Paddy Comyn

Renault Mégane RenaultSport

Fast Renault’s have been legendary in terms of how fun they were to drive and sadly in Ireland the previous bosses of Renault Ireland weren’t overly pushed on selling us these potent models. So we never got our hands on the R26R, which was one of the best hot hatches of all time.

Thankfully, there has been a renaissance at Renault in Ireland and one of the benefits of this is that we have the new Mégane Renaultsport 250 to play with.  The new car get a 247bp 2.0-litre turbocharged petrol engine so it sits in power terms between the 207 bhp VW Golf GTi and the 301bhp Ford Focus RS, but priced much closer to the Golf.

Shod with 19” alloy wheels and super-grippy Continental tyres, the Mégane is an absolute hoot to drive. It doesn’t feel as overly nuts as some of its predecessors but this makes it more of a usable car. The cornering ability is astonishing in this new model, plus it has a limited slip differential for better performance on the track if you choose to venture to one.

The Mégane Renaultsport 250 is particularly well-equipped with cruise control, speed limiter, eight airbags, RAID automatic door locking, Brembo brakes, Renaultsport Dynamic Management ESP system, Renault keycard, electrically operated and heated door mirrors, 60W RDS MP3-compatible CD player with fingertip control, Bluetooth and RCA connection, ISOFIX child seat mountings, rear parking sensors, leather upholstery, heated front seats, electrically adjustable driver’s seat with memory function, Renault Hands Free card, dual-zone climate control, automatic operation of the lights and wipers, 18” (x 8.25”) ‘Keza’ alloy wheels, extra tinted tailgate and rear side windows, tyre pressure monitor and Multi-functional TunePoint.  The Cup Suspension Pack is available as an option combined with Recaro front seats.

Customers can choose to personalise their car with a broad range of options LED daytime running lights, Recaro seats, 19” Speedline alloy wheels with the latest generation 235/35 Continental Sport Contact 5 tyres, Carminat TomTom, Arkamys 4×30 RDS radio with 6 CD and Bluetooth and Multi-Functional TunePoint, electric folding door mirrors, front parking sensors and a fixed glass roof. Customers can also choose one of two interior colours or anthracite finish to the exterior detailing.

This isn’t quite as useable everyday as the Golf, especially since it has an awesome thirst, but this is a cool car and pricing is pretty impressive too.  Priced at €36,960 this isn’t bad value for what is an impressive hot hatch.

Mazda MX-5 Exhaust

The Mazda Mx-5 that we hope will lead Ireland to victory in the Mazda Endurance race

We have arrived in Venice at the Adria Circuit, where for the next two days we will take part in the Mazda Mx-5 Endurance Race. There is a team of 5 journalists taking part from Ireland – Conor Twomey, Michael Sheridan, Neil Briscoe, me and the lovely Aoibhinn Comyn (Mrs. Comyn).

We’ve had the first of our briefings, met our car (which is decked out in the tricolour) and got the basics of the rules so far. The morning will see us have free practice, before qualification takes place, then the race on Thursday.

One of the questions that you get asked as a motoring journalist a lot is, “what would you buy if you were buying a new car?” and up to now I always had to think about it a little bit. Obviously a lot depends on how much money you have to spend and what you want to use it for, but there are certain cars that just hit the right note and we have been driving one this week.

The Golf TDi might just be one of the best all-rounders on the market. Lets look at the evidence. Here is a new version of one of the best family cars on the market and while it might not be a huge step change from the model it replaced, Volkswagen would argue that when a car is as successful as the Golf has been then there is little need to tamper with a winning formula too much.

The thing is that there has been some tampering and it is where it matters most. The 2.0-litre TDi engine under the bonnet has 110bhp and while that might not sound much in the context of today’s horsepower wars there is a reason for this. This engine will produce just 119g/km of CO2 and that means that it sits in Band A when it comes to VRT and road tax.

You will pay just €104 per year to tax this Golf and that makes it one of the cheapest cars to run in Ireland. And don’t for a second assume that it feels sluggish or overwhelmed because there is more than enough power on tap and aside from a slightly lazy biting point in the clutch there is little to complain about from this car.

Our Highline model came with air conditioning and cruise control as well as 16” alloy wheels so you never felt short-changed as you used with Volkswagen. We figured out that you could drive from Cork to Dublin on €15 worth of diesel in this car and that 1,000km from one tank of diesel would not be unrealistic.

You might assume then that we’d recommend the Golf as a good all-rounder and you would be right. This is a car that not only feels well-built but is powerful, cheap to run and good to drive. It might not be thrilling but it’s a superb all-rounder.