Engine
Guide
Fitting
a dump valve |
To
get more power out of a Renault 5 as with any Turbo
engine, you don't start with air filters chips or
cams. You just wind up the boost, but that leads
to problems so you have to do it the correct way.
GT Tuning offer a Pro-Cockpit adjustable boost control
system that'll whack the boost up to around 16psi,
at which point you'll be nudging 110bhp at the wheels.
The ignition timing system can be a bit dodgy, so
chances are you'll need an adjustable timing sensor
(GT Tuning), plus a re-jetted 'Group A' carb to
keep the motor nice and juicy. The Standard intercooler
blows apart at 15psi of boost, so you'll either
need to get it strapped or buy an alloy one instead.
Pace, Prima Racing and GT Tuning all offer various
alloy intercoolers that are pretty indistructable.
Beyond this the standard Turbo runs out of puff,
so you will have to get a more efficient hybrid
turbo, which'll flow more air and run cooler, GT
Tuning can supply you with a turbo from £397,
while Prima Racing offer a whole range of Hybrids.
Other upgrades for more Power include: Performance
Air Filters (K&N or a JR induction kit or a
JR panel filter). Performance Exhausts(Scorpion,
Magnex, Piper or Mongoose.
Dump Valves: There are alot of people out there
that seem to think that a Dump Valve will make your
car go faster. All they do is release pressure in
the inlet system when you release to throttle. Thus
stopping the turbo from stalling and keep spinning,
so that when you apply the trottle again to turbo
picks up speed quicker. But for any Power gains
this seems not to be the case. |
Suspension
 |
Dropping
the front is the easy bit on a five turbo. Try a
set of jamex springs up front (£140). If you
want to go lower, Terra can sell you a set of -40mm
coils for an extra low ride. Or if you are seriously
loaded, Bilstein, Avo or Spax can sort you out a
coilover front end if you're looking to scrape the
sump on the floor. It's the torsion bar at the back
or the car which is the problem which means a strip
down on the 5's single split spring. On the phase
one cars chances are that this'll be caked in rust,
so it's a job for the professionals unless your
a mechanic youself. To have your car dropped by
30mm would normally cost you around £130 which
would make your 5 look mean, but still gives you
some suspension travel. |
Brakes
 |
The
brakes on a standard Five Turbo are pretty impressive
as standard, with discs all round, even though the
rears don't do much other than look real pretty.
The standard sized 240mm discs work okay - altough
performance discs work slightly better. For a real
big performance gain, the trick is to fir bigger
discs and spacers while keeping the standard calipers. |
Body and Wheels
|
7x15's are the most popular size to fit to the renault
5, running around a 35mm offset and 195/50 x 15
tyres. 16's will go on with some work. You can fit
17's on but alot of work has to be done on the wheel
arches to get these to fit and you'll have to run
205/40/17in tyres. There are also some fives out
there that are running around on 18's but as the
same alot work on the arches to get them to fit.
As for the body, the little renault has had many
new plastic parts thrown at it over the years. If
you want the serious wide arches then there is a
Dimma Kit, Skeete avaliable for the Five and also
there is the Jap styled kit avaliable from I dare
to mention (BB Tuning) and GT Tuning offer some
New style kits. If big arches aint your thing then
theres plenty of other options out there for starters,
there's a Renault 19 grill conversion avaliable
from most RGM stockists normally around £45,
Morette quad headlamp conversion normally around
£250. Or the clear indicators normally around
£30 matched by some clear side idicators £20.
You can also have the rear tailgate smoothed for
around £400 and what about a Subaru Impreza
bonnet vent at the front of the car or a Celica
GT4 bonnet vent. Headlight eyebrows can be bought
relitively cheap for around £20 for the stick
on ones or you can have the mounded into you existing
bonnet which I have to say looks alot better than
the slick on ones but this is obviously the expensive
option at around £200. There are also loads
of different splitters from and rear for the 5 stocked
by many companies out there. |
Interior
|
There's
tons of stuff avaliable for the GT Turbo. You
can go down the usual road of white dials, stainless
steel sill plates or you can junk the standard
seats and fit something seriously tasty, maybe
from Cobra or Recaro. You can fit in a colour
coded or Chrome Roll cage which I don't personally
like cars with roll cages in I think it looks
horrible. For people who want to view their Boost
pressure as accurately as posible the choice modication
is an incar boost gauge seperate from the standard
dashboard unit in the middle of the tachometer
and the same can be done for oil pressure, oil
temperature and water temperature. To make the
turbo last to maximum a Turbo Timer is a good
investment which can leave your car running at
tick over while you get out of the car and lock
up and when the turbo has stopped spinning and
cooled down it then switches off the engine and
cuts the oil feed rather than doing it when the
turbo's still spinning.
If you want serious class, Cobra can retrim your
existing interior in leather for around £1100,
which is a bit expensive but if you've got the
money why not. You can fit a proper boost gauge
to keep an eye on the all-expensive turbo. There
also the gear knobs and Leather gatters and Seat
Belt Pads but really it's upto individual taste
really. Another popular modification is moving
the heater controls positions to where the head
unit fits and then placing head unit where the
heater controls are mind you this is not the easiest
of tasks. Also now days what with the advent of
IN CAR TV's alot of people are hooking up Playstation
2's and DVD players in their 5 Turbo's. |
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