Edition 30 100 mile 'duel' with Megane F1.

[speedynz]

Just back from a 100 mile cross country dice with my mate and his Megane F1.

It was a bank holiday here so we set off at 6.45am and headed over the hills outside our local city. The roads were a mix of tight, bumpy off camber nightmares and very fast flowing B roads, they were virtually deserted so we weren't upsetting anyone. This was the hardest I had driven my Edition 30 and it was 10/10ths some of the time, four wheel drifts, plough on understeer, little lift off oversteer moments, furious scrabbling for traction out of the tight uphill bends and teeth clenching stuff through the 125+mph sweepers.

The Golf was brilliant, confidence inspiring, very assured and never outgunned but I would forget a big horsepower remap, this thing would benefit far more from a lsd to aid traction and quell understeer. It also rolled a little too much in tight bends and grounded the solid front spoiler much more than I would have liked (if it keeps on doing this I'll end up selling it as a lightweight RS version!), the F1 has a much lower front spoiler but it never touched the ground once and from behind it looked to have absolutely zero roll through any corner. The 'nuggety' round town ride of my Ed 30 finally came into its own and allowed faster cornering than in the standard GTI but the Megane was a match for my Golf everywhere, a little slower in a straight line but a bit quicker through the tight stuff, the F1's wide track, low roll angles and big tyres (235's) showing it a little advantage. My friend is a very good, agressive driver so it would have been intresting to swap cars  and see what happened.

The only damage for the day was when a huge errant Magpie didn't relate to my closing speed and stuffed itself through my front grille, smashing both bird and grille.

I don't think that much would have lived with us on these roads, except an Exige, Cayman or WRX/EVO. But none of those has the same day to day liveability.

Bloody good cars these Edition 30's but don't get too c*cky if you come across a well driven Megane F1.

And if the road is twisty and the Megane has 'R26' written on it then you might as well give up there and then. You won't see which way it went.

[R32UK]

  I took one of these out yesterday!! Wasnt really a match to be honest, he simply fell behind a few car lengths and never really recovered. Until the 100 mark where he just got left further and further behind. Would have been nice to try him on the twistys... but I dont think he would have been able to keep up.. not with me and the old Haldex having stuck up a good understanding over the last few weeks!

Im suprised your Ed30 didnt give it more of a run... i know the r26's are quick but I would have thought the superior chassis of the golf would have meant it tackled the corners a little better. Although I guess you can appreciate that the Megane is definately the more race focused car.. So suffers on worse roads.

[john_o]

i dont think theres any doubting the ability of the R26 , I very nearly bought one too.
At 10/10ths the LSD makes all the diff , and the ED30 with a remap and LSD would have been 
Great car , but for many reasons the Golf is a better day to day choice.
Gotta love them though , along with the Focus ST, we are spoilt for choice 

[speedynz]

I took one of these out yesterday!! Wasnt really a match to be honest, he simply fell behind a few car lengths and never really recovered. Until the 100 mark where he just got left further and further behind. Would have been nice to try him on the twistys... but I dont think he would have been able to keep up.. not with me and the old Haldex having stuck up a good understanding over the last few weeks!

Im suprised your Ed30 didnt give it more of a run... i know the r26's are quick but I would have thought the superior chassis of the golf would have meant it tackled the corners a little better. Although I guess you can appreciate that the Megane is definately the more race focused car.. So suffers on worse roads.

The Golf doesn't have a superior chassis to the R26 Megane, it's the other way round and very clear. Yes, the Ed 30 is quicker in a straight line but as I said before an R26 would (and does) leave an Edition 30 for dead on a twisty road and an Edition 30 would leave an R32 for dead on the same road, quite simply with all that weight the R32 couldn't change direction quickly enough. The 250kg (a quarter of a ton!) advantage that the Edition 30 has over the R32 far outweighs the traction advantage of the 4 wheel drive system.

What the MK5 Golf does have over the feisty Renault is superior ownership in day to day living - better residuals, economy, driving enviroment, comfort and class.

But a better chassis - no.

[Hurdy]

I hear what you are saying about the suspension and the benefits of and LSD..but I only have one word that sorts out the Megane...........

DSG

[R32UK]

I took one of these out yesterday!! Wasnt really a match to be honest, he simply fell behind a few car lengths and never really recovered. Until the 100 mark where he just got left further and further behind. Would have been nice to try him on the twistys... but I dont think he would have been able to keep up.. not with me and the old Haldex having stuck up a good understanding over the last few weeks!

Im suprised your Ed30 didnt give it more of a run... i know the r26's are quick but I would have thought the superior chassis of the golf would have meant it tackled the corners a little better. Although I guess you can appreciate that the Megane is definately the more race focused car.. So suffers on worse roads.

The Golf doesn't have a superior chassis to the R26 Megane, it's the other way round and very clear. Yes, the Ed 30 is quicker in a straight line but as I said before an R26 would (and does) leave an Edition 30 for dead on a twisty road and an Edition 30 would leave an R32 for dead on the same road, quite simply with all that weight the R32 couldn't change direction quickly enough. The 250kg (a quarter of a ton!) advantage that the Edition 30 has over the R32 far outweighs the traction advantage of the 4 wheel drive system.

What the MK5 Golf does have over the feisty Renault is superior ownership in day to day living - better residuals, economy, driving enviroment, comfort and class.

But a better chassis - no.

I beg to differ. I have owned a megane previously and did not feel the chassis was anything special. The Golf's is far superior in my opinion, the only difference with the megane is that the suspension is so damn firm. Also if you think that a r32 cant change direction quickly enough then you are very mistaken (Unless you are doing a 3 point turn). As i said before i came up against the 225 and pulled 2-3 lengths ahead until about 100 after which the gap just grew and grew. The traction on the r32 is unbelieveable.. trust me! The way it moves the power round to make sure it all goes down on the road is nothing short of remarkable. There is simply no way that the megane would kick its a$$. The twistys are where the R32 really does kick some.. just read the sticky at the top of the page and some posts from people who have owned both...

And as for not seeing which way it went... i very much doubt that would happen to a good driver be it in a Ed30 or R32. Maybe some advance driving lessons are in order for chirstmas?? no offence

[illyun]

I hear what you are saying about the suspension and the benefits of and LSD..but I only have one word that sorts out the Megane...........

DSG

 

Thats right Hurdy... you tell him.. 

[speedynz]

R32UK,

I understand your love of R32's and they are classy, capable and quick but that lovely V6 and 4 wheel drive gubbins make it the heaviest hot hatch you can buy and that's what blunts its agility. They are magic on fast flowing roads but too lardy to shine on the tight stuff. I've driven them and although the speed was deceptive because of the cultured delivery but they were still only 'quick' rather than scintillating.

It's common knowledge that the Edition 30 puts out close to 250bhp and 250 lbs ft of torque and that it weighs a quarter of a ton less than the R32 so the real power to weight ratios are 180 bhp/ton Ed 30 versus 155 bhp/ton for the R32. Torque to weight figures are even more loaded in the Ed 30's favour.

Back to the R26.

A quote from Autocar when they tested every hot hatch on road and track including Golf GTI, Audi S3, R32 and Megane.

"It's a serious piece of kit the R26, the sheer explosiveness of its performance might put unsuspecting punters off. But on the roads we drove it on and at the high speeds we drove it the R26 obliterated the opposition. We'd been wondering for a few days which car would be quicker across ground but when the time came the R26 just blew every other car into the undergrowth, Audi S3 included. It did so because it was that bit more responsive out of corners, sharper when commited to them, more accelerative down the straights and more agile than any of them anywhere"

Johnathan Palmer was present and stated "Anyone who wants to build a hot hatch should try this R26, it's amazing what a limited slip differential can do for a car. Awesome"

The test included 14 hot hatches, the R32 didn't make it into the best 7 cars cut. The GTI made the cut but not the top three, it was however chosen as the best all round hot hatch (if not the absolute best ground coverer).

R32UK, if you doubt the commitment to which my Edition 30 was driven you should note that the underneath of the front spoiler is now a horrifying sight and I put more wear on my tyres in that 100 mile run than in the preceding 3000 miles.

However, I would love advanced driving lessons for Christmas, it's a very generous offer, I'll PM you my address and look forward to recieving the voucher.

[RonnieB]

Probably have to agree with you speedynz re overall speed and the handling, if all the reviews of the Megane I have read from the UK and Australia/NZ are correct.

The real issues with Megane however seem to be built quality, reliability and resale value.

Recommend inland South Island roads if you have a spare day or two - virtually zero traffic and any type of road you could wish for.  A radar detector would be handy though....

Perhaps you could remind the UK lads that petrol is only about 65p per litre here as well, although we don't earn as much...

[speedynz]

Probably have to agree with you speedynz re overall speed and the handling, if all the reviews of the Megane I have read from the UK and Australia/NZ are correct.

The real issues with Megane however seem to be built quality, reliability and resale value.

Recommend inland South Island roads if you have a spare day or two - virtually zero traffic and any type of road you could wish for.  A radar detector would be handy though....

Perhaps you could remind the UK lads that petrol is only about 65p per litre here as well, although we don't earn as much...

Ronnie,
Where are you?