My favourite parts

contributed by Ian Simpson

that I've used on my car as changes to the original.

I though it would be a good thing to have a list of what people feel were their best buys for performance improvement as a guide to help people in best selection for their purchases.


Transmission
Long arm conversion for clutch release arm. Very good, I like it a lot. I would say it's necessary for using a very heavy sprung clutch cover plate. Makes it easier to feed in the heavy clutch for controlling wheelspin in fast starts.

Flywheel lightened and with slotted outer edge to 3.7kg. Allows the engine to spin up a lot faster when stationary, so at traffic light and junctions when the times comes to get some revs on, particularly if not quite ready, they are straight there and I can start letting the clutch up sooner, making it quicker and easier to get going. Also helps a lot to double a lower a gear in. May mean faster acceleration too. The slots take the mass off where it make the most difference, furthest from the centre.


Exhausts
Mongoose Exhaust, a great improvement in flow making car accelerate faster and great sound, but not too loud in the car. At 15PSI felt like the same power as the older type K-tec sidey, which is loud in the car but a little quieter than the newer K-tec one. Volume is very affected by turbo exhaust housing size and type (VNT's are quieter at idle but loud otherwise) and boost pressure. 15PSI = quiet, 22psi = not quiet!


Seats
Clio Williams seat. Much more comfortable and with much better side support and adjustable lumbar. I used to bounce out of the GTT seat in bumpy corners. No longer. Doesn't fit direct, needs a GTT subframe fitted on.


Running gear
180lb per inch springs. Much better at holding the car on tight back doubles and roundabouts than the standard ones. I had 250lb springs but they didn't gel with the Spax. Car bounced at the front off bumps. But the springs were even better than the 180lbs ones by a similar order of magnitude. Need the right front shocks though with softer bump setting and harder rebound setting. The Konis seem to work OK with these springs.

Strut brace. Even a cheap one helped to stabilise my car under hard cornering into tight 90° corners. Instead of skipping the car just lent over, sat and went around. Even under much lighter bends over bumps the steering and wheels and car felt more together.

Engine
Hybrid turbo and increased boost. Obviously a good mod. But which turbo. I had a T2 with a bigger T25 comp wheel and housing bored to take it. Was a good improvement at full 15psi(manifold). Less so off or at very low boost. But no downside. Did spin up a bit better / make boost a bit sooner than the original T2 on same PSI and car accelerated better at full throttle / boost / revs.

A few random parts numbers:

Running gear
Strut Top Mount Bolts - 7703 002 058
Lower Shock Absorber Mounting Bolts - 7705 190 511
Lower Shock Absorber Mounting Nuts - 7703 034 115
Wishbone Mounting Bolts (Not Ball joint ones. The longer type that will also do for the wishbone rear axis) - 7700 763 538
Wishbone Mounting Nuts - 7703 034 115
DriveShaft Nut - 7703 034 068

Interior
Renault 5 GT Turbo Gear Knob - 7700 775 559 £18.61 inc. VAT

Engine
Fuel pump - Bosch part number 0580464070 (as found on all phase one R5GTT and sold by 'tuners' as the uprated pump )

Ian S RTOC Profile