Renault Megane RS 250 Red 2011


Though not quite to the Porsche pioneered the art of hiding motor sports-inspired hardware beneath voluptuous curves. The finer details add eye candy - the centrally-mounted exhaust outlet, the integrated diffuser, the square indicator bezels - but the overall form is where the car gets it's visual appeal. Take the rear end design as an example.

Designed in Paris, France, Renault's high performance Megane shows off a muscular design with an attention to detail normally found on the kind of high-end machinery currently being repossessed by debt collectors. Love or it hate it, the design pushes the boundaries of the hot hatch genre. Making its debut at the recent motor show in Geneva, the Megane RS shows off a look that has the potential to change the way hot hatches are perceived. The new generation VW Golf GTI may be making a lot of noise at the moment, but this French contender is the darkhorse, capable of bruising the GTI's ego.

Case in point: the new Megane RenaultSport 250, or Megane RS for short. But premium hot hatches on the other hand are within reach of the everyman and are beginning to deliver the kind of head-turning looks that were once the reserve of fantasy cars. Yet these ultra-high performance cars are so ludicrously expensive to buy, let alone maintain, that only the wealthiest of society's drivers will ever get a chance to sit behind the wheel of such thoroughbred machines. Exotic cars from marques such as Ferrari, Koenigsegg and Aston Martin attract car enthusiasts like moths to a flame.