The Renaultsport Megane 265 Trophy is the car that Renault hinted at last week in a teaser video. It’s a development of the existing Megane 250 and earns the title of the fastest roadgoing car they’ve ever made.
The name gives a clue as to how much power is on offer, up by 15bhp to a total of 265bhp while torque increases from 340Nm to 360Nm. The increases come from a revised ar intake and increased pressure on the turbo. With a power-to-weight ratio of 191 bhp/ton the Trophy will reach 62mph in 6.0 seconds and hit a top speed of 158mph.
Unfortunately the Megane Trophy is a limited run of just 500 examples worldwide and only 50 of those will be available in the UK. The price of such rarity is £27,820, with order books opening on June 20th for deliveries starting at the end of July.
So seeing as Renault are asking us to fork out £3,800 more than a 250 Cup, what are we getting for our money apart from a modest power increase? For a start the Trophy uses the same Cup chassis – no bad thing, but you can’t charge a premium for the same equipment.
What the Trophy does add as standard is the nifty Renaultsport Monitor, a dash-mounted tool that allows you to monitor all sorts of information, from lap times to g-forces. Also on the inside are a set of Recaro seats with yellow seatbelts and detailing.
Next are the styling changes – Liquid Yellow metallic paint returns to the Megane range as a colour exclusive to the Trophy, with the only other colour on offer being Diamond Black. There are red Trophy decals on the front and sides, and the only optional extra is to have the roof painted in Diamond Black (for £415).
The wheels are a new design, 19-inch Speedlines painted in black with a contrasting red rim. Not to everyone’s taste, but they’re certainly distinctive. Wrapped around those Speedlines are a set of Bridgestone Potenza RE050A tyres, one of the latest performance tyres that offers exceptional grip in both the wet and they dry.
Probably the best part of the package is that you get free access to all of Renaultsport’s track day events in 2012, worth around £650. This’ll give you the opportunity to test out the Megane’s renowned chassis in it’s natural environment, taking in some of the UK’s best tracks including Brands Hatch and Silverstone.
So now we know what mods Renault have applied to the Megane, the big question is what’s happening next week. On the 17th June Renault are holding the official launch of the Megane 265 Trophy at the Nurburgring, where its believed they will be trying to break the hot hatch record held by the old shape Megane R26.R. Should be interesting!
