WHAT IS IT?
The New Mazda3 comes in a dazzling array of models. Six petrol versions alone are available in either hatch or sedan. All come with a choice of either six-speed automatic or six-speed manual transmission – the latter a refreshing option given so many car manufacturers have dumped the third pedal gearbox.
All three base options – Neo, Maxx and Touring – come with a 2.0-litre four-cylinder engine, while the higher grade SP25, SP25 GT and SP25 Astina models are blessed with the more powerful 2.5-litre. That’s 24 permutations of the same model with prices ranging from $20,490 for the entry level Neo through to $35,490 for the Mazda 3 SP25 Astina.
The Touring Hatch auto, tested here, costs $27,290 (before on-road costs).
Mazda’s ubiquitous 3 definitely offers something for everyone in the small car space.
STRENGTHS
This is a good looking hatch. Like its very big brother, the Mazda CX-9, Mazda’s 3 sports a fierce front fascia and a sporty wide stance, giving the car a planted and stable appearance.
The Touring’s leather seats gives this car polish beyond its price tag. Other goodies include push-button start, rain sensing wipers, power mirrors and dual-zone climate control.
Steering via the thick, leather wrapped tiller is sharp. More leather encases the shift lever giving even the lower grade models a sporty and classy feel.
The Touring comes with an easy to use, intuitive multi-media system and a 7.0-inch touchscreen that also offers click-wheel controls.
Thanks to relatively small (and welcome) 16-inch wheels, the suspension is exceptionally smooth over the inner city’s many speed humps.
While the boot only manages 308L, it’s easy to use thanks to the hatchback function and folding rear seats. This driver managed to manoeuvre a 145cm folding clothes horse into the rear without unnecessary swearing.
Claimed fuel consumption is a class-leading low 5.8L/100km. The reality, over more than 160km of stop-start city driving, was closer to 9.3L/100km.
WEAKNESSES
The direct-injected 2.0-litre four-cylinder petrol engine generates just 114kW of power and only 200Nm of torque – much less “zoom-zoom” than desired. Overtaking at freeway speeds isn’t easy in the smaller-engined models.
For an extra $400 drivers can upgrade to the 2.5-litre SP25 powertrain with necessary extra oomph (138kW/250Nm).
The 3’s forward A-pillars are well positioned, but rearward’s C-pillars create a substantial blind spot. These make both changing lanes and reverse parking a challenge. Fortunately the Touring includes safety options like Blind Spot Monitoring and Rear Cross Traffic Alert (which notifies drivers who are backing out of a garage or parking space if there are vehicles in the way).
To reduce fuel use, the Mazda3 is fitted with i-STOP (idle-stop) technology which switches off the engine when the car comes to a halt. To the uninitiated intermittent silence from under the bonnet can be unnerving.
Second pew passengers are treated a bit like an afterthought. Squeezing three adults in the back is a push. Even three kids will struggle to get comfortable. Inexplicably there are neither air vents nor adequate storage in the rear. For example there’s only one back-of-front-seat storage envelope – on the left-hand side.
The cockpit is a little noisy. What’s louder? The Touring’s engine noise or the doof-doof playing in the car next to me at the lights. Point is, you can hear both. The Mazda3 could do with some of the excellent insulation Mazda bestowed upon its CX-9.
RIVALS
The Hyundai i30, which was the number one selling vehicle in Australia for four consecutive months in 2016. Japanese rival the Toyota Corolla is cheaper but offers both less power and boot space.
LEXUS has taken the wraps of its latest race car, and it is an absolute corker!
Built for the Japanese SuperGT series, the Lexus LC 500 race car will compete in the flagship GT500 category against the likes of the Honda NSX, and Nissan GT-R.
The unveiling of the LC 500 racer precedes the car’s arrival in global showrooms, with the road car not expected to go on sale until next year.
The racing LC 500 will replace the Lexus RC F GT500 when the RC F’s competition campaign finishes at the end of 2016.
Power (estimated to be over 447kW) is delivered by a 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbo engine built to the global ‘Class One’ regulations, designed so SuperGT and DTM can one day compete against each other on the same track.
Tipping the scales at just over 1000-kilograms, the LC 500 racer will be a swift beast. A six-speed sequential gearbox feeds power to the rear wheels.
But forgetting all that, just look at the thing! SuperGT cars are absolutely stunning, and the LC 500 is one of the best. You can’t go wrong with a side-exit exhaust in the door!
Lexus has a strong history with SuperGT, which is the national touring car/GT category in Japan. Together with Toyota, which started competing in 1996 with the Toyota Supra, the pair has won 13 GT500 and GT300 championship titles between them.
Five Lexus RC F GT500 cars currently compete in the SuperGT championship, with Kiwi Nick Cassidy piloting for the factory Team TOM’S.
Citroen is bringing back the iconic CX executive saloon, albeit as an advanced comfort concept that’s set to make its debut at this year’s Paris Motor Show.
The plug-in hybrid Cxperience concept is stacked with modern design notions that bring a modern take on the last of the big Citroens.
However this is no retro-concept. Apart from the single-spoke steering wheel and concave rear window, there’s little in common with the iconic originals. You can see the family resemblance, though it’s not quite as delightfully eccentric as the science-fiction inspired CX sedan, wagon and shooting brake designs from the mid-1970s and ’80s.
Citroen insists it’s still unconventional with aerodynamics that “overturn established codes” with its very low roofline, two-box style rear-hinged doors and controlled air intakes – mobile flaps designed to open and close –integrated with the front bumpers to assist aerodynamic performance and manoeuvrability.
It’s designed as a true “cocoon” that filters out the outside world along with the bumps and dips of the road. Instead of the original CX’s hydropneumatic self-levelling suspension system it employs a progressive hydraulic cushions advanced module that filters out bumps.
The interior includes generous, body-hugging seats made from flexible shape-memory foam and invoke a “living room” mindset. The front seats feature tapered backrests and openwork headrests to provide greater visibility for rear passengers.
Driving is assisted by a head-up display while system and infotainment functions are controlled and displayed on a large 19-inch rectangular display screen in the middle of the dashboard. Cameras replace mirrors, providing a 360-degree view of the car’s immediate surroundings.
The Cxperience is powered by plug-in petrol-electric hybrid technology which similar to that found in production PHEVs. The petrol engine develops between 110 and 150kW with up to 80 kW (109bhp) of additional energy provided by the electric motor. In all-electric mode it has a city range of 60km.
The 3kWh battery can be charged in just a few hours, from 4.5 hours with a standard charging system to less than 2.5 hours with an ultra-simple charging solution based on a 6.6kW charger designed for connection to a 32Ah socket.
First published in the July 1978 issue of Wheels magazine, Australia’s best car mag since 1953.
Ford’s third-generation Falcon, the XC, provided Wheels with the perfect opportunity to reflect on the car’s 20-year evolution.
IT CAME In September, 1960, the first real competition for the Holden and virtually doubled Ford’s share of the market in 18 months before the truth became apparent and the lousy durability became obvious end plunged Ford into the red.
In 1960 the XK Falcon was a very modern car if you used the FB Holden as a yardstick. It was wider and longer, and up to the minute in terms of its huge glass areas, almost flush lower body/green house and that low bonnet with the headlights included with the grille.
Holden’s FB, in contrast, was a quaint collection of Chevrolet styling circa 1955 to 1957 with semblance of tail fins and that terrible wraparound windscreen.
The Falcon offered automatic transmission as standard and it both outperformed and out handled the Holden … until the suspension and clutch began to deteriorate.
In concept, the Falcon was Ford of America’s answer to the European cars which were pouring into the USA in the late fifties. Introduced in late 1959, the Falcon, General Motors’ rear-engined, aircooled Chevrolet Corvair, and (a couple of months later) Chrysler’s more powerful Valiant did stem the imported tide until the home grown compacts grew in size. For Ford Australia, the Falcon was the answer to the Holden it had been looking for. Ford Zephyr was the right size and specification, but it was too expensive. The Falcon was different. And so it proved. An instant success, it suffered badly after the honeymoon was over but then a masterful development program which improved the durability once more turned Ford ‘s fortunes and made the Falcon Australia’s top seller in 1977.
In concept the car has hardly changed, superficially anyway. It is still about the same size and still has a water cooled six cylinder engine — in the most popular basic form — up front and driving the rear wheels through a three speed manual transmission with steering column gear change. Weight has gone up by almost half as much again and this has forced substantial increases in engine capacity if only to maintain the same performance level. That alone improved it. Of course, economy has suffered with every increase in weight and engine capacity.
The model range and the choice of options has grown enormously. Today you can build your own Falcon and have the choice of a fleet operators’ special or a quite grand touring car with standards of braking, acceleration and roadholding beyond the dreams of the engineers who created the Falcon as an economical, compact car. For Australians the Falcon will live on for at least another five years. The present car, which grew out of the 1972 XA will be replaced by the XO in April/May 1979. That will be the last all-Australian car to come from one of the major manufacturers. So, before the present Falcon disappears from the showrooms we thought it appropriate to drive the three stages of its development. Yes, change Is progress in most areas.
“Because we live very much for the present it is easy to overlook the real achievements of the modern car … few products have improved as much.”
“THEY DONT make cars like they usedter, mate.”
Thank God!
A direct comparison between the 1960 XK, 1967 XR and 1978 XC Falcon showed the enormous changes which have been forced on Ford. Subjectively, the image has changed from a discreet, gentle American abroad, through aggressive Australian to a transparent attempt at copying European sophistication. A car enthusiast who’d been kept in suspended animation for 20 years when confronted by the three cars would be excused for thinking Australians had changed genetically as well as socially.
The XK we used for the comparison became an XL during the morning. For the purposes of the story this hardly matters since the two models were virtually identical apart from the rear roof line. We collected the XK from Clive Philip Motors on Sydney’s infamous Parramatta Road at Homebush. The car was rough and running on five cylinders because it hadn’t been prepared for sale. After struggling with an automatic transmission which refused to change out of first gear, we were stopped by a motorcycle policeman who didn’t see the humor in the mobile bushfire with bald tyres.
The XL was straight, clean and performed well considering its alarming thirst for fuel and oil – largely due to its five-cylinder engine.
lt was a tired old car, but at $499, honestly represented. The first few minutes was spent deciding if it was horribly worn out, indescribably bad, or just representative of the standards applicable to 1963. The next hour driving to the photo location was spent assessing worn components and mentally restoring them to determine the standards of the day.
As a Futura, the XL offered a significant touch of European design – bucket seats. The first thing we noticed was the lack of travel in the seats. They didn’t move far enough to the rear for a comfortable driving position but did leave plenty of room in the rear. Our suspended animation enthusiast has an immediate impression of a man with conventional legs and extremely short arms.
And the bucket seats – what a revelation they were back in the early’60s! Holden’s EJ Premier was talked about as a “sports car” because it had bucket seats. In fact, the Falcon’s seats aren’t buckets, just separate seats, but the beggars of 1963 couldn’t be choosers. A sports car was a car with separate front seats, so the Futura was Ford’s first attempt at the Aussie Supercar based on a mums’n’dads model.
On the road, the two-speed (Tree-bar) transmission is remarkably good. Although there’s lag of about 1000rpmbetween drive and overrun, the transmission locks easily and the car moves quite quickly. Bearing in mind the car we were driving was running on five cylinders most of the time and blowing more smoke than the Adelaide Hills in February, the performance was still enough to keep the car up with the traffic of 1978.
It must have been a boomer in 1963.
Considering the brakes were unboosted and pretty basic, they work well at conventional traffic speeds. However, unassisted brakes on a single line system would be more dangerous today than in their hey-day. With power boost, tricky pads, ventilated disk brake cars standing on their bumpers two metres in front, you need more than cocoa tins for stopping in 1978.
The XL may have looked low and lean in 1963, but in reality it is low and leans. All it needs is a pinball TILT light on the dash to accentuate the severity of body roll in mild corners and a rope for the rats to leave the sinking ship when driving briskly. If you don’t believe the degree of lean on an old Falcon (albeit with very ancient shock absorbers), try remembering the advertising slogan for the XM. It was “Trim, Taut and terrific”. Even Ford knew the worst.
After our short time with the XL it was easy to see why the XK/XL Falcon became popular so quickly. Handling isn’t significantly worse than any other Australian cars of the era, and performance is definitely better and it looked far more modern than the Holden. The clutch and suspension problems had yet to rear their ugly durability head.
The XR became arguably Ford Australia’s first real supercar in its GT form. A fully imported 289 V8 engine with floor gearchange (another sports car feature), separate seats, trick paint, tyres and suspension. It burst on the scene with a conclusive win at Bathurst in 1967. By today’s gentle powerhouse standards, it is still a hot-rod.
Ford didn’t have provision for a floor gearchanger on the production line, so the GT had a hole in the floor, cut with an oxy torch. The gear linkage, held together with a makeshift collection of plastic washers is very sloppy, although its owner (Mac Douglass, Editor of sister magazine TWO WHEELS) says new washers improve the gearchange considerably.
The test car was prepared for Bathurst but never raced and has lasted the 10 hard years of driving well. Rattles have started to show and the silent muncher has left his rusty stains in all the predictable places – more so than in the XL.
Once the delightful 289 V8 burbles into life it’s easy to understand why the first GT had such a dramatic effect on Aussie supercars. It lives and breathes machismo demanding almost the same physical prowess and compromises of a pre-war sports car while hiding behind the appearance of a family hack.
It’s a car for men.
The XC1/2 is a car for everyman. Progress brought about by the success of the XA marketing program and dwindling Holden sales (more Holden’s fault, not Ford’s genius) gave Ford the confidence it needed to embark on a large number of improvement programs. How many of these have been spurred on by market reaction, stiff overseas competition, cash in the till from good sales or an honest belief in building better cars is hard to determine. The end product, however, bears virtually no relationship to the two earlier models we drove although it still follows the same basic engineering layout. No design revolution here.
Now that our suspended animation enthusiast has been resurrected to the world of 1978 he can be truly amazed that the three cars can be made by the same factory.
The steering wheel fits without pressing against his chest, controls are lighter in some cases, heavier in others (steering) and the overall feel is one of balance. The relationship between the controls has moved closer to a harmony with the needs of the body to exert as little effort as possible while feeding back enough information for the b5ain to make more accurate decisions. Oise, vibration and harshness have been attacked at the engineering level not the olde worlde English method of thick padding and Oak veneer. Panels are designed so they don’t resonate, and rubber bushes have been designed so they don’t transmit the frequency they are isolating.
The XC1/2 is subliminal technology. There’s no contest between the three cars. It is quieter, quicker, more comfortable and fits the human frame better in temperament as well as shape. The XR may be more responsive but the compromises of driver strength and car noise is intolerable. However it does use more petrol, visibility isn’t anything like as good as the XK/XL and it does cost more.
Ford has come a long way since the XK first challenged Holden’s supremacy in this tiny market. Changes haven’t moved as quickly as we would have liked, but the size of the Australian market hasn’t left much room for elaborate research and development. If Ford hasn’t succeeded with the XC1/2 then it is due in part to imitation of the features of many European and Japanese cars which have worried the local builders for so long.
And imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
Check out Wheels Archive online now for other great Ford Falcon features and more from decades past!
Simply log in here using your existing MagShop account or create a FREE account and select this article from the homepage.
Don’t have a MagShop account?
Have a MagShop account?
THE Northern Territory’s newly elected Labor government will re-instate a 130km/h speed limit on unrestricted stretches of the Stuart Highway, marking the end of a controversial five-year trial.
An unnamed spokesman for newly elected government of chief minister Michael Gunner told Wheels’ sister site Motormag.com.au that work to reinstate 130km/h speed limit signs on a 300km stretch of the highway would “start soon”.
It comes after the Adam Giles-led Country Liberal Party, which reintroduced the derestricted zones as part of a trial of open speed limits, was unseated in a landslide election result at the weekend.
It slams the door shut on more than four years of trials on a stretch of road that to date has only accounted for one, non-speeding related, fatality – after a car towing a caravan travelling at well below the speed limit ran off the road.
“Our policy which we have taken to several elections now is that it [Stuart Highway] should be 130km/h,” the spokesman said.
“There will be no open speed limits under Labor. We’re backing calls from experts in the field like the [Northern Territory] Police Association and the AMA [Australian Medical Association] who have called for 130km/h to be brought back in those zones.”
The spokesman said there was pressure on the government to lower speed limits to 110km/h to be more in line with other state and territory governments, but said the 130km/h limit was “reasonable”.
The derestricted speed zone does not mean drivers can push their cars as fast as they will go; police can still issue a dangerous driving penalty if the speed they are travelling at is deemed unsafe for their car or the conditions.
A Labor government introduced a 130km/h speed limit throughout the Territory in 2006. The Adam Giles-led Country Liberal Party was elected in 2012 partly on the promise that it would reintroduce the open speed limit on sections of road deemed safe enough to handle higher speeds. The first trial was introduced in 2014 to a 200km stretch of the Stuart Highway, and later extended to cover more than 300km of the road.
Giles told Wheels in the lead-up to the election that his government was looking at other roads in the territory that could also have an unrestricted speed limit.
In the lead-up to last weekend’s election, road trauma doctors banded together to lobby the Northern Territory government to scrap the unrestricted speed limits on safety grounds, claiming money spent on the trial would be better spent on drug and alcohol-related problems in the NT.
McLaren’s Boullier suspects the change in technical regulations will play into the hands of Ricciardo and Verstappen.
When you’re on top, the last thing a team needs is a rule change.
But after dominating Formula One from the start of the1.6-litre V6 hybrid era in 2014, and winning the constructors’ titles since (and en route to do it this year), Mercedes-Benz understands that to change the technical regulations could threaten its dominance.
History shows that Adrian Newey has a wonderful record in rising to meet the challenge of newly introduced regulations.
Considered one of the best engineers in Formula One, his creations have won over 150 grands prix. His cars have won more constructors’ championships than any other – 10 – and across three different teams.
Six drivers have won drivers’ titles with Newey’s designs.
After designing championship-winning F1 cars for Williams F1 and McLaren, Newey moved to Red Bull Racing in 2007, his cars winning the drivers’ and constructors’ championships consecutively from 2010 to 2013.
We always figured that Newey’s genius would be a wonderful asset as he goes about conjuring a Red Bull contender for next year’s championship.
The faster, edgier 2017 F1 cars could also suit some drivers more than others. It’s no surprise to hear that McLaren racing director Eric Boullier is one of a number of people in F1 who fear that Red Bull will be the team to worry about in the redrawn contest presenting for the 2017-and-beyond F1 scene.
“For me, I’m more scared of Red Bull than any of the others because I know they can develop a car,” Boullier told Autosport.
Boullier does sense Alonso will be satisfied with next season’s cars which due to their increased down-force and better rubber will have way faster cornering speeds.
Every driver will be happier, insists Boullier, who expects the rules will allow the big F1 talents to really shine.
Top End intelligence was clearly short lived following confirmation a 130km/h speed limit would soon be re-instated on the Stuart Highway in the Northern Territory.
With the Country Liberal Party suffering a loss at the weekend’s NT elections, a spokesman for the incoming Labor government has confirmed that work to erect speed signs across the current 300km derestricted zone north of Alice Springs would begin “very soon”.
After a long period without speed limits on the Stuart, Labor installed 130km/h speed limits when it was last in power in 2006. The following Country Liberals most recently led by Adam Giles abolished the limit for a 200km stretch north of Alice in February 2014, and after finding there were no speed-related fatalities in the following 36 months, in July this year it extended the derestricted zone by a further 100km.
Clearly, however, speed limits have now become a game of tit-for-tat between the parties.
“Our policy which we have taken to several elections now is that it [Stuart Highway] should be 130km/h,” the Labor spokesman confirmed.
“There will be no open speed limits under Labor. We’re backing calls from experts in the field like the Police Association and the AMA [Australian Medical Association] who have called for 130km/h to be brought back in those zones.”
Outgoing NT chief minister Adam Giles brought a clear pitch to the election that only the Country Liberals would retain open speed limits, and following road upgrades he wanted open speed limits on an entire 1000km stretch of highway north to Katherine.
“Make no mistake, if Labor is elected on August 27, Labor will remove open speed limits and slow Territory road transport, just as they would slow down the economy,” Giles said prior to the election in a statement.
However, the Country Liberals suffered an 18 per cent swing against what would become a one-term party, leaving Labor’s Michael Gunner to win in a landslide and become the new NT chief minister.
The Aussie SUV’s name could live on after production finishes.
Ford could continue the Territory nameplate on the imported Ford Edge SUV that arrives in 2018 – but only if the company can’t leverage the rights to the Edge name, which are owned by Toyota in Australia.
Ford Australia marketing director Lew Echlin says the Territory name is one under serious consideration for the five-seat SUV set to bolster Ford’s SUV ranks almost a year after the seven-seat Australian-made Territory disappears.
“We wouldn’t put Territory off the table,” Echlin says, adding that it is one of a number of names that would be considered if Edge was unavailable.
Ford has formally approached Toyota about acquiring Australian rights to the Edge name.
It’s understood the approach came to an overseas division of Toyota through Ford’s US head office.
Toyota Corporate affairs manager Beck Angel said she “wouldn’t rule anything out” regarding the Edge name.
“We’re currently considering our options.”
Despite confirming the Edge – whatever it is called – will arrive in 2018, Ford is refusing to detail the lineup.
That means it won’t directly replace the Territory – and it will leave Ford Australia without a car-based, on-road-focused seven-seat SUV; the Everest is based on the Ranger ute and is designed for serious off-roading.
The Ford Territory was first introduced to the Australian market in 2004, and the locally produced SUV will cease production with the closure of Ford’s manufacturing in Australia in October.
Ford has opened its newly arrived Sync 3 software up to independent app developers with the aim of increasing the software available to drivers.
In a model not dissimilar to Apple’s App store – whereby Apple provides the hardware and encourages external developers to create the software before approving it to make it available – Ford wants external companies to create software for its cars.
“We’ve made the software not only available but there’s AppLink emulation software that we’ve opened up to Australian app developers to allow them to develop apps for Sync 3,” said Ford Australia’s marketing director Lew Echlin.
“We’re not being precious about it. We want to make sure that emulation software is given to anyone who’s developing apps for Sync 3.
As part of the AppLink emulation software, Ford will allow developers to access a “limited set of data” from within the car, including distance, speed and when a car is refuelled.
The new Sync 3 system is a major revision of Sync 2 currently available on most new Fords.
It drops the quadrant display – which broke the display into four virtual spaces for different functions, such as phone and audio – and introduces a new three-tile setup said to be more intuitive to use.
SYNC3 also has conversational voice activation calibrated to understand Aussie accents which requires fewer steps to issue a command via Siri Eyes-Free or with the previous voice control system.
It also better understands how we refer to places, such as businesses and points of interest, by not using exact or official names that we probably don’t even know. For example you can now ask for directions to “Sydney Airport” instead of “Sir Charles Kingsford Smith International Airport.”
Renault’s third-generation Megane RS is dead – but long live the king of front-drivers that after almost exactly six years remains the benchmark for the stuff we love as drivers.
In marketing terms the Megane III RS 250, 265 and 275 will always be remembered for their ability to tame Germany’s famous Nurburgring circuit. Previously in June 2008 the big-bummed Megane II RS R26 set a front-wheel-drive production car record after the plastic-windowed stripped-out hot-hatchback set an 8minute 17second lap.
Fast forward three years and a production Megane III RS 265 complete with glass windows and a rear seat, reduced that time to 8min 8sec – and the limited edition 8:08 was born.
Seat would then snap at that record with its Euro-only Leon ST Cupra 280 at 7min 58.12sec which forced Renault Sport’s hand to create in June 2014 the Megane III RS 275 Trophy-R and snatch a 7min 54.36sec record.
Since then, Honda has busted the Civic Type-R around the ‘ring in 7min 50.63sec followed by Volkswagen with the Golf GTI Clubsport S at 7min 49.21sec – but neither made it to Australia and particularly in the latter case we only get a watered-down 40 Years edition.
Renault Sport, meanwhile, served Australia more examples of the 275 Trophy-R than any other country bar one, a 50-unit haul at $61,990 driveaway. So, really, the others can eat the Frenchie’s RS.
The range started from $41,990 (plus orc) and included a 184kW/340Nm 2.0-litre turbocharged four-cylinder (25 per cent new compared with Megane II) and six-speed manual transmission, with a standard front limited-slip differential all together capable of sprinting the Megane III from standstill to 100km/h in 6.1 seconds.
Even a circa-$50K all-wheel-drive Golf R only had 188kW/330Nm back then, and it would take a good driver of a $60K Focus RS with 224kW/440Nm to keep a Megane III in sight.
Steering, gearshift, brakes – each an extension of limbs in a very Porsche-like way.
It isn’t often in this game that a model that comes out in October 2010 is still setting benchmarks approaching October 2016, but drive the Megane III RS 275 today and those traits are still virtually unmatched in a vehicle that still asks $44,000 (plus orc).
Of course there were – and are – options, the most popular of which being the 19-inch Steev alloy wheels with particularly sticky Bridgestone Potenza RE050 tyres, and Brembo brakes and Recaro sports seats either cloth- or leather-trimmed depending on the grade.
Of course the turbo grunt, front LSD and a clever steering axis that virtually eliminated torque steer, all meant that driving the Megane III hard through its front-end was possible, placing power promptly where other fast, flaky front-drivers would crumble. But the magic of this Renault Sport was also a rear-end that loved to get involved in the action.
That trait was no more evident than with the stripped-out two-seater Megane III RS 275 Trophy-R limited edition. With its burbling Akropovic titanium exhaust, Ohlins multi-tier manually adjustable dampers, lightened kerb weight particularly at the rear, and 19-inch Speedline Turini red wheels, it was the icing on what was already one yummy cake.
There are myriad hot-hatchbacks in the market these days, but even the likes of a Golf GTI 40 Years or Peugeot 308 GTi 270 struggles to match the Megane III’s raw engagement and feel. Arguably, its smaller brother the Clio IV RS has mis-stepped in these regards, particularly with automatic-only availability (and a dull one at that).
Rumours have long circulated that the forthcoming Megane IV RS will be auto-only but Dieppe-based Renault Sport engineers have soaked in enough Clio IV RS ‘feedback’, media pestering and rival-watching (hello, manual-only Focus RS) to surely not make the same mistake twice.
Within a year or so, we’ll know, but for now it’s farewell to one of the world’s finest hot hatchbacks…
