RSS Share 30/03/2007
Autocar Review

Autocar magazine has paid tribute to two Renaultsport superstars, Mégane 230 F1 Team R26 and Clio 197, by giving them top honours against several renowned hot hatch rivals. The competition preamble noted the new Honda Civic Type R could be the car to beat, but Mégane Renaultsport R26 and Clio Renaultsport 197 had other ideas...

The group test followed the familiar pattern of a competition on-track followed by a trip to the winding B-roads of Wales. Jonathan Palmer’s Bedford Autodrome hosted Part 1, where raw performance was rated against price to give a basic “fun-per-buck” ranking, before a showdown between the seven finalists from 14 original starters.

Autocar had its eyes opened at Bedford, “By the performance of the two Renaults, and by the monumentally fast Mégane R26 especially. Renault claims to have made quite a few changes beneath the skin of the R26, the most important of which is the fitment of a proper mechanical limited slip diff. Allied to a 2.0-litre turbo engine that now has a little more poke…the result is a car with genuinely eye-watering performance.”

The judging panel comments on the “devasting” showing by Mégane Renaultsport R26, with grip and front-end control in high-speed corners receiving particular commendation. “In the end,” concludes Autocar, “the Mégane scored the second highest amount of points and had the fifth highest asking price. Which put it top of the table.”

Second place overall went to Clio Renaultsport 197, giving Renaultsport a clear one-two heading to the second stage of the contest. Clio 197 is noted for, “Its combination of value and driver appeal… The perfect recipe, in other words, for a world-beating hot hatch.”

Clio Renaultsport 197 has helped re-define what constitutes a hot hatch, with staggering performance from its normally-aspirated 2.0 16V engine, delivering 197hp at 7,250rpm and maximum torque of 215Nm at 5,550rpm. Based on the powerplant that built the reputation of Clio Renaultsport 182, it boasts a specific power output of 100hp per litre making it one of the highest performing hot hatches around.

As the seven best cars went head to head in Wales, the VW Golf GTi performs well, but, “All it lacked, indeed, was the raw driver appeal of the two Renaultsport models (both of which are deliberately more focussed).” In the final reckoning, only the Audi S3 was able to compete at the level of the Renaultsport duo, albeit as a car costing £7,000 more than Mégane R26 and a whopping £11,000 more than Clio 197.

However, for Autocar, “In the end it wasn’t that big a contest. Because – hold the front page – the Mégane was clearly the most impressive car of the three. It’s a serious bit of kit, the R26, make no mistake about that. And it won’t be to all tastes as a result. But on the roads we drove it on, and at the speeds we drove it, the R26 obliterated its opposition. The true mark not just of how rapid it was, but how capable it was as a package, came when it put clear air between itself and the Audi S3 on our Welsh road.

“Considering how good the Clio 197 is as a hot hatch, and how crushingly effective the Audi S3 is as an A-to-B car, the Mégane R26 is really something else again. It did whatever any of us wanted it to. It accelerated like a rocket, stopped on a sixpence, turned in, gripped. And then disappeared over the next horizon. Physically, metaphorically…you name it, the Mégane did it for us. Which is why it wins this contest, and then some.”

Renault UK would like to thank Autocar for the use of the images featu