Thursday 23rd June 2005

Renault reveals hardcore Mégane

Save money with stripped out Cup car

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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.

[Mr Whippy]

Erm, so 1.5kg per alloy is 6 kg, then maybe the other 4kg with the multi-changer gone and some leather here and there!

Sounds like a bargain in a way, but they hardly went all out cutting weight!

Still think if I was buying I'd opt for the normal one with the Cup pack.

If your after a hardcore car in this class, there are better options.

The 182 Cup wins because there is very little else like it, especially for the money.


However, get to nearly £20k and a Teggy Type R seems like very good value if your after the stripped out race car kinda thing!

Hmmm

Dave

[AndyWoodall]

I must say, I like the standard 225 Megane, and I think I'd still stick with the normal one + cup pack rather than go for this, and I feel the same about the 182 also.

Although on the face of it the Cup editions appear good value, the standard cars from a car supermarket or with a discount from a dealer is a better buying option imho.

[badders]

i reckon it looks fantastic. also good to see renault covering the more ph freindly hardcore side of things. i dont see any of the other big names doing anything simular....

[pwig]

Fiat with the Stilo Schumacher

[niva441]

Sounds like a base spec version to me.

[Rob_the_Sparky]

Why not take the air con off and really save some weight...

[Witchfinder]

If I remove the cigarette lighter from my Octavia, will that be "hardcore" too?

[craploginname]

Viz top tips

Turn your car into a 'Cup' by simply driving around in the buff, taking out your false teeth, having a pre-drive dump and posting your luggage to your destination

[peter450]

so they claim 0.2 of a sec off by shaving jus 10kg sounds like cheap talk to me an if you have to exagerate somthing to big it up it clearly aint that big

[Twincam16]

Good to see a stripped-out car costing less than the standard one, in the same vein as the Porsche 968 Club Sport. I do wonder why sometimes people fork out more for (literally) a lot less, especially if you could buy a cheaper one and do all the stripping-out yourself.

[gbw911]

As Peter450 says, just no way 10kg is going to save 0.2 seconds on the 0-60 time. Maybe the original quote was deliberately conservative, but I don't buy the improvement. Quite attractive car nonetheless.

[900T-R]

gbw911 said:

As Peter450 says, just no way 10kg is going to save 0.2 seconds on the 0-60 time.

But 6 kgs of it is rotating weight. There must be a reason I can blow the doors off 17"- and 18"-shod Coopers from traffic lights in my boggo MINI One with 175/65/15s...

[dinkel]

The Last Thing Renault Did Turn My Head

[saggy]

R5T2 Magic

[GezzSideways]

gbw911 said:

As Peter450 says, just no way 10kg is going to save 0.2 seconds on the 0-60 time.

For every kilo saved on unsprung weight, you save the equivelant of 4kilos on the sprung weight

[badders]

Witchfinder said:

If I remove the cigarette lighter from my Octavia, will that be "hardcore" too?

nope, but a but a properly developed cup pack like like the troppy/cup pack(etc)has will