Renault Megane RS 265 Red Bull RB8: Small Performance Car Comparison 2014

The limited-edition (only 120 were made available for Australia) Renault’s interior leans towards premium and focuses on the driver.

The rear seat, MINI style, is better for occasional accommodation and day-to-day use (although the door opening is bigger than the MINI). And thanks to those coupe looks, the driver has only a limited view of what’s happening in the rear three-quarter C-Pillar area.

The 344-litre boot is deep, and the 60/40 split-fold helps expand load space to normal hatch proportions – although the floor is quite high-set to contain the space-saver spare.

With its raspy 195kW engine, 19-inch wheels, liquorice-strap 235/35-series tyres and assertively firm suspension, you shouldn’t expect the Megane RS 265 to be as quiet inside as an S-Class Benz, nor to ride as comfortably. It doesn’t.

It’s a neat fit into the high-performance category, comparable with the rest of this group, and cossets driver and front-seat passenger in no-compromise style with its heavily-bolstered Recaro seats.

Fit, finish and finesse
Tight bumpers, consistent panel gaps and a lustrous paint finish initially impressed our judges. However, on closer inspection, the paint’s softer finish showed many signs of scoring, and bug and tar damage, that had left the deep finish scarred against the reflection of the sun.

The neat under-bonnet finish and clean door jambs presented well, as did the hard-textured plastics used extensively throughout the cargo bay, secondary interior surfaces and on the door cards.

A mix of textures and quality upholstery lifted the feel of the interior. The dashboard contributed with its soft-touch top, though the angled instrument panel created parallax error for the driver, exacerbated by the use of odd-number increments on the speedometer.

Pleasingly, the Megane 265’s carpets met well with the sills and sat neatly in the footwells. The edgework around the Renault’s plastic trim pieces was also impeccably finished, with not a raw edge in sight.

On the road
It’s fair to say the Renault Megane RS 265 was the pre-event favourite to take out this category.

“It’s undoubtedly the most focused car here,” said Youlden.

“The way the seats hug you, the ride, the flat cornering and the shove [in the back under acceleration] are all track biased. There’s a honed feeling to it… Although it’s really noisy inside!

“There was some surprising understeer in the longer corners, and power-down wasn’t what I expected. The limited-slip diff needs to lock more aggressively,” he continued.

The Megane RS 265 recorded the shortest 60-0km/h stopping distance (13.9m) in this company, though the discs overheated after several hard laps. It was also only 0.2sec off the all-wheel drive WRX in 0-100km/h acceleration, recording a 6.7sec pass.

Road noise, along with the harsh ride and heavier fuel consumption of 8.5L/100km (as tested, ADR Combined is 8.2) on-road scored the Renault down overall.

Overall grip, along with steering weight and feedback, were praised by the road-test team, as was the engine’s appetite to bounce off the redline. It all equated to a lap time of 0:59.46 around the 1.6km circuit.

Connecting our Apple iPhone 4S via Bluetooth was straightforward and reliable with good audio quality both during calls and for audio streaming.

The one-touch power windows are a nice touch, although the engine start button is in an awkward position beneath the central console, clearly designed for left-hand-drive markets.

The steering wheel had just four buttons on its face, all for cruise control, with a satellite audio controller tucked behind on the steering column. The latter wasn't to everyone's taste, but with practice it worked just as well as steering-wheel-mounted buttons.

The Megane RS 265 was also the only car to offer in-depth performance telemetry via its RS Monitor. Featuring SD card and USB slots with data-logging capability, the system featured a GPS stopwatch, brake-force meter, turbo boost pressure gauge, and G-force meters, not to mention a nifty 0-100km/h timer.

Satnav was best described as average and controlled via dial-based input on the centre console which we found to be far from intuitive.

The climate control worked well and the HVAC controls were integrated into a minimalistic cluster. The only problem being that their small text made them hard to read.

Value for money
There are many Renault Meganes in a model line-up that includes five-door hatchbacks, four-door wagons and a two-door convertible. But what is confusing is the fact that on top of that, there are no less than six variants of the sporty Megane RS 265.

Prices start at $36,990 (plus ORCs) for the Limited Edition version and top out at $51,640 for the bells and whistles Trophy+. All are equipped with the rasping 195kW/360Nm 2.0-litre engine and manual six-speed transmission.

Our test vehicle was the $49,990 (plus ORCs) Red Bull RB8 limited edition model that celebrates the team’s F1 successes. It is fitted with a special paint job, plus a few mechanical flourishes including red Brembo brakes, a limited-slip differential and spectacular 19-inch gloss black alloy wheels. The interior is boosted with red stitched leather Recaro seats and the odd splash of carbon fibre.

Standard gear includes xenon lights, TomTom satnav, a reversing camera, parking sensors, idle stop-start, keyless ignition and climate-control.

Covered by a three-year/unlimited-kilometre warranty, complete with roadside assist, the Megane RS 265 also offers capped-price servicing for the warranty period.

It stacks up well in used value too: After one year, a Megane RS 265 typically brings 81 per cent of its new price in the private market.