MEGANE RS280
MORE MUSCULAR THAN ANY PREVIOUS MEGANE, WITH AN ANGRIER SOUNDTRACK, ELEVATED ABILITY AND A SPLASH OF GALLIC CHARM, THIS FIRST TASTE OF THE RS280 HINTS AT A NEW HOT HATCH BENCHMARK
French hi-po hatch...back pumped and powered up
IF WE needed any further proof that we’re living in the golden age of the hot-hatch, then this glorious pearlescent-orange Renault is it. Pumped to within an inch of appearing gratuitous, and preened so beautifully in just about every area, the new Renaultsport Megane RS280 has ‘want’, ‘need’ and ‘must have’ written all over it.
Much like its heavily re-engineered predecessor, this is no shoehorning engine experiment, and nor is it merely a simple exercise in modernising the cracking hot-hatch that fans have salivated over for nearly a decade. This is fresh thinking for Renaultsport, despite the fact we’ve seen a five-door hot Megane before.
The French performance outfit had considered continuing with a three-door format but felt the development budget was best spent turning the rather unspectacular, if worthy (in GT form) Megane IV into a hatch that’s hairy chested, standing four-square and proud as if that’s the way it was meant to look. Once you’ve seen how tremendously taut the Megane’s bodywork has been stretched over much-modified underpinnings, you’ll never look at a stock Megane again without feeling like something is amiss.
The core of the matter is textbook hot-hatch: front guards pumped by 60mm, and rears 45mm broader than a stock GT, with the ride height 5mm closer to terra firma. Two suspension tunes will be offered – a core Sport set-up and a (roughly 10 percent firmer) Cup version with bespoke spring, damper and antiroll bar rates, as well as adjustments to the ingenious hydraulic compression stops (“a shock absorber within a shock absorber”, according to Renaultsport). Inspired by rallying, this consists of a secondary piston within the damper unit that aims to dissipate energy without transferring it to the wheel like a traditional bump-stop would. And it works. Brilliantly.
Despite a reduction in engine capacity, the Megane RS280’S new-generation 1.8 turbo (shared with the Alpine A110 sports coupe) smashes out 205kw at 6000rpm and a chubby 390Nm from 2400-4800rpm. Yet this engine will comfortably pull from just 900 revs without complaint, then nail the 7000rpm cutout without choking. Tied to an eager six-speed manual with perfect pedal placement or a heavily re-engineered six-speed EDC dual-clutch (for the first time in a hot Megane), it forms a drivetrain that effortlessly complements the new Megane RS’S supreme agility.