Evening all! I’ve recently become the proud owner of RS265 RB8 #133 - the former UK press car - and thought I should introduce myself and try to keep myself informed on all the nuances of running these cars. I’m not sure of the wisdom of a former press car but being pals with a few motoring journos, I’m assured they’re generally extremely well cared for and the car feels fantastic so fingers crossed I’ve not bought a pup! This is my actual car - as reviewed by PistonHeads at the time: https://www.pistonheads.com/news/general/renault-megane-rb8-driven/28481 I’m a huge motor racing and car enthusiast - more racing than anything else to be honest but I do love certain road cars too. I’m very fortunate to also own a Series 1 Lotus Exige and a Porsche 997.1 Turbo but I’m finding the Megane is as much fun to drive - albeit rather less intense than the Exige and significantly less frightening than the Turbo! My wife also has a 306 Rallye so our household is rather cluttered with hard-used performance cars! We’re based in West Yorkshire so please give me a wave if you see a Red Bull liveried RS around. I apologise if I come to the forum with newbie questions from time-to-time but I’ve been running VW company cars for years so this is a step into the unknown. Look forward to chatting cars over the coming weeks. Andrew
Welcome Andrew, great choice of car, was looking st one of these myself a couple of yrs ago but had to buy something a little more sensible for a family run around
Sounds like you have some collection! Nice to own an ex-press car I think. Can keep all it's magazine features etc with it as a momento.
At least the journos have a degree of knowledge when it comes to driving and mechanical knowledge. A 20 year kid who's got his first job at McDonald's and uses his first pay cheque as a deposit on a £500 per month PCP maybe isn't going to be quite in the same league.
The colour of the RB8 is lovely and rarity has and surely will help stave off even higher depreciation.
Sadly it's all too often the opposite in my experience. Most car mags are now full of cliches and recycled press blurb. But that's a story for another time lol.
Thanks for the warm welcome! I honestly don’t know whether it being a former press car is a good or a bad thing. Mechanically it feels remarkably tight - pedal feel, gearbox and steering all all fantastic. And it’s so good to be able to heal and toe after three years with a Golf GTD which had woefully over-servoed brakes! I’ve just learned (to my shame!) that it had a K&N induction kit fitted. I never thought to check under the bonnet when I bought it as modern engines are hardly a source of aesthetic interest. I thought the induction noise was fairly raspy but just assumed it was standard RS fare.
