RE: Megane Renaultsport 275 Trophy-R

[LaurasOtherHalf]

Has anyone bothered to watch the lap yet?

http://youtu.be/02cpzgoVqC4

Talk about flying over flugplatz! Quite a lot of oppo into the wipperman too, it certainly looks like fun. Driver has to keep it in fifth up the back straight though, same as the R26.R, the one area the mini GP is better I found, the gearing is quite long in the Megane & struggles to pull in sixth up hill.

Also noticed the presence of BRM is shown with the watch-wonder if that might be the free gift this time?!

[Derek Chevalier]

framerateuk said:

SarGara said:

Find me a RWD sports car with this level of performance, brand new with warranty at the same price point to make this arguement justified?

Supercharged Elise? £36k for 220bhp and a lot less weight.

If we are talking about performance on track, the Elise is not in the same league, especially if you had an average driver in both.

[Tickle]

Not sure why all the hate for record ring times and branding it as pointless willy waving.

This 'willy waving' is only the same as manufacturers boasting about a new cars 0-60 time or v-max, neither of which get peoples backs up so much when these figures are released.

The ring time seems to be an unofficial bench mark for how a performance car can handle in more than one aspect: speed, accelerating, cornering and braking.

Driving would be pretty crap if all you were interested in was doing straight line drags and accelerating on duel carriageways.

Or am I completely off the mark here, are the aforementioned straight line drags all that people who don't get the ring times use their performance cars for?

Fair play to Renault, Honda and Seat for having a crack and having a bit healthy competition between manufacturers.

[lukefreeman]

shaunRS said:

Are you sure about the £5K deposit? I was able to put down £500 to reserve one today at West London, I will double check with them tomorrow though. I also want to know the price of the Nurburgring pack, but I feel it's a "must add" option... the red vs black wheels need some thought.... but my current car is white, red wheels and red stickers so it would be a nice match

Would you think adding back the aircon/radio is a good move? Did you have it in you old R26.R? I use to have a Boxster Spyder (that I never should have sold!) without aircon and it was fine, but took a hit on resale because it didn't have it

Won't miss stereo, but aircon I would recommend........

[Arun_D]

Typically quirky French video shows the car in a bit more detail, as well as the components up close. The composite springs look bonkers.

Oh, and an example in Liquid Yellow too

http://youtu.be/VNCoFtxza_E

[goron59]

Tickle said:

Not sure why all the hate for record ring times and branding it as pointless willy waving.

This 'willy waving' is only the same as manufacturers boasting about a new cars 0-60 time or v-max, neither of which get peoples backs up so much when these figures are released.

The ring time seems to be an unofficial bench mark for how a performance car can handle in more than one aspect: speed, accelerating, cornering and braking.

Driving would be pretty crap if all you were interested in was doing straight line drags and accelerating on duel carriageways.

Or am I completely off the mark here, are the aforementioned straight line drags all that people who don't get the ring times use their performance cars for?

Fair play to Renault, Honda and Seat for having a crack and having a bit healthy competition between manufacturers.

I encounter lots of people that think that if car A has a better 0-60 than car B then car A is better. Especially if it's cheaper. There is of course so much more to it than that, otherwise we'd all be driving GT-Rs instead of 911s, etc. Personally I think ring times are quite relevant because it shows a combination of attributes, as you say, and it creates real competition between the car makers.

[lukefreeman]

LaurasOtherHalf said:

there's so much ste written in pistonheads these days, & I've always noticed just how much there is when it comes to the R26.R!

For what it's worth, the R26.R had softer springs than the standard car-it was lighter for heavens sake! Also, thy found them hard to sell mainly due to the financial crash-new car sales pretty much fell off a cliff a few weeks before it came out but they still managed to sell 156 of them in the uk-mine was #154.

Some had to be discounted to find owners, mine included. However, even with it's list price of iirc around £26k it would realistically be worth at least £15k now & if this bubble continues to grow it might even appreciate. That's cheap motoring for a proxy fwd hot hatch that no one wants as it isn't a hot hatch eh?

Anyway, I've been down to my dealer & they're wanting a £5k deposit to secure with deliveries commencing in October/November (bit cheeky letting folk have it just when the track season closes!).

They're keeping me informed, I'm not committing to anything until I find out what the ring pack costs to add to it

Here's my old one bimbling around some German road that no self respecting PH'r would ever go near

Edited by LaurasOtherHalf on Monday 16th June 18:08

Good luck finding one for £15k now.

ESPECIALLY with ti exhaust.

[iloveboost]

LaurasOtherHalf said:

Has anyone bothered to watch the lap yet?

http://youtu.be/02cpzgoVqC4

Talk about flying over flugplatz! Quite a lot of oppo into the wipperman too, it certainly looks like fun. Driver has to keep it in fifth up the back straight though, same as the R26.R, the one area the mini GP is better I found, the gearing is quite long in the Megane & struggles to pull in sixth up hill.

Also noticed the presence of BRM is shown with the watch-wonder if that might be the free gift this time?!

I agree it's a great lap the chassis looks balanced and stable with loads of traction in the dry. I thought the suspension may be a bit 'Emperors new clothes' but it looks easy to drive for the speed. Part of that is probably how smooth the driver is part of that is probably the suspension.
I know it's a lot of money so you could buy a 275 Trophy, save 8K and be a massive half a second a minute slower. Not sure the standard Trophy would be so controllable though.

[LaurasOtherHalf]

shaunRS said:

LaurasOtherHalf said:

:
Anyway, I've been down to my dealer & they're wanting a £5k deposit to secure with deliveries commencing in October/November (bit cheeky letting folk have it just when the track season closes!).
/footnote]

Are you sure about the £5K deposit? I was able to put down £500 to reserve one today at West London, I will double check with them tomorrow though. I also want to know the price of the Nurburgring pack, but I feel it's a "must add" option... the red vs black wheels need some thought.... but my current car is white, red wheels and red stickers so it would be a nice match

Would you think adding back the aircon/radio is a good move? Did you have it in you old R26.R? I use to have a Boxster Spyder (that I never should have sold!) without aircon and it was fine, but took a hit on resale because it didn't have it

In the old one, aircon was standard-climate was an extra (which also gave you power folding mirrors!), with regards to that & the spyder (I almost bought one of those new after the R26.R)' in the spyder you get fresh air motoring so I'd imagine it was less of a miss. I couldn't tell you how many laps I did in the summer of '09 in the R & no aircon would have been horrendous, it's ok going on about the weight or the power it uses but August at the nurburgring is no place for a tin top with no aircon-you'd finish a lap absolutely drenched!

Plus, rainy track days aren't too much fun when you start to steam up I suppose.

The radio I didn't miss that much at all although on one trip where we did a ring weekend, then drove down to Italy to ski for a week & then came home via the Mont Blanc tunnel & two days on track at Le Mans, we ended up buying a portable speaker system for the iPhone just to get through it!

Regarding the deposit, it might just be my dealer being a bit over cautious. The last time, they knew I was interested but couldn't part exchange my Exige so ordered one in & sat on it for over 6 months-it was crap spec though with no cage/888s. I didn't get offered no goodwood tickets either!

I think the nurburgring pack is as you say, absolutely essential-it'll make the car what with it including the harnesses (hopefully this means it will also come with 3 points as well) & the 2 piece brakes etc.

[lamboman100]

Arun_D said:

Typically quirky French video shows the car in a bit more detail, as well as the components up close. The composite springs look bonkers.

Oh, and an example in Liquid Yellow too

http://youtu.be/VNCoFtxza_E

Good vid and lap.

Renaultsport are basically the front-wheel-drive equivalent of Porsche (rear-wheel drive), and Renaultsport don't really get enough credit for that. (Arguably because Renaultsport gets hidden by the perceived cheap Renault mother-brand).

[David87]

LaurasOtherHalf said:

I bought an R26.R when they were new & it was one of the best cars I've ever owned & driven.

If I get the chance, I'm going down to my local dealer to have a word today

I might chop my MINI in for one too.

[SonicHedgeHog]

kikiturbo said:

besides the fact that you CAN't buy that seat, it is quite unclear as to what exact parts were on that leon (hence we do not know what kind of price difference we are talking about here.. )...so I call all their marketing a load of BS regardless..

While I do find all this p%^&ck waiving a bit pointless, I do congratulate renault for still producing a hard core car...

What you say about the Leon is true, however, Renault hasn't done anything clever. They've just added a load of premium aftermarket parts to their standard car. Go buy a basic Megane from Broadspeed, buy the parts yourself and save ten grand.

I think what annoys me most about the Renault is the price. It's cars like these that are turning me off cars. 40 grand for a hot hatch, just f@ck off Renault.

[LaurasOtherHalf]

Arun_D said:

Typically quirky French video shows the car in a bit more detail, as well as the components up close. The composite springs look bonkers.

Oh, and an example in Liquid Yellow too

http://youtu.be/VNCoFtxza_E

Good find! Cheers for that those brakes & dampers/springs look fantastic. The liquid yellow one is the standard trophy by the way.

[irish boy]

Superb car this will be.

I always regretted not buying a new r26.r, will most likely buy one of these…..rang both my local renaultsport dealers and they hadn't heard of it….had to educate them, they said they'd ring back….nothing. Typical of the non enthusiasts that fill showrooms.

I would want a/c and a stereo in mine….not convinced the Nuremberg pack is necessary? Lighter battery etc? Depends on the cost….if it pushes it from 36k to over 40k they can keep it.

[LaurasOtherHalf]

SonicHedgeHog said:

I think what annoys me most about the Renault is the price. It's cars like these that are turning me off cars. 40 grand for a hot hatch, just f@ck off Renault.

Work harder

[Dangerdaz]

A lot of negativity from the rwd brigade yet again.
'Fwd lacks the depth of experience etc etc'
Hasn't this comparison horse been flogged enough!
How do people know it will be crap on the road? The r26r was sublime, even better than my r26.
The suspension is adjustable in car & Renault know their stuff so I think it will probably be at least on a par with the 265.
If not better...
Yup I'm a fan boy..but having owned 6 ren sports that's a given.
But I've also owned e30 m3s which were fab too.
The point is if you like driving you should like this.
Not for the cost, (pricey), looks, (eye of the beholder), slightly impractical, (no rear seats), or because you dislike fwd, but because Renault seem to want to produce drivers cars that are slightly bonkers.
The fact that Seat, Honda & Vauxhall are seemingly keen to do the same surely bodes well in this current nanny state we live in!

[roystinho]

Not really in a position to get one at the minute, but if I was I'd love the -R version. I'd go either LY but only if you can get the black roof, or else the white with black roof, red wheels, climate and radio.

[Derek Chevalier]

SarGara said:

AdrianGail said:

http://www.nissan.co.uk/GB/en/vehicles/sports-cars... (£27'015OTR)

You'd need the Nismo to rival the Trophy-R though and thats £37,015 OTR, theres no official 370z time but the 350z was 08:26.

Wouldn't the NISMO overheat on track like it did when EVO tested it?

Edited by Derek Chevalier on Monday 16th June 20:48

[framerateuk]

Derek Chevalier said:

If we are talking about performance on track, the Elise is not in the same league, especially if you had an average driver in both.

Is it really the speed that matters? I have a Megane 250 Cup and a Caterham. Both are fantastic, but the Caterham, while probably slower than the Megane over a lap is still the one I choose to drive on trackdays - both the fun and the obvious consumables cost.

I was only suggesting an alternative RWD sports car for the same price . I think this new Megane is fantastic, props to Renault for making it, even though everyone said it would never happen!

[Derek Chevalier]

framerateuk said:

Is it really the speed that matters?

I wanted a car that would allow an average driver (me) to not be so slow as to cause a moving roadblock on something as tricky as the ring, especially on the first few laps. Having to move over all the time is very frustrating! I think the modern Meganes are perfect for this.