http://www.evo.co.uk/renault/megane...nault-sports-impressive-hot-hatch-gets-360bhp Article reads like shite, but what do we think?
Ahh the endless 'bhp chasing'. Doesn't need it. 300 is plenty. Waste of £4,200. Everyone knows that the hallmark of any car's quality is how many nano seconds it can get around the nurburgring faster than the others. YAWN
No, never. Meg 2 is only 230 though and that's quick enough - ok maybe could be a 'fast car' by today's standards with 250/260, still plenty. I'd be happy with a 250 with 300bhp! There's a fine line between power increases and making the car undriveable/losing it's 'thing', often overlooked when chasing numbers which seems to be all people talk about these days.
If you do it properly and have it tuned well big power fwd can be very driveable. It's all about how it delivers its power, no point chucking all its power and torque at it at low revs, like the Ford Boys used to do [emoji23]
If it was a trackday car you'd be better off spending the money on tyres, suspension and brakes and improving driving skills. For a road car you'd have to be seriously pushing it on the few occasions the extra poke would be worthwhile, plus 360 bhp will eventually find a subsequent engine and drivetrain weak spot. Mind you, there is a huge market for mods people blow money on and never really fully utilise. The carbon bonnet scene......
you should pop along to a trackday with us posers and give us all some lessons, you sound 'awesome' we can all have a look at your 'car' as well
i have this done to my car and im very happy with the performance. I use the extra power all the time and think its well worth the money. People that think 300 is enough need to drive our cars running hybrids as you will see how good they really are!
Literally just had a 250 hybrid, injectors, intercooler and map at RST for 3k. Granted it's on a mk2 but still £1200 difference. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
They can only be fully `utilised` when driving with your seat back in the horizontal position, right arm stretched across holding the wheel at 10 to 10 & wearing a highly flammable Sergio Tacchini tracksuit.
The chassis of these cars are awesome and would certainly benefit from more power. It's not an '88 gt turbo which will end up with huge lag if you want it to make power. Modern engine management is so refined you can easily modulate the extra power when needed, it will just give you additional power when you want it. If these cars would've been fitted with a bigger turbo from factory nobody would say: 300 is enough, i don't need a remap
British Touring Cars have circa 350bhp and run slicks and extreme set ups in camber and toe etc so they can handle the power. A fwd road car with this power is way too much in my opinion. Mine has 300bhp/325lbft and feels spot on. Each to their own though I guess.
This isn't a sensible argument. How much power does a car need? - precisely as much as the owner wants enough to justify paying for. I'm at 320/360 and I will leave it there because I don't want to spend any more money on power, and I like the idea of blowing an engine or turbo, and just buying another. My car is plenty fast enough for me, and does exactly what I want it to on Trackdays. Sent from my FRD-L09 using Tapatalk
I love how people say its too much power yet have never even driven one with decent power. Mine still isn't what id class as a proper fast car either, Still needs another 30/40bhp on top of what it has
The definition of "speed" depends entirely on the driver. Is a Megane sport fast in terms of all cars? No, not really. Is it fast compared to what most normal people are used to? Absolutely. When most people drive cars that are sub-150bhp, a Meg sport is actually a pretty quick car. One with 360bhp would probably feel like a cruise missile. It's all relative.
£4200 for an extra 40 bhp on a Megane? Muppet territory. Not even a forged engine. Loads of internet peer group, must have mod pressure to tempt the less astute.
Aero, do you ever have anything remotely positive to post? All your posts are just negative moaning and criticisms without having any constructive input at all. You've made your point in this thread already. Repeating an opinion (not a fact) doesn't make it any better. For what it's worth: I'm toying with a turbo upgrade. For a variety of reasons not the Ktec one here (mainly as I am not that convinced about the package, including the mapping, in relation to the price). What surprises me is that people state that the car cannot handle the power. On track (or road, if people care to go all out) the car translates the power quite well for a FWD, I find?
I think the argument about too much power isn't a valid one personally. Everyone's needs and requirements are different, there's a reason people still do it. We have more options than 0 throttle and 100% throttle and that's what the right foot and fancy electronics are for. I used to race superstock 600's in an amateur club. Do you think I could wind 124bhp through a square inch of contact surface whilst cranked over without being spat 10ft in the air? It's all relative. If someone wants 500bhp fwd that's their animal to tame. Everyone's opinion is valid but that's why all our cars are different with different mods because we require different things or have different ideas of what's practical or should I say fit for purpose Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
A lot of good points here in the thread but also a lot of debatable ones. Saying that power is each to their own is a true comment, someone up at TDi North West had 600+bhp in a civic and i'm sure others will have done more. In terms of drivability with certain power for a fun road car is a point to be made. Surely once you get beyond 330bhp in fwd it just becomes frustrating in anything but dry conditions and a silky smooth surface. And as we all know, these parameters for driving are rare in this country. The guys at evo know what they're talking about and know a proper drivers car. They have given the car 4 stars out of 5. If you look at the back of evo where they rate most cars in the market, not one mk3 RS is under 4.5 stars, with most being 5! This pretty much says it all in terms of driving/fun surely? Dickie Meaden of the magazine ran a 275 Trophy for a year and said it was one of the best cars he has ever had for a long term test and "wouldn't change a thing about the car". It would be interesting to see a comparison with another car which has had similar money spent on it but on the chassis instead of big power. A stage 1 tune (incl exhaust), plus suspension (extra money going on something like clubsports), tyres, brakes. I would put my house on it that the second car would be a better drivers car. Btw all my info is based on me speculating!
Totally agree with you Jack. The last thing I tend to spend money on is power normally. I have driven a Ktec high powered one, and I find the power delivery and mapping below par. The peak power itself isn't the real issue, more how it's delivered. One point though: a RWD drive sporty car will have similar issues in anything but a good surface. Maybe slightly less issues than a similar high powered FWD, but in the wet on a bumpy B road, I don't think you can floor a big BHP RWD easily either. It's controlled by the thing called right foot
Controlling it is the fun part (from my perspective). If that means that I need to control my right foot rather than using it as an on/off switch, that can be fun in either car.
For a turbo upgrade? Yes. For the KTec one? No. If you ask a question, and then intend to reply on my behalf immediately, you at the very least need to put in some context. In context of the thread (others including yourself referred to turbo upgrades in general): yes, happy to shell out money. For the Ktec solution (and several others in the market for that matter): no. As they don't fulfil my requirements.
It's all a dirty big addiction isn't it really. We all love numbers whether they be shaving lap times, bhp figures or drag times etc. We love numbers. Personally I like seeing the effort people go to too and admire the work and engineering involved. 80mph roll on the autobahn on a road trip would be fun. Let's say in a 450bhp meg, just to shock some of the big German bahn monsters. Got to just admire the work, time and money we all spend to make the car ours. I know I do, my bank definitely doesn't [emoji23]. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Totally agree with you here mate and this is the reason that, for now, my car is fwd. It's a great challenge to drive and find it very rewarding. Getting the rear end moving under brakes is so much fun rather than just planting the throttle! But who knows what the future holds! Everyone's preferences change! I might lust for the joys of power oversteer at some point Or even a 360bhp meg!
Mine puts its power down no differently to stock, other than having more go it doesnt struggle for traction really
Mine has ran a few power levels, stock, 290, 330 and now 365. Never really had any traction issues bar 1st as per all turbo fwd cars. I do run decent rubber mind you
Suppose these things are all relative to what experience people have had in different cars and what power they've had. I've driven plenty of quick rwd and awd cars with big power but I just can't get my head around the fact that on a damp British B road, a fwd car with 365bhp wouldn't be a complete nightmare?! On a track with good tyres I could see it coming alive but I love road driving and think this power would ruin the feel of the meg? I'd love to have a go in one though and be proved wrong
People are more than welcome to have a shot in mine. Modern fwd cars are very capable of getting power down.
