The Liquid Yellow ExPress - RenaultSport Megane 300 Trophy
Discussion
Well here we go again, this time with a rather rare car, a liquid yellow Renault Sport Megane 300 Trophy.
Many of you may know my previous car which left me today – an inferno orange Clio 182 that I slowly modified into my interpretation of a perfect road/track spec daily driver. After years of brilliant ownership life forced me to make a decision that meant to exchange one of my cars for something I could get the children in. To me it was perfect and had given me more joy than any other car after covering a massive 170k miles in it. Id not cut any corners with the parts list either which included things such as custom spec AST5100s, 2 piece Brembo brakes, Quaife diff, Recaro Pole Positions and all the best bits in between. I also had an M.O of it being a road car that I could track, as opposed to a track car that got used on the road. So it was sound deadened, had full Focal audio, and the comfort of AC and cruise.
Full thread here.
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
However it was becoming apparent that 2 of our 3 cars had only 2 seats in them and even if I were to put stock seats back in the Clio, it really wasn’t the right car for a family with 2 young children.
So, either the Clio or my Cayman R had to go and I decided to keep the Cayman R to have the mix of a turbocharged FWD practical hot-hatch alongside a mid-engine NA RWD sports car.
The replacement was to be my daily driver, that had to do the practical stuff, but also be focused and exciting. There was no way I was going to be able to drive something cooking spec after the very focused and analogue Clio. Naturally, I looked at all the usual suspects. Golf GTi/R/TCR, AMG35, M140i, i30n, M3s, Civic Type R, Cupra blah blah. To be honest, none of them really made the cut and all were either auto/DSG which I didn’t want, flawed with amazing engines & crap chassis, unexciting or just too garish etc.
The Megane initially wasn’t even in the running, but after doing some research I decided I should check one out just to cross it off the list. The mk4 RS Megane is a pretty rare car normally as you just don’t seem to see them about (well not where I am in Essex anyway). I think they look sensational but I wanted a phase 2 car ideally with the facelifted LED lamps and huge interior tech update it received with double TFT dash etc.
Subsequently I managed to find a real unicorn that had just come to market at a Renault main dealers in Wolverhampton.
Liquid Yellow 300 Trophy with 640 miles on the clock!
It was a dream spec too:
Liquid Yellow, Recaros, Bose audio, Trophy R Fujilight wheels with S007 tyres and it was MANUAL!!!!
(one of only 3 phase 2 manuals I’ve heard – no idea if that’s true or not)
Of course, my initial thoughts suggested the mileage was a typo, but decided to call up anyway to get the story on it. Sure enough the car was a Renault UK press car that had sat in storage for some time unused and hadn’t even had its first service or MOT. I promptly arranged to view the car and I spent a good while all over it. Sure enough, the paintwork and crevices was absolutely filthy in all areas that couldn’t be seen by your average dealership valet. A clear sign of it sitting idle for a long time. Usually id run a mile from a press car, however, the car was overall immaculate, belts were in good condition and it still had 13 months of its original warranty in place.
I requested that the car was fully serviced, inc brake fluid, MOT, fresh S007 tyres, wipers and RS mats and a deal was done.
So FFWD a week of ownership, ive a lot to get accustomed to. Shes just clocked 1000 miles, its been washed and decontaminated which makes it look a million times better. Child seats fit in the back perfectly and it’s a bit of a hooligan to drive when you keep it on the boil.
Not much planned mods wise yet, just getting to know it, but I have a few ideas in mind.
So apologies for the wordy intro, but had to get it out there…
I need to take some proper pics but this is all I have at present before I can get it clean and some time to go take some better ones.
I don’t expect to modify it much if at all tbh… but we all say that don’t we.
Here we are, Renaultsport Megane 300 Trophy – and its still “just a daily”.
Many of you may know my previous car which left me today – an inferno orange Clio 182 that I slowly modified into my interpretation of a perfect road/track spec daily driver. After years of brilliant ownership life forced me to make a decision that meant to exchange one of my cars for something I could get the children in. To me it was perfect and had given me more joy than any other car after covering a massive 170k miles in it. Id not cut any corners with the parts list either which included things such as custom spec AST5100s, 2 piece Brembo brakes, Quaife diff, Recaro Pole Positions and all the best bits in between. I also had an M.O of it being a road car that I could track, as opposed to a track car that got used on the road. So it was sound deadened, had full Focal audio, and the comfort of AC and cruise.
Full thread here.
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
However it was becoming apparent that 2 of our 3 cars had only 2 seats in them and even if I were to put stock seats back in the Clio, it really wasn’t the right car for a family with 2 young children.
So, either the Clio or my Cayman R had to go and I decided to keep the Cayman R to have the mix of a turbocharged FWD practical hot-hatch alongside a mid-engine NA RWD sports car.
The replacement was to be my daily driver, that had to do the practical stuff, but also be focused and exciting. There was no way I was going to be able to drive something cooking spec after the very focused and analogue Clio. Naturally, I looked at all the usual suspects. Golf GTi/R/TCR, AMG35, M140i, i30n, M3s, Civic Type R, Cupra blah blah. To be honest, none of them really made the cut and all were either auto/DSG which I didn’t want, flawed with amazing engines & crap chassis, unexciting or just too garish etc.
The Megane initially wasn’t even in the running, but after doing some research I decided I should check one out just to cross it off the list. The mk4 RS Megane is a pretty rare car normally as you just don’t seem to see them about (well not where I am in Essex anyway). I think they look sensational but I wanted a phase 2 car ideally with the facelifted LED lamps and huge interior tech update it received with double TFT dash etc.
Subsequently I managed to find a real unicorn that had just come to market at a Renault main dealers in Wolverhampton.
Liquid Yellow 300 Trophy with 640 miles on the clock!
It was a dream spec too:
Liquid Yellow, Recaros, Bose audio, Trophy R Fujilight wheels with S007 tyres and it was MANUAL!!!!
(one of only 3 phase 2 manuals I’ve heard – no idea if that’s true or not)
Of course, my initial thoughts suggested the mileage was a typo, but decided to call up anyway to get the story on it. Sure enough the car was a Renault UK press car that had sat in storage for some time unused and hadn’t even had its first service or MOT. I promptly arranged to view the car and I spent a good while all over it. Sure enough, the paintwork and crevices was absolutely filthy in all areas that couldn’t be seen by your average dealership valet. A clear sign of it sitting idle for a long time. Usually id run a mile from a press car, however, the car was overall immaculate, belts were in good condition and it still had 13 months of its original warranty in place.
I requested that the car was fully serviced, inc brake fluid, MOT, fresh S007 tyres, wipers and RS mats and a deal was done.
So FFWD a week of ownership, ive a lot to get accustomed to. Shes just clocked 1000 miles, its been washed and decontaminated which makes it look a million times better. Child seats fit in the back perfectly and it’s a bit of a hooligan to drive when you keep it on the boil.
Not much planned mods wise yet, just getting to know it, but I have a few ideas in mind.
So apologies for the wordy intro, but had to get it out there…
I need to take some proper pics but this is all I have at present before I can get it clean and some time to go take some better ones.
I don’t expect to modify it much if at all tbh… but we all say that don’t we.
Here we are, Renaultsport Megane 300 Trophy – and its still “just a daily”.
Edited by frayz on Friday 6th September 20:31
Also fitted one of these Ottocast U2 Air Pro dongles to convert the CarPlay to full wireless. Nice quality item that’s pretty compact.
Initial test seems to work well, so we’ll see how that goes.
Nice if it was fully invisible but tucked it up under the centre console so it’s pretty unobtrusive.
Initial test seems to work well, so we’ll see how that goes.
Nice if it was fully invisible but tucked it up under the centre console so it’s pretty unobtrusive.
the-norseman said:
Nice that! strange its on Portsmouth plates but the press office appears to be in Maple Cross? VW Group for example are always on K plates for MK or O plates for Oxford.
Renault import centre is in Portsmouth IIRC. Lots of RUK Registered stuff on HK and HN plates I believe.Gassing Station | Readers' Cars | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff