Renault Megane RS 265 2012 Review

Revheads will love this review, but if you don’t fall into that category (poor things!) you may care to skip it…

The French police have used the hotshot Renault Megane RS250 hatch as their pursuit vehicle for many years, and loved it. But when calling for tenders for the next group of highway pursuit machines they complained that their previous 250 horsepower Renault Megane didn’t have enough performance. So they demanded more, and the result was the RenaultSport 265 with – you guessed it – 265 horsepower.

Keep in mind this is a pursuit car, not a track beast, so it could be involved in long and unpredictable chases of bad guys where maximum braking may be needed at any moment.

Having said that, the French police, true to a longtime desire of revheads, insisted the Megane RS265 be tested at one of the most famous of all European road circuits – the green hell that is the Nurburgring long track. There the new machine slashed the previous record for front-wheel-drive production cars by an amazing 11 seconds, to just 8:08 minutes – more about that number in a moment.

Needless to say, the French police immediately pushed aside all the other competitors in the performance test and signed up for the Megane RenaultSport 265.

Now Australian drivers can sign up for one as well. The local importer finds itself more and more often being regarded as a retailer of high-performance hatches so has put us down to receive not one, but four, variants of the latest Megane RS265. These are the RS265 Cup, RS265 Trophy and RS265 Trophy+.

These models will remain on sale indefinitely while the fourth, a special limited edition called the RS265 808 (so named for the 8:08 minute record set at the Nurburgring) is also on sale now. Only 100 will be imported to Australia, we anticipate these 808s being sold out quickly so it might be worth getting onto your Renault dealer as soon as possible.

RANGE

The RenaultSport Megane range starts from $42,640 for the RS265 Cup and tops out at the  RS265 Trophy+ priced from $51,640. There's also the RS265 Trophy (from $47,140) and the limited edition Trophy 808 (from $49,990).

TECHNOLOGY

The French don’t talk about kilowatts, which is surprising considering that they invented the metric system, but in Australian terms the latest redhot Renault Megane puts out 195 kW of power. Torque is a towering 360 Newton metres thanks to the installation of a turbocharger in this 2.0-litre petrol four-cylinder unit. That torque peak is maintained all the way from 3000 revs to 5000. Even better, there’s good pulling power from 1900 rpm upwards.

RenaultSport (which is what the ‘RS’ stands for) has long been a master of putting big torque through the front wheels and has developed a mechanical differential and a complex front suspension system for the 265. The Megane RS265 engineers feel this makes more sense than taming wheelspin on one of the front wheels by using the ABS system. Thus avoiding heating up the brake discs by the ABS system dabbing one of them on to cut wheelspin.

DRIVING

We had a tremendous day’s driving out of Brisbane and into the mountains north of the city as part of the media launch of the new Renault RS265. This car has acceleration that sees it jump to 100 km/h in just six seconds. Even better it has linear acceleration that just keeps coming due to the effects of the electronically controlled turbocharger and throttle systems.

The driver can dial up everything from modest running to full-on track performance – only at a track please if you do buy one of these machines – including the ability to turn off all of the electronic stability aids. This is not a machine for those who don’t know what they are doing when behind the controls…

Brakes are huge and have the power to haul speed down very quickly. The steering is fast and responsive with a pleasingly tight lock-to-lock movements. Ride is firm but not overly so and noise levels don’t rise over much when on Australian coarse-chip road surfaces.

VERDICT

The latest hotrod Renault Megane impresses with full-on track performance and fast and responsive steering. Escaping the French road police is no longer an option.

Renault Megane RS 265

Price: from $42,640

Warranty: 3 years/unlimited km

Service interval: 12 months/10,000km

Safety rating: not tested

Spare: space saver

Engine: 2.0-litre turbocharged 4cylinder; 195kW/360Nm.

Transmission: 6-speed manual, front-wheel drive

Body: 2-door coupe

Weight: 1374kg

Thirst: 8.2L/100km, 190g/km CO2