Renault Megane RS 275 Trophy 2015 Review

Renault's Megane RS takes me back to the original Honda Integra Type R, which is probably the earliest exemplar for the French car I can recall. Like the Renault – in this case the RS 275 Trophy – the Honda was noisy and raw, in a very calculated way.

Renault is still tweaking that rawness in the latest hot-shoe Megane. The importer kindly hooked us up with an RS 265 the week before to provide a basis for comparison. While the newer car delivers enhanced output worth 10hp courtesy of its Akrapovic exhaust (hence the change from RS 265 to RS 275), it's a little more civilised in a couple of areas.

The gearshift is just a bit more user-friendly, and there's no longer the same need to bludgeon the Megane into a higher gear. The RS 275's gear shift is significantly lighter and faster to use, providing more precise shifts – although the long-throw lever remains.

Ride comfort is a smidge improved from the RS 265's ride quality – over smaller irregularities at least. It goes without saying, however, that the newer car remains a hard-riding machine by most standards. The Bridgestones fitted were noisy on coarse-chip country roads too, it should be noted.

Other changes include the migration to Recaro bucket seats in the front, and an Alcantara-bound steering wheel. The Recaro seats – with built-in side-impact airbags – are thinner and even more aggressively bolstered than the seats in the RS 265. Initial doubts they would be as comfortable were quickly dispelled. Despite the hard shell, they're padded in all the right places. I would happily drive the Megane to Perth in seats like those. They retain the excellent seat return memory for rear-seat access too.

The Alcantara-bound steering wheel rim was warm and provided plenty of grip; it was a significant improvement on the 265's – and the wheel in the older car was hardly indifferent. A reversing camera was a blessing in the newer model, especially with the Megane three-door's deplorable rear three-quarter field of vision.

Just as important as the points of difference between the two cars are the virtues and vices in common.

Like the RS 265, the upgraded sportster's music streaming dropped out infrequently – occasionally losing one of the stereo channels. And the RS 275 retains the 265's LHD market niggles – to wit, the handbrake lever near the front passenger seat and indicator/wiper stalks reversed.

The graphics for the 275's instruments left something to be desired, I felt. The red calibrations on a grey background (for the tacho redline and high engine temperatures) were hard to pick out, and the shift indicator light (a shade of green) was also barely conspicuous at times.

A heavy week in traffic yielded fuel consumption of 12.8L/100km. For the week before, the RS 265 acquitted itself significantly better, posting a figure of 11.1 – thanks to considerably more time spent on the open road. This is indicative of what the RS 275 could achieve in more favourable circumstances.

In character – and notwithstanding the added boom from the RS 275's exhaust – the two cars are similar in the way they deliver their power and torque. The RS 265 is a little easier to live with day by day, and it makes a better fist of responding immediately when the idle stop-start system cranks it up after the light changes to green. In both cars the engine power builds beyond 3500rpm and really opens the taps above 4000.

The engine is a gem in either guise, with truckloads of torque for easy driving around town and zero labouring, even at sub-1500rpm speeds. At 100km/h it sits comfortably at around 2400rpm in sixth gear, without making its presence felt. But let it off the leash and the turbocharged 2.0-litre is all 'storming the trenches' drama, reaching the redline in next to no time followed by an almighty 'woof' on the overrun and a little chime to alert the driver of the need to shift up a cog.

Launching the car for optimal acceleration is a bit of an art. Too many revs/too much throttle and the wheelspin will defeat the driver's best efforts to replicate the nominal 6.0-second 0-100km/h time. A gently-gently approach is just too slow. Finding the right balance is the problem. No wonder that the RS Meganes really strut their stuff on the 23km north loop of the Nurburgring – where almost all acceleration is on the move, and traction from a standing start is a lesser consideration than in-gear performance.

The gear shift was not the nicest example of its kind in either car – particularly through the dog leg from second to third. It detracts from the rest of the car, which is a genuinely involving track weapon that also happens to be practical as an every-day commuter car when required.

For all its rough riding, the Megane RS 275 clung on and remained stable through corners, even with substantial bumps and potholes that would be expected to throw the car off-line. Trail-braking into a corner induced faster steering response – not necessarily to the extent of full-blown oversteer, but the Megane was very lively turning in nonetheless. It also mustered prodigious grip to hold the line through corners even when the turbo was well and truly on boost and the car was channelling over 300Nm through the front wheels.

Sooner or later, the Megane was prone to wander across the centre line (in a left-hand bend) with the power applied, but the car's suspension tuning was so effective that you could just haul on a bit more lock without even easing off the throttle.

Brakes and tyres did feel overwhelmed by the Megane's performance potential, but in any car with lower performance they would have felt safe and secure. The brakes were strong and would break the tyres' grip (briefly) if you stomped on the pedal hard enough.

Yet for all the focus on driving, the Megane is a passably practical car for every-day commuting too. It's easy to climb in and out, and the boot is useful and deep. Quality is generally good, although the RS 265 driven a week earlier seemed to have led a hard life, with sundry rattles and squeaks prevalent. There were no such issues with the RS 275, however.

Both cars impressed with the tactile subtlety of the wiper and indicator stalk operation. They were softly damped – almost too softly. The lane-change facility required a delicate touch at most. Pedals were well placed and the driving position worked well. I personally felt the instruments – canted backwards away from the driver – were a style statement I could do without – and the tacho has already been found wanting for readability. But on the plus side, the trip computer offered plenty of useful functions, including a digital speed read-out to complement the analogue dial.

Ultimately, however, the RS 275 Trophy is all about the driving. It's a little bit of 'ten-tenths-at-the-Ring' – even when you're locked in traffic for the nightly commute home.

Renault Megane RS 275 Trophy pricing and specifications:
Price: $52,990 (plus on-road costs)
Engine: 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbo-petrol
Output: 201kW/360Nm
Transmission: Six-speed manual
Fuel: 7.5L/100km (ADR Combined)
CO2: 174g/km (ADR Combined)
Safety Rating: Four-star (Euro NCAP, five-door model)