Features

AMMAN — Throngs of people huddled under a torrential rain, images blurred by streaks of water, dissipated, diluted colours are all images created by Khalid Khreis, on display now at Nabad Art Gallery.

His sober, nostalgic world, created by globes of dark colour punctuated by luminous splashes — as if light or sun were trying to break through the darkness of night or clouds — is, strangely, warm and enveloping like a safe shelter. 

The imagery, aptly exhibited under the title “Rain Memories”, must have bubbled for a while in the artist’s mind, waiting to be brought to life.

Indeed, he says: “For over two years, I have been in a state of meditation and mindfulness. Not wiling to touch a paint brush, it is as though I was anticipating something new.”

New, thus, are the images that, although dark, inspire tranquility and optimism, reflect a stage in Khreis’ creative life in which, behind the stillness, one senses restlessness. Of the existential type.

“Rain Memories is a new idea that has swept over me in a torrent, asking a question that still puzzles me: ‘Who is painting whom?’ Rain washes our spirits — a light drizzle, a torrential rain, a deluge that sweeps everything away, taps on the window of my soul and sometimes enters without permission. That is what I have experienced and experience still…. Yet the question persists… ‘Who is painting whom’?” Khreis thinks.

The preoccupation with, the question regarding what imitates what — art life or life art — may be difficult, some would say impossible, to answer, and Khreis does not make it any easier.

Many of his canvases look as if they had been left out on a rainy day for the water to finish the work of art. They are ingenious renditions of streaks of rain that blur the images the artist painted, creating a deluged world with all that it implies: end of the world, but also fertility, richness, vastness, purity and hope.

The light blue, turquoise, ochre and orange splashes of colour breaking through the predominant black could easily be seen as an expression of optimism and an expectation of brighter things to come.

Some images remind of an older period in Khreis’ artistic creation. As they should. 

Yet most are new expressions, reflections of a new stage in his life, better explained by the artist himself: “I am unaccustomed to repeating myself; it is merely my spirit that moves through my works from one station to the other; merely life with its fluctuations and circumstances, for each period of time has its own unique character where repetition is non-existent. I recall certain signs, symbols, colours and shapes, some of which remain, while others fade into nostalgia.”

This highly honoured artist — First Prize for the Joan Miro International Art Contest, Spain, National Award for Excellence in Art, Jordan, Medal of the Commander of the Order of Civil Merit, Spain — studied art in Egypt, Spain, Italy and Mexico and is the director general of the Jordan National Gallery of Fine Arts.

He curated several local and international exhibitions, held 18 solo exhibitions and participated in a large number of local and international group shows.

It is a privilege to be able to follow his artistic trajectory, which, he says, is “an informal journey towards a formal act; a chromatic journey that suggests but does not confirm”.

Indeed, rain and vague memories are suggested, but the underlining nostalgia can only be inferred, it is never really “confirmed”. If anything, it is rather disproved by the cheerfulness elicited by the ingenious placement of bright spots of colour that do not allow the overwhelming black lines to obliterate memories and darken the mood.

A deluge of feelings, both cleansing and exhilarating, sweeps over the viewer of Khreis’ works that are on display through April 25, coinciding with spring and renewal, and giving hope.

Taking caffeine before exercise could improve performance during a broad range of exercise tasks, according to a new review of past research. 

In particular, caffeine could help speed, power, strength and endurance, researchers wrote in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. 

“Supplementation with caffeine is highly prevalent among athletes, with one study from 2011 indicating that around 75 per cent of urine samples from athletes competing in the Olympic Games contain measurable levels of caffeine,” said lead author Jozo Grgic of Victoria University in Melbourne, Australia. 

In 2004, caffeine was removed from the World Anti-Doping Agency list of substances banned during competitions. 

“Since then, the intake of caffeine among athletes has only increased with no signs of slowing down,” Grgic told Reuters Health by e-mail. 

Grgic and colleagues conducted an “umbrella review” — meaning they looked at results of earlier reviews that analysed multiple studies of caffeine and exercise performance. 

The 21 earlier reviews, done between 2004 and 2018, analysed an average of 19 studies each. 

Grgic’s team found that caffeine helped muscle endurance, muscle strength, jumping performance, exercise speed, anaerobic power and aerobic endurance. 

Three reviews, involving an average of 13 studies each, supported the ergogenic, or enhancing, effect of caffeine on strength. Two reviews, which looked at a total of 39 studies, supported an effect on endurance. 

One review supported an effect of caffeine on vertical jump height, and one supported speed during running, cycling and rowing. 

In general, the effect of caffeine was greater for aerobic exercise than for anaerobic exercise. 

The “optimal” dose remains elusive, Grgic said. Although coffee is the most widely-used form of caffeine globally, it is not commonly studied as a pre-exercise performance enhancer. The caffeine dose depends on coffee bean type, preparation method, cup size, brand and additive flavours. 

“As a broad rule of thumb, two cups of coffee, consumed around 60 minutes before exercise, should exert an ergogenic effect in most individuals,” Grgic said. 

But “the response to caffeine ingestion varies from person to person”, Grgic cautioned. “Individuals interested in supplementing with caffeine should be careful with the dose of caffeine, as high doses may result in strong side-effects such as a headache, nausea, insomnia, and others.” 

One limitation of umbrella reviews is that they rely on the earlier teams of researchers to accurately compare different measurements, intervals, timeframes and study groups. In addition, most of the studies involved young men. Future studies should be conducted among more varied populations, Grgic said. 

“Athletes are always looking for competitive advantage, investing countless hours of training in their devotion towards improvement. They build their bodies, perfect their techniques, and fine-tune all their training and racing strategies, but do they know that the big performance boost they’re hoping for may simply come from their pantry?” said Joy Shen, a registered dietician and sports nutritionist in Boston. 

Shen, who was not involved with this study, has worked with Harvard University and Northeastern University researchers to study caffeine and endurance.

“As with any pre-race strategy, test out caffeine in training before the competition,” she told Reuters Health by e-mail. “Become a scientist in your sport, studying yourself, because in competition, you’re the only athlete that matters.”

LONDON — Electrical brain stimulation using a non-invasive cap can help boost older people’s mental scores to those of people 20 to 30 years younger, according to a study published on Monday. 

The research, published in the journal Nature “Neuroscience”, found that age-related decline in working memory can be reversed by stimulating two key brain areas at a specific rhythm. 

The findings are early and only relate to healthy volunteers at this stage, but could point to new ways to boost brain function in people with age-related cognitive decline such as dementia and Alzheimer’s patients. 

Using a technique known as electroencephalography to monitor brain activity and a another called transcranial alternating-current stimulation, the scientists stimulated the brains of a group of young and old people and were able to modulate the brainwave interactions linked to their working memory. 

The study involved 42 younger adults aged 20 to 29 and 42 older adults aged 60 to 76, who were all assessed for their performance in a working-memory task. 

Working memory refers to information retained temporarily for use in immediate tasks such as reasoning and making decisions. 

Without brain stimulation, the older people were slower and less accurate than the younger ones. 

This was because the younger ones had higher levels of interaction and synchronisation of certain brain wave rhythms, the researchers said — suggesting that targeting these types of rhythms in the older people’s brains might help their function. 

While receiving active brain stimulation, older adults improved their working-memory test scores to the levels of the younger people. The effect lasted for at least 50 minutes after the stimulation was given, said Robert Reinhart, a researcher at Boston University in the United States who co-led the study. 

“By using this type of stimulation [we found] we can reconnect or resynchronise those circuits,” he told reporters in a telephone briefing. 

Reinhart said that the findings opened up new avenues for research but had no immediate implications for use in medicine: “Much more basic science has to be done first.” 

Neuroscientists agreed that the findings raised interesting questions about how working memory functions, and how it declines with age, but that it would need more research before being developed for clinical use.

WASHINGTON — Using a global network of telescopes to see “the unseeable”, an international scientific team on Wednesday announced a milestone in astrophysics — the first-ever photo of a black hole — in an achievement that validated a pillar of science put forward by Albert Einstein more than a century ago.

Black holes are monstrous celestial entities exerting gravitational fields so vicious that no matter or light can escape. The somewhat fuzzy photo of the black hole at the centre of Messier 87, or M87, a massive galaxy residing in the centre of the relatively nearby Virgo galaxy cluster, shows a glowing ring of red, yellow and white surrounding a dark centre.

The research was conducted by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) project, an international collaboration involving about 200 scientists begun in 2012 to try to directly observe the immediate environment of a black hole. The announcement was made in simultaneous news conferences in Washington, Brussels, Santiago, Shanghai, Taipei and Tokyo.

The image was obtained using data collected in April 2017 from eight radio telescopes in six locations that essentially create a planet-sized observational dish.

The team’s observations strongly validated the theory of general relativity proposed in 1915 by Einstein, the famed theoretical physicist, to explain the laws of gravity and their relation to other natural forces. 

“We have achieved something presumed to be impossible just a generation ago,” said astrophysicist Sheperd Doeleman, director of the EHT at the Centre for Astrophysics (CfA), Harvard & Smithsonian.

Black holes, phenomenally dense and coming in various sizes, are extraordinarily difficult to observe by their very nature. A black hole’s event horizon is the point of no return beyond which anything — stars, planets, gas, dust and all forms of electromagnetic radiation — gets swallowed into oblivion.

The M87 black hole observed by the scientific team resides about 54 million light-years from Earth and boasts an almost-unimaginable mass of 6.5 billion times that of the sun. A light year is the distance light travels in a year, 9.5 trillion kilometres.

“This is a huge day in astrophysics,” said US National Science Foundation Director France Cordova. “We’re seeing the unseeable.”

“It did bring tears to my eyes,” Cordova added.

The existence of black holes was first predicted in 1916. Most galaxies are thought to have a supermassive black hole at their centre.

The fact that black holes do not allow light to escape makes viewing them difficult. The scientists looked for a ring of light — super-heated disrupted matter and radiation circling at tremendous speed at the edge of the event horizon — around a region of darkness representing the actual black hole. This is known as the black hole’s shadow or silhouette.

The scientists said Einstein’s theory correctly predicted that the shape of the shadow would be almost a perfect circle. With M87, it deviated from perfect circularity by less than 10 per cent.

“We found literally the proverbial hole in the middle of this galaxy, and to me that is just stunning,” said astrophysicist Dimitrios Psaltis of the University of Arizona, the EHT project scientist.

Einstein’s theory also was validated by another major astrophysics achievement announced in 2016, the detection of gravitational waves, or ripples in spacetime, arising from two black holes that smashed together.

“Science fiction has become science fact,” University of Arizona astronomy professor Daniel Marrone said.

“The image has this exquisite beauty in its simplicity,” said CfA astrophysicist Michael Johnson, the project’s imaging coordinator. “It is just a fundamental statement about nature. It’s a really moving demonstration of just what humanity is capable of.”

The project has also targeted another black hole — Sagittarius A* — situated at the centre of our own Milky Way galaxy. Scientists expressed optimism about getting a picture of that one, perhaps within a year. Sagittarius A* possesses 4 million times the mass of our sun and is located 26,000 light-years from Earth.

The project’s researchers obtained the data using radio telescopes in the US states of Arizona and Hawaii as well as in Mexico, Chile, Spain and Antarctica. Since then, telescopes in France and Greenland have been added to the global network.

AMMAN — A serene world in which the female presence reigns supreme envelopes the viewer at Orient Gallery, where Mohammad Nasrallah exhibits his latest works under the title “Soul Flutes… Nostalgia”.

It is a world of pure content and lines, one that, the artist says, embraces Ghassan Kanafani’s “Um Saad” and Ibrahim Nasrallah’s “Time of White Horses”.

A flawless universe of life embracing life, where species complement each others and live in harmony, giving meaning to the artist’s “nostalgia”; a world as it should be, not as man’s greed, evilness and loss of moral compass seems to have created lately. Which only reinforces the view that left to women, ours would be a much kinder, more beautiful and tolerant world.

Born in a Palestinian refugee camp in Jordan, Nasrallah’s interest in art began as a child. His inspiration: the daily happenings and the “human condition around him, most notably the Palestinian cause”.

His unmistakable style, freed “from the conventions of academia”, is the “artistic expression of his emotions and instincts”. 

In his pared-down oils on canvas, with minimalistic brush strokes, this talented artist creates a rich universe of expansive landscapes that now, for this exhibition, he populates with the calm and gracious presence of the woman.

Of undefined age — as eternal Eve is — but representative of different social strata, Nasrallah’s woman is at ease, contemplative, a universe in herself; a poised presence that generously accepts to give of her presence to the sparse and quite inconsequential life around herself. 

Whether peering at a flower, the moon, a white horse — with all its symbolism conveyed by writer Ibrahim Nasrallah, who compares the beauty of a white horse to “a full moon that never sets” — to trees, fish or the square, bulkier figure of a man — the only sample of the other sex that is purposefully left without facial features, and thus without a distinct identity — Nasrallah’s women are composed, wistful, elegant and vaguely dreamy. They are masters of the universe, theirs and that around them, givers and keepers of life, basking in an all-enveloping light that could emanate from the moon (or the white horses), but also from the beauty of their souls.

Sensible, as only women can be, Nasrallah’s characters do not let the viewer in, in their inner sanctum. One does not know whether they are happy or sad, nostalgic or intensely living in the moment. They personify composure and reason, pillars of strength that can console, uplift and make the world right.

His women wear beautifully coloured dresses or embroidered thobes under which their feminine shape can barely be guessed, their hair billows freely or is delicately held back by neat headdresses.

Nasrallah’s colours run a wide gamut, from the primary to the difficult to define; his is a colourful world in which creatures coexist serenely, draw inspiration from and complement each other, enriching each other’s lives.

Depth is rendered by the layering of images and by the subtle light bathing each canvas. The masterful play of light and shade creates volumes and defines even more sharply the shapes that are clearly delineated by the artist’s steady and masterful lines.

The few renditions of inanimate life, like the white horses, hint at daily preoccupations in life, and are a material counterpart to women’s spirituality.

Or, as the artist says, they are “symbols that speak to us, and feel both joy and pain just as a human being does”. They “also depict the very best of our lives, one of beauty, love, reality and dreams”.

It is, indeed, a dreamy world the one Nasrallah portrays, one that, overall, elicits hope, evokes beauty and, most needed, particularly in these times, uplifts.

The exhibition runs until April 30.

While regularly exercising over the course of decades is a great way to live longer, a US study suggests that even people who do not start working out until middle-age may see similar longevity benefits. 

To help people live longer, national guidelines for physical fitness recommend that adults get at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity or 75 minutes of vigorous exercise each week. But much of the evidence behind these recommendations has looked at exercise at only one point in time, leaving a murky picture of how lifelong exercise habits might impact longevity, researchers note in JAMA Network Open. 

For the current study, researchers examined data on 315,059 adults ages 50 to 71 who completed surveys about their exercise habits from adolescence through the most recent decade. During an average follow-up of almost 14 years, 71,377 people had died, including 22,219 from heart disease and 16,388 from cancer. 

Compared to people who were inactive throughout their lives, participants who reported consistently high levels of exercise from youth through middle age were 36 per cent less likely to die of any cause during the study period. 

But the benefit was similar when inactive people got moving only when they were between 40 and 61. When previously sedentary people started exercising in middle age, they were 35 per cent less likely to die of all causes during the study than if they remained inactive. 

“We were very pleased to see that individuals who increased their exercise participation only later in adulthood still enjoyed the health benefits associated with exercise participation,” said study leader Pedro Saint-Maurice of the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland. 

“These findings suggest that if you’re active in early adulthood, stay active — don’t decrease,” Saint-Maurice said by email. “If you’re in your 40-60s and you have not been active for a long time, it’s not too late to start exercising now.” 

Overall, about 56 per cent of participants consistently exercised throughout their lives. Another 31 per cent started strong but tapered off over time; and 13 per cent were inactive early in life but got moving later on. 

Compared to people who were always inactive, participants who consistently exercised were 42 per cent less likely to die of heart disease and 14 per cent less likely to die of cancer, the study found. 

When people started out inactive but got moving later on, they were 43 per cent less likely to die of heart disease and 16 per cent less likely to die of cancer than if they remained sedentary. 

The study does not prove whether or how exercise might help people live longer, and the researchers say it’s possible that healthier people were more likely to exercise. The study also did not examine what types of workout, or what intensity or frequency of exercise, might be ideal. 

“The take-home message is that physical activity is important for a healthy and long life,” said Per Ladenvall of the Institute of Medicine, Sahlgrenska Academy at Gothenburg University in Sweden. 

While current guidelines call for at least 150 minutes of moderate workouts or 75 minutes of intense exercise per week, they also suggest that more is better, Ladenvall, who was not involved in the study, said by e-mail. 

“The same guidelines acknowledge that additional health benefits can be achieved in aerobic physical activity up to 300 minutes a week of moderate intensity, or 150 minutes a week of vigorous intensity aerobic physical activity,” Ladenvall said. 

But people shouldn’t do too much too soon, Ladenvall advised. 

Advertisement

“It is also recommended for sedentary people to increase their physical activity gradually.” 

LOS ANGELES — The magic word at the box office this weekend was “Shazam!” Warner Bros.’ latest DC easily topped charts in North America, pocketing $56.8 million when it debuted in 4,217 venues.

Buoyed by positive reviews, “Shazam!” arrived ahead of expectations, which anticipated a start around $40 million to $45 million. The film, made by Warner Bros.’ New Line division, also earned $3 million in advanced screenings, bringing its domestic haul to $56 million. Overseas, “Shazam!” dominated with $102 million from 79 international markets for a global start to $158.8 million.

While “Shazam!’s” domestic opening weekend is on the lower side for a traditional comic-book movie, it was significantly less expensive to make compared to other films in the genre that are heavy on special effects. That means “Shazam!” does not have to reach the same box office heights as other DC Comic entries like “Aquaman” and “Wonder Woman” to turn a profit. Warner Bros. and New Line spent $98 million to produce “Shazam!”, proving that studios can crank out a solid superhero instalment without breaking the bank. Prior DC films like “Justice League” and “Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice,” on the other hand, cost upward of $300 million before taking marketing and distribution into count.

Jeff Goldstein, Warner Bros. president of domestic distribution, said this weekend’s “thrilling result” was because “Shazam!” does not take itself too seriously. Though it’s still in the superhero genre, it feels lighter in tone than the influx of comic-book titles in theatres. “It was about having fun,” he said.

“Wonder Woman and Aquaman were very dark and dramatic and different,” Goldstein added. “It shows we’re making a variety of different movies that can all live in the same space.” “Shazam!” — described as “Big” meets “Superman” — centres on Billy Baston (Asher Angel), a teenager who transforms into a superhero (Zachary Levi) when someone says the magic word. Both critics and fans praised the movie for its lighter take on the genre, compared to the apocalyptic storylines in comic-book adaptations. Moviegoers awarded with an A CinemaScore. Males accounted for 57 per cent of opening weekend audiences, while 45 per cent of crowds were under the age of 25.

Though “Shazam!” led the way in North America, Paramount’s horror remake “Pet Sematary” also had a strong start, scaring up $24.5 million when it debuted in 3,585 locations. The supernatural thriller, based on Stephen King’s novel, cost $21 million to produce.

“Pet Sematary” holds an 61 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes and a C+ CinemaScore. Starring Jason Clarke, Amy Seimetz, and John Lithgow, the film follows a family who, upon moving to rural Maine, discovers their new home is located near a mysterious burial ground that sets off a chain of horrific events. Audiences were 52 per cent male, with 58 per cent of ticket buyers over the age of 25.

“Pet Sematary” came in at the higher end of expectations. Paramount’s domestic distribution chief Kyle Davies says moviegoers latched onto the movie because it challenges audiences.

“Spring suddenly got very competitive. I think this rose above the fray because it’s one of Stephen King’s most popular books and the filmmakers did a great job delivering the scares,” Davies said. “They really paid respect to the original source material, but added some new twists.”

The final newcomer this weekend was “Best of Enemies”, starring Taraji P. Henson and Sam Rockwell as a civil rights activist and a KKK leader forced to work together. It pulled in an underwhelming $4.4 million from 1,705 screens. Astute Films fully financed the film, which was distributed by STXfilms. Older moviegoers are not generally a demographic that rushes out to see a movie on opening weekend, so the studio anticipates that word of mouth about the feel-good drama will grow in the coming weeks, leading to a long life in theatres. Nearly 80 per cent of moviegoers were over the age of 25, and 63 per cent were female.

A number of holdovers filled out North American box office charts. In third place, Disney’s re-imagining of “Dumbo” earned $18.2 million in its sophomore outing, marking a steep 60 per cent drop from its debut. Directed by Tim Burton, the remake of Disney’s 1941 classic has surpassed $200 million globally, including $76 million in North America.

Universal and Jordan Peele’s “Us”, now in its third weekend of release, amassed another $13.8 million for a domestic haul of $152 million. The psychological thriller, starring Lupita Nyong’o and Winston Duke, hit $200 million in ticket sales worldwide.

Rounding out the top five is Disney’s “Captain Marvel”, adding $12.4 million. Starring Brie Larson, the superhero tentpole has crossed $1 billion in ticket sales, with $373 million of that bounty coming from North American theatres.

Among specialty releases, Neon’s Aretha Franklin documentary “Amazing Grace” made $57,353 from three theatres, averaging $19,118 per location. The non-fiction film, which was 46 years in the making, captures the Queen of Soul as she records her wildly successful album in a Baptist church.

Elsewhere, Amazon Studio’s released “Peterloo”, a historical drama about the deadly 1819 massacre in Manchester, in three locations. It pocketed $30,426 for a per-screen-average of $10,142.

Rounding out the weekend’s top 10 were “Five Feet Apart” ($3.9 million), “Unplanned” ($3.3 million), “Wonder Park” ($2.2 million) and “How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World” ($2 million).

This weekend continued to prove that scares and superheroes are some of the most reliable money-makers at the box office. Overall, ticket sales are still pacing around 16 per cent behind last year, according to Comscore. That gap is shrinking as films like “Captain Marvel” and “Us” impress audiences, and Marvel’s “Avengers: Endgame”, the studio’s epic conclusion that is expected to shatter records, could help close that margin even more.

People who get to do yoga at work may be less stressed out than their peers who don’t, a research review suggests. 

At any given time, as many as one in six working people suffer from stress and other symptoms related to mental illness, researchers note in Occupational Medicine. Yoga is one of many approaches a growing number of employers are using to combat stress and improve workers’ mental health, but research to date has offered a mixed picture of how well these efforts are working. 

For the current study, researchers examined data from 13 trials with about 1,300 participants. Some workers in these trials were randomly assigned to participate in workplace yoga programmes while others were not. 

Yoga didn’t appear to influence heart health, but workplace yoga did have a positive effect on mental health and stress reduction in particular. 

“Yoga at work could be one of the chosen programs to reduce stress levels, and usually requires low investment, with minimal equipment,” said lead study author Laura Maria Puerto Valencia of the Bavarian Health and Food and Safety Authority in Munich, Germany. 

It’s hard to say, however, how much the yoga itself is responsible rather than the workplace culture at companies that were willing to give workplace yoga a try, said Puerto Valencia said by email. 

“Usually a company that allowed or planned a randomised controlled trial of yoga at work is interested in reducing stress levels, increasing job satisfaction and productivity; in consequence, it could be a place with a lower stress environment [compared to] other companies in general,” Puerto Valencia said. 

Still, more companies are expanding their approach to occupational health to include not just efforts to avoid accidents and injuries but also services to promote mental health as well as good eating and exercise habits. And the results should encourage companies to include yoga as part of their approach to workplace wellness, the study team concludes. 

Mind-body medicine can include a range of health practices that combine efforts to focus the mind, control breathing and move the body in ways that promote relaxation. Yoga is often a component of this approach to wellness. Regular yoga practice has long been linked to better sleep, lower blood pressure, and improvements in mobility and flexibility. 

However, the study wasn’t a controlled experiment designed to prove how yoga might directly alter stress levels. Researchers also didn’t calculate the magnitude of stress reduction caused by yoga across all of the smaller studies included in the analysis. 

“The take-home message seems to be that yoga is a good practice in the workplace as a means of reducing stress,” said Stacy Hunter, a researcher at Texas State University in San Marcos who wasn’t involved in the study. 

Workers who don’t get yoga on the job can still find a way to practice, Hunter said by email. 

 “Even if yoga classes aren’t provided in the workplace, simple pranayama [yogic breathing] techniques can be practiced at a desk in a cubicle or an office,” Hunter advised. “While most studies in this review included yoga postures, slow, deep, yogic breathing has also shown to elicit a relaxation response which could contribute to a reduction in stress in the workplace.” 

The milder of two hot flavours of Renault’s C-segment family hatchback, the Megane GT is more affordable, economical and efficient than the Megane RS and more practical than the Clio RS.

Far more than just a “warm” second fiddle version, the Megane GT is a bona fide, albeit junior, hot hatch developed by the French manufacturer’s RenaultSport skunkworks division. If lacking the “RS” appendage to its name, the Megane GT might even be more fun on road rather than track, with thrills coming as reward for harder work and higher revs.

Rewarding road racer

Giving away 75BHP to the 276BHP Megane RS beast engineered to compete with high performance front-drive rivals like the Volkswagen Golf Clubsport and Honda Civic Type R and for track day shenanigans to fully exploit its huge performance envelope, the Megane GT is geared for daily drive thrills.

Modern but with old school hot hatch appeal, the Megane GT is thoroughly enjoyable on public roads and at legal speeds, and delivers accurate sensation of speed, driver involvement, nippy performance, zippy agility and more opportunities to explore the high end of the rev counter.

Similarly less visually aggressive than the RS and without its muscular bumper treatments or vents, the Megane GT cuts a stealthier, more discrete, yet distinctly sporty figure. Especially appealing in French blue, the Megane GT has a hunkered down, road-hugging sense of width, with rakish A-pillars, low descending roofline, abrupt tailgate, rear spoiler, slim near full-length rear lights and short rear over hang.

With big deep-set lamps framed by C-shaped LED running lights and ridged bonnet converging towards a large Renault diamond emblem, width is further emphasised by chiseled side sills and broad rear haunches.

Crisp and punchy

With an tense, pouncing demeanour, sporty deep front intakes, integrated dual rear exhaust tips and big 18-inch alloy wheels, the Megane GT is powered by a re-turned version of the smaller, lighter Clio RS’ prodigious turbocharged direct injection 1.6-litre four-cylinder engine. Developing 201BHP at 6,000rpm and
206lb/ft torque as early as 2,400rpm, the 1,392kg Megane GT is capable of brisk 7.1-second 0-100km/h acceleration, 27.8-second standing kilometre, and 230km/h top speed, yet returns frugal 6l/100km fuel efficiency and low 134g/km CO2 emissions on the combined cycle, and is similarly economical in real world driving conditions.

Eager and willing in delivery, the Megane GT is responsive from standstill, with quick-spooling turbo and a generous and wide peak torque plateau underwriting punchy power accumulation and providing ample mid-range versatility for overtaking and inclines.

Digging deep and smooth and discreetly snarling as it climbs to its rev limit, the Megane GT is as happy cruising in mid-range as it is being wrung hard. Driving the front wheels through a standard 7-speed dual clutch automated gearbox, shifts are crisp, quick and slick, while individually tailored Dynamic drive modes sharpen throttle, steering and gearbox responses.

Agility and stability

Riding on MacPherson front and semi-rigid rear axle suspension with fixed rate dampers and unexaggerated 225/40R18 tyres, the Megane GT delivers an keen, classic hot hatch driving style through corners, yet finds a happy compromise between handling and ride qualities. Tidy, firm and with terrific body control through corners and on hard braking, the Megane GT also delivers a forgiving ride quality with just enough absorption, suppleness and comfort over imperfections. Stable and refined at speed without isolating the driver from the driving experience, it feels alert and connected, and remains settled on rebound. 

Eager, tidy and crisp turning into corners, the Megane GT’s wide track lends its grip and stability while its quick 2.4-turn steering is well-weighted, direct and with good intuitive feel for the road, while its rear end is committed to cornering lines, but seems willing to be a bit more adjustable if one were to try to nudge it out slightly to tighten a cornering line. However, it is the Megane GT’s 4Control four-wheel-steering that is its showpiece technology, which effectively shortens its physically lengthened wheelbase for enhanced agility, stability and directional response.

Comfort and support

Turning its rear wheels by 2.7 degrees opposite to the front at lower speeds, the GT corners like it is turning on the proverbial dime and is highly manoeuvrable when negotiating tight confines. At speed, the rear wheels turn up to 1 degree in the same direction as the front, and make the Megane more stable, settled and quicker through fast corners or when changing lanes. Sat low in its high-bolstered but comfortably supportive seats, one nevertheless has a great view of the road and a feeling of being at the centre of the action.

User-friendly and well-laid out with uncluttered surfaces and driver-focused controls and dials, the Megane GT’s cabin features a chunky sports steering wheel and suede-like sports seats for an alert and ergonomic driving position, and pleasant ambient lighting. Materials are of good quality but not ostentatious in keeping with its position as an affordable and accessible fun hot hatch. Space is generous in front, even with the optional sunroof, while rear seats of a decent size for its segment, if not especially designed with tall and large adults.

Well-equipped, it features a portrait infotainment screen, reversing camera, blind spot warning and more. However, a more driver-engaging three-pedal manual gearbox option is the one thing missing, for those who want it, from such an otherwise convincing, charming, authentic, practical and visceral a five-door hot hatch. 

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Engine: 1.6-litre, transverse, turbocharged 4-cylinders

Bore x stroke: 79.7 x 81.1mm

Valve-train: 16-valve, DOHC, variable valve timing, direct injection

Gearbox: 7-speed dual clutch automated, front-wheel-drive

Power, BHP (PS) [kW]: 202 (205) [151] @6,000rpm

Specific power: 124.8BHP/litre

Power-to-weight: 145.1BHP/tonne

Torque, lb/ft (Nm): 206.5 (280) @2,400rpm

Specific torque: 173Nm/litre

Torque-to-weight: 201.1Nm/tonne

0-100 km/h: 7.1-seconds

Standing km: 27.8-seconds

Top speed: 230km/h

Fuel capacity: 50-litres

Fuel economy, urban/extra-urban/combined: 7.8-/4.9-/
6-litres/100km

CO2 emissions, combined: 134g/km

Length: 4,359mm

Width: 1,814mm

Height: 1,447mm

Wheelbase: 2,699mm

Track, F/R: 1,591/1,586mm

Overhang, F/R: 919/771mm

Ground clearance: 145mm

Headroom, F/R: 886/866mm

Shoulder width, F/R: 1,441/1,390mm

Luggage volume, min/max: 434-/1,247-litres

Unladen weight: 1,392kg

Steering: Power-assisted rack & pinion, four-wheel-steering

Turning radius: 10.4-metres

Lock-to-lock: 2.3-turns

Suspension, F/R: MacPherson struts, 26mm anti-roll bar/semi-rigid axle, integrated anti-roll bar

Brakes, F/R: ventilated discs, 320 x 28mm/290 x 11mm discs

Tyres: 225/40R18