JPE Peugeot 206 GTi Track Car Build: First Day of Work

First Day of Work – 24/09

Having bought the car and driven it 200 miles from Norwich back to Birmingham, I’ve learned a few more things about it. The clutch is absolutely finished (was slipping under full throttle in third gear), and there is a serious leak in the power steering system. Both of these aren’t big issues, I have a spare clutch and power steering system in the workshop, but the scale of the problems necessitates their immediate repair prior to any enthusiastic driving.

The first task on the agenda was a thorough wash and inspection of the car, and then to try and track down exactly where in the system the power steering leak was coming from.

A close look over the car revealed a few more bumps, scrapes, and broken bits than I’d have preferred, but at least I know what needs repairing or replacing, and it’s nothing too difficult or expensive.

• Side mirrors – These are broken and showing remnants of gaffa (duct) tape holding them together
• Bonnet – Nice big dent in the front of it
• Rear hatch handle – Cracked and rattling whilst the car is driving
• Headlights – These have cracked lenses and housings, in my opinion the Morette style lights also look terrible, so some standard ones will be a nice change
• Fog lights – Cracked mounts and broken lenses, these will be removed from the car altogether
• Upper Radiator Mounts – Missing the rubber bushings
• Wheel arch extensions – All a bit beaten up and in need of re-painting
• Induction system – The original airbox came with the car, but had been poorly replaced with a cheap aftermarket pod filter, and most of the intake pipes with feed the airbox had been left in place

Next was to try and get as much access and visibility to the power steering pump and lines to try and spot the source of the leak. I removed the upper front grill, headlights and started on the front bumper, before realizing I had to remove the wheel arch liners to get to the final bumper bolt.

Removing the arch liners is a pain, but yielded significant weight saving, as there was about 5kg of mud caked onto them. With the arch liners off and pressure blasted clean, the intake pipes which feed the airbox could be removed, along with their brackets, dropping further weight off the car.

Having finally removed the front bumper, there was still a bumper support, radiator shroud, radiator and air conditioning compressor blocking visibility, and without the time to remove them, I changed the mirrors over to some smaller aftermarket items and called it a day. Not quite as much progress on Day 1 as I’d hoped, but moving in the right direction.

Next time I’ll be working to remove the front bumper support, air conditioning condenser, and cancelling out the airbags that will be removed from the vehicle.

Thanks for reading, and as always, please like/follow/share the James Performance Engineering facebook page and stay tuned for future updates.