By Michal Kieca
Engine: 2.0 Litre F4R 16-valve turbocharged petrol
Power: 195kW @ 5500rpm | Torque: 360Nm @ 3000rpm
Transmission: Six-speed manual
Fuel Consumption listed: 8.2 l/100km | Tested: 11.1 l/100km
Price (as tested): $42,640
Overall Rating:★★★★★
Plusses:Handling; steering; exhaust note; driving position; overall amusement value, hot hatch king.
Minuses:Interior feels somewhat cheap; confusing ergonomics; firm ride around town.
OVERVIEW
The supercar killer, the hottest hatch on the block, the hand grenade. All of these words can be levelled at the Megane RS265. You just know you've got a great front-driver in your hands when you when you can tighten its line through a sweeper with the throttle.
With its hunkered-forward lines, fat black guards-filling rims, brilliant sports seats and a raucous exhaust when under the whip, it's sure is a blast at the wheel. This is the hottest hot hatch, bar none.
VALUE AND FEATURES: ★★★★
The Megane RS is great value considering that you can demolish supercar owner egos as quickly as ripping up and down your favourite backroad all day long. Truth be told, this car will chase down any supercar in the twisties. And it’s not exactly barren when it comes to standard features.
The base Megane RS 265 is well equipped. Standard equipment includes auto headlights, LED daytime running lights and rear parking sensors. There's also dual-zone climate control, cruise control, rain-sensing automatic wipers, Bluetooth and audio streaming, multi-function steering wheel, CD/MP3 player, Arkamys 3D audio, aux-in and USB input, and electric heated foldable door mirrors among a longer list.
ON THE ROAD: ★★★★★
This thing goes like the clappers. Engage 'Sport', and every single car that’s not a supercar will disappear from your rearview mirror.
The fighter jet howl, rising in shrill outrage from 4000rpm, encourages full throttle hooliganism, the throttle and fat tail pipe in raucous harmony is absolutely amazing. Not since the sorely missed Integra Type R has a small car had so much ‘theatre’.
So what’s happening under the bonnet? In any language, 195kW and 360Nm of torque are hefty figures for medium front-drive hatch. Renault claims a 6.0 seconds for the 0-100km/h dash and a speed-limited 255km/h top speed. Once once rolling, when cornering, or overtaking, and with things in full-song, it's a belter.
Load in the revs, and above 4000rpm the Renault simply scorches. It pulls like mad all the way to the redline, before softly bumping the rev-limiter. The engine just makes a jet-fighter like snarl and then seamlessly thrusts the car up to speed through any gear at any speed.
The sheer speed that you can carry through the twisty sections is beyond prodigious. It’s a point and shoot car; the Megane RS265 held its line with remarkable dedication, despite arriving at some wickedly tight bends with what I felt was way too much pace. The car just feels like it has infinite levels of grip, the nose always tucking in, the back always pivoting around you. The car takes the physics textbook and throws it out the window.
I can’t fault the Megane’s steering. It’s an electric power steering unit that’s been tested and tuned to perfection by the team at Renault Sport. The wheel feeds in high-definition detail of what the front wheels are doing, what the road surface is, straight to your hands. The wheel is well weighted and allows the driver to place the car anywhere they want on the road with pin-point accuracy.
With of the amount of power and torque pounding through the front wheels, I was expecting torque steer, but there was none, even on our course back roads. The RS just transfers the power seamlessly onto the road, there’s no tugging at the wheel, no tram-lining. Renault engineers have created a suspension geometry that stops all torque-steer, even when powering out of an apex under full throttle.
The ESP settings can also be changed, using that ridiculously hard to operate software. In ‘Sport’ the system allows more slide before intervening, allowing you to appreciate the balance of the chassis, allowing you to slide the tail at the same time as you tuck the nose deep into an apex, and then just fire out with the engine screaming.
Now, let’s address the elephant in the room, what’s the ride like, hot hatches need to be fun and work in the urban environment too. The suspension is definitely on the firm side, but not to bad dealing with our imperfect roads, it’s about as stiff as I’d want it. It rounds out the big undulations really well, but it can get rather unsettled on smaller bumps.
The cabin is actually quite hushed at speed, with tyre roar being the biggest bugbear.
THE INTERIOR: ★★★
The switches and controls in the cabin feel quite decent, as do the tactile surfaces. The interior also manages to feel rather solid, unlike the RS250, there were no squeaks nor rattles coming from anywhere, the car was as solid as a drum, imparting refinement not expected in such a rorty machine.
The front seats are brilliant - grippy, with a superbly shaped back and base; they're as good as you'll find fitted standard in a road car. They offer plenty of adjustment, which is no doubt aided by an easily adjustable multi-function steering wheel. The bulky six-speed shifter falls comfortably to hand, and the pedals also placed just right even for heel and toe downshifts, it's easy to get comfortably set for press-on driving, no matter your size or shape.
One issue that I had was with some of the controls in the cabin that were placed in their typical awkward Gallic way. Case in point, in order to get the most out of the engine, the throttle mapping needs to be put into ‘Extreme’ mode. Sounds fun right, not so easy though. It took no less than 5 minutes of randomly pushing buttons behind the steering wheel in an attempt to engage this mode for the car. Not all of the electrics are useless, the RS monitor mounted nicely in the dashboard provides al the information that a seasoned petrol head needs from turbo boost to on board telemetry. So, the ergonomics aren’t great, as you’d expect with a French car. It would be one if everything was perfect, we’ll leave that to the Germans.
The rear seats seem reasonably well shaped, they’re set low, and provide enough headroom for even tall adults. The same praise can’t be heaped on the overall feel of the cabin in the back, it’s claustrophobic, feeling rather like a submarine in the back with only tiny windows on each side.
The boot appears to be quite good. It's deep and wide thanks to the low floor and space-saver spare, and offers a pretty reasonable 344 litres. Shame that the loading lip is just so high and the opening of the boot so small, a side effect from making the Megane’s chassis as rigid as possible.
SAFETY: ★★★★★
The Megane comes with the full arsenal of passive and active safety features, nothing is really lacking. ABS, brake-force distribution and brake assist, Brembo front brakes, three mode ESP (normal/sport/off). A limited slip differential, anti-slip control, and front seatbelt pretensioners are all standard. The car achieved a 5 star rating on EuroNCAP.
VERDICT:
The story goes that the French Gendarmerie Nationale called for tenders for new "rapid intervention vehicles" to replace its fleet of Subaru WRXs. Renault obliged, boosting both the horsepower and torque of the Megane RS 250 to win the tender. And as a side-affect they have created arguably one of the best front-wheel drive cars ever made.
It looks brilliant, it's well priced, and it has the muscle to match its athletic lines and razor-sharp dynamics. A cracker in every way, leaving you grinning ear to ear during every drive.
