RENAULTSPORT Megane 230 F1 Team R26

IT TOOK A FEW CRACKS BUT THE SPORTY II FINALLY CAME VERY GOOD MEGANE

- ANDYEN RIGHT

YOU MAY NOT know of Mr Vernon Gleasman. But if you drive a Renaultsport Megane 230 F1 Team R26 (henceforth to be referred to as an R26 because damn) you have a lot to thank this gent for. With over 200 inventions and patents to his name, big Vern, who sadly passed away in 2004, lived a long and productive life. We’ll gloss over his hydromechanical steering system for tracked vehicles and his long-piston hydraulic machine and concentrate instead on his Dual Drive system, the so-called ‘impossible differential’, a clever piece of engineering that became better known as the torque-sensing, or Torsen, diff.

It’s this piece of technology, supplied by GKN Driveline for the 168kW R26, that distinguished this model from its immediate predecessor, the 225 F1, and did more than anything else to elevate the hot Megane from there or thereabouts to indisputably the best driver’s car in its class.

Renault wasn’t in the business of building middle-of-the-road hot hatches. It had a rich form line running from the 5 Turbo through a whole series of lauded hot Clios which had branched into the acclaimed 16v versions of the 19 and the first-generation Megane. Yet when Renault launched the Renaultsport 225 version of the Megane in 2004, it met with a lukewarm reception. The steering was rubbery, power-down wasn’t great and body control was vague.

The subsequent Trophy, Cup and F1 Team versions incrementally improved things, but it was still clear that there was unrealised potential. The bones of a great hot hatch lurked beneath the Megane II’s bustle-backed styling; the formula just needed refining.