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 Renault Megane before.

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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 anti-roll 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.

This is also the first time that anyone could honestly say that a synthesised induction note actually sounds real. According to the head of Renaultsport’s engineering department, Olivier Guintrand, they worked “very, very hard” to perfect the acoustics of this new drivetrain. And (in Sport and Race modes), the result is both a rich induction sound inside the cabin and, thanks to ignition-cut electronics, a fruity, crackly exhaust note that, on the EDC version, fires out one of the best exhaust upshift barks in the business. Make no mistake, the tough new RS280 has the muscle to match its machismo.

Chassis wise, we drove the dual-clutch Sport version (in stunning pearlescent Tonic Orange) on some wonderfully challenging roads in southern Spain, and a manual Cup on the famed Jerez racetrack. Despite any fears you may have about the ‘auto’ Megane RS with ‘soft’ suspension being a bit limp-wristed, it’s anything but. Brilliantly damped, as if it’s Hoovered to the road surface, and capable of tackling the sort of hits you’d imagine would crack a sump, it’s this mixture of discipline with total control that defines how the new Megane RS drives.

Normally, the rear wheels point in the opposite direction to the fronts up to 60km/h, but in Race mode (as opposed to Sport, Neutral, and Comfort, as well as an impressively configurable Perso mode), this threshold is extended to 100km/h. And while there’s a degree of trust that needs to be built when pushing the Megane’s chassis at first (some people don’t like the rear-endy, oversteery feeling of the back end, especially on our very slippery test roads), there’s actually plenty of purchase here.

Thanks to the steering set-up, you need little input from the Megane’s superb perforated-leather and Alcantara wheel to change direction. Yet the car doesn’t feel nervous either, tracing challenging cornering lines with crisp accuracy and encouraging keenness. Even the ESC (in Sport mode) is on the bandwagon, nibbling at the edges when it needs to with the sort of finesse a car like this deserves. And besides the odd moment where it picks a gear too high, the dual clutch ’box is also a bit of a cracker, reading the conditions with respectable accuracy and finding the right ratio at least 85 percent of the time.

Unexpectedly terrific as the dual-clutch Megane RS280 Sport is, it’s the manual Cup that really needs to nail the brief if it’s going to withstand Honda’s Civic Type R onslaught. And after a half-dozen flat-out laps in it at Jerez, there’s a bloody strong chance the new Megane Cup is everything Renaultsport wants it to be.

With a mechanical torsen limited-slip front diff (instead of the electronic wizardry and torque vectoring of the Sport chassis), the Cup fires out of Jerez’s third-gear hairpins and through a fabulous series of tight corners set up to demonstrate the Cup chassis’ delightful agility and chuckability.

In fact, all the things that aren’t quite perfect on this car – some dud lower cabin plastics and underdone rear-seat packaging being the main two – already apply to the regular, lukewarm Megane. So the fact this super tough-looking bully of a hot hatch has emerged so darn strong and seductive speaks volumes about how much engineering effort has been invested in making it great.

And there’s more to come. Expect a Paris Show reveal of the forthcoming 220kW/400Nm Trophy version, complete with its own styling and wheel treatment, and an even higher grade of Bridgestone tyre (the new S007, also fitted to Ferrari’s F12), plus – if everything goes according to Renaultsport’s devious plan – a new Nurburgring lap record for a front-driver, just to put the Honda Civic Type R back in its place.

As it stands, broad and tough with more than a hint of bad-boy character, the Megane RS280 is pretty much everything we wanted it to be. A better all-rounder than its predecessor without scrubbing off too many edges, yet a car brimming with individuality and flavour.

That’s what we want in a French hot hatch, and that’s exactly what you get here. Especially in orange.