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Renault Mégane Renault Sport
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.
