polished head, inlet manifold etc. saw it make 139.8bhp on the rolling road. Not massive amounts, but enough to be fun.

[205jsy]

106 gti said:

email sent ........!!!!!lol

Read the email and looked at the website and registerd. May well head up there for my first trackday.

Firstly im going to strip everything out and concentrate on loosing as much weight as possible. Then i think im going to go for an upper strut brace and suspension. Ive decided against an engine conversion for the time being but it will definatley get done at some point. Ive decided to get some polycarbonate windows (passanger window doesnt work anyway). Does this seem like a good price ( http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/PEUGEOT-205-POLYCARBONATE-PL... ) or is there anywhere else i can get them from cheaper?

[Simes205]

HereBeMonsters said:

screwloose said:

wouldnt worry about strut brases. Waste of time on a 205 IMO. I agree with everything else already said.

Transformed front end grip on mine. It used to judder about, shifting on the tread, now it just grips, holds and goes. Top and bottom strut braces.

As for the other bits, I went with the Bilstein streetline (or is it sportline?) dampers, and eibach springs. Cost me under £200 for that lot. 306 GTI rear dampers on a rebuilt rear beam.
Brakes - I have tried all number of drilled, grooved and vented discs, and tbh they didn't make the blindest bit of difference. When I was doing a lot of trackdays I ran 1166 pads, but as it's more of a road car now I use 1144s. Don't bother with upgrading the rears as it'll make bugger all difference. Mine is also running a 406 master cylinder.

If you've got a Streetline kit please test the rear shocks. Back in 2004 after 2 months of use I found them to be dangerously soft. I could compress them in my hand which is scary.

I also had a strut brace which I removed three years ago and noticed no difference whatsoever.

Edited by Simes205 on Wednesday 2nd December 08:37

[HereBeMonsters]

Simes205 said:

If you've got a Streetline kit please test the rear shocks. Back in 2004 after 2 months of use I found them to be dangerously soft. I could compress them in my hand which is scary.

I also had a strut brace which I removed three years ago and noticed no difference whatsoever.

Yep, I didn't even fit the rear shocks on the advice of 205gtidrivers forum. Sold them to a guy who was doing up a 1.1 for his son as a first car. Got more than half the price of the whole kit for them, and he also relieved me of a set of alloys, some driving lamps and some GTI trim.
It ran the originals until the rear beam died the week before I was off on a Euro road trip last summer, then I got rebuilt beam from Anthony with 306 GTI Bilsteins on which Miles advised were cheaper and 99% as good as the Billy coilovers.

As for the strut brace, perhaps your driving style is different to mine, but on a dry road with warm tyres I used to be able to feel the chassis flex at the front, splaying the wheels out as per this picture:



Studying pictures of it at trackdays before and after, there's definitely more rubber in contact with the road after fitting the strut braces. Turn in feels more direct as well.

[Simes205]

Good move with the Streetlines.
I wrote a famous rant about them on 205gtidrivers back in 2004! Sales slowed down dramitcally after that!
I might stick my old strut brace back on when I get my car back from Miles.... along with my new GTI6 inlet manifold and Emerald ECU!

Edited by Simes205 on Wednesday 2nd December 21:56

[BazT]

Agreed, the streetline rears are terrible!

306 GTi6/ Xsara VTS ones are a cheap & better alternative.

HereBeMonsters said:

Studying pictures of it at trackdays before and after, there's definitely more rubber in contact with the road after fitting the strut braces.

You will have, but the compliance will be lost at the expense of adhesion. When you stiffen the front, which is effectively what you're doing with a strut brace, the forces still have to go somewhere, this will ultimately then go to the tyres, so you think were losing some tyre contact previously? Possibly, only at the rear, there's no real harm in that though.

[HereBeMonsters]

BazT said:

Agreed, the streetline rears are terrible!

306 GTi6/ Xsara VTS ones are a cheap & better alternative.

HereBeMonsters said:

Studying pictures of it at trackdays before and after, there's definitely more rubber in contact with the road after fitting the strut braces.

You will have, but the compliance will be lost at the expense of adhesion. When you stiffen the front, which is effectively what you're doing with a strut brace, the forces still have to go somewhere, this will ultimately then go to the tyres, so you think were losing some tyre contact previously? Possibly, only at the rear, there's no real harm in that though.

Mainly the inside front, as splays out as in the picture above.

I've had a look at a lot of more close up pictures from trackdays (didn't buy them all!) and there is definitely more tyre in contact with the road since the strut braces were fitted. It also corners flatter and turn in feels crisper.

Drove the GTI in to work today as the Diesel was covered in sheet ice, and the difference in cornering is night and day. Would Billies on the front of the diesel be overkill?

[MarkKo]

KW v2 suspension kit,uprated pads,strut brace (i found it made a difference),i havnt tried super sticky track tyres yet.For an occasional trackday car that can still be driven to work these few upgrades are enough for me.
(Very impressed with the KW suspension)