While Renault Sport is no longer the king of hot hatches like it was a decade ago, the current Megane R.S. is still a very impressive piece of kit.
We’ve had the chance to drive the current R.S. Trophy on a handful of occasions and absolutely adore it and recently, Henry Catchpole had the opportunity to put the French hot hatch to the test. The Megane R.S. featured here is the UK’s R.S. 300 model which slots below the Trophy in the line-up.
Read Also: 2020 Renault Megane R.S. Trophy EDC Improves On A Winning Formula
Like the Trophy, the R.S. 300 is powered by a 1.8-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine with 296 hp and 310 lb-ft (420 Nm) of torque. However, the R.S. 300 lacks the Cup chassis that the Trophy has. That means it misses out on the stiffer springs, dampers, anti-roll bars, and hydraulic compression stops. It also lacks a limited-slip differential like the Trophy and could be considered as a rival to the VW Golf GTI and Ford Focus ST while the Trophy is a better rival for the Honda Civic Type R and Golf GTI Clubsport.
Catchpole notes in his review that the ride of the R.S. Trophy can be quite unforgiving and having spent a lot of time with it, that’s something we can certainly agree with. By comparison, the ride of the Sport chassis is much more compliant and the lack of an LSD doesn’t seem to be as big of a deal as you may expect.