L'Argus magazine states that all RS 280s made after summer-autumn, benefit from the ceramic turbo that Trophy has, along with a different engine map. They even say this information was given to them by the chief-engineer of RenaultSport.

The first version of Megane RS280 had a declared power output of 276 HP, the new one has a declared output of 279 HP. And while 3 HP obviously won't make or break the whole deal, the addition of the new ceramic turbo more certainly will. Ceramic turbos are well known to give much better engine responsiveness, due to extremely low friction, some say that such engines are behaving almost like non-turbo ones, with no turbo lag and power delivered extremely linear, till the red zone.

The reason is the much better and powerful air flux into the admission, due to the decrease of turbo friction that, in turn, translates into an increase of rotational speed. As stated by Renault, the new ceramic turbo can almost reach 200.000 rpm, while a regular turbo almost never reaches 150k (for example, the mighty BMW 3l engine turbo can go anywhere between 70 and 130k rpm), so the increase to 200k (or almost) is quite substantial.

Edited by user 19 March 2019 10:16:10(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

The Golf is a lighter car.

Thank you for nice post. Im very glad i could not order megane in december so i ordered last month. So cant wait to get my 280 RS Cup :D in summer

I doubt it will make any diffrence. They used ceramic bearings is due to the fact that cars made after summer-autumn have GPF filter which is restrictive on gases flow.

It's twin scroll turbo so it's quite responsive with no lag anyway.

Edited by user 20 March 2019 10:58:53(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

I think the rear wheel steering comes on when the Dynamic Driving System setting is set to Race. You can still keep the ESC on any setting you want. I have mine set to sport.

I've taken a shot here (if you can see past the dog hair, he's moulting at the moment )

https://photos.google.co...cDVwUlg4NDJ2S2NKcnhlT2h3

Below that screen is the engine note option too. I didn't mind it when I first got the car, but it soon started to annoy me. I've turned the piped engine note to 'Neutral', and I don't notice it at all anymore. I found 'Sport' too intrusive (and fake sounding!).

Edited by user 21 March 2019 15:16:29(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Like I said, you can set up the whole car however you want in Perso.

The Car has several modes:

Comfort
Neutral
Sport
Race
Perso

Within these (With the exception of Perso), most options are greyed out, and you can only chance engine note, dash colour and dial type.

When you configure Perso mode, you can make your own personal tune set up however you wish (see the photo I posted).
Mine is configured to be exactly the same as Race, with the exception of having the ESC turned on. You can have any combination you want.

This is very good news. Normal aspirated engines (non turbos) have the max torque at higher rpm than turbo engines. The new RS 280 has the same ceramic bearing turbo as the RS 300 Trophy, and because of this (lower friction and really high rotation speed), it makes the engine to behave different than the old version.

I am 100% confident that both torque curve and power curve behave totally different than the old version, as in maximum torque and power achieved at higher rpm.