Whilst the likes of Porsche, McLaren and Ferrari silently fight for overall fastest production car lap time on the hallowed Nurburgring track, there has been an increasing battle for front-wheel drive supremacy.

Renault has been front-wheel drive kings of the ring for the best part of five years since the previous generation Megane R26-R took top spot on the FWD leaderboard. The current Megane held the record with Megane RS Trophy right up until a couple of months ago when the Seat Leon Cupra stole the title.

Now with probably the last special edition model in the Megane’s life cycle, the RenaultRS 275-R has regained top spot at the Ring, setting a 7m54.36 and chopping four seconds off the Seat’s time.

In order to set the time, the RenaultRS 275-R had to go through some serious race-style changes. The rear seats were removed, a titanium Akrapovic exhaust system was fitted, special adjustable dampers added and custom-made Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tyres were designed for the car. The overall weight loss to Megane is close to 100kg and resulted in a large portion of the performance gain over the lap.

The special edition RenaultRS 275-Ralso comes with its own exclusive exterior design package so you get add-ons like the two-tone colour scheme, where the roof is black and the rest of the car white. A chequered flag sticker at the bottom of the front door also denotes the Trophy R’s prestige.

Just 250 of the RenaultRS 275-R models will go on sale in select countries soon. If you miss out, don’t worry as the standard 275 is coming to South Africa. Check out the road-goingRenault Megane 275here.Now let’s see if Seat or any of the other major hot hatch players take up the challenge set by Renault. We think the new Honda Civic Type R may be up for the challenge.

Watch theRenault RS 275-R’s blistering lap