This record catapults the Mégane R.S. Trophy in supercar territory: it’s faster around the ‘Ring than an E60 BMW M5 by four seconds and and beats a V10 Dodge Viper GTS by two.  The Porsche Cayman S and the Audi R8 V8 are both only three seconds ahead of it. 

To achieve the record Renault started with a 250hp Mégane R.S. and thanks to a slight rise in turbo boost and a new air intake managed to push the 2.0 four-cylinder turbocharged engine to 265hp/265lb – ft of torque.  To give it a tighter road handling the R.S. Trophy was fitted with 235 35 R19 Bridgestone RE 050A tires and a limited slip differential.

Here is what Hurgon had to say afterwards: “The The record shows Renault Sport’s capacity to transfer knowledge from their formula 1 program into a production car.  Nordschleife is a legendary course. Its length and layout, which is very different to that of a conventional circuit, make it a unique and technically demanding challenge. Its difficulties are extremely varied, ranging from fast and even very fast in places to much twistier and slower portions. Turns like ‘Karusell’ and ‘Pflanzgarten’, for example, make huge demands of the car and driver alike, yet Mégane R.S. Trophy is very much in its element here and feels particularly reassuring despite the uncompromising nature of the terrain. The limited slip differential allowed me to accelerate hard out of the countless turns without understeer.”

Renault will start taking orders for the Mégane R.S. Trophy on June 20th, 2011 and production will be limited to 500 examples.  Each car will get a plaque to indicate its serial number.  It will be on sale in France, in the UK, in Germany, in Belgium, in Portugal, in Spain, in Italy, in Switzerland, in Austria and in Slovenia.  In France it will carry a base price of 35,500 €.

What’s impressive is that there are no differences between the car that just beat the record and the car that Renault will sell to the general public. The record car was strictly stock.

Stay tuned, we’ll add the video to this article when it becomes available.