With Renault and Red Bull celebrating their third consecutive Formula One Constructors' title, it was almost inevitable that there would be a limited-edition commemorative Renaultsport model.
And here it is - the Mégane Renaultsport Red Bull Racing RB8. It's based on the 265 Cup chassis, including stiffer springs, dampers and anti-roll bar, grooved discs with red Brembo front callipers and, of course, the Cup's 195kW two-litre turbocharged four driving the front wheels via a limited-slip differential.
It also comes with the same Bridgestone Potenza RE050A tyres that helped the 265 Trophy set a new lap front-wheel drive lap record for the Nurburgring, on special 19” gloss black 'Steev' alloy rims with platinum-coloured edges.
And it will be launched in South Africa at the 2013 Johannesburg International Motor Show on 16 October - Renault SA has been allocated 50 but can't (or won't) give details of pricing yet.
EXCLUSIVE TRIM
The flagship Mégane Renaultsport is finished in a special Formula One-inspired dark blue and platinum grey livery, with Red Bull Racing graphics on the sides and tailgate, and platinum-finished F1 blade, door handles, mirror housings and rear lip spoiler, as well as a discreet laurel decal on each rear side window to celebrate the team's 2012 Constructors' World title.
Inside, there are Red Bull Racing logos on the head restraints of the Recaro sports seats, which are which are trimmed in a new leather/fabric upholstery. More F1 logos appear on the numbered aluminium sill plates and the carpet mats.
WELL CONNECTED
The RB8 is also the first Mégane Renaultsport with a built-in, connected R-Link multimedia tablet, its six functions (navigation, telephony, multimedia, vehicle information, system settings and R-Link Store applications catalogue) controlled using either the touch screen display, voice commands or a joystick on the centre console.
It also has an upgraded version of Renaultsport Monitor so that owners will no longer need to choose between using the navigation or on-board telemetry systems because the TomTom Live navigation system is built-in.
Renaultsport Monitor 2.0 has a new, more user-friendly and intuitive interface, using the R-Link's 180mm colour screen to display GPS tracked lap timing (with some information displayed in 3D format) a USB port so that you can save your track telemetry for bragging rights later on and real-time access to power output data, 0-100km/h times and a G-Force diagram.