First spirited drive in my new car
Discussion
Yesterday, I collected my 9400 mile, '08 reg Megane Sport R26, 'Team F1'. In black, nice looking car and a surprisingly good price from a dealer.
Let's get the bad bits out of the way. This may take some time....
Gearchange is s
te. No other word for it. Probably could be worse, but it's still ste. Throttle feel is non existant and it's got this stupid, stupid 'feature' where there seems to be a mechanical stop where full throttle is. You have to press a fair bit harder to get full throttle. What a pointless idea. I bought a sport because I wanted to go fking fast! 
The throttle by wire can be caught off guard. Maybe you're on overrun, maybe you're mid corner on part throttle, but you stab the throttle and there's a very slight delay. Flat out, mid corner adjustments turn into russian roulette!
Brakes are typical of a modern car - over-servoed, if there is such a word! Too sensitive for their own good. Maybe some different pads will hide the problem. Steering is pretty dull. Weighting is OK but lacks proper feel. Can't seem to master the driving position 100% and as usual with a renault, you sit too high. Build quality isn't great. Cheap plastic everywhere. OK, the Evo had lots of plastic, but at least they were very well fastened down!
Onto the good bits...
It's decently quick. Fairly strong engine but it must be one of them small, high pressure turbo setups - it's not a shove in the back like the evo, it's more like a very powerful N/A engine in that full power isn't up until 4500 revs and above.
Handling seems pretty good, appears to be nice and planted. The amount of power it's trying to cope with spoils the feeling a bit too often. Just as well it's got an ATB diff!
Recaros are nice, they're just not mounted properly!
It looks a lot better than the gash focus RS!
All in all, I'm not exactly bowled over by it (maybe you got that impression early on!). People say that Evos drive themselves... I can now safely tell them to go fk themselves. The amount of 'assistance' this car gives the driver almost completely spoils the feel of the car. Between the ABS, 'understeer control', ESP, throttle by wire and allsorts of other crap, they all dull the feeling of the car. Why not just keep things simple? Automatic headlights? What's wrong with a fking on/off switch?
New modern fangled ste. 
Let's get the bad bits out of the way. This may take some time....
Gearchange is s
te. No other word for it. Probably could be worse, but it's still ste. Throttle feel is non existant and it's got this stupid, stupid 'feature' where there seems to be a mechanical stop where full throttle is. You have to press a fair bit harder to get full throttle. What a pointless idea. I bought a sport because I wanted to go fking fast! The throttle by wire can be caught off guard. Maybe you're on overrun, maybe you're mid corner on part throttle, but you stab the throttle and there's a very slight delay. Flat out, mid corner adjustments turn into russian roulette! Brakes are typical of a modern car - over-servoed, if there is such a word! Too sensitive for their own good. Maybe some different pads will hide the problem. Steering is pretty dull. Weighting is OK but lacks proper feel. Can't seem to master the driving position 100% and as usual with a renault, you sit too high. Build quality isn't great. Cheap plastic everywhere. OK, the Evo had lots of plastic, but at least they were very well fastened down!
Onto the good bits...
It's decently quick. Fairly strong engine but it must be one of them small, high pressure turbo setups - it's not a shove in the back like the evo, it's more like a very powerful N/A engine in that full power isn't up until 4500 revs and above.
Handling seems pretty good, appears to be nice and planted. The amount of power it's trying to cope with spoils the feeling a bit too often. Just as well it's got an ATB diff!
Recaros are nice, they're just not mounted properly!
It looks a lot better than the gash focus RS!
All in all, I'm not exactly bowled over by it (maybe you got that impression early on!). People say that Evos drive themselves... I can now safely tell them to go f
k themselves. The amount of 'assistance' this car gives the driver almost completely spoils the feel of the car. Between the ABS, 'understeer control', ESP, throttle by wire and allsorts of other crap, they all dull the feeling of the car. Why not just keep things simple? Automatic headlights? What's wrong with a fking on/off switch?New modern fangled s
te. 
RobboC said:
Sounds to me like you have a dud.
Mine was superb, gearchange was good although a bit too long a throw compared to the EP3 I had previously. Brakes were excellent and feelsome and the handling was superb.
No idea what you mean about the throttle, mine was fine.
This is also what I think. I did have the throttle issue described by the OP I moved the floor matt slightly and away it went Mine was superb, gearchange was good although a bit too long a throw compared to the EP3 I had previously. Brakes were excellent and feelsome and the handling was superb.
No idea what you mean about the throttle, mine was fine.
.I did test drive it, yes! It seemed to have some potential, but the gearchange stood out straight away. The other things didn't really show up on the test drive, because I'm a nice chap who doesn't like scaring the sit-in salesman witless! 
I've been trying to get away from the evo scene because it's financially painful! So far, the Megane is a lot cheaper on fuel.... Phew!
I'm knda hoping someone very knowledgeable on Meganes will come and tell me you can get better throttle linkages and remap the ecu for different power delivery, but we'll wait and see! Maybe different tyres will enhance the steering... Fingers crossed!
I suppose I'm a bit disappointed that a car that's had so many good write ups, turns out to be underwhelming. Maybe I'm expecting too much after the brilliance of the Evo. And for those not in the know - I had the non-electronic version of the evo. Only the engine had an ECU! No central locking, no AC, just balls out power and grip! It was great...
I've been trying to get away from the evo scene because it's financially painful! So far, the Megane is a lot cheaper on fuel.... Phew!
I'm knda hoping someone very knowledgeable on Meganes will come and tell me you can get better throttle linkages and remap the ecu for different power delivery, but we'll wait and see! Maybe different tyres will enhance the steering... Fingers crossed!
I suppose I'm a bit disappointed that a car that's had so many good write ups, turns out to be underwhelming. Maybe I'm expecting too much after the brilliance of the Evo. And for those not in the know - I had the non-electronic version of the evo. Only the engine had an ECU! No central locking, no AC, just balls out power and grip! It was great...
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