Friday 29th November 2019

Megane Trophy-R Suzuka record lap | Time for Tea

Onboard video of Laurent Hurgon's 2:25 lap is out, illustrating the agility of Renault's £72k hatch

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If you’re bored of the constant stream of production car lap records please may we refer you to today’s video, which features Renault Sport racer Laurent Hurgon oversteering into Suzuka’s first turn with one hand on the wheel. The Frenchman’s enthusiasm (read: insanity) in the 300hp Megane Trophy-R paid off, because he’s officially clocked the fastest lap time for a road car at the Japanese GP circuit at 2 minutes 25.454 seconds – and now we have the highly entertaining onboard as evidence.

Hurgon’s lap - which is 2.6 seconds faster than the time he managed in the Trophy-R’s 275hp two-seat predecessor - emphasises just how agile Renault’s stripped-back hot hatch is. We spot almost no signs of understeer the whole way around; in fact, the car looks extremely pointy and has no trouble being flung at the legendary 130R after the back straight of the 3.6-mile circuit. Just look at how Hurgon can commit to the following chicane with those carbon brakes and Cup 2 boots. The Renault’s made for this stuff.

Of course, you might argue that this should be a given for a car that costs £72k with its carbon parts (even if this one actually set the time with its regular Fuji rims rather than carbon wheels). You might even argue that this means there’s no relevant comparative hot hatch out there, so this Suzuka time and the preceding ‘Ring record are somewhat isolated in ranking. But we still bloody love Renault’s machine for all of its extremeness. Not that we needed more evidence after our recent versus with the Golf Clubsport S, but today’s video hammers home that nothing with numberplates drives its front wheels faster. Over to you, Hurgon…

[Jon_S_Rally]

It's too expensive. £72k for a hot hatch?! It's got too many doors. A five-door hatch with no rear seats is stupid. Why wouldn't you just buy XYZ older car? French cars are st. The Civic Type-R is better.

There, got them all out of the way

[Roma101]

Jon_S_Rally said:

It's too expensive. £72k for a hot hatch?! It's got too many doors. A five-door hatch with no rear seats is stupid. Why wouldn't you just buy XYZ older car? French cars are st. The Civic Type-R is better.

There, got them all out of the way

Almost got me there

[nickfrog]

[AmosMoses]

Looks darty and super agile, can imagine its a hoot to drive.

[A1VDY]

Quite a feat doing a whole lap without the electrics giving out...

[nickfrog]

A1VDY said:

Quite a feat doing a whole lap without the electrics giving out...

What do you mean? Renault Sport Meganes have proven extremely reliable, particularly over the past 10 years and despite how aggressively they're driven on track week in week out.

This is not the 80s.

[Krikkit]

nickfrog said:

A1VDY said:

Quite a feat doing a whole lap without the electrics giving out...

What do you mean? Renault Sport Meganes have proven extremely reliable, particularly over the past 10 years and despite how aggressively they're driven on track week in week out.

This is not the 80s.

Doesn't matter, it's the standard French car trope.

[moonigan]

Pistonheads said:

Just look at how Hurgon can commit to the following chicane with those carbon brakes and Cup 2 boots.

The Renault uses Bridgestone not Michelin.

Pistonheads said:

Of course, you might argue that this should be a given for a car that costs £72k with its carbon parts (even if this one actually set the time with its regular Fuji rims rather than carbon wheels).

Did you watch the video? The opening shot shows the car pulling away with the carbon wheels and the closing shots show the car again with the carbon wheels and brakes.

Edited by moonigan on Friday 29th November 15:35

[Tickle]

A1VDY said:

Quite a feat doing a whole lap without the electrics giving out...

Thought these are supposed to be quite reliable, what went wrong with your Trophy-R?

[Alex_225]

You can see from the video just how sharply it turns into the corners and clearly has a lot of grip. Yes it's b*stard expensive and a bit ridiculous but it's certainly very very capable (as you would hope for the money haha).

I'm still surprised at the typical anti-French car, 'it's unreliable' nonsense that still crops up on these posts though. I think RenaultSport have prove in the last 15 years or so that they're strong contenders in the hot hatch segment, if not the leaders with many models.

[Leftfootwonder]

I'd buy a Cayman GT4 for the money and piddle all over the Megane.

[nickfrog]

Leftfootwonder said:

I'd buy a Cayman GT4 for the money and piddle all over the Megane.

I am not sure you would, even with the right skills. Considering the Megane was £51k I'd love to know where you can buy a new GT4 for that... or for £72k for that matter.

[jason61c]

Never has going fast, looked or sounded so boring.

[Throttlebody]

Leftfootwonder said:

I'd buy a Cayman GT4 for the money and piddle all over the Megane.

A good choice as you can’t really buy that £72k Megane and the slower £51k version isn’t a lap record holder on any circuit.

Will manufacturers now just have to produce extreme and expensive FWD hardcore iterations that you can’t really buy just to claim a Ring record?

At least a Honda did it with an affordable mainstream showroom model.

[Plate spinner]

“because he’s officially clocked the fastest lap time for a road car at the Japanese GP circuit”

I don’t get it.
So a GT3 RS or P1 have never been timed at this circuit?
Or they’re not classed as road cars now?
Or are we saying a Megane is the fastest road car in the world?

[Matt Wills]

Throttlebody said:

A good choice as you can’t really buy that £72k Megane and the slower £51k version isn’t a lap record holder on any circuit.

Will manufacturers now just have to produce extreme and expensive FWD hardcore iterations that you can’t really buy just to claim a Ring record?

At least a Honda did it with an affordable mainstream showroom model.

Honda used a "pre production" spec with a cage and sticky tyres to achieve there time and isn't it a bit odd that Renault had to produce such an extreme car to beat it not saying that Honda cheated at all.....

Plus try getting a Cayman GT4 at that price there'll all bought up by speculators and bloggers.

Also for the idiots going on about French car electrics it's nearly the end of 2019 so maybe time to drop the old cliches or shall we talk about German car reliability 🤣

[Leins]

Out of interest, anyone know what sort of lap times Senna put in here in an NSX?

[moonigan]

Leins said:

Out of interest, anyone know what sort of lap times Senna put in here in an NSX?

There are few listed here https://fastestlaps.com/tracks/suzuka not sure if the NSX one is included. The Type-R apparently did a 2:32 3 years ago.

[Throttlebody]

Matt Wills said:

Honda used a "pre production" spec with a cage and sticky tyres to achieve there time and isn't it a bit odd that Renault had to produce such an extreme car to beat it not saying that Honda cheated at all.....

Plus try getting a Cayman GT4 at that price there'll all bought up by speculators and bloggers.

Also for the idiots going on about French car electrics it's nearly the end of 2019 so maybe time to drop the old cliches or shall we talk about German car reliability ??

The Type R supposedly did it on Cup 2 tyres and the roll cage was for safety and just added weight.

Still an impressive lap time for a £31k car with back seats you can actually buy right now.

[gigglebug]

Throttlebody said:

The Type R supposedly did it on Cup 2 tyres and the roll cage was for safety and just added weight.

Still an impressive lap time for a £31k car with back seats you can actually buy right now.

Maybe you should do your homework as the irony of your post is that the car Honda used to set the record didn’t actually have back seats, which amongst other things were removed to offset the weight of the additional roll cage, so you never have been, and never will be, able to buy the car in the same specification as the one that set the lap time. This may well be exactly the same for any of the other manufacturers attempts of course but then if you are picking a car, or boasting about it, merely based on a manufacturers claimed Nurburgring lap time then you are only going to fool some of the people, some of the time even if you do manage to fool yourself.