![]() After just one day of being fanged around, the F1’s Dunlops were very much the worse for wear. The bulk of the car’s grip comes from its tyres, which get worked pretty hard. And these new dampers have made the F1 a much better car it’s more compliant, more settled and better able to exploit the tyres’ grip – in faster corners. The F1 rides on the Cup chassis but it gets re-jigged rear dampers. They never completely go away, they just fade to a point and then hold. But out in the open, when the wick has been wound out, they actually fade surprisingly quickly. Around town the F1 will stand on its nose at just the merest whiff of the brakes. It’s hard to judge the clutch take-up point and the brake pedal needs a good shove before it reacts, too.īut the F1 stops all right when you do give the pedal a hit, as it runs the same Brembo rotors and four-piston calipers as the 225 Cup. But the pedals do need to be used, and they offer nothing in the way of feel. The six-speed manual ’box is a slick shifter even if the throws are a little long then again, you don’t have to stir it that often to keep it on the boil. A car as angry-looking as this should snap and crackle on over-run, like the MINI, or the old Golf R32. The engine’s smooth, but there’s precious little noise. ![]() ![]() But, and this is important, 90 percent of that 300Nm is on tap nice and early from 2000rpm before peaking at 6000rpm, so there’s always plenty of shove available. Sadly the Formula One stickers don’t equate to extra oomph, and the Mégane F1 has to make do with the Mégane 225’s 2.0-litre turbocharged four-cylinder which bangs out 165kW (at 5500rpm) and 300Nm. It also gets funky looking blue and black sports pews, but we miss out on the Recaro seats that all OS cars cop because they don’t meet our ADRs. The ‘black-gloss’ 18-inch lightweight alloys and the matching wing mirrors lend the three-door F1 plenty of visual aggression. This update offers a prettier face and an ever so slightly re-styled rump. Thankfully those same Frenchies decided their commemorative car was best styled off the new three-door Mégane II.
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