Motor Australia – September 2019

d motorofficial f motor_mag^27

RENAULT MEGANE

RS TROPHY-R

When a whole lotta subtraction adds much

BELOWDeletingthe

rearseatssaved25kg

alone,butall-upweight

reductionamountsto

some130kgoverthe

regularRSTrophy

THERE ARE some pure driver’scars

that manufacturers just always get

right. I’m particularly thinking GT

Porsches, mid-engined Ferrari specials

and extreme Renault Meganes.

This is the latest of the Renaults,

which is these days called the Megane

RSTrophy-R. And I’m happy to report

thesame standard applies. Sigh. Time

foranother rejig of the ‘top 10 best

front-wheel drive cars of all time’ list.

This is a great car. As usual, Renault

haschased a particular German lap

time and, as usual, found it with a

7min40.1sec – making it 3.7sec faster

than the more powerful Civic Type R,

soit’s the fastest front-drive production

caron the Nordschleife.

But it’s the way the Trophy-R

delivers its speed rather than the speed

itself that makes this car so compelling.

There is less weight, to the tune of

some 130kg compared with the regular

RS Trophy, thanks to thinning the

rear door glass (-1kg), removing rear

seats (-25kg), changing the front seats

(-14kg), fitting a carbonfibre bonnet

(-8kg), titanium exhaust (-7kg), smaller

touchscreen (-250g) and omitting the

rear wiper (-3kg).

But the biggest ‘leave’, which makes

the biggest difference both to the car’s

power-to-weight ratio and the way the

car handles is the absence of the active

rear-steer system you’ll find on lesser

RS Meganes and which has troubled

the confidence of some testers.

Combined with a lighter rear torsion

beam, it saves almost 40kg, so the kerb

weight is 1306kg (87kg less than the

current Oz-spec Type R).

No rear-steer means less high-speed

stability than the regular RS Megane,

but way more chuckability and,

crucially, consistency of response.

The rest of the intoxication is

provided by the weight reduction,

adjustable Ohlins dual-flow valve

dampers and lightweight springs,

increased front camber, virtually no

aerodynamic lift via a bigger diffuser

and a tiny front splitter, and a ride

height the customer can lower by up

to 16mm front and rear.

The result is a car that on a circuit,

with height lowered and dampers set

BY • MATT PRIOR

ENGINE 1798cc inline-4, DOHC, 16v, turbo

POWER 220kW @ 6000rpm

TORQUE 400Nm @ 3200rpm

0-100KM/H 5.4sec (claimed)

4.5 WEIGHT 1306kg • PRICE $70,000 (est)

Rating

LIKE: Improved suspension,

with no rear-steer; huge weight

reduction; chuckability and

response; enormous grip

DISLIKE: No increase in

power; limited availability; price

➜

O1