2015 Megane RS 265 Cup
Discussion
I've now owned the car for a year and a half and thought I'd share my impressions. It's my daily driver and only car. It's doing great so far, absolutely amazing drive and surprisingly practical.
After spending my uni years driving the 1994 Volvo 850 my grandfather gave me when he became to old to drive, the search for a new car was on. What I really wanted was a Porsche, ideally a 996/997 but I also considered a 987.1 Boxster or Cayman. After lots of research I had to admit to myself that they were a bit out of budget - the boring score issue in particular put me off, but also the general maintenance required for a 10-or-so year old sports car given that I have zero DIY experience and no easy access to a garage and tools. The fear of big bills would probably get in the way of me enjoying my car, and I wanted to be able to drive lots and lots of hard miles just for the fun of it. What now?
A Subaru BRZ or it's Toyota twin would be interesting. A relatively cheap RWD sports car with at least adequate performance and all the practicality I needed. A test drive was arranged but I found my self a bit underwhelmed by the engine's harshness. The infamous torque dip was a let down, too.
As many before me, I started looking at hot hatches. Seeing how much praise the Megane RS was given by press and owners alike sparked my interest. The Renault RS cars are largely unknown here in Sweden, and the Megane 3 was the first RS-car to be sold here by the official importer. By a happy chance, the Renault dealer in a neighboring city had a demo car in the perfect spec for me:
A white post-facelift 265 with the cup chassis, black leather Recaro seats and diamond cut 19 inch wheels. The car also had the panoramic roof, navigation and R.S. monitor 2.0. A mere 6500 km on the clock. After two test drives, one of which undertaken in snow with summer tires, I bought the car. After four agonizing days of waiting for winter tires that are mandatory here in Sweden (unless you test drive a dealer-owned car, apparently!) i was finally able to collect the car. I was over the moon. My first performance car, what a feeling!
Ever since, I have been busy exploring the local and not-so-local B-roads as often as I can. This is where the car really shines. Handling is simply sublime! The steering is super accurate and has surprisingly good feedback for an electric system. Feedback improves greatly as the pace increases. This is a car that just gets better the more you push it. The ride is certainly firm but never lacking in compliance. Surprisingly for a turbo unit, the engine pulls hard all the way to the red line. It comes alive at around 3000 revs, and the short gearing makes it easy to keep it above that.
This summer, me and my girlfriend went on a 5000 km European road trip, including Austria, Italy and Slovenia. While a Megane RS isn't exactly primarily designed for long road trips, it did great and i really bonded further with the car. When returning home, we did 1600 km in one day without feeling overly tired. The smooth and quiet asphalt used in continental Europe helped. The short gearing is obviously not ideal for unrestricted autobahn but high speed stability is excellent.
Grossglocker Hochalpenstrasse, without a doubt the best driving on the journey. We went there on a rainy afternoon so not a lot of traffic. Glorious driving and equally fantastic scenery.
All in all, i am really happy with the car. There are just two things I am not so pleased with - the amount of road noise and the stereo. I have fitted a thin bitumen sheet under the back seats and trunk which helped reduce road noise surprisingly well. Might upgrade the stereo but for now I'll just keep the car as it is.
The car has now been driven a total of 43 000 km and has been completely reliable. The plan is too keep it for at least another two years but perhaps a lot longer than that. Don't know what to replace it with in the same price range! Instead, I'm toying with the idea to buy a second car to keep alongside the RS. An X300 Jaguar XJ would certainly be a good complement...
I have not yet taken the car to a track day but that is a must, plan on doing so next year.
Hope you enjoyed reading about my car! All comments welcome
After spending my uni years driving the 1994 Volvo 850 my grandfather gave me when he became to old to drive, the search for a new car was on. What I really wanted was a Porsche, ideally a 996/997 but I also considered a 987.1 Boxster or Cayman. After lots of research I had to admit to myself that they were a bit out of budget - the boring score issue in particular put me off, but also the general maintenance required for a 10-or-so year old sports car given that I have zero DIY experience and no easy access to a garage and tools. The fear of big bills would probably get in the way of me enjoying my car, and I wanted to be able to drive lots and lots of hard miles just for the fun of it. What now?
A Subaru BRZ or it's Toyota twin would be interesting. A relatively cheap RWD sports car with at least adequate performance and all the practicality I needed. A test drive was arranged but I found my self a bit underwhelmed by the engine's harshness. The infamous torque dip was a let down, too.
As many before me, I started looking at hot hatches. Seeing how much praise the Megane RS was given by press and owners alike sparked my interest. The Renault RS cars are largely unknown here in Sweden, and the Megane 3 was the first RS-car to be sold here by the official importer. By a happy chance, the Renault dealer in a neighboring city had a demo car in the perfect spec for me:
A white post-facelift 265 with the cup chassis, black leather Recaro seats and diamond cut 19 inch wheels. The car also had the panoramic roof, navigation and R.S. monitor 2.0. A mere 6500 km on the clock. After two test drives, one of which undertaken in snow with summer tires, I bought the car. After four agonizing days of waiting for winter tires that are mandatory here in Sweden (unless you test drive a dealer-owned car, apparently!) i was finally able to collect the car. I was over the moon. My first performance car, what a feeling!
Ever since, I have been busy exploring the local and not-so-local B-roads as often as I can. This is where the car really shines. Handling is simply sublime! The steering is super accurate and has surprisingly good feedback for an electric system. Feedback improves greatly as the pace increases. This is a car that just gets better the more you push it. The ride is certainly firm but never lacking in compliance. Surprisingly for a turbo unit, the engine pulls hard all the way to the red line. It comes alive at around 3000 revs, and the short gearing makes it easy to keep it above that.
This summer, me and my girlfriend went on a 5000 km European road trip, including Austria, Italy and Slovenia. While a Megane RS isn't exactly primarily designed for long road trips, it did great and i really bonded further with the car. When returning home, we did 1600 km in one day without feeling overly tired. The smooth and quiet asphalt used in continental Europe helped. The short gearing is obviously not ideal for unrestricted autobahn but high speed stability is excellent.
Grossglocker Hochalpenstrasse, without a doubt the best driving on the journey. We went there on a rainy afternoon so not a lot of traffic. Glorious driving and equally fantastic scenery.
All in all, i am really happy with the car. There are just two things I am not so pleased with - the amount of road noise and the stereo. I have fitted a thin bitumen sheet under the back seats and trunk which helped reduce road noise surprisingly well. Might upgrade the stereo but for now I'll just keep the car as it is.
The car has now been driven a total of 43 000 km and has been completely reliable. The plan is too keep it for at least another two years but perhaps a lot longer than that. Don't know what to replace it with in the same price range! Instead, I'm toying with the idea to buy a second car to keep alongside the RS. An X300 Jaguar XJ would certainly be a good complement...
I have not yet taken the car to a track day but that is a must, plan on doing so next year.
Hope you enjoyed reading about my car! All comments welcome
Edited by Save the manuals on Saturday 19th August 01:11
M77MWW said:
Epic car my friend. I have a Megane rs250 which I now use for track days and nurburgring trips and I'm blown away at how good they are
Thanks mate. I have seen your thread, really nice build! Got me thinking about changing the standard wheels to a set of lightweight 18 inch. Hope it probably improve both handling and ride. Need to wear out the current tires first, something a trackday could help with Any other mods you would recommend for the occasional track day? 
chillbill said:
Nice! RS Renault's really are something special. And love those Recaros. I once sat in a similar one in the showroom while my Clio RS was being serviced. Been lusting after one ever since
Go for it, you wouldn't be disapointed 
I'm surprised by how comfortable the Recaros are even during really long stints.CedricN said:
Such a nice car, if it could have a tow bar i would have one on the drive way instead of my boring bmw. Epic euro trip, its always a surprise how rough our Swedish asphalt is when you get home after such a trip, especially around Stockholm.
Certainly, just passing the brige to Denmark made a huge difference. Especially noticable in a car with not-so-much sound deadening. The roads around Blekinge where I live are not much better. Shame about that, seems the new Megane RS will have a centre mounted exhaust, too! Looks great but not that practical. Find the plastic chrome trim around the actual exhaust pipe impossible to keep clean from carbon build-up.
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