RENAULT MEGANE RS
Can Renault’s freshly poured Megane RS280 top a hot-hatch segment sparkling with talent, or is that just Fanta sea?
When Renault gives a hatch the RS, it means business
EVERYBODY knows that Renault makes the best hot hatches. It’s as reliable an indicator as a Porsche performance car of the year win or a Rover K-series head gasket failure; merely one of those little things that ground the automotive world on a reassuring footing. Sure, other hot-hatch manufacturers are available, and every once in a while one of them will build something class-leading, but these are anomalies; mere blips until normal service resumes.
All of which ignores the fact that the first Megane Renaultsport was a bit of a dog’s dinner. The 165kw Megane 225 (launched overseas in 2004) showed initial promise but needed a fair amount of remedial work before it came good in Cup guise in 2005. Trace the lineage of many Renaultsport hot hatches and you’ll find a similar theme. The Clio III was underwhelming in initial 197 guise, taking three years before the Clio Renaultsport 200 unlocked its potential. Now we have the box-fresh Megane IV in RS280 guise and I’m wondering whether this one’s going to be great straight out of the crate or will be one to return to in a couple of years’ time.
The basics look brilliant. Out goes the old car’s 2.0-litre lump, replaced by a Samsung-built 1.8-litre four-pot that makes more power and torque than before and, unlike the current crop of hot Clios, this one’s got three pedals, although a dual-clutch is available. The suspension is the usual Renault strut and torsion beam pairing at front and rear respectively, but there are a couple of new fitments that are intriguing, to say the least. A four-wheel-steering system and a set of hydraulic suspension bump stops transform the way this car drives.
The steering does the usual trick of angling the front and rear wheels counter to each other at low speed and in concert at higher velocities, but switch the Megane into Race mode and the speed that this transition happens lifts from 60 to 100km/h. This makes the car feel unbelievably agile on turn-in, giving the steering an almost Ferrari-style pointiness.
Renault describes the hydraulic bump stop as a damper within a damper. They sit at the base of the front and rear struts, the vehicle dynamics team in Dieppe concluding that they were a better solution than adaptive dampers. First seen on the front end of the Clio 182 Trophy of 2005, the technology has been refined in Renaultsport’s rally division and gives the Megane a fluidity, even in this particular car, equipped as it is with the 10 percent stiffer optional Cup chassis pack ($1490). That also buys Brembo brakes, 19-inch alloys and a Torsen mechanical differential, so it’s money well spent. It also bumps the $44,990 asking price up to a point midway between the first and second place finishers in our hot hatch megatest from earlier this year (April 2018); the $39,990 Hyundai i30 N and the $51,990 Honda Civic Type R respectively.
Keen to see how the RS280 feels upon first acquaintance, here’s the initial three-discipline report card.
It feels unbelievably agile on turn in; an almost Ferrari-style pointiness