Next Megane RS will look very different: Renault

DESPITE the relative success of the Renault Sport Megane three-door hot hatch, the firebrand front-driver is set to morph into a more mundane five-door body style when it is released in 2017.

It will follow other hi-po hatches into the five-door space, including the VW Golf R, Ford Focus RS and Peugeot 308 GTI.

As well, the new-gen Megane RS is likely to receive a new powerplant and transmission combination, with Renault Sport’s vice president in charge of sales, marketing and communications, Regis Fricotte, suggesting that the 2.0-litre turbo four under the bonnet of the current car is at the end of its development cycle.

“That (current) engine was good in terms of what it could do in an RS, but it is an engine that is not suitable for further development in terms of consumption and CO2,” he told Australian journalists at the launch of the fourth-generation Megane in Portugal.

“It (the next Megane RS) will have an engine that will develop the performance we want. We have never had a car with the biggest engine.

“The priority is to make the next RS a great car. With all the previous Megane RS, we have shown that power does not make the best car. Your engine output is part of the equation but not everything.”

Mr Fricotte suggested that a five-door body style would present no real difficulties for the Renault Sport team.

“There is no limit to what we can do,” he said.

“It makes it a bit awkward if you take out the rear seats of a five-seater, I agree with that. But apart from that a Trophy R is weight reduction and optimisation of performance brakes, suspension, engine gearbox. You can do that on any car where you have the base and you have the ingredients to make it work.

“So the fact it is not a three-door doesn't restrict us technically at all.”

Reanult Sports’ Clio RS models have made the leap away from manual gearboxes, featuring instead a Renault-developed dual-clutch transmission. Mr Fricotte would not be drawn on whether the fourth-generation Megane RS would go the same way, but believes the answer lies in the sales success of the new Clio RS series.

“Some customers have asked us why, for the kind of reason that they want to be at 6000rpm most of the time,” he said. “And the guys with Clio RS, there are some customers who really liked to take that car on a circuit and you may have more sensation with a manual than with a DCT. But we are selling more Clio RS now that before.

“I'm sure there would have been some customers that wanted a Clio RS with a manual, but we believe we have made the right choice.”