We joke in the industry that motoring writers are underpaid and over-privileged. From personal experience be assured it is not only a truism, but true. At the launch this week of four new Renault models that saying was never more apt. I am sitting next to seven-times Bathurst winner Jim Richards, strapped into the passenger seat of a Renault Megane Trophy, about to complete three hot laps of the Broadford State Motorcyling sports complex. This track is being used more and more by car companies for the launch of high-performance variants. The Trophy is beyond high-performance. This is a race car.
Just getting into the Megane Trophy is an exercise in contortion. Once seated, Jim assists my outside helper to fit the racing harness. Nothing can move apart from my helmeted head. Jim shakes hands and introduces himself. He is a man without an ego. This humble Kiwi-born race driver just loves doing what he does best and obviously enjoys giving others a taste of that experience.
Just getting this car rolling is a feat. The clutch is tiny and Jim works with his fingers to pump up pressure to some part of the drivetrain. Then he revs the engine like hell, before slamming the car into gear and dropping the clutch. The rear wheels spin leaving a layer of rubber for 15 metres. Jim is clearly not comfortable with the starting procedure, but the French technician that travels with the car assures him that's the way it is done. Ever Mr Smooth, starting with a bang like this goes against the his image and real-world track silkiness.
Leaving the burnt rubber behind the Renault Trophy takes off like the proverbial scalded cat, the gear changes leaving nothing to the imagination: This is a race car, and a fast one at that. Not that we see them in Australia. This is a car brought down under as a show car: an example of what the French maker is capable of, and a stylised version of the Megane RS 250 launched as a road going car. The Megane RS 250 is a nice hot hatch. The Trophy is a beast.
Taming that beast is Richards, who is accustomed to taming some of the world's most brutal cars on our most demanding tracks: Bathurst and Phillip Island. Those cars include Mustangs, Falcons, Commodores, BMW 635 CSI, 318, M3, Porsche 968 and 911, Pontiac speedway cars. He partnered Peter Brock to three consecutive Bathurst wins and had three more wins with Mark Skaife. He also won Targa Tasmania eight times. He is a legend and I feel comfortable riding shotgun in the passenger's seat.
Currently Richards campaigns a Porsche GT 3 997 Cup car in the GT Championship, so he is accustomed to this GT-style of car. The Porsche, he later says, is slightly quicker around Broadford and is a little more settled around the corners. We take the first sweeping right-hander in third gear and the lateral G-forces have me leaning over to the left. We straighten into the back straight and reach around 212 km/h in no time before heavy braking into a 90 degree right turn. The car sits flat and then it's down though a chicane at what seems an insane speed, yet it is all so smooth, no fuss, no urgency. Just a driver at the top of his game, doing what he does best, in a relaxed way.
We thunder down a short straight before another sweeping hairpin bend to the right before a hard left hairpin and down onto the front straight. It's a fierce turn, slightly off-camber and the Megane Trophy wanders out to the far right of the track before Richards applies a slight correction and we thunder down the straight in a succession of rapid gear changes with the engine screaming out to 6800 rpm. I learn later Richards is taking it easy with the engine able to be pushed to 7500 rpm.
At the end of the front straight we have completed just over a lap and Richards brakes heavily into turn one, going back into third gear to do it all again. All too soon the three lapper is over and I am extricating myself from the Renault. We shake hands again and I thank him for the ride. Glad you enjoyed it, he said.
A moment later another of the motoring scribblers gets his turn and I'm free to reflect on the ride. Motoring journos get these opportunities often I have ridden with the likes of Neil Bates, Cody Croker and the late Possum Bourne in rally cars plus V8 Supercar drivers, IndyCar drivers and Le Mans works drivers such as Marco Werner. They all have one thing in common. Smoothness.
Richards is as smooth as any of them, perhaps smoother than most. A few of us sit around later and chat about cars, racing, the track and Richards fits comfortably into the motoring media. He talks, we listen. These are words of wisdom, pearls about the art of driving, about the set up of the car, the layout of the track.
Richards has been recognised with entry into the Australian Motorsport Hall of Fame and the V8 Supercar Hall of Fame. He was the Australian Touring Car Champion in 1985,87,90 and 91. He came first in GT-P Nations Cup in 2000 2001. Around the tracks they call him Gentleman Jim. With good reason.
The Trophy shares some features with the new Megane RS. But the lines are sleeker, it's sits much lower and is designed for one thing: aerodynamic efficiency. It is a product of the Renault Technocentre near Paris. The car breaks up into eight sections: bumper, grille and headlamps, splitter, bonnet and fenders, centre unit, rear unit, rear bumper, diffuser and spoiler. It uses the same tubular chassis as it's predecessor. It is fitted with a six speed semi-automatic gearbox with shifters on the steering wheel.
The engine is a 3.5 litre, 24-valve V6 360 bhp mid-mounted originally developed by Nissan Motorsport. The car featured at this year's Paris International Motor Show and also at Australia's International Motor Show in Sydney.
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