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By
EWAN KENNEDY
22 May 2006
Renault is running hot in what’s
arguably the fiercest of all motorsports arenas, Formula One Grand Prix
racing. It would be stretching things to say that there's a lot of flow
down of sporting technology into the road cars, but there's certainly a
strong racing image to the marque at present.
Renault Sport is the branch of the famed
French company that builds special performance models, thus the slightly
confusing name of the car Megane Renault Sport Cup.
This Renault isn’t a road racer, but
comes pretty close to it, providing a lot of driving pleasure whilst
retaining sufficient sophistication to let you use it as a daily driver.
Rough roads will catch out the suspension from time to time,
occasionally creating quite a judder through the car, but it’s no
worse than others in its class and better than quite a few. Besides the
sort of person who buys a car like the Megane Renault Sport is more than
happy to live with something like this in order to get a car with superb
steering and handling characteristics.
Also on the interesting side is the
torque steer, something you certainly have to expect in a turbocharged
car putting 300 Nm to the front wheels. There's a real wriggle through
the steering wheel when you get stuck into the pedal on the right and
the car may even jump to one side in extreme cases. Careless drivers
need not apply…
The Megane's interior is a delight to
look at as well as to sit in. The sports seats have leather surrounds
but you sit in the greater comfort of cloth. We loved the orange
stitching in the leather as well as enjoying the same colour scheme in
the safety belts. Some who saw the orange belts felt they were over the
top but, hey, why not try for something a bit different?
A great deal of ongoing work has seen the
Sport Cup being greatly improved in the suspension and steering in its
latest edition. Spring rates were stiffened at the front and rear and
the shock absorbers uprated to suit. The front anti-roll bar was reduced
in diameter. The steering itself was made a lot sharper in its feel by
replacing the previous car’s flexible rubber joint with a sliding
steel sleeve. Power assistance for the steering is now electric rather
than the older vacuum style.
The traction control system was
reprogrammed so that its intervention threshold is higher and its
operation is less intrusive. The system can be deactivated via a dash
mounted switch, but even in this mode will activate if it senses a major
divergence from the intended path under heavy braking.
Not only does the suspension work
extremely well, but the way the Sport Cup sits down on its wheels is
visually exciting. This car really does look the part.
Power from Renault’s 2.0-litre,
16-valve, turbocharged engine is 165 kW at 5500 rpm and maximum torque
is 300 Nm at a low 3000 rpm. Even better, at least 90 per cent of that
maximum torque is on offer all the way through from 2000 rpm to 6000
rpm. In other words most drivers will have high torque virtually all the
time.
Drive for the Megane Sport Cup is via a
six-speed manual gearbox with a nice, slick, short-throw shift and well
chosen ratios. It really does make the best use of the engine’s
characteristics.
As is often the way, a sporting engine
will actually use less fuel than a standard one despite the extra
performance potential. This showed up as good fuel economy during our
week’s test of the Megane. It was unusual to see the consumption rise
over eight litres per hundred kilometres whilst cruising on motorways,
and around town it would typically consume about nine to eleven litres
per hundred. Considering the straight-line grunt on offer this low
petrol usage is a real bargain.
This good handling Renault sports sedan
comes with the practicality of four doors and a sizeable boot, thus
making it functional as well as fun. It performs well and could be used
as a family sports machine in these times of high fuel prices. It’s
unlikely it will replace HSV Commodores or FPV Falcons in a lot of
Australian garages, at least in the immediate future. But there are
certainly a number of people who will seriously consider this hot little
Renault the next time the purchase decision come around.
AT A GLANCE
MODEL RANGE
Renault Megane Sport Cup 2.0-litre turbo five-door hatch - $42,990
FEATURES
ABS Brakes: Standard
Air Conditioning: Standard
Automatic Transmission: Not offered
CD Player: Standard
Central Locking: Standard
Cruise Control: Standard
Driver Airbag: Standard
Passenger Airbag: Standard
Front Side Airbags: Standard
SPECIFICATIONS (Renault Megane Sport 225
2.0-litre turbo five-door hatch)
ENGINE:
Capacity: 1.998 litres
Configuration: Four cylinders in line
Head Design: DOHC, four valves per cylinder
Compression Ratio: 9.0:1
Bore/Stroke: 82.7 x 93.0mm
Maximum Power: 165kW @ 5500rpm
Maximum Torque: 300Nm @ 3000rpm
DRIVELINE:
Driven Wheels: Front
Manual Transmission: Six-speed
Automatic Transmission: Not offered
Final Drive Ratio: NA
DIMENSIONS, WEIGHT AND CAPACITIES:
Length: 4228mm
Wheelbase: 2217mm
Width: 1777mm
Height: 1437mm
Turning Circle: 10.4 metres
Kerb Mass: 1361kg
Fuel Tank Capacity: 60 litres
Towing Ability: 650kg (1000kg with braked trailer)
SUSPENSION AND BRAKES:
Front Suspension: MacPherson struts, L-shaped lower arm, coil springs,
anti-roll bar
Rear Suspension: Semi-independent, torsion beam axle, coil springs,
anti-roll bar
Front Brakes: Ventilated disc
Rear Brakes: Disc
PERFORMANCE:
0-100 km/h Acceleration: 6.5 secs
Standing 400 Metres: 14.6 secs
FUEL CONSUMPTION:
Fuel Type: Petrol 95RON
Fuel Consumption - Combined Cycle (ADR 81/01): 8.7 L/100km
STANDARD WARRANTY:
Three years/ 100,000km
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Marque Publishing Company
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