RE: Megane RS Trophy-R full specs confirmed

[wab172uk]

You've got to applaud Renault for doing this. A totally hard core track focused Megane.

Think the price will put off all but the most committed Renault fan, or the rich after another `in the moment` Track day toy.

And anyone stretching to buy one, will be in for one hell of a shock when if comes to getting a price to repair that kerbed Carbon wheel.

It'd have been better (in my humble opinion) to ditch the RWS, re-work the suspension, and boost the power to 330bhp. Premium of a couple grand over the Trophy, and they'd sell far more than 500.

[Nealio]

wab172uk said:

It'd have been better (in my humble opinion) to ditch the RWS, re-work the suspension, and boost the power to 330bhp. Premium of a couple grand over the Trophy, and they'd sell far more than 500.

Sales numbers aren’t a consideration with this thing (or Renaultsport cars in general), they’re halo cars. Exclusivity is half the point.

How revered would the R26.R be if they were as common as Fiesta STs?

Edited by Nealio on Friday 5th July 11:25

[Porsche911R]

I cannot get past the 5 door thing.

bar that it's nice. but 5 doors is a no no for me.

[gigglebug]

wab172uk said:

and they'd sell far more than 500.

Do you not think that they could sell more than 500 hundred anyway? Surely one of the main points of producing a limited edition is the fact that it is limited in numbers to maintain it's exclusivity?

[Jon_S_Rally]

Porsche911R said:

I cannot get past the 5 door thing.

bar that it's nice. but 5 doors is a no no for me.

I honestly can't see why this bothers people so much. Yes, some cars look better with three doors, but I really don't see how it makes all that much odds, especially with something like this, which was designed as five door from the off. It would probably look odd as a three door in reality.

[gigglebug]

Harry_523 said:

To answer any back seat/4 door related questions.


What a mad car, whats the betting these chassis improvements, and the removal of 4ws will come on the facelift of the regular car?

Have they got the three point seat belt wrapped around the back of the drivers seat in that picture?

[moonigan]

Looking at the cars in the images you have one with DRL and one without and cars with carbon wheels and carbon brakes and ones with alloy wheels and steel brakes. I assume you will be able opt out the DRL along with the lightweight battery and I'm guessing the carbon wheels and brakes options will push this car upto and possibly above £50K. Not sure I'd take either the wheels or brakes to be honest.

[BFleming]

In other circles, people are paranoid about damaging the carbon wheels or wearing carbon ceramic brakes, so are reverting to regular alloys & brakes for the period of their ownership. Kinda defeats the object though, doesn't it.
On the 5 door versus 3 argument, it's a non-issue. The rear doors are left in place for access. Not sure it'll be for luggage per se, as I imagine most of these will be for track use. In which case it'll be handy for helmet net access, fire extinguishers etc.

[HorneyMX5]

The angle of those harnesses is a bit sketchy IMO.

Bonkers car though, love it.

[nickfrog]

daniel1920 said:

What a nightmare for communication team.

We put 4ws on because it’s better
We took 4ws off because it’s worse

True although I'll happily take the benefit of rws vs the saved weight and better lap time. The rws is a front tyre saver on track without having to go to 2deg of neg which may or may not be a blessing on the road to achieve the same pointiness. Having said I'm pretty sure a normal Cup car will be able to take 1.5 deg or 2 of negative camber when the usual culprits offer a solution. I will certainly experiment.

[frayz]

Still don't understand how people are getting hung up on the 5 doors for a C sized car. Almost all C cars now are 5 door, same for the Ford Focus etc.
They're ALL 5 doors because no manufacturer is going to invest in the tooling, manufacture, testing and legislation to make just one model variant of their cars because it looks a bit prettier. The idea of a hot hatch is its a hot version of the standard car, so if the standard car is 5 doors, so will this be.
If they did then each of these cars would be about £5 million quid.

As for welding up the rears, anyone seen a 5 door car with the rears welded and smoothed will know it looks utterly awful because the B pillar is in the wrong place.

[WCZ]

great weight saving, porsche take note!

[likesachange]

Superb machine, big Renault Sport fan here. This will be 50k car with carbon wheels and brakes if not 55k upwards.
Shows how close they are to limits of the hot hatches going to the extremes of carbon wheels... I mean does the McLaren Senna even have that option?!?! (with built in fire extinguisher's of course)


Being in the market for a new hot hatch as a daily, sadly there seemed to be nowhere to even try the normal trophy which I was set on..

Popped into see the garish Civic a mile from where I live got a 2 hours test drive and was smitten, does everything so well!

Really does live up to the hype.

I believe Honda have been back to the ring in a yellow camo'd model..

[moonigan]

moonigan said:

Looking at the cars in the images you have one with DRL and one without and cars with carbon wheels and carbon brakes and ones with alloy wheels and steel brakes. I assume you will be able opt out the DRL along with the lightweight battery and I'm guessing the carbon wheels and brakes options will push this car upto and possibly above £50K. Not sure I'd take either the wheels or brakes to be honest.

Prices start at 55K euro.
Possibly two different cars:
Standard Car
Record Version (30 cars???)

Suggested options: (cut and paste from press pack)

The new MEGANE R.S. TROPHY-R proposes the following options, available when ordering:
• a kit of four additional carbon wheels, delivered in specific individual covers, placed on the subframe provided for this purpose in the rear, and secured by a dedicated Sabelt net.

• Carbon-Ceramic pack: front brakes with carbon-ceramic discs combined with the dynamic air intake replacing the R.S. Vision headlights in an ultra-exclusive limited series (30 cars),

Renault Sport also offers accessories dedicated exclusively to the New MEGANE R.S. TROPHYR,
signed R.S. Performance. To push performance and sporty handling even further, customers will
find the range of accessories on the Renault Sport online store:

• carbon wheels,
• adjustable rear stopblock and short suspension spring,
• DESS Lithium battery

Have to say if the base car is £50K then I think that's a little punchy as a full spec car would be closer to £60K
P

[Pommy]

Porsche911R said:

I cannot get past the 5 door thing.

bar that it's nice. but 5 doors is a no no for me.

Imagine welded up rear doors, painted into a 3dr and some flared arches - that would be mint

[rossub]

likesachange said:

I believe Honda have been back to the ring in a yellow camo'd model..

Civic RR perhaps

[NGK210]

Autocar says it’ll cost £50k. Typo or true?? If the latter, an AMG A45 S suddenly seems good value.

[stevemcs]

It just makes the Honda look like a proper bargain

[CedricN]

Bonkers car in many ways, for normal tight club tracks and twisty the weight saving is very efficienct and makes it way more fun. However for the ring its surprising that they chose the most expensive route of performance increase. More power, more aero and CUP2R tyres would probably be a faster car. This time was set on reasonably streetable tyres, Bridgestone S007. I wont buy it because its to much money for a toy, but im very glad they went this far with it

[DoubleD]

As a petrol head, I really applaud Renault for making this car. In some ways it doesnt make much sense, but so what.