Worst decision ever ? Help me decide, Renault Content

Our neighbor had one of these when I was a kid. I could count the number I've seen since then on one hand. This is extremely cool.

I would take it to the track, then swap wheels and rallycross it the next weekend.

This doesn't seem to be in the running for worst decision here. I see nothing about adding a bunch of questionable, jury rigged mods, possibly involving parts interchange with a dead Fuego Turbo, then trying to press this into service as a daily driver.

Back in the day, I had a nearly new Renault Alliance for a rental car for a week; it was the worst rental car I ever had.  It was slow and uncomfortable, handled terribly, and every day it seemed that one more thing malfunctioned or broke.  The final straw was when I brought it back to the rental agency to turn it in...I pushed the on/off button on the radio, and the button went sproing and flew into the back seat.

Welp being the cheap guy I am I sourced a set of Nissan NX2000 14" wheels about two blocks from me for $80 and they are a direct bolt on nissan seems to have the biggest center bore of the japanese cars (mazda, honda, toyota would need boring to fit). I'll be going  the Federal ss595 route for its first few outings with 185/55/14.

Pulled the front wheels today to do some inspecting and get ready for some parts ordering. Looks like I will need tie rod outers, brake pads and rotors for sure. Left front CV boot is torn on the fence of just re greasing and putting a new boot on or just replacing axles for piece of mind.

Luckily these parts are readily available.

But this leads me to a question in regards to the front rotors. Should I go oem style solid rotor or cross drilled/slotted ebay specials ? As that is basically my only two options available. I can see the benefit of the cross drilled/slotted but it is a light car so thinking oem rotor for more surface area. And the likely hood of the cheap o ebay specials warping ? 

In reply to Jeff Shaffer :

I would stick with OEM solid rotors, those cheap drilled rotors are bad news and usually crack between the holes.

The Alliance GTA models had vented rotors instead of the regular Alliance solid rotors, they are hard to find these days as they are NLA in the US, but a worthwhile upgrade for a track car if you are willing to order from Europe.

The Euro-spec R5 GT Turbo uses the same vented rotors and thinner pads as the US GTA. The parts are readily available in Europe (see here and here, and there are even nice pad compounds available) but you will pay for the shipping.

There is also a workaround to use vented Nissan Sentra rotors if you're feeling creative.

In reply to pointofdeparture :

Thank you for the info. Very helpful. I may go the Nissan route. 

Slow, yes, but also way rad. You need to run it at some historic races, too. 

In reply to David S. Wallens :

Thats the plan to go racing in VARA 2022..2021 will be just getting the car sorted and me use to racing on a road course.

The guy I bought it from really wants to see it run at monterey but that might be a stretch 

In reply to Jeff Shaffer :

You should sign up for the University of VARA coming up in July. 

Look forward to seeing you out there.  

I think in one of the past lemons world videos from the 24hoursoflemons guys they said they would love to have a renault cup alliance in lemons, I imagine they would let you run it if a cage that was up to spec was in it, i doubt they would care it cost more than the budget limit.

Jeff Shaffer said:

In reply to David S. Wallens :

Thats the plan to go racing in VARA 2022..2021 will be just getting the car sorted and me use to racing on a road course.

 

The guy I bought it from really wants to see it run at monterey but that might be a stretch 

I bet that if you contact Renault, someone there could probably wait, no, we have no Renault. 

As I wait for some much needed parts to arrive I have been cleaning decades of rattle can paint jobs off the 14" Nissan wheels I have acquired and they dont look too bad. I seem to remember aircraft stripper working much better in the past. It must be the new and improved low VOC California blend. I swear citristrip left over night works better than this stuff

Also got to take my 5 year old son for a little neighborhood rip today and he loved it. Mama never let him go for rides in the dirt cars. Logical as they dont have passenger seats. He was beyond stoked to finally ride in a race car with dad. Told every one in my family about it when we all got together for dinner tonight and stated " if there were police around we would have gotten a ticket" ..... Keep in mind I dont think we ever even broke 45mph. I just left it a gear low and reved up so he could get the experience 

Pretty sure that Chrysler still has to honour any outstanding recalls on those cars.  There was something about a heater core if I remember correctly.

I was going through some of the boxes of spares that came with it. Previous owner had collected some pretty good renault racing memorabilia. Ill try to post pictures of the posters and sales brochures tonight and some of the original contingency stickers. 

So got my order in for 185/55/14 Federal SS 595's in on friday night/ saturday morning with walmart. I know the smaller ss595's are getting harder to find the 13's (out of stock every where) and 14's (limited stock) . said will arrive thursday the 3rd...no updates at all on the order still processing I figured with the Monday holiday maybe things are delayed. Hop on walmart website tonight and tada Out of Stock....ugh I got a feeling these tires wont be showing up

Im just gonna have to man up and get some real rubber.

Things may be leaning this way

In reply to Jeff Shaffer :

That's really cool.

So the rally idea was crazy..the car is too fragile. I got my rallyx fiat to beat on so Renault is headed back to the road course. Just ordered a lot of parts. New rotors, pads, drums, shoes, axles, wheel bearings, sway bar bushings and ball joints also found the out of stock federal 595's have poped up for sale locally new for $35-$50 in 185/55/14 ( to fit my nissan rims) appear they have late 2017 manufacutre dates. But this hould be about all i need to safely get back on the track.

Had planned to try to make the Sept 19th hill climb time trial at willow but she wont be done in time.

Im also fitting one of my aluminum seats..still needs to drop down and back a bit as well as the steering column will be lowered also will probably add a sparco style quick release to get the wheel in the right spot 

Very cool - please post when you get it back on the track!

NIce score and good luck with that little beast. My 2cents is road racing for it again,

In reply to Jeff Shaffer :

The Nissan wheels do look good--kinda generic and in a good way. 

Amazing these are available on ebay...cross drilled and slotted rotors...in the factory style solid rotor. The vendor actually called me to verify the fitment I ordered them for.

I was going to play with trying some early-mid 90's sentra rotors that are actually vented as I heard they will work same bolt pattern and hub diameter but a hair different offset ? But decided direct replacement should be fine for a light low horsepower car. If anything good lines and good fluid will be the biggest help in the braking department. 

One more thing for any Renault Alliance owners. Moog lists sway bar bushing available for the car in stock. When I ordered them they called me and said they are discontinued and will no longer be available.  Just fyi 

In reply to Jeff Shaffer :

For weird applications, it seems like it is easier to find crossdrilled than generic bits.  My old Quantum had crossdrilled rear rotors because that was all I could find for it.  (It was the same size as GTI rear brakes, but slide-on rotors instead of integrated with the hub)

A friend of mine had one of these. Got it new in 85 I think. It was a great little car for him. He lived in Arlington Ma. (Next door to Cambridge Where MIT and Harvard are) and it was the perfect urban state board. The car had decent pep and was geared well for the motor.  I remember it seemed to have better torque than other cars of similar size at the time.  It was also easy to work on but I don't remember him having any real problems with it.  From what I remember it was a really good reliable little car for him.