Renault Mégane RS 275 Trophy-R vs Clio RS 182 Trophy and RS Spider: Renault Sport's greatest hits

So often when old cars gathered together to drive like this, split at the end of the day tinged with sadness. Not only because a good day driving a borrowed car has ended but also because the car you are left have been replaced by the gnawing feeling that will not go away.

The truth is that for all their technical excellence, modern cars are often just not fun to drive as their ancestors.

How could they? Customers have spoken and they have gone down so hard on the side of the mass augmentation of safety systems and convenience features that soften under-generational shift toward cars that happily trade the driving pleasure for ease of use has emerged.

Yet through it all, the two have little voice begged to differ. Two voices have said that no matter what kind of car someone else to produce, even if it included the same companies that badge of our responsibility, we will be different. We will never lose our edge, never betray the values ​​that made us great in the first place. We will defy convention, and while others are content to weigh anchor and go with the flow, we will remain chained to the primary mission of making cars for those who just like to drive. One of the voices belonged to a Porsche, or, more specifically, the motorsport department makes 911 GT3s and Cayman GT4. Another voice was that of Renault Sport.

They may occupy very different slots on the market, but the philosophy is the same. Porsche so hot from all eras are often made appearances in the automotive press, we think the opening of extreme Clio RS16 makes this a good time to celebrate the best - or at least, what we expect to be the biggest - the car of Renault Sport.

The question is where to start. As an entity, Renault Sport has been around since the mid-1970s and Renault sport for much longer. It has mastered motor racing all the way from the rally and hillclimbing for touring cars and Formula 1, winning the Le Mans all the way. But we'll start with Spider, not only because it goes to the production of a good, neat 20 years ago, but also because it is the first road car to bear the Renault Sport badging. At the other end of the time frame came last year Mégane 275 Trophy-R. And in the middle? We found the Clio 182 Trophy, was chosen because, well, we can.

As a statement of intent for the new generation of the Renault Sport brand, Spider could hardly make it clearer. It looks like a giant insect of some dystopian future, low-slung piece of automotive art post-apocalyptic, all forms curved and graze scissor doors and practicality. There is a road-going with and without glass windows and others in one-make race series contested by the likes of Jason Plato and Andy Priaulx. It's been a long time since I last drove one and it was fun to see him waiting on Welsh hill for me. I remember driving a Caterham through the night to reach the launch of the Spider in the south of France and steaming directly into the twin tests. I tried not to remember how bad the Renault lost. In addition, we are not here for the analysis of the main on-limits. We are here to drive a big car in the streets of big, and what could be better for it?

As it happens, quite a lot. I never know why some older cars that are much better than you remember and others even worse, but I think it's related to the fact that if the car was good when new, talent becomes enlarged over time, and if it wasn 't, you can say the same for his mistake.

Unfortunately, Spider losses fell to camp. You sit too high in the car, which is odd, seeing how low slung it. Instruments that are difficult to see, the steering is too heavy and the driving position is clearly sub-optimal. 2.0-liter engine has 148bhp but, placed into a car weighing nearly a ton before things like the optional glass fitted, do not even give a stirring performance. It's still flat angle and lure fast, but there is not enough to feel the chassis, too clonky gearshift and brakes are wooden in feel to make you want to really push it. And if you're not going to drive like that, you have to ask what are you even doing in the car. The bottom line is you need a bloody good reason for putting up with all the personal property such as cars imposing, and the sad truth is that Spider can not provide them.

So we switched to the Clio 182 Trophy, the car which, to many, is the ultimate version of the Clio most pure heat. Furthermore, Renault Sport Clios based on third-generation platform that heavier, more comfortable and less focus, even before obtaining a turbocharger, paddle shift and electric power steering of the current generation, but the second-generation cars are nearly perfect.

182, you may recall, is the first significant upgrade of the original hot Renault Sport Clio (as opposed to the Clio 16V and Williams from pre-Renault Sport). Introduced in 2004 to replace the Clio 172 is still very good, it received a 10bhp power hike and twin exhaust and can have in the Cup specification with lowered suspension and a distinctive bodykit. But Renault also produced 500 Trophy-spec cars mainly for the UK, which is far and away the best market (and 25 for Switzerland). It displays more hardcore suspension with, in particular, super-trick Sachs dampers with remote reservoir-inspired competition. They were all red and all logos Trophy done. At that time, it was our favorite hot hatch for sale.

Unlike the Spider, the time has not tired of it. At all. Actually, the car is quite surprising: surprisingly capable and surprisingly pleasant. If you want to feel young again, forget facelift Harley Street; Trophy is much more effective, it may be cheaper and it will make people look at you for all the right reasons.

First, you see the machine and how, above 4800rpm, the cam profile that changes the character completely, throw you up to 7000rpm and beyond. Then you notice how crisp gearchange and, finally, the class chassis. This is a car that begs to throw oblique angle to the throttle and steered through by foot only. For the humble hatch, agility is hypnotic, with the feel of another world. standard Cup car is almost as good but does not have a cap (and the accompanying price).

The Mégane Trophy-R, however, is on another level. While the Clio is a toy, Mégane is a pure weapon.

Anyone with common sense would avoid additional costs were very large and were destroyed practicality and stick to the Cup 275-S, which at least have a seat at the back. But if you want anything, I'd argue, is the maddest original hot hatch has not been sold - crazy enough to make the Volkswagen Golf R looks like a member of the pipe and slippers brigade - Trophy-R's. You can spend hours researching the specifications, including springs front composite, fully adjustable suspension with Öhlins dampers, a limited-slip differential that is, titanium Akrapovic exhaust and lack in anything you might routinely categorized as a 'tool', but you can get much better sense of what this all means in the first minute you are on the road.

No question, there is a bona fide supercar that will not stay with this, grip, compact dimensions and agility lizard-like in the real world makes any deficiency has 'only' 271bhp might bring. You'll need a truckload of amphetamines to bring more speed than this, a reputable cosmetic surgeon not to put a huge smile on your face. Blasting through the gears and heard the blow up fuel neatly into the exhaust between each shift was fun in itself, but the way dampers provide body control track-correct car while riding acceptable quality that distinguishes the Mégane's on the car front-drive charge a license plate I have encouraged. Considering how humble its basics are, including torsion beam rear axle, the car is a marvel of engineering.

This story was never intended to be a history of Renault Sport. There are many others to consider as well. Instead, think of this as a snapshot of three, designed to demonstrate the scope of the ambition of Renault Sport is the last 20 years, from the Sportster purpose-built, passing, accessible affordable pocket rocket, to probably the most focused of all hatches. I must be honest and say I was disappointed with the Spider, but Clio and Mégane were amazing. It seems silly to pick a winner among so many cars separated by time, the concept and price, but if it is a winner you have to have, Mégane it should. Why? Because it is true that this is not what they used to be. In the world of Renault Sport, if not elsewhere, they've actually become better. Long may it stay that way.

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