RENAULT SPORT MÉGANE R26 R

It's possibly the greatest hot hatch ever made, but it took true dedication and extreme measures to create it. This is the story of how the Mégane R26.R came to be

- ADAM TOWLER

THE RENAULT SPORT MÉGANE R26.R IS ABOUT AS EVO as it gets. Sure, out there, in the wider population, with their unfathomable blind spot for great roads, loveable cars and enthusiastic driving, the notion of a two-seat-only hatchback is an absurd one. A chocolate teapot. Expensive when new, the R26.R is an anathema to the masses who view cars as mere transport, with an inevitable dearth of appreciation for ageing, stickered-up French hatchbacks.

You, of course, know differently. You know it's a giant-killer even to this day, some 16 years after its launch, and that it encapsulates everything that made a generation of machinery from its maker the standard bearer for relatively affordable performance cars. What you might not know is how the R26.R came into being, and how unlikely its birth looked at the time.

Although he's too modest to admit it, much of what we love about those Renault Sport cars and indeed the Alpines that have followed - can be attributed to Jean-Pascal Dauce. The French engineer joined Renault back in 1991 (see My Life & Cars, evo 274) and Renault Sport in 2000, his first project being the Phase 2 Clio V6. As he explains, Renault Sport tended to have one engineer lead the concept phase of a project, sometimes then switching to another to bring the car to production, followed by a different engineer to lead the developments over the model's lifecycle. In the case of the RS version of the Mégane II, it was JPD who took over at the lifecycle stage.

'We were not 100 per cent happy with this car at the start,' he recalls, 'because it was a bit of luxury and a bit of sport. Some people were saying, "A Clio RS we know what it is, but a Mégane RS we don't know. What are you standing for?" And two or three topics we were not very comfortable with, especially the electric power steering. So the car as launched was not perfect, let's say.'