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How Much Faster Is the New Megane RS Than the Old Megane RS 250?

If you're a fan of hot hatchbacks, this summer is all about the new Renault Megane RS. We've seen it drag race a bunch of rivals (i30 N, Civic Type R, etc), compete against a Focus RS for lap times and get compared to its predecessor.
How Much Faster Is the New Megane RS Than the Old Megane RS 250? 1 photo
Photo: YouTube screenshot
That last video was important because it allowed us to compare the Megane RS 280 against the old 275 Trophy model. However, we still don't know how the current standard car compares to the old one.

If you want French car footage, you're going to have to put up with French videos... even though the Megane RS is now built in Spain using tech from Nissan at a factory that's been tweaked by Mercedes. But you get the point!

By "standard old car" we are referring to the 250 horsepower mode, which was the least powerful of the 3rd-gen model, but still outclassed the Golf GTI of the time. Of course, the new model is going to smash the old one, even though they went for a slightly smaller engine.

We're actually surprised by how much faster the 280 horsepower model is, considering the previous drag race stated that a 275 HP trophy would actually catch up at higher speeds. Each car here has something working in its favor.

The older one is way lighter, and we're talking several passengers here. Meanwhile, the newer model is way easier to launch. Many cars with launch control, FWD and twin-clutch gearboxes are tricky off the line, but the 2018 model has the perfect amount of traction. It's so easy to drive that even your grandma could win this race.

If you don't want gearbox robots to take all the fun out of driving, you can still buy a base manual Megane RS. The only problem with that is Renault kind of messed up the clutch pedal. The electric power steering is twitching and doesn't have the feel of the old one. Yeah, even though it's slower, we'd get the old Megane 3 RS, especially when it's about three times slower by now.

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About the author: Mihnea Radu
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Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida.
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