Renault reveals hardcore Mégane

Save money with stripped out Cup car

By PH Staff / Thursday, 23 June 2005 / Loading comments

Hardcore Megane is lighter and cheaper

Renault is launching a hardcore, 'Cup' version of the well-received Mégane Renaultsport 225. It's both £1,400 cheaper and 10Kg lighter than the standard three-door 225 Sport Hatch fitted with the optional Cup pack too.

The stripped-out Mégane Renaultsport 225 Cup, on sale now at £18,600, is for those prepared to do away with a few of the luxury features and in return save both weight and money. Over half the buyers of the Clio equivalent, the Renaultsport 182, choose this option, according to Renault.

The French carmaker reckoned the new Cup version offers the best Mégane driving experience yet, by benefiting from the removal items of equipment to reduce weight and cost giving even greater performance, allied to the brake, chassis and steering improvements that come as part of the Cup Chassis pack.

The standard Mégane Renaultsport 225 includes air-conditioning, 18-inch alloy wheels and part leather seat upholstery. The Cup reduction programme sees the loss of the six CD multi-changer for a single disc, hands-free Renault Card for ignition and locking, tyre pressure monitor, no leather trim on the doors and central armrest (but still on the outer edges of the seats), metallic paint or carpet mats.

There are no options available on the 225 Cup other than metallic paint if you don’t like the standard Capsicum red, so if you want to load up your 225 with luxuries like heated leather seats, climate control or a sunroof, then the Cup is not for you.

Combined with the unique, 1.5Kg lighter anthracite colour alloy wheels, retained from the Trophy, Renault claimed that the car has achieved a total weight saving of 10Kg, giving the car a 0-62mph time of 6.3 seconds, 0.2 seconds faster than the standard car and a top speed of 147mph.

The Cup Chassis pack has all of the various engineering changes made to the Mégane Trophy including:

18" anthracite alloy wheels,
Dunlop Sport Maxx 235/40 R18 (ilo 225/40 R18)
Drilled front and rear brake discs with Brembo brake discs and callipers, bigger brake master cylinder with Brake Assist removed
Revised steering connection and electronic programming
Retuned dampers with uprated front and rear springs (25 per cent and 77 per cent stiffer) and disconnectable ESP.

The new car joins two other recent performance-oriented Renault models, the final incarnation of the current Clio – the Renaultsport 182 Trophy, and the Mégane Renaultsport 225 Trophy.