The Renault Megane RS Trophy doesn’t usually come last in comparos against rivals, but this time it did. It lost to the SEAT Leon Cupra 280 and the mighty new Honda Civic Type-R.
Autocar pitted the cars against one another on the small Llandow circuit, just outside Cardiff, in Wales. The SEAT went first and it set the second fastest time of the day, followed by the Megane (whose brake pads may have needed changing, according to Steve Sutcliffe) and narrowly beaten by the new Honda.
The Civic didn’t humiliate its opposition, although it was quite a bit faster than the Megane, and it also fell short of either car in terms of character. Apparently, it’s really effective in a clinical kind of way, so if you want some waywardness, you’re better off with a Ford Focus ST or even Vauxhall / Opel’s answer to the hot hatch dilemma.