Road Test: Renault Mégane RS 225

By Feann Torr - 12/Apr/2007

The modern day hot hatch is a neat and tidy solution to a number of problems that today's demanding drivers face. Parking: they're small. Petrol: they're frugal. Performance: they're quick off the line. Price: They're relatively affordable. 

About the only thing the modern day hot hatch doesn't have going for it is acres of interior space, but even in this area these sorts of cars are steadily growing in size, and when technology and manufacturing improvements require less packaging, this results in more interior room.

So, the hot hatch is destined to be a winner, surely a license to print money. Sales will go through the roof and everyone will be happy. Unfortunately it's not quite that simple.

Even for the dynamic Renault Mégane Sport 225, which has proven to be a real whipper-snapper in the handling department, it's success is far from guaranteed. The reason? Competition.

In the last decade there's been an explosion of hot hatches and as well as being great fun to drive, these cars also play an important part in propping up the rest of their respective ranges from an image standpoint. The halo models, if you will. Therefore, when there's already a large range of hot performance hatchbacks on the market, such as the Holden Astra SRi Turbo, the venerable Golf GTI, and the Ford Focus XR5 Turbo (aka Ford Focus ST), can another vehicle - and a French one at that - tempt buyers to veer away from the current champions?

Things don't start well for the Renault. It's not only more expensive than the Holden and the Ford hot hatches, it also costs more than the Golf GTI. So what can the Mégane Sport 225 rely upon to wrest sales from its rivals? Where do it's strengths lie? It does have a number of luxury features, like 8 airbags and rain sensing wipers, but these surely won't be the deal makers.

How about the exterior design? Nope. What about the interior? Maybe. The performance? Okay, let's take a closer look.

Drive: 4/5

I've never liked the look of the Mégane. It's got that funky-looking rear end that juts out like a cash register and, sure, it attracts attention, but usually in the form of insults. We tested the standard Mégane as well as this sporty model and it's a rather strange thing to behold, but I must say the Sport 225 version looks a lot tougher with its lower ride height, and the twin exhaust pipes at the rear mollify the bulging rear somewhat.

Step into the shiny silver Mégane RS 225 - named so for the amount of (metric) horsepower it generates - and you are greeted with a fairly modern looking interior, but no key barrel. Instead, the Mégane uses a 'keycard' system. About the size of a credit card, only thicker, the keycard is slotted into the centre console and then you hit the starter button. There is no key.

I get the impression that Renault was trying to be trendy by using the keycard system and, to a point, it is quite an interesting feature. But it's a rather large item and doesn't fit quite as easily in your pocket as a normal set of keys.

Once the starter button has been thumbed the engine thrums into life with a resonant exhaust note, hinting at its performance, and like most hatchbacks the car turns out to be very easy to drive. Thank the short wheelbase for that. The clutch isn't too heavy, the 6-speed manual is a slick shifting unit that rarely gets snagged and the cruise control buttons on the leather steering wheel work well.

In and around town the car is very good, able to effortlessly keep pace with many other vehicles at the traffic lights, while it's size ensures that parking spots are rarely troublesome. That said, the car's motor sports DNA makes itself felt at times. If you are after something with a good deal of civility, try the Golf GTI or the Focus XR5, as this vehicle is stiffly sprung. It's not impossible to live with on a day-to-day basis, but it does have an overly firm ride and if you're not happy making the compromise you may want to try before you buy.

Sitting low to the ground, with big 18-inch wheels and fat tyres to match, the Mégane Sport 225's natural habitat is much farther from the big smoke; winding alpine roads, deserted back country roads and even the race track, would you believe.  It's based on a practical hatchback, one with plenty of boot space and room for five occupants, one that's easy to reverse park and small enough to be handy in the city, yet it's not until you get out of the urban sprawl that the car really begins to fire up.

To put it succinctly, this is one of the best front-wheel drive performance cars I've ever driven. Not only deceptively quick with a strong turbocharged torque surge as the revs rise, the car handles exceptionally well to boot.

You can tip it into corners with finesse and coax it through with a light throttle/low boost application and revel in its responsive chassis, or you can throw it into bends at high speeds with a level of cruelty usually only seen on the Jerry Springer Show, smashing the throttle and winding up the power - yet it still just grips and goes.

It responds remarkably rapidly to steering and throttle inputs and has an incredibly flat attitude through corners. Indeed, body roll is minimal, yet the ride doesn't suffer terminally either and the car doesn't do too badly on poor quality roads. Super fat anti-roll (anti-sway) bars help in achieving this impressive balance, and it always feels remarkably composed through corners and has a willful personality that seems to revel in being pushed further and further. And all this with only mild levels of understeer, which is partly due to the inclusion of an 'understeer control' module in the electronic stability program, or ESP.

Adding potency to the car's strong cornering suite are the 225/40 R18 tyres. They provide the light-ish 1361 kilogram French-built boy racer with scads of grip and even with ESP turned off the car has mightily extensive grip limits.

I was also very impressed with the strength of the engine and the way the turbocharger magnifies the 4-cylinder power. The stats sheet says this thing generates 300Nm of torque @ 3000rpm, but it feels more like 350Nm. The power delivery is less like the Astra SRi Turbo or Focus XR5 Turbo, and more like a WRX, where the power hits, is sustained until near the redline, and drives the car forward with a thoroughly determined amount of force.

This is generally a good thing, and can make driving the car through twisty sections of road an absolute hoot, but with such a strong surge of power hitting the front hoops it can also be a hindrance. At lower speeds, for instance, there's mild torque steer, which can catch you off guard if your dozy. And if you punch the throttle from standstill the fronts tend spin up and often begin to smoke uncontrollably as the expensive rubber of the front tyres lose their battle with the asphalt.

This isn't always what the situation calls for - sometimes you just want a quick take-off - and this surfeit of power tends to yank the steering wheel left and right as the wheels attempt to unload themselves of the billowing torque. But even in such situations, the RS always feels in control; it has a very planted feel even when the driving wheels are going completely bonkers. Plus there's also a very good ESP system which can make fast sprints along tree-lined cliffs a little less white knuckled, but again, the ESP doesn't always let you get the perfect take-off from stand still, tending to retard the power delivery in first and second gears.

There's decent feedback too, with good communication between the front wheels and the tiller, which can result in entertaining and eminently rewarding driving experiences because the car tracks magnificently through bends. Even though the steering is of the "variable electric power assisted" type, it offers decent feedback and doesn't have the overly assisted feel that some new European cars do. Indeed, this thing is responsive, composed, and heaps of fun.

And the brakes? Best in class - no contest. With moderately sized 320mm vented front brake discs, the key to car's prodigious stopping power are the imposing Brembo calipers. The Mégane Sport 225 can wash off speed with such alacrity and immediacy it's quite intimidating at first, but ultimately reassuring. And because they're Brembos, brake fade is rarely a problem. They have an excellent feel through the brake pedal as well, with predictable if somewhat stiff modulation: they fall somewhere between relatively sensitive and calmly progressive.

As if the Brembo brakes, large 18-inch wheels and twin exhaust systems weren't enough to convince onlookers that this car is very serious about performance, anyone who sees the car filling up at the petrol pump may notice the very cool motor sports fuel filler. It's got more in common with the Aussie V8 Supercar fueling system than a standard performance car. There's no screw on caps, no lids, just a spring loaded entry point that's prised opened via the petrol bowser nozzle. It's much cooler than most systems, has less chance of dust contamination and as there's no cap that needs to be unscrewed or removed it's super quick to fill up.

So there's the pros, but what about the cons? Well, there ain't that many, truth be told. If I was to nitpick, there's quite a bit of wind noise coming from the wing mirrors at highway speeds, plus there's some tyre noise on the highway, and the front A-pillar can be a touch chunky when looking through right-hand corners. What else... Oh, when you're hustling it along a fast clip, the turbocharged nature of the engine can send fuel consumption sky high and there's the torque steer problem, but in all it's a very tidy package.

Driving the Mégane Sport 225 is less like driving a normal hot hatch and more like driving a Mitsubishi Evolution VI, and one of the key's to its performance is it's fairly light weight: a 1361kg kerb mass is not to be baulked at for a car with this sort of power. In comparison, the Holden Astra SRi Turbo weighs 1401kg and the Ford Focus XR5 Turbo comes in at 1437kg. 

For better or worse, the Renault Mégane Sport 225 has an uncompromising suspension setup that will communicate every nuance in the road through the chassis, it's got quick-fire throttle response and a strong turbo engine, while body roll is virtually non existent. It's a raw experience at times, but the performance capabilities of this hot hatch are impossible to dismiss. It's quicker in a straight line than it's rivals, it handles corners, switchbacks, and chicanes with effortless ease, and the brakes? Glorious. No other hot hatch offers Italian-made Brembo brakes as stock, and though it's more expensive, I reckon the extra money is justified. 

Engine: 4/5

If I was to describe the Renault Mégane Sport 225's engine in one word, it'd use "strong". It's not the quickest car in the world, but as far as the hot hatch market goes there are few that have the same feel.

Peak power of 165kW (255hp) @ 5500rpm is respectable for a 2.0-litre turbocharged engine with an air-to-air intercooler, but the real kick comes from the 300Nm of torque @ 3000rpm. This gives car the Mégane Sport a addictive amount of acceleration from quite low in the rev range, and even though peak power arrives at 5500rpm, the engine will happily spin another 1000rpm beyond this to its 6500rpm redline.

Though it doesn’t have as much power as some of the hot hatches on the market, and doesn't have a fancy direct shift gearbox like the Audi S3 and Volkswagen Golf GTI, on the road it feels remarkably quick. So, it's not as powerful as some of its rivals, but the way it uses the available muscle power is very efficient, as the gearbox and front differential do a great job of putting the power to the ground. The highly rigid front end may also play a small part in this.

Renault claims a 0-100km/h sprint of 6.5 seconds, which sounds fast on paper, but the car felt quicker. We were thinking sub 6.0 seconds, so we decided to independently test the acceleration benchmark and we clocked a time of 6.15 seconds. Not bad for 300Nm.

Another factor that makes the car feel quicker is that it has a fairly quick revving engine, and unlike some other turbo engines doesn't feel restricted or restrained. Once the tach needle gets half-way round the dial, the engine note rises surprisingly rapidly and won't quit until you near redline. 

The strong turbo surge that drives the car faster and faster initiates at about 3000rpm and doesn't quit until you reach about 6000rpm. It’s one of the strongest turbo rushes this side of WRX STI, while still having a very tractable mid-range.

Once the engine's warmed up after some hard driving or a few hours in the saddle, in first gear you can sink the boot and the front wheels will grip nicely until about 4000rpm, which is when they start to spin, giving it an awesome "power-down" feel. It's also got quite a chatty character too, with a subtle whistle as the turbo spools up, a slight 'puff' as the waste gate vents turbo pressure, and even a few backfire pops and bangs here and there.

Fuel efficiency is pretty good too, with a claimed 8.8L/100km on the combined city/highway fuel cycle, and with a 60 litre tank this equates to a good cruising range. Our final figure was another litre higher than that at almost 10L/100km, but we flogged the thing to bits, so in retrospect that's a pretty good rate of consumption considering the stresses the engine was under. 

On the freeway the engine marches at 2250rpm in sixth gear at 100km/h, which helps the car achieve its low fuel consumption rate. In conclusion, I reckon Renault's 2.0-litre intercooled turbo engine is one of the finest hot fours on the market.

Exterior: 3.5/5

The standard Mégane hatchback could be described, on a good day and from a distance, as an odd looking car. And at worst? A modest looking European car with a hideous rear end. Indeed, the rear end of the Mégane has for some years been the butt of more than a few automotive jokes, and rightly so. It's looks putrid.

But the Mégane Sport 225 is a slightly different bucket of camshafts. Though it's based on the Mégane hatchback, the sports model is lower to ground and has a much deeper body kit giving more road presence, and fitted with multi spoke 18-inch alloy wheels it has a determined - as opposed to wonky - look and feel.

The body kit is comprised of side skirts and deeper front and rear aprons, with large air intakes at the front to feed the boosted 2.0-litre 4-cylinder engine. The sporty front end also gets blistered fog light surrounds, giving the car a touch more machismo, and the front-mount air-to-air intercooler adds a bit of street cred too. 

Flared wheel arches add a bit of oomph in the visual department, while at the rear there's a twin exhaust system that highlights this as something more powerful than the standard Mégane.

The headlights look pretty swish with xenon projectors in there, and this helps elevate the car being merely dropped and kitted to something with a bit of style. And really, the photos are a bit illusory - it actually looks quite brawny and tough in the flesh, which is backed up by the engine's fiery nature, with the odd backfire, whistle and pop letting other drivers know you mean business.

Interior: 3.5/5

As with most performance oriented vehicles, the most important bits are in front of (and beneath) the driver, and the instrument cluster in the Mégane reflects the car's dynamic nature. The tachometer numerals, for example, are printed in an increasingly larger font up through the range, so while the the numbers 1, 2 and 3 are quite small, 6, 7 and 8 are massive. It's a small detail, but it fits in well.

The seats are rather sporty too. Finished with classy looking hand-stitched leather of a middling quality it offers good haptics, while the side torso and lower thigh lateral bolsters of the seat do an adequate job of holding bodies in place when the G-forces rise under hard driving. 

However, there is one shortcoming to the seats, and though you get used to it after a while, I found the overall seating position to be a little high. The adjustments available (all manual) include height adjust, but even in it's lowest position the driver's seat still delivers a perch of sorts. It’s not a crucial issue and does happen to give you a presiding view of the road ahead, but it may irk some drivers.

Overall interior room is pretty good, and though head room suffers (especially for taller people), everything is on par. The rear seat room is somewhat cramped, but not impossible to utilise if you push the front seats forward slightly, and the 330 litre boot has enough width for a small bodyboard and even a mountain bike (sans front wheels) with the rear seats folded down.

The stalk controls either side of the steering column are back-to-front in typical European import car style, but ergonomically speaking the car's interior is quite sensibly laid out. The handbrake is especially cool modeled in an aviation fashion, but things like the volume control on the centre console lack the intuitiveness they so dearly need -- though I suppose the steering wheel audio controls make up for this.

Cruise controls on the steering wheel are simple and efficient, and the steering wheel itself is slightly-smaller (and sportier) than most and even has a motor sports-inspired red 'mark' at 12 o'clock. It also has dual sensitivity settings, one for slow speed manoeuvring for parking and whatnot, and the other for high speed cornering, and the wheel is tilt and reach adjustable.

I mentioned in the intro that the car is more expensive than three choice rivals from Volkswagen, Ford and Holden, but part of this price premium can be seen in the extra features, including a whopping eight airbags for improved safety, climate controlled air conditioning, rain sensing windscreen wipers, and a 6-speaker, 6-stack CD stereo system. The usual suspects are also there, including trip computer, illuminated vanity mirrors, and eight cupholders. You'll never get thirsty driving this thing.

Overall: 4/5

The Renault Mégane Sport 225 is indeed a modern day hot hatch - it's frugal, relatively affordable, easy to drive, and remarkably powerful. Though image is not one of the car's strong suites, it more than makes up for this aesthetic deficit with an alarmingly high level of performance. The Golf GTI and Focus XR5 Turbo are very good round corners, and the Astra SRi Turbo is decisive in a straight line, but this French-built hot hatch eclipses them all. 

With the even more powerful Mégane F1 R26 coming to Australia in June 2007 - the hard core version of this already rapid hatch - Renault is building a strong hot hatch range, and though the Mégane won't elicit the same levels of fascination as the Golf, Astra, and Focus on the showroom floor, out on the road it's a very different situation.

Not only fun to drive but rewarding too, the Mégane Sport 225 packs a meaty punch from its turbocharged engine while it's rigid chassis provides the perfect platform for high speed handling. In terms of the way it performs at the limit, I've yet to drive a better front-wheel drive hot hatch. It really is that good. And the brakes? Brembo brilliance. They are without peer in the hatchback market segment.

Surprisingly, the Mégane Sport 225 looks a whole better than its non-turbo Mégane stablemates too. The standard model looks a bit crook, but the Sport 225 with its chunkier body kit, 18-inch mags and the xenon headlight front end combine to create a far more acceptable look. As well as this, it's one of the safer hot hatches on the market, with heaps of airbags, an advanced ESP system with understeer control and plenty of luxury features in the cabin. In all, an entirely impressive hot hatch.