So I met up with a mate of mine today and we took the Megane and his 308 GTI out for a blast. We had a swap round for quite a few miles of twisty back road driving and well the car was a total blast. Maybe unfair to compare such a modern car with what I suppose is pretty old tech now in the Megane but here’s my thoughts anyway on driving the two back to back. It feels light. Really up on its toes and ready to go. That makes it lots of fun and pushes you on to enjoy the chassis and really throw it into corners. The LSD then allows you to get on the throttle really early through the corner. The suspension is really well judged. Drive slow and it’s comfy, push on a little and it hunkers down and stays really composed. The engine is very punchy and feels way more powerful than the official numbers suggest. It had a mongoose exhaust fitted and with that it sounded epic. Way way better than the Akrapovic on my trophy. Really deep aggressive noise. Not as many pops and bangs as the Akra, but overall a better sound. The brakes are absolutely brilliant. Made it feel like my brakes had failed when I got back in the Megane. The pug brakes are huge and so effective you just have massive confidence in them. Yet even when you brake hard the car stays quite flat and again very composed. Nice interior with good seats, and looks great on the road without being shouty. All in all it’s a very nice car, and a lot of fun. It was very nice of my friend to let me have a go.
It's always good fun testing other people's cars. It either makes you love yours or hate it and want to change. Can't say I've seen many of these about. It doesn't appeal to the badge snobs
Thanks that is interesting. I have had my eye on these mostly because they are superb VFM compared to other current options at the 1yr mark, especially ex-demostrator and very low miles pre-registered etc. I don't know how they did it but even the cars that have been weighed are still 150Kg or so lighter than the competitors. This alone will make the power feel much more than the numbers suggest as they are way lighter than a recent Megane. How did you find the steering feel and the control weights, pedal placements etc.?
Very few of these around. The average car reviews it gets probably doesn’t help. The reviews always say how good it is but never call it a great car. Seems under rated to me.
Yeah I think the lack of weight is the key to why this car feels so much fun to drive. My mate says it’s due to the front suspension being specific to the gti, it has aluminium front arms etc. Steering feel is good. Feels a bit more assisted than the Megane but your used to that after two corners. It feels good. And no dead spot on centre at all. Had to change my heel toe a bit as the throttle map isn’t like the sport setting on the Megane which only needs a tiny nudge to bring the revs up. The pug needed more of a press, but again soon used to it. Then I was over blipping back in the Megane haha.
You are probably going to struggle to actually buy a poor hot hatch these days. Cant think of any real dogs.Even the Kia is pretty,and competent on the road.
He didn’t say much about the Megane other than it’s basically a racecar for the road. Which I guess compared to most cars it is. And that it’s possibly the most hardcore road car around. And very far from your average road car. All very true is suppose.
