2016 Renault Mégane RS 275 Cup-S - why it marks the end of an era

The new Ford Focus RS only confirms the sea change. Its spectacular dynamic ability is proof that handling entertainment needn’t be diluted by the escalation of power and driven axles, but it, too, cannot be bought for less than £31k, plus it weighs the best part of 1600kg and uses up consumables like Elton John gets through flower arrangements.

The Cup-S, in contrast, is arguably the last specimen of an old-fashioned idea: low-weight, low-cost, low-complexity, front-drive fun. A decade ago, the field wasn’t so sparse.

The frolicsome Mk5 Golf GTI was considered a return to form after the mediocrity of the Mk3 and Mk4 and, in 230bhp Edition 30 form, was considered quicker – and better to drive – than the V6-powered R32.

The Honda Civic Type R was in its dainty EP3 pomp; the thuggish Ford Focus ST came with a five-pot engine and the Vauxhall Astra VXR was fast in its own abrasive way.

It’s easy to forget now, but the Mégane of this vintage, originally introduced with 222bhp, wasn’t quite up to scratch (and was definitely thought inferior to the contemporary Clio 182).

The cheaper Cup model improved matters slightly, but it wasn’t until the LSD-kitted 230 R26 that the Mégane hit its stride. Built to celebrate Renault’s success in F1, the car characterised everything we recognise as brilliant about the current Mégane: rigorous steering, an agile, direct and adjustable chassis and just enough power to exhilarate.

Its follow-up showed just how serious Renault was prepared to get. The R26 R produced no more power than the R26, but shed 123kg thanks to a crash diet that famously replaced the glass rear screen with plastic.

It wore trick springs and dampers and could arrive with sticky Toyo track tyres if you wanted. It’s unsurprising, then, that we called it the most hardcore hot hatch the world had yet seen. It broke the Nürburgring lap record for front-drive cars – a feat its descendant, the 275 Trophy-R, repeated five years later.

That car was hollowed out like an organ donor, too. The removal of the sound deadening and the back seats, plus the addition of a titanium Akrapovic exhaust, meant that acceleration sounded like an avalanche punctuated by the pop of a starter pistol.

It was a heavyweight boxer lighter than the standard car. The Trophy-R was the antithesis of its rivals’ slide towards comfort and gentility. I remember emerging from it like a Marine from Belize: chafed, scorched and stained. But I was left invigorated and inspired, too – in a way that no iteration of Golf, Focus, Astra or Civic has ever managed, despite each having appeared at some stage with more than the Mégane’s 271bhp.

So good was the R26 R that we took to grouping it with Lotus Elises and Ariel Atoms.

I can’t think of higher praise – especially not for something based on architecture as humble as Renault’s C-platform (as used by such luminaries as the Koleos and Kangoo). But nor can I think of a more testing ownership prospect.

There were 230 R26 Rs delivered to the UK and just 30 Trophy-Rs – the latter costing the best part of £40k. In its own way, that price was as chronic as paying even more today for an A45 – more so, perhaps.

We lauded it at the time and talk about it in glowing terms today – but I wouldn’t buy one, then or now.

The Cup-S, on the other hand, is a different matter. Rather than being ransacked to the point of rawness, the run-out goes back to basics in an agreeable way – as honest as Aldi and just as likely to make the veneer of respectability in its rivals look vacuous.

The car is almost £7k cheaper than the equivalent Golf GTI Clubsport Edition 40, itself a production-limited, last-orders model meant to see out the Mk7.