Reviews
Gallery 15
Few performance cars have been lavished with a more consistent tide of praise by hot hatchback aficionados than the Renault Megane RS.
This car has been the go-to fast front-driver for most of its life, having appeared with that memorable ‘bustle-back’ styling in 2004 and promptly set new class benchmarks for driver involvement and handling poise.
However, it’ll take brilliance to reclaim that mantle with the likes of the PCOTY-winning Honda Civic Type R and the all-wheel drive Ford Focus RS as rivals. For that reason and others, you could call the launch of this new Megane RS something of a watershed moment.
Meanwhile, has Group Renault’s Alpine A110 sports car, brilliant as it may be, swallowed up so much valuable engineering attention and resource that what could be considered Renault Sport’s most important model has been left undernourished? It’d be understandable. But forgiveable? I’m not so sure.
Some good news would definitely be welcome – and maybe we’re about to get some. Although it retains front-wheel drive, the fast Megane has been through an overhaul that would seem every bit as thorough and attentive, on paper, as that of any of its rivals.
For suspension, the Megane RS sticks with struts up front and a torsion beam at the rear, but its front configuration has new geometry and retains Renault Sport’s PerfoHub, which reduces kingpin angle offset and therefore better resists torque steer and bump steer.
In more familiar vein, you can have the Megane with a slightly softer Sport suspension tuning (partnered with an electronic brake-actuated torque vectoring system) or firmer Cup settings.
With Cup, you also get a Torsen mechanical slippy diff configured for greater lock-up under power and less drag effect on a trailing throttle than the outgoing Megane 275’s GKN slippy diff was configured for. Enlarged, 19-inch wheels fitted with Bridgestone tyres and uprated lightweight brakes with aluminium hubs are options on Cup-spec cars.
The current Megane’s cockpit makes for a decent departure point for a performance treatment, albeit one with some minor frustrations. The RS 280’s Alcantara sports seats are good and supportive, and the driving position they grant is also good by class standards. Thankfully you don’t sit uncomfortably high and the controls are well located in front of you.
Equally odd are the part-analogue, part-digital instruments, which consist of a square digital screen made up mainly of differently themed analogue rev counters and a digital speedo, but whose available screen space is drastically curtailed by oversized analogue fuel level and water temperature gauges to either side of it.
One bigger screen, with temperature and fuel information you could call up when needed (or at least scale to your preference), would have been a much more intelligent layout. Details, perhaps.
But having been criticised so strongly for the Clio RS 200’s flimsy-feeling paddles, it’s amazing that Renault Sport should have repeated almost exactly the same offence with that car’s new bigger brother.
The Megane’s shift paddles have better haptic feel than the Clio’s, to be fair, and the ‘crushed cornflake’ action is notable by its absence. But they remain awkwardly placed on the steering column (displaced upwards by Renault’s trusty old column-mounted audio remote control) so they’re a slight stretch for your fingertips every time you need to grab a gear.
Renault’s EDC gearbox itself does a respectable job of managing the car’s gear ratios and gives you something more like that close control you want over the driving forces going into the front wheels than the Clio RS 200’s gearbox ever managed. It’s quicker on the upshift than on its way down, though, and nothing like as smooth or judicious with its shift timing in ‘D’ as the better ‘flappy-paddle’ hot hatches with which you might compare it.
But as a replacement for the old Megane 275’s blown 2.0-litre engine, I’m not sure ‘better than average’ makes it worthy. Because although the Megane RS 280 has abundant real-world on-the-road performance, it’s not thanks to its engine.
The motor is torquey and free-ish revving, but also sounds a bit ordinary, suffers a little with iffy throttle response throughout the accelerator pedal travel and doesn’t breathe in and keep hauling with anything like the high-range urgency of a Civic Type R’s 2.0-litre. As hot-hatch engines go, it’s just all right.
The car steers faithfully, with useful weight and plenty of feel. But the deftness, suppleness and fluency of its ride is outstanding on bumpy roads, and is somehow set off against first-rate, progressive body control in a combination that no rival hot hatchback could match, I’d wager.
Better still are the Megane RS 280’s true showstoppers: totally absorbing handling agility, brilliant cornering balance and a flair for playfulness that might even make a Type R seem straight-laced.
In most four-wheel-steered cars, this happens at around 50km/h. In the Megane RS 280 – and in Race mode, remember – you get a counter-steered rear axle all the way up to 100km/h. And so the car turns in with amazing alacrity and carries big mid-corner speed so effortlessly on a balanced throttle.
Where does that leave the Megane RS 280? Pretty plainly, it’s staggeringly good in some ways, ‘all right’ in others – and not without the odd frustration, either.
However, the handling could yet prove itself capable of hitting even greater heights in Cup specification than it has already in Sport trim. If it does, how much will a slightly ordinary engine and some curious fixtures and fittings really matter to a devoted petrolhead?
Ride Control Why the RS 280 spurns adaptive dampers
Described by Renault as “a damper within a damper”, they’re independent fluid-filled shock absorbers that sit on the lower end of the front and rear suspension struts. And while they’re commonly fitted to rally cars – and the new Megane uses them at all four corners – the Clio RS uses them on its front axle only.
Credible? Only because of Renault Sport’s chassis tuning pedigree.
2018 RENAULT MEGANE RS 280 SPECS: Body: 5-door, 5-seat hatch Drive: front-wheel Engine: 1798cc inline 4, DOHC, 16v, turbo Bore/Stroke: 79.7 x 90.1mm Compression: N/A Power: 205kW @ 6000rpm Torque: 390Nm @ 2400-4800rpm Power/Weight: 143kW/tonne Transmission: 6-speed dual-clutch Weight: 1430kg Suspension: dual-axis MacPherson struts (f); torsion beam (r) L/W/h: 4364/1875/1435mm Wheelbase: 2669mm Tracks: 1615/1596mm (f/r) Steering: electronically assisted rack-and-pinion Brakes: 355mm ventilated discs, 6-piston calipers (f); 290mm solid discs, single-piston calipers (r) Wheels: 19.0-inch (f/r) Tyre sizes: 245/35 R19 (f/r) Tyre: Bridgestone Potenza Price: $45,000-$55,000 (estimate)
LIKES: Chassis is a gem; ride quality; manual option DISLIKES: EDC ’box and paddle placement; engine
RATING: 4 out of 5 stars
