My trackday / sprint / hillclimb 306 GTi-6
Discussion
Finally decided to start a thread about my track day / hill climb & sprint car. I’ll try and cover everything I have done with this car and all the things I’ve learnt along the way so far to hopefully help anyone else who plans to compete in hill climbs and sprint. I am pretty new to this sport and modifying cars so any advice is welcome.
Bought the car at the beginning of the year after looking at 172’s, 306 gti-6’s, 106 gti’s, VTS’ etc. A good one came up at a good price but unfortunately was a 500 mile round trip. Got a mate to drive us down and picked it up. Started snowing heavily on the way back through the peak district and this was it the next morning:
Looked through all the service history and seen that it had not had the cambelt done for about 36k miles which is well over the interval recommended by Peugeot. However, these are known for going after as little as 20k. I got it booked in for full cambelt kit including pulleys and water pump. The mechanic had said it just fell off when he took it off, he couldn’t believe I’d managed to drive it so far.
Gti-6 engine bay – my best efforts at engine bay detailing – still considerably better than when I picked it up.
Bought the car at the beginning of the year after looking at 172’s, 306 gti-6’s, 106 gti’s, VTS’ etc. A good one came up at a good price but unfortunately was a 500 mile round trip. Got a mate to drive us down and picked it up. Started snowing heavily on the way back through the peak district and this was it the next morning:
Looked through all the service history and seen that it had not had the cambelt done for about 36k miles which is well over the interval recommended by Peugeot. However, these are known for going after as little as 20k. I got it booked in for full cambelt kit including pulleys and water pump. The mechanic had said it just fell off when he took it off, he couldn’t believe I’d managed to drive it so far.
Gti-6 engine bay – my best efforts at engine bay detailing – still considerably better than when I picked it up.
Whilst it was in I asked him to look over it, needed new disks and pads, new centre section and back box, and rear brake switch sorting. I had plans to upgrade to uprated disks but after reading up it would seem the standard disks are right enough. I was going to go for Ferodo DS2500’s pads for the front but to keep costs down I decided just to go for a standard mintex disk and pad set up for now. If they fade badly on the track I will upgrade to DS2500. I also stuck Goodridge braided lines on and Dot 5.1 fluid in.
Flushed the system and changed all filters and oil.
Also refurbed and painted the wheels (Ford Graphite Grey) at this point. Took ages!
I sourced a new centre section and back box through 306gtiforum and after a trip down to Nuneaton had the exhaust. Gave a good clean up with wire wool and its looking good:
Unfortunatly the last owner had welded the centre section to the CAT! We tried grinding it off and welding the right piece on to allow the centre section to clamp on but it wasn’t having it. Managed to source a CAT off a lad in Teeside, travelled 100 miles in my BM only to find heavy snow up there, it actually got to the point where I couldn’t get up the country lanes so had to turn back and ask him to post the it!
Finally all sorted though and booked in for an open pitlane day at Oulton Park – first trackday for me and luckily the weather was good. Trackday organized by Easytrack, and was a very well run day. Also very good value as it was in March. As it was my first trackday they also threw in a free 30mins of tuition.
Spent the first few hours causing ques and getting overtaken!
Flushed the system and changed all filters and oil.
Also refurbed and painted the wheels (Ford Graphite Grey) at this point. Took ages!
I sourced a new centre section and back box through 306gtiforum and after a trip down to Nuneaton had the exhaust. Gave a good clean up with wire wool and its looking good:
Unfortunatly the last owner had welded the centre section to the CAT! We tried grinding it off and welding the right piece on to allow the centre section to clamp on but it wasn’t having it. Managed to source a CAT off a lad in Teeside, travelled 100 miles in my BM only to find heavy snow up there, it actually got to the point where I couldn’t get up the country lanes so had to turn back and ask him to post the it!
Finally all sorted though and booked in for an open pitlane day at Oulton Park – first trackday for me and luckily the weather was good. Trackday organized by Easytrack, and was a very well run day. Also very good value as it was in March. As it was my first trackday they also threw in a free 30mins of tuition.
Spent the first few hours causing ques and getting overtaken!
But I speeded up as the day progressed. Took the tuition as two 15 min lessons and the stuff he showed me really helped – basically smartening up my line, braking and techniques. No brake fade at all with the standard pads! Maybe that was my driving!
Something that did happen though…
The next time I backed the car out of the garage there was a right clunking coming from the front corner - I thought it was the brakes sticking to the disks. I managed to back it up about 2 meters and the front wheel blew out! The spring had completely snapped and was stuck into the wheel! Got the tyre off and the spring had scored the tyre all round! It was only when I backed up that it dug in a blew the tyre up!
Spring will have snapped under the loads of this much roll! Oh yeah the car had come with hideous clear rear clusters – replaced them soon after this pic was taken!
Managed to turn the spring round so it wasn’t catching, put the wheel on and tow it the garage. Trying to drive the car into the garage the engine just cut out! Was turning into a bit of an epic – how can a punctured tyre stop the engine working?!?!? – anyway the jerking around of trying to drive the car whilst the spring was catching had triggered the fuel cut-off! To start again you need to press the red button behind the battery – good thing to know really if you are sprinting or doing trackdays as a bump could trigger it.
It was quite good this happened as it forced me to tackle the suspension – I decided to go for Spax RSX adjustable coilover suspension. The rear is just dampers. I dropped the front by about 35mm.
The 306 has torsion beam suspension so to drop the rear involved quite a big job. I had read guides on how to do it but it seemed a bit too complicated. I realised I’d made the right decision when my Peugeot indy even refused to do it saying it was too much of a ball ache. Took it to a specialist in Leicester (Mechanical Repairs) who had it done in 2 hours! Car now very stiff! And looks a right bad boy dropped all round! Not too low though
Something that did happen though…
The next time I backed the car out of the garage there was a right clunking coming from the front corner - I thought it was the brakes sticking to the disks. I managed to back it up about 2 meters and the front wheel blew out! The spring had completely snapped and was stuck into the wheel! Got the tyre off and the spring had scored the tyre all round! It was only when I backed up that it dug in a blew the tyre up!
Spring will have snapped under the loads of this much roll! Oh yeah the car had come with hideous clear rear clusters – replaced them soon after this pic was taken!
Managed to turn the spring round so it wasn’t catching, put the wheel on and tow it the garage. Trying to drive the car into the garage the engine just cut out! Was turning into a bit of an epic – how can a punctured tyre stop the engine working?!?!? – anyway the jerking around of trying to drive the car whilst the spring was catching had triggered the fuel cut-off! To start again you need to press the red button behind the battery – good thing to know really if you are sprinting or doing trackdays as a bump could trigger it.
It was quite good this happened as it forced me to tackle the suspension – I decided to go for Spax RSX adjustable coilover suspension. The rear is just dampers. I dropped the front by about 35mm.
The 306 has torsion beam suspension so to drop the rear involved quite a big job. I had read guides on how to do it but it seemed a bit too complicated. I realised I’d made the right decision when my Peugeot indy even refused to do it saying it was too much of a ball ache. Took it to a specialist in Leicester (Mechanical Repairs) who had it done in 2 hours! Car now very stiff! And looks a right bad boy dropped all round! Not too low though
Now getting the car ready for sprints and hillclimbs so I need the best tyres I can get. I will be running in Road Modified which only allows List 1a tyres (not semi-slicks like R888’s etc.) Gone for Marangoni Zeta Lineas on the front and Toyo Proxes T1-R’s on the back. Also made the timing strut out of aluminium and bought all the racewear – overalls, helmet and gloves.
Competed in first sprint event – Three Sisters at Wigan. The class I ran in allows any engine mods (apart from supercharging / turbocharging) but you are not allowed to strip the car out.
You can see that compared to the pic at Oulton there is now very little roll thanks to the lowered coilover suspension and lowered torsion beams.
so....
I need more power! Loads more!
It was a quality day and I am quite happy for now not to be massively competitive as obviously my driving skills will need to get better but it would be good to get some more power. Getting the power down out of a corner is difficult – want to go with solid rear beam mounts to help get the back end out and create a bit of over steer. A diff would probably help but too expensive for now. Also, I was carrying too much speed into the corner, sliding, loosing speed and not pulling out of the corner quick enough – You get that aggressive and wanting to win that its difficult not to go into the corners too quickly!
Also - because you are not allowed to strip out - the older and lighter 205's and renault 5 gt turbos do have a bit of an advantage.
Me next to the class winner that day.
I had a look at the weight of peugeots - i think 205's were around 850kg's, 306's are about 1215kg so no amount of power will make up for that. I was surprised that 206 gti's are only about 1025 (nearly 200 kg lighter!)
So i reckon the long term plan might be to power the engine up and then after a year or so I may go for a stripped out 205 or an evo! I'll concentrate on this for now though.
The good thing was my times steadily got better - finally getting a time about 4 seconds of the leaders of my class which i was more than happy with.
Competed in first sprint event – Three Sisters at Wigan. The class I ran in allows any engine mods (apart from supercharging / turbocharging) but you are not allowed to strip the car out.
You can see that compared to the pic at Oulton there is now very little roll thanks to the lowered coilover suspension and lowered torsion beams.
so....
I need more power! Loads more!
It was a quality day and I am quite happy for now not to be massively competitive as obviously my driving skills will need to get better but it would be good to get some more power. Getting the power down out of a corner is difficult – want to go with solid rear beam mounts to help get the back end out and create a bit of over steer. A diff would probably help but too expensive for now. Also, I was carrying too much speed into the corner, sliding, loosing speed and not pulling out of the corner quick enough – You get that aggressive and wanting to win that its difficult not to go into the corners too quickly!
Also - because you are not allowed to strip out - the older and lighter 205's and renault 5 gt turbos do have a bit of an advantage.
Me next to the class winner that day.
I had a look at the weight of peugeots - i think 205's were around 850kg's, 306's are about 1215kg so no amount of power will make up for that. I was surprised that 206 gti's are only about 1025 (nearly 200 kg lighter!)
So i reckon the long term plan might be to power the engine up and then after a year or so I may go for a stripped out 205 or an evo! I'll concentrate on this for now though.
The good thing was my times steadily got better - finally getting a time about 4 seconds of the leaders of my class which i was more than happy with.
TheLurker said:
Glad to see you having fun. Could you not strip the car out and run in a different class? Would also make it better on a track day.
I could do yes, but i think that would only put me in another class in which i'd be even less competative. I did want to strip it out purely for the fun of stripping it out, and also for better trackdays, allround faster car etc. but now i think i'll leave it in so i get a better resale value on it in the future. I do at some point want to strip a car out though - probably a 205.shalmaneser said:
what spring rates are you running just out of interest? And i guess you upgraded the rear torsion bars, what are you running?
Car looks nice, if you ever bend it give me a ring and i'll take the engine off your hands!
Im not sure what the rates are - i think spax rsx kits come with a set spring for each model of car. The torsion beam was lowered but i didn't upgrade them - i wanted to but couldnt get hold of the ones i wanted, not sure if it'd actually make too much difference??? I just want some solid rear mounts now.Car looks nice, if you ever bend it give me a ring and i'll take the engine off your hands!
Also want a racing seat as my helmet catches on the roof when im in the car which is a bit annoying! Also want to remove the air bag and fit a proper wheel, it'd be pretty imbarrasing clipping a tyre wall and having all the air bags deployed!!!
Cheers - the car does look great when its had a clean and is out on the track. What would you want to put the engine into???
torqueofthedevil said:
shalmaneser said:
what spring rates are you running just out of interest? And i guess you upgraded the rear torsion bars, what are you running?
Car looks nice, if you ever bend it give me a ring and i'll take the engine off your hands!
Im not sure what the rates are - i think spax rsx kits come with a set spring for each model of car. The torsion beam was lowered but i didn't upgrade them - i wanted to but couldnt get hold of the ones i wanted, not sure if it'd actually make too much difference??? I just want some solid rear mounts now.Car looks nice, if you ever bend it give me a ring and i'll take the engine off your hands!
Also want a racing seat as my helmet catches on the roof when im in the car which is a bit annoying! Also want to remove the air bag and fit a proper wheel, it'd be pretty imbarrasing clipping a tyre wall and having all the air bags deployed!!!
Cheers - the car does look great when its had a clean and is out on the track. What would you want to put the engine into???
I had been running my 205 gti with 240lb springs on the front and standard rear and it definitely understeered. A swap to a 309 rear beam (+1 mm diameter TB and ARB on these) with a drop down to 180lb springs on the front has caused no end of improvement.
Ask on the 306gti6 forum, they're helpful and knowledgeable once you get past the in jokes and banter.
Gassing Station | Readers' Cars | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff