Nürburgring records can be a bit confusing. Every manufacturer wants to claim that their car is the fastest [something] around the ’Ring – there’s a record time for the fastest FWD car, the fastest coupé, the fastest SUV, the fastest hybrid… more records than you can comfortably name, until it all gets a bit meaningless. What’s more helpful is to benchmark a car’s time against another car’s so you can realistically compare – so try this one on for size: Renault’s recently unveiled Mégane RS Trophy-R has posted a bridge-to-gantry time of 7:40.1, which is identical to the time set by the Lamborghini Murciélago LP640. Alright, that’s not a current-model Lambo, but it’s still a flippin’ V12-engined supercar. Hot hatches shouldn’t be this quick.
How have Renault achieved this miraculous performance? By making the Mégane super-hardcore , that’s how. It uses the same 296bhp 1.8-litre engine as the regular Renault-sport Mégane, but they’ve shaved 130kg of weight and massively improved the aero, as well as radically revising the axles. Its got Brembo brakes, fancy Bridgestone tyres wrapped around genuine carbon fibre wheels, a carbon bonnet with a ram-air scoop, an Akcropovic exhaust, Sabelt bucket seats an Ohlins suspension. It’s basically everything we’d want to do to a Mégane, all done for you by the factory and sold with a warranty. Oh, and did we mention it’s as fast as a Lamborghini…?
