PARIS, France – The latest Renault Megane RS Trophy R is, its maker says, ”the most high-performance production car we’ve put on the market”.
The cars have their roots in Renault’s motorsport story and, the automaker says, ”perpetuate the record-breaking Mégane RS with the technology and knowhow Renault Sport has developed on the racetrack”.
This the latest Megane RS Trophy has the same 1.8-litre, 224kW, engine as the Trophy version so no net gain there. Instead Renault Sport looked elsewhere and focused on three main spheres of development.
REDESIGNED SUSPENSION
Drastic reductions in mass. Bye-bye to the rear seating and hello to (optional) carbon wheel rimsand an Akrapovič titanium exhaust line which together shed 130kg from the Mégane RS Trophy without options.
There’s also a redesigned suspension. Front wheels have greater negative camber; there are adjustable Öhlins shock-absorbers, Bridgestone Potenza S007 tyres , and high-performance brakes via Brembo carbon-ceramic discs as an option.
Aerodynamics have been improved with underbody fairings and a carbon diffuser and additional thermal control has been added to the air intake and brake cooling scoops.
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This im,provements were checked by stopwatch – which, after all, is what really counts: a record for a front-wheel drive production car was achieved on April 5 2019 by the car on the 20.6km of the Nordschleife at the Nürburgring – 7min40.1.
It also clocked up a reference time of 7min45.389 on the official full lap of the circuit: ”extreme performance, bearing in mind the margin of progress is increasingly narrow at such a level”, Renault says.
The new Mégane RS Trophy-R will reach Renault dealers in selected global markets before the end of 2019 – but only 500 of them.
Renault fans in South Africa need to make some phone calls…
Carman's Corner 