Renault Teases With Another Hot Megane

Save the date. The boffins at Renault Sport is preparing a big surprise for us motor heads. A teaser video have been uploaded on Youtube, showing a hot Megane doing some really quick flying laps in the Nürburgring Nordschleife. Not much is known about the car other than it is a very quick Megane. However at the 0:22 seconds mark into the teaser video, a Megane R26.R is seen driving away, and in comes the new Megane. So it does hint to a successor to the highly acclaimed Megane R26.R. All will be revealed on 17-June 2011.

The northern loop of Nürburgring is no longer just a mere test track. It has since transcends its existence from being just an old racing circuit to an independent marketing brand on its own. No performance car can be taken seriously until it has proven its mettle in the Nürburgring Nordschleife. Renault Sport is no stranger to the Nordschleife. Back in 2008, Renault Sport's previous Megane R26.R set the lap record for front wheel drive vehicles; a time of 8 minutes 16.9 seconds.

The Megane R26.R, still the lap record holder for FWD cars at the Nürburgring Nordschleife.  

Some French websites have posted insider news that the upcoming hot Megane will not wear the R26.R badge, but will instead wear the Trophy badge. The Trophy badge will be positioned as an upgraded, more exclusive version of the Cup cars, i.e. Megane 250 Cup. The previous R26.R was a rather extreme track focused machine. One which requires the driver to climb inside a lattice of roll cage structure and strapped down by racing car style 4-point seat belt harness. Rumour has it that the upcoming Megane Trophy will spot uprated suspension (still biased for street use), 19" alloys, 271 bhp (up from 250 bhp in the Megane 250 Cup) and will be limited to just 500 units. A bulk of the right hand drive units however have been allocated to the UK market. Despite not being a successor to the R26.R, the lap record is rumoured to be 8 minutes 9 seconds, 8 seconds quicker than the hard core R26.R. But these are just speculation, full details will be revealed on 17-June 2011.

I like how Renault is upping the bar for hot hatches. VW may have created the whole hot hatch genre with the Mk1 Golf GTI, but VW, being a more higher volume focused company with a premium positioned badge, have to live up to certain expectations. The Golf GTI is an extremely accomplished car and is such a good all-rounder that its probably the only car you will need. But that success also means that it has to fall to marketing trap of having to appeal to the fat blokes yuppies with the money - where the bulk of the sales are. As such, the Golf GTI, or even the higher priced Golf R, is a technology gizmo la-la land. Because yuppies dig these kind of stuff and if VW wants to appeal to this crowd, it has to build the car in a certain way. Accomplished? Yes. Fun to drive? Not quite in the same league as a Renault Sport Megane 250 Cup. VW can't build eccentric cars that appeals only to small group of petrol heads. Their cost structure and the way the company is structured does not allow them to get away with such frivolous spending easily.

Renault, via its performance arm Renault Sport, is a bit of an underdog. And one of the advantage of being an under dog is that there is less pressure to conform or to meet certain expectations. Under dogs have greater freedom to do what they want. So let's enjoy the moment while it lasts, before the bean counters come down hard on the "money wasting programme," engineers and marketers of the Renault Sport programme have to "justify" their spending, before the brand grows big enough to attract management's attention, who will then want to milk the Renault Sport brand for all its worth to help sell regular Renault cars, rather than spending more money on it.