Megane RS All-Wheel Steering Gets Frisky in Fifth Gear Hot Hatch Shootout

From the narration to the theme and video style, everything feels like it was shot ten years ago, but it's not. The old Fifth Gear crew got together for just one more television series, and they couldn't ignore the hot hatch segment.

Four contenders were brought together, the Honda Civic Type R, SEAT Leon Cupra R, Audi S3 and Renault Megane RS. After each event, one car is eliminated, leaving just two for an epic track duel.

Back in 2010 or so, Fifth Gear shot a similar video, and we thought it would be interesting to share that as well. The standard of horsepower has gone up from "about 250" to "about 300" while prices have also crept up by around GBP10,000.

Getting back to the comparison at hand, it kicks off with an agility test. The Civic goes first and exhibits some lag, followed by the Audi with understeer and the Cupra R with... not enough traction. When Jason takes the wheel of the Megane RS, he experiences some epic twitchiness thanks to the short rack setup and unique rear-wheel steering.

The SEAT is eliminated, despite it being the rarest car in the test. While the Audi manages to hold on by the skin of its teeth, it's later eliminated in the high-speed test. Yeah, it was always going to be between the Civic Type R and the Megane RS. That's the kind of bloody deathmatch people expect from a Fifth Gear video.

The only thing that could have made this more nostalgic is the banter between Plato and Tiff. But I suppose Indian racing driver Karun Chandhok, who participated in F1, isn't all that bad either.