By Sean O'Grady
Another week, another special-edition French hot hatch. Lucky me. Last time, I was charmed by Citroën's relatively mild but very stylish "C4 by Loeb" that celebrated Sébastien's and Citroën's success in the World Rally championship. Only partly sated, I'm now confronted with Renault's full-on Mégane.
This one seeks to trumpet Renault's success in Formula 1. Obviously French car companies enjoy crowing about their motorsport achievements. They spend all that money and they'd like a little of it back in publicity terms. Can't blame them, really.
The Mégane is a thoroughbred, so I suppose it's only right that it has the sort of name you'd normally see on a Kennel Club certificate: the Renault Mégane Renaultsport 230 F1 Team R26 Limited Edition. Try getting all that on the registration papers.
Anyway, "confronted" is the right word for an encounter with this vehicle. There's yellow and there's Renault hot-hatch "Liquid Yellow". I knew I'd seen this screwball shade somewhere before: it was on the old Clio Renaultsport V6, the one that was so mental they put the engine in the boot and turned Nicole's shopping hatch into a two-seater missile.
This Mégane's a bit crazy, too.
Let's see: 170kW, about 10 percent more than a Golf GTI; a limited-slip differential, although it's front-wheel drive; stiffer springs and suspension; modified exhaust; six-speed gearbox; huge Brembo brakes; high-revving two-litre petrol engine with 16 bouncing valves. Oh, and a turbocharger, naturally.
All that translates into a car that's a little too hot for my tastes. I'm a wimp - I actually like traction control and anti-lock brakes and electronic stability control and all the modern devices that keep one out of trouble. I'm not the type to press the button that turns all that kit off, or certainly not at the Mégane's 235km/h top speed.
I concede that you might wonder why automakers design ever more potent cars and then fit lots of computer gadgetry that stops the driver exploring their full potential. You want to go mad and they encourage you by boasting about all that power, but as soon as you decide to let rip, some microchip under the bonnet poops the party.
The idea of the Mégane's limited slip-differential is that it's a different way to keep you out of ditches. It's mechanical, so it's more appealing than a chip; you can build a relationship with it. It works, up to a point.
Easier drives
This is "the most driver-focused hot Mégane yet", according to Renault. It's got lovely huggy Recaro seats and it looks striking. It's a bit of a handful, though.
There are much easier drives on offer for £19 570 (about R274 000), not least the Golf GTI. I mean, how badly do you need to join in with all this French chauvinism? - The Independent, London