Virtuosity hidden under hood of new Renault Megane RS

This Megane is a handsome thing, what with a muscular stance, wide wheel arches, deep front airdam incorporating funky RS lights, a rear diffuser with central exhaust and 19” alloys, writes Declan Colley.

Sat, 16 Feb, 2019 - 00:00

I’ve been in this business a while now and I have rarely seen a motor manufacturer eschew an opportunity to sing its own praises when it comes up with a product that is in any way, shape, or form considered a leap forward in technology or design.

Indeed, engineering advances are treated by the automotive sector as being the wheel-driven equivalent of that form of medieval alchemy which claimed to have produced gold from some combination of otherwise useless base metals.

The universal elixir of progress is more often than not warmly embraced by car makers and shouted from the rooftops as the single next biggest thing and one which will save the globe from the otherwise criminal actions of mankind.

These sorts of demented, baseless, and often completely Trumpian claims are usually no more than PR puff created by those with active minds and an over-inflated sense of the claimed achievements on offer. But automotive creations are often no more than the manipulation of customers’ dreams, wrapped up in the guff of experienced practitioners.

But rarely will any such firm allow an opportunity pass it by to hail the magnitude of its own greatness, genius, and brilliance. Which is why I have been somewhat mystified down the years why Renault — at least in this part of the world — has singularly failed to blind us with the importance, engineering virtuosity, and general all-round wonderfulness of the products that have emerged from its Renault Sport arm.

Indeed, I was witness — in a leg cast (!) as co-driver to the famously ‘coal-faced’ (this misprint should have read ‘Cobh-based’) John Dennis winning the Group N class of a single stage rally in Fota years ago in his Renault 11 Turbo. But Renault Ireland rarely appears to have put its weight behind performance cars from Renault Sport.

Aside from its prodigious record in F1 where it has won more titles than you could shake a Moet bottle at, it has made Le Mans winners and a raft of rallying beasts, all of which were feted by massive marketing support.

In matters road-going, however, it has not quite been so focused on selling the sportier element of its DNA.

Generally, such hot products from the brainy boys in Viry-Chatillon have veered from the mildly insane to the nailed-on nuts. The wild Renault 5 Turbo springs to mind as an early example and the feral Renault 5 Turbo Maxi was an evolution of the evident madness. Many others have followed, but we have not seen a lot of them in these parts.

Much like a Focus RS or a Golf R, the car we try this week comes from a good stable, but is taking on a position in the middle ground between those two greats and normal boy racer stuff.

The new Megane RS slots somewhere in between the aforementioned duo and lesser ‘nutty boy’ offerings such as the Focus ST, or the ubiquitous GTi.

Renault Sport has produced many mind-bending off-springs of very mundane cars and this new one is very much in character, what with 280 brake on tap and a fantastic addition to the Renault canon.

And, in the tradition of such machines coming in gaudy colours, this one does not disappoint, with the tester being provided in what is officially called ‘volcanic orange,’ but is more redolent of something volcanic that comes out your rear end.

Colour aside, these things have not been marketed as they should; I, for one, have not driven enough of them. Indeed since I’ve been doing this gig, Renault Ireland has failed to properly sell to the public its prowess in making truly smart, clever and Goddamn quick specials. One would have assumed ‘statement’ cars which highlight the company’s engineering and design brilliance, deserve better. Originally formed in 1976 by merging its Gordini and Alpine competition departments, Renault Sport has built many special cars down the years and in recent times its efforts have been concentrated on chilli-hot versions of the Clio, the Megane and, believe it or not, the Twingo.

Under the hood is a new four pot 1.8 litre turbocharged petrol engine with 280 bhp on offer at 6,000 rpm and a whopping 390 Nm of torque available between 2,400 and 4,800 rpm. This translates into a 5.8 second 0-100 kph time and a top speed of 250 kph.

Such engines can sometimes result is little other than tiresome and wasteful wheelspin as soon as the showdown of your right foot darkens the loud pedal, but Renault have come up with some clever answers for this and the usual torque steer which accompanies it.

Chassis tuning was a key point of the RS design and clever stuff like hydraulic bump stops which allow lumpy roads to be ironed out and a rear steering function which at lower speeds work in the opposite direction to the front wheels to make the car more agile and at higher speeds work in tandem with the fronts to provide stability.

Combined with a pin-sharp steering rack, these elements are aimed at obviating the need for the 4WD systems seen on the Ford RS or the Golf R and they are very largely effective in doing so, as you will discover when pressing the car over rolling, undulating and demanding roads with tricky corners.

It has limpet-like grip and yet does not have the spine-jarring lack of suspension travel of so many contemporaries.

I did fear the six-speed dual clutch automatic ‘box would be something of an Achilles’ heel, but it turned out rather differently, providing you with crisp and sharp changes. That said, it actually is at its best in manual mode when you utilise the paddle shifters.

Renault do charge extra for the alcantara-covered sports seats and the RS steering wheel with leather and alcantara trim, which is a bit of a shame because they give the excellent interior a presence it would otherwise lack. Shame too that stuff like the RS monitoring system and the bespoke ‘Vision’ lighting system are added extras as well.

This is a truly excellent machine and one they should be plugging like hell across any media they can. It is an exemplary version of the genus hot hatch and a credit to the design team.

It might not be quite as hot as stuff like the Golf R or the Focus RS — or even the Honda Civic Type R — but it is a lot hotter than many rivals and thus something Renault should be highlighting. It is capable of making sporting statements that bear comparison with the best in the field.

Oh, and while they are now busy actually marketing the Megane RS, why not get their act together and put an Alpine A110 on the press fleet? I’m sure it might have a few fond words written about it if they bothered.