Mégane RS Trophy R

Renault has an obsession with the Nurburgring lap time and they just can’t stand it when someone else owns the FWD lap record. This is when they become their most creative and built the most extreme car they can. No costs spared.
Right of the start, the Trophy R looks a lot punchier than a standard Mégane. All 500 produced units are painted in white with some red bits here and there. Even though I do like them paying homage to the original Mégane R26. R with the spec, I do think that it looks like a matchbox car. Especially the wheels are a bit much because people will ultimately assume that you‘re a pretend racing driver, which actually is pretty accurate. But let’s take a closer look at the car and let’s forget the spec for now because there’s many other things which make it look a lot better than a standard RS. The new carbon fibre hood vent and the cutouts not only give it a race-car look, but also help with cooling, apparently. At the front, the RS styled fog lights had to give way for more intakes, because, well… cooling again. I honestly have to say that I adore those new intakes as I never really was a huge fan of the RS fog lights. On the rear, we get a huge carbon rear diffusor and a set of lovely titanium Akrapovic exhaust pipes. On the outside that’s about it with new parts if you go for the basic spec Trophy R. But if you’re loaded and don’t know what to do with your money, you could go for the optional carbon ceramic pack, which will only cost you 29’000 of your hard earned Swiss Francs. For that amount of money, Renault will fit the car with carbon ceramic front brakes the size of the moon and strap a set of full carbon wheels to where the rear seats are supposed to be on a normal Mégane.

While we’re on the topic of missing rear seats, it might be worth noting that the Trophy R weighs around 130kg less than a standard Mégane, which is mainly achieved through, well you guessed it, removing some stuff. And because Renault knows that people who only care about going fast around a track usually don’t have any friends, they took out the rear seats and made it a storage for your lovely set of second wheels.
Even more weight was shedded by using some carbon here and there, removing the rear wheel steering system, fitting a full titanium exhaust, lighter batteries, fixed rear windows, no rear windscreen wiper, and some other bits. All of this makes the car weigh 1306 kg which for a hatchback this size is extremely light. And you can feel that.

Even though the car was ultimately made to be driven around tracks at full speed, I mainly used it for my daily driving about. And I have to say that it’s a lot of fun to use on a daily basis even though your spine will be turned into dust every time you go over a grain of rice. But hey, that’s just part of the experience. Explaining that to all your back-hurt passengers might be a litte difficult tough, but you could just fix that problem by removing the passenger seat as well. You’ll save even more weight. And while we’re on the topic of the seats, I have to say that I adore the Sabelt seats in the Trophy R. They look fabulous and are a joy to sit in. Position is perfect, they hold you in place no matter what and they are surprisingly comfortable. But back to daily driving the Trophy R. All in all it’s great. The infotainment system is simple but works, visibility is good and it’s lovely to use in traffic as it’s very nimble and responsive.

I always claim that a great car has to feel great at all times, because many cars are fun when going fast, but only a few are fun when going slow. The Trophy R is exciting on every occasion and makes even the dullest commute exciting.

Now as fun as the daily driving in the Trophy R was, I still wanted to know how it felt on a fast stretch of road. To do so, I took it to France in the hope of some lovely roads with great weather. Which wasn’t what I got at all. What I got was foggy, wet and leafy roads, which wasn’t great for driving but resulted in some lovely images. Nonetheless, I was able to push the car a bit to it’s limits and it’s one of those experiences which are hard to put into words.
It’s all in the little details of the experience. First of, changing gears manually adds a whole other level of involvement and the satisfaction you get when rev-matching on a downshift or bang in 4th is unmatched. Next, the responsiveness of the engine is astounding as it pulls nicely out of every corner and keeps on pulling until it redlines. And even though it’s “only” got 300HP, it makes them available at all times. Plus I feel like this is the perfect amount of power for the car as it still is manageable around some twisty roads.
Once you’re up to speeds you’re not supposed to on public roads, the carbon ceramics slow you down in a way I can’t describe. It sort of feels like you drive into an elastic net which instantly pulls you to a halt. Seriously. The way the carbon ceramics stop is unbelievable.
Amazed by the way this car goes and stops, I kept on climbing the foggy roads and dug into every corner with joy. The car is so connected and responsive that it feels like it does exactly what you want it to do without any lag. The steering is perfect in weight at all times and the suspension does a great job with keeping the car flat around the corners. What an experience!

How to sum up such a car? Is it great? Definitely! It’s one of those cars that will go down the books as a modern classic and I’m eternally grateful that Renault even built such a car. But would I buy one? I honestly played with the thought of owning one of these in a few years and to use it as my only car. I might wrap it in the classic RS yellow and paint the wheels black to make it a bit less childish. I’d go on a few driving holidays in it, attend some track days and just enjoy driving it everywhere. But then again, I could have a very similar experience in a regular Trophy. Plus I’d save a shitload of money.