Renault Mégane RS 280 Sport EDC
Will trading some hardcore ability for all-round versatility attract a broader audience of buyers to the RS?
RENAULT Sport is known to infuse humble production cars with race-bred technology, instantly transforming them into cult cars. Case in point: the previous-generation Mégane RS. Once the chips were down, the RS – especially later, more honed versions such as the record-setting 275 Trophy-r – was able to respond like few cars in the hot-hatch category.
It’s with this reverence for the outgoing RS firmly in mind that I get behind the wheel of its successor in the mountainous surrounds of Jerez in Spain. Skipping both comfort and neutral drivetrain modes, I head straight for the RS button to select sport mode and turn the instrument dials to red, sharpen throttle response and set the EDC dual-clutch transmission on high alert. Planting the accelerator, the engine responds by lighting up the front wheels with torque steer, making it hard to accelerate in a straight line. Slightly surprised, I ease off the throttle to let the car settle; this is not the planted RS I remember. That first opinion is confirmed by a hard turn-in that sees the front axle struggle for grip on corner entry before the nose pushes wide on the exit of the bend. The Sport model comes without a limited-slip differential (LSD) and it is clear that the electronics battle to place 390 N.m on the road. Has the legendary Mégane RS chassis gone soft?
In a segment dominated by the Volkswagen Golf GTI, the spec sheet soon makes it clear the company’s marketing department
gave a new set of requirements to the Renault Sport development team. The result is a practical five-door body (no three-door option will be available), a new dual-clutch ‘box, downsized 1,8-litre turbopetrol and more pliant, non-adjustable suspension employing hydraulic bump stops. A new innovation for the segment is four-wheel steering to aid dynamic ability below 60 km/h (100 km/h in race mode) and stability above that speed.
Backing off the pace slightly, the Mégane starts to settle and flow. Where the four-wheel steering provoked some oversteer before, the car now tracks true through slow bends. More restraint on the throttle allows the front wheels to find grip and I realise just how supple the suspension setup is over broken surfaces. The revised six-speed EDC transmission, technology that was the subject of much criticism in the Clio, feels well suited to this application, but is best when left to its own intuitive devices due to the fixed shift paddles being placed too high and the gearlever lacking its own manual override. It’s a pity, however, that the transmission doesn’t allow the engine to rev out to the limiter in comfort and neutral modes.
At least it nails the hot-hatch brief in terms of aesthetics. The RS looks muscular without going the OTT route of something like the Civic Type R tested on page 60. It’s 60 mm wider and 5 mm lower than the cooking GT model, with just enough flare in the wheelarches to get the vehicle noticed without attracting the wrong kind of attention. The front grille with a pronounced splitter element and aggressive central exhaust flanked by the diffuser is a nod to Renault Sport’s motorsport pedigree.
The interior is a big step up from the old car, building on the interior of the Mégane Gt-line but adding Rs-specific details on the seats, steering wheel and door sills. In short, Renault has aimed for a sporty and upmarket interior, and it’s succeeded in the main, bar some inferior-quality plastics on the lower dashboard and a tablet-like touchscreen infotainment system that is occasionally unresponsive to inputs.
Is the new Mégane RS a disappointment, then? If you evaluate the vehicle purely on what its more hardcore 265 and 275 forebears could accomplish: yes. Fans of those cars will have to wait for the Cup (or indeed Trophy) version before wearing their caps backward again. However, for those audiences craving some of the GTI’S civility coupled with a still-brilliant chassis, the Mégane Sport fits the bill.