So, what does all that torque advantage of the Megane RS really mean?
Two things...
1. Porsche needed to move up to the 3.4l engine from the Boxster S to match the Megane RS' max. torque:
................... Porsche Boxster S ........................ Megane RS (265) Trophy
Max. Power... 315 hp (6700 rpm) ......................... 265 hp (5500 rpm)
Max. Torque.. 360 Nm(4500-5800 rpm) ................. 360 Nm(3000-5000 rpm)
Redline......... 7800 rpm ..................................... 6500 rpm
Capacity....... 3436 cc ...................................... 1998 cc
Compression.. 12.5............................................ 8.6
Fuel injection. Direct injection............................. Multipoint sequential
Weight......... 1395 kg ...................................... 1462 kg
0-100 km/h... 5.1 s (manual) .............................. 6.0 s
Max. speed... 279 km/h ..................................... 255 km/h
Consumption. 8.8 l/100 km ................................. 8.2 l/100 km
CO2............ 206 g/km...................................... 190 g/km
and beat the Megane RS' Nürburgring lap time by 10 seconds (they say...
remember that the announced Nürburgring lap time for a
'specially tuned' Boxster S of the previous generation with only 5 hp less BUT 10 Nm plus was 8:10 min - worse than the Megane RS):
2. In order to handle such engine's big torque output and yet minimize the natural Torque Steer of a FWD car some clever engineering is needed which was exactly what Renault Sport did before everyone else:
