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Hot hatchbacks are faster and ever more sophisticated nowadays
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and the Renault Megane RS300 trophy is one of the fastest and most complex of them all right now
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It has adjustable four-wheel steering, a very tricky diff at the front
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and a highly tuned 1.8-litre four-cylinder turbocharged engine that produces 296 bhp and a strong-sounding 295 pounds-feet of torque
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and it costs just a touch less than £32,000. The Golf GTI TCR, on the other hand, is less technical in its outlook perhaps
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but actually costs more than the Renault Sport at £35,305. For that you get 286 bhp from its venerable 2 litre turbocharged engine, a 7 speed DSG whether you want one or not, plus a set of uprated brakes and some dubious looking TCR decals on the doors to go with them
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so key question then which is quickest around the coastal circuit at Anglesey
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golf first let's start the process of finding out feels good the TCR feels quantifiably different from a golf GTI anywhere really but especially on a track
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you've got the auto dsg only that is your only option of transmission which
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in terms of the 0 to 62 time is actually pretty good because you get 5 6 to 60 because it's it
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just works brilliantly when you go off the line but actually around this track the angle seat i'm
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not sure it works as well as a manual because there are a couple of points where it just upshifts
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absolutely at the moment that you don't want it to. And you've got no option
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because you can't kind of hold it against the rev limiter. So that might be a bit of an issue when setting the lap time
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But it does feel pretty tidy on the move It just feels sharper and a little bit more agile
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than a Golf GTI. It's got proper poke too. 286 horsepower, well 290 PS, 380 newton meters
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of torque but it's the brakes that define the TCR probably more than anything else and the front
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end because it's got quite a trick diff it's um it's good it's quick but I don't know exactly how
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quick it's going to be relative to the Renault I suspect it might struggle a bit because the Renault
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has got that little bit extra torque and a touch less weight
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Let's see. Let's get this stopwatch out and find out. 1 minute 22 isn a bad time from the GTI TCR but neither is it what you call a benchmark lap
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The fastest hot hatch we've ever timed around Anglesey is the Seat Leon Cupra Sub 8
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which did a 1 minute 19.1, albeit on far more tripped tyres than either of these two are wearing
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So, could the Renault get anywhere near that time? By the moment you start to move in the began, it feels like a more serious hot hatch
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It sounds like a more serious hot hatch as well, I mean. But it does do that
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It's got this four-wheel steering system, and you can change the characteristics of the four-wheel steering system between kind of normal, sporty and race, which just makes the car more pointy, which is exactly what you want on a track
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It does make it a bit lively like that on turning. If you back off during turning, you are going to have to deal with a gob full of lift-off oversteer
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which is amusing, but it's not very quick. So, what you do need to do is get the whole lot sorted out before you turn in
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so it's nice and neat on the brakes. Kind of drive it a little bit like a 911
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Get all your braking neatly done on the way in. nice and balanced mid-corner like that and then get on the throttle get on the throttle as early
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as possible make use of the diff make use of the four-wheel steering and then the renault does
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it does feel a bit tidy actually after the golf feels more nimble
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feels quicker in a straight line too Nah, sorry, the Renault just feels more agile
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pokier down the straights, grippier in the corners, stops better, it is going to be faster than the Golf
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I predict By how much I don know it feels a good second and a half to two seconds quicker to me So let find out
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In the end, the RS300 murdered the VW's lap time
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In simple terms, it had more grip, better traction, more poke down the straights, and was a lot more adjustable in the corners
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even so the RS was still well behind the Cooper Sub-8's record hot hatch lap time
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to beat that we'll need to come back with the trophy R version of the Megane RS
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which is something we plan to do in the not too distant future
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but until then good though the regular RS 300 trophy is the Sub-8 SEAT remains king of the hill
