Renault’s all conquering Megane RS has reclaimed its record as the fastest front-wheel drive production car to lap the famous Nurburgring in Germany.
The French company has revealed that on April 5 the Megane RS Trophy-R set a new, officially approved record and reference time for the compact car segment of production cars on the Nordschleife of the Nürburgring, now a world-renowned race track and proving ground for cars and sports performance.
It covered the 20.600 km in 07’40’’100, and the official whole lap length of the Nordschleife 20.832 km in 07’45’’389.
The Megane’s time is 3.7 seconds faster than the previous front-wheel drive record set by the Honda Civic Type R in April 2017.
To put this in some sort of context, a Volkswagen Golf GTI Clubsport S posted 7:49.21 in April, 2016 and a homegrown Holden VF SS Redline Ute clocked a time of 8:19.47 in April, 2013.
Megane has a long association with the Nurburgring.
It started in 2008 with the very first record in the front-wheel-drive production car category: Megane RS R26.R completed the lap in 8’17’’.
A time that was shattered three years later, in 2011, by the second generation Megane RS Trophy version, in the hands of the car’s driver-builder, Laurent Hurgon (8’07”97).
In 2014, it passed under the 8-minute mark (7’54”36) for the first time with the Trophy-R version of the Megane III RS.
Renault Sport says the new Megane RS Trophy-R does not owe its performance to power alone, since its 224kW engine is the same as that in Megane RS Trophy, launched in early 2019.
Development of the RS Trophy-R focused on three aspects:
- maximum weight reduction (up to 130kg),
- reworked aerodynamics
- a more radical development of its drive axles
The Megane RS Trophy-R will be marketed before the end of 2019 as an exclusive limited edition of a few hundred units.
NOTE:
Until this year, most of the lap times for Nordschleife were registered on the 20.600km course.
Clocking of lap times started and finished at the end of the Nordschleife start/finish straight at T13.
From 2019, however, the official course comprises the whole 20.832km lap, with start and end of lap time clocking at the start/finish line of the Nordschleife track.
It makes the time set by the Renault Megane RS even more impressive.
See here for times of other vehicles
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