Magpies Rides: Twingo RS 133 - OEM+ begins

[MagpieRacer]

Couple hundred miles covered in the Twingo and it's like falling in love with a loved one all over again. I have to say, of the 3 RS' I have owned, this one drives the best by far. The red one was fine, just high mileage, didn't have the cup pack and felt a bit worn, the blue one was definitely what I would classify as a project, had a constant engine tick, rough around the edges visually and had non stock springs (H&R springs which were 25mm lower than standard) which made it ride pretty harshly and polybushed engine mounts, which whilst a good upgrade over stock, do introduce vibrations.

This one though, drives so smooth, the idle is absolutely perfect, the gearbox is smooth, especially the 1st to 2nd change which can be crunchy in these and riding on the cup setup with the standard cup springs rather than H&R lowering springs, not only rides better but I think actually handles fractionally better as well. The KTec exhaust is fruity but not annoying, it doesn't drone when cruising but roars when you open up.

I think if I could combine that with a less restrictive air-box there are definitely a few extra horses that can be released. Even a 172 phase 1 air-box jammed in can find around 5hp, which doesn't sound like a lot but when you only have 131 to start with. The Sprogley Motorsports closed induction kit which includes a cold air feed and is designed specifically for the Twingo RS, allegedly offers a dyno proven 11.4bhp gain (about a 9% increase) vs the standard setup, and that doesn't factor in the exhaust, although the gains there would have been marginal (3-5bhp at most). The Sprogley kit costs a cool £300 however, so not an immediate purchase by any means. But being able to take power up to around the 143-145bhp range and torque from the 118lb-ft to around 132lb-ft.

But that's all long term, in the short term my priorities are the cup spoiler, which needs to be sprayed, fixings for the mats inside need to be replaced, headlights need a buff and there's a strange buzzing noise coming from somewhere around the wheels that increases with speed, could just be the spacers vibrating as they don't seem to be very good and 10mm spacers generally aren't hub centric which, unless they are put on to machine precision, means they can introduce enough vibration to buzz, or it's a gearbox mount or a wheel bearing, both of which are relatively cheap fixes (£25 parts) and should be easy enough to sort out.

Hopefully I will be able to take it to modified live at Snetterton in August.

Edit: it's wheel bearing. Renault tech father in law came over to have a look and after literally 15 seconds of driving it was diagnosed. He'll take it in next week to sort, parts are cheap it's just a bit of a faff to do apparently.
First minor dent into the Sprogley induction kit fund.

 

[MagpieRacer]

Cup spoiler sprayed and fitted. Much prefer this to the GT spoiler that most came with. Seems relatively few people actually optioned the cup spoiler on the standard 133s, with or without the cup pack.

 

[Korvregn]

I must admit I slept on this ride, until I saw one for the first time this easter.

Same color as yours and I must say that blue looks extremely good in person!

Really cool car, congratulations!

 

[MagpieRacer]

I must admit I slept on this ride, until I saw one for the first time this easter.View attachment 1545796View attachment 1545797
Same color as yours and I must say that blue looks extremely good in person!

Really cool car, congratulations!

The Gordinis are super cool, only 200 were made for the UK market, unsure about the rest of Europe but they were numbered in the UK as well, makes me wonder who has number 133!

Interestingly, although the colours look the same on first glance, the Gordini you have pictured is actually a different shade, called Malta Blue. Vs the non Gordini blue like mine which is the Extreme Blue. Incredibly subtle differences though.

 

[MagpieRacer]

Found some Halfords black Flexi/vinyl paint, or their version of Plasti Dip effectively, in my garage from the last time I had a Twingo RS. One small thing I think makes a big difference to how the front end looks is spraying the section the goes across the top of the grill, behind the number plate, black. Kind of gives it that Evo X type of look which I think is much better looking than when it is body coloured.

They actually ended up doing it from factory for the Silverstone GP edition.

I do like how the gloss black looks on the Silverstone GP versions and the glacier white standard models, it got me thinking about the logistics of going for gloss black on the trims, kind of like an OEM+ type look. I'm hoping I can locate part numbers for the Silverstone GP/glacier white parts and simply buy OEM gloss black fog surrounds and mirror caps. My cup spoiler was just a cheap anthracite I had lying around to switching that to black isn't the end of the world as long as I can achieve a good high gloss finish. Then it will just be the rear "diffuser" which is aftermarket, it is black but not gloss and I think it would look a bit odd if it stayed matte. I'm hoping I could slightly cheat, use extensive cleaning and detailing follow by a heat gun to bring the black back to life and then use a gloss top coat lacquer to bring a shine without having to respray it.

I did an AI mock up, went with gold wheels just to see how they would look, as an Impreza fanboy there's an itch that needs scratching but that's for another year. The gloss black gives it a really nice premium look. Also mocked a front splitter, a friend of mine has one to give me, just a universal one but I like how they look so he's going to fir that for me in the summer holidays.

 

[homeforsummer]

Nice buy on the Twingo, great little things. Think they're often overlooked in favour of the sporty Clios, but there's a lot to be said for something even smaller, and the Twingo's interior's a lot cooler than the Clio too I think.

 

[MagpieRacer]

Nice buy on the Twingo, great little things. Think they're often overlooked in favour of the sporty Clios, but there's a lot to be said for something even smaller, and the Twingo's interior's a lot cooler than the Clio too I think.

Absolutely, the Clio's got a lot of coverage in comparison, the Twingos really aren't that much slower all said and done either.

Not that I'd say no to a Clio 200 in the future, though I think the later 200T Clio 4 based RS would be a better daily than the NA 3rd generation.

 

[MagpieRacer]

So, the journey to an OEM+ type look begins. Inspired by my AI mock-up above, I have done some research around the various options on the Twingo 133, specifically things like the fog light surrounds and the various colour combinations that could be specified. Interestingly, they appeared to have been available in a surprising range of colours, the predominant ones you see are the Anthracite grey ones, like my car and the previous 2 RS' I have owned had. The exceptions being the Glacer White cars which have the gloss black, as well as the Silverstone GP edition, and the Gordini which had white ones. The part list shows them as being available additionally in red, silver and blue. I have never seen a Twingo with those colour surrounds from factory. It may sound like a very minnor thing but the fog light surrounds on the Twingo 133s are such a prominent feature on the front end of the car, they accentuate the extra width the RS133 has over the standard ones, they're unique to the RS133 and changing the colour of them can dramatically change how the car looks. I'm only more surprised that more people didn't opt for gloss black from factory.

Either way, as I was going to buy a pair to replace the one broken one (the only visual defect on the car) I decided to chance my arm and messaged my father-in-law who as you all know by now, works for Renault, with the part number and a hopeful query of there being any of the gloss black ones available to buy from Renault. Shockingly enough, not only are there still sets of fog light surrounds available to buy new from Renault, but they had them in gloss black as well, or at least, 1 set in the entire world (probably an exaggeration but it does show stock from across Europe, so at least the final set available new in Europe). He put the order in for me immediately to secure them and as it's my birthday next week, he's covered the cost, bonus. Only £50 inc VAT which is actually very reasonable when people pay well over that second hand for them, not knowing that, at least for the anthracite ones now, you can still buy them from Renault for half what people are charging.

So that's job number 2 for this weekend along with the wheel bearing, I have no doubt he will fit the new fog light surrounds for me when he does the bearing. I will then order some full-dip sprays, my go to for changing colour on body parts and wheels, and will do the mirror caps, Renault badges and re-do the spoiler in gloss black to tie the whole look together. They do a nice deep satin black which can then be paired with the super-gloss spray they have to really get it to an OEM shine. I haven't decided if I will try and tackle the faux diffuser in the same way, there's lots of different angles and folds to navigate and I am far from an expert. So it may be that I will simply get some good black trim detailing stuff and go to town on it to try and bring the black out more and give it a satin sheen, the rear wheels are right on the corners so it gets dusty and dirty immediately anyway so the effort to go full gloss may just not be worth it in the long run, but we will see.

A friend of mine has also offered me a universal splitter that he had orignally bought for his Hyundai IX35 but he didn't like how it looked, the IX35 has quite rounded edges and the skirt kit he bought followed that, so the angular splitter didn't quite look right. I did a mock-up above which included a basic splitter and I like how it looks, another fairly common modification for RS owners just to give the front end a more finished look as the recess under the grill makes it look as thought there should have been something there. But, before we fix it on, we will offer it up to the car and see how it looks first and some universal ones just don't quite match the lines of the car its going onto. It is adjustable though as it comes in parts, so if we can move it around a bit to get it to go with the flow of the front lip then it will go on.

If done well, they can look really smart, but if they aren't the right fit or style then the can look a bit daft. This French registered RS gives a good impression of what a well fitted splitter could look like.

Really going for it this week, modified live is coming up at Snetterton in August and it would be lovely to have this in a plce where it can be on show.