RE: Six Of The Best? Forgotten Hot Hatches

[muppet42]

I do rather like the selection that was chosen, some nice non-obvious ones that are indeed rather decent if given the chance and all the more obvious ones are side-stepped Can't have been easy to whittle it down to the few that were chosen.

Showing my bias, I would've gone along with some of the discussion in the original thread and put forward the Stilo Abarth in particular the Schumacher GP version....



This version thankfully did without the Selespeed gearbox, got a sweet Zender body kit, Prodrive tuned suspension incl Eibach springs and Bilstein dampers and a few more bits besides. Rather cheap too, noticed most dip below £4k now and that's for an '05/06 car... http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/3066199.htm ...and... http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/2255490.htm ...for example

Owning a mildly tuned 1.2 for the past 5 and a bit years, they're seriously underrated cars in my opinion. Electrics can be a little flaky (though I've never had any real issues) and the standard suspension's not exactly handling biased but it's certainly comfortable. It's that 170bhp 2.4 5-cylinder that's the clincher for me though, the sound is just fantastic as most 5-cylinders do. You have to stay on top of servicing of course but if that's done, it'll be far more durable than it's reputation would have you think. For anyone interested, here's a non-standard sounding Abarth one ... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QaLuNqmTafY&fea...

[DELTAHPE]

never sold in the UK so forgotten even when new. Great car though and at the time i believe the most powerful front drove hot hatch available in Europe. Still miss it a bit. they never sold many even in Europe probably because Fiat were concentrating on promoting alfa instead. Bought it new in Rotterdam and imported it back in 1999

Edited by DELTAHPE on Friday 14th October 16:44

[Hub]

soxboy said:

thewheelman said:

Ramses said:

j_s14a said:

along with its stablemate ZX Volcane TD, the original hot Deisel.

80s Golf GTD and the 306 TurboD.....

The 80's Golf GTD wasn't exactly classed as hot, i think the 306 Turbo D, was the turning point for many people on what a decent diesel engine could do in the right car. Weren't they quicker than the petrol XSi?

The 306DTurbo was the first car I noticed as being a 'fast diesel', looked identical to the XSi and went well. In gear acceleration was better than XSi, had a good 50-70 time IIRC.

306 DTurbo had the same engine as the ZX TD (Volcane), but the ZX pre-dated it by a year or two!

Not quicker than the XSI though - 90BHP vs somewhere between 120-130BHP in the Phase 1 306 IIRC

[LuS1fer]

muppet42 said:

Stilo Abarth

Good shout. Must add that to my future snotter list.

[E500 TAT]

Good article, got a bit of a soft spot for the Alfa 145.

[joz8968]

306 S16. The forerunner to the aforementioned XSi.

IIRC, I think it had a 155bhp 8v version of the GTI-6's 167bhp 16v 2.0.

Edited by joz8968 on Friday 14th October 17:18

[nickg123]

What about the Daihatsu Charade GTTI thing??

[joz8968]

nickg123 said:

What about the Daihatsu Charade GTTI thing??

GTti.

Yeah I was gonna mention that - but someone beat us to it earlier on.

3 cyl. 993cc turbo - 99bhp. IIRC, 60 in 7.9-8.1, depending on the mag you read. Performance Car said its off-beat engine note sounded like half of a 911's flat-six lol

At the time, being a R5 GTt owner, this (the softer lines "mk.2" version) curiosity fascinated me. But couldn't get on with the slight 'bread van'-esque looks and the rear arches' 'half spats'-like treatment.

Edited by joz8968 on Friday 14th October 17:36

[OllieC]

joz8968 said:

306 S16. The forerunner to the aforementioned XSi.

IIRC, I think it had a 155bhp 8v version of the GTI-6's 167bhp 16v 2.0.

At the risk of being a pedant, I believe the S16 had the same 16v engine as the GTI6, but with a 5 speed gearbox, and slightly less power. I dont recall there being many other changes. Now I have said this someone else will prove me wrong

I love the phase 1 306, but not so much the face lift.

[joz8968]

OllieC said:

At the risk of being a pedant, I believe the S16 had the same 16v engine as the GTI6, but with a 5 speed gearbox, and slightly less power...

You're right! I always trip over that fact (hence the tentative "IIRC" ). Damn! - I haven't 'learnt'.

OllieC said:

I love the phase 1 306, but not so much the face lift.

+1

Edited by joz8968 on Friday 14th October 17:41

[Stew2000]

joz8968 said:

nickg123 said:

What about the Daihatsu Charade GTTI thing??

GTti.

Yeah I was gonna mention that - but someone beat us to it earlier on.

3 cyl. 993cc turbo - 99bhp. IIRC, 60 in 7.9-8.1, depending on the mag you read. Performance Car said its off-beat engine note sounded like half of a 911's flat-six lol

Most of the time my '97 1.3l inline4 sounds.... interesting. It's never sure if it should be a touring car or a rally car.

[M666 EVO]

DELTAHPE said:

never sold in the UK so forgotten even when new. Great car though and at the time i believe the most powerful front drove hot hatch available in Europe. Still miss it a bit. they never sold many even in Europe probably because Fiat were concentrating on promoting alfa instead. Bought it new in Rotterdam and imported it back in 1999

Edited by DELTAHPE on Friday 14th October 16:44

Looks like I have the same exhaust (Supersprint) and wheels but if I am honest, I don't like the body kit. Mine is identical to the one in Auto Italia a few months back (same as Simon's). Very nice, standard and unassuming.

[Streetrod]

The Beetle RSI was only sold in very small numbers and at over £50k when new was never going to be a common site. Also if I remember rightly it was only available in LHD

[thewheelman]

Streetrod said:

The Beetle RSI was only sold in very small numbers and at over £50k when new was never going to be a common site. Also if I remember rightly it was only available in LHD

I know they were $58k, i didn't think they were £50k in the U.K.? (that would explain why so few sold) From what i've read they never sold them all. Evo rate them in their 10 worst cars list http://www.evo.co.uk/carreviews/cargrouptests/2049...

Not to my taste, but if owners are happy, then that's all that matters i guess.

Edited by thewheelman on Friday 14th October 18:23

[joz8968]

Nice std looking GTti (rare to see! ):-

[ArtVandelay]

Still want one

[thewheelman]

ArtVandelay said:

Still want one

Damn it! Now i'm searching the internets for a Honda S800.......i blame you for this

[ws323f]

What about one of these -



Mazda 323F ZXi, 2.0 V6, handles well, and looks great

Or, the import only Type R version - 170bhp V6, LSD, and whale tale spoiler Good luck trying to find one though !

[tali1]

Hub said:

soxboy said:

thewheelman said:

Ramses said:

j_s14a said:

along with its stablemate ZX Volcane TD, the original hot Deisel.

80s Golf GTD and the 306 TurboD.....

The 80's Golf GTD wasn't exactly classed as hot, i think the 306 Turbo D, was the turning point for many people on what a decent diesel engine could do in the right car. Weren't they quicker than the petrol XSi?

The 306DTurbo was the first car I noticed as being a 'fast diesel', looked identical to the XSi and went well. In gear acceleration was better than XSi, had a good 50-70 time IIRC.

306 DTurbo had the same engine as the ZX TD (Volcane), but the ZX pre-dated it by a year or two!

Not quicker than the XSI though - 90BHP vs somewhere between 120-130BHP in the Phase 1 306 IIRC

In 1989 Fiat had a Tipo 1.9 with a healthy 92bhp -although it was not sporty marketed it had the figures .Autocar commented that it was quicker , more mpg , more room , more spec and cheaper than a 205 TD

[RizzoTheRat]

thewheelman said:

I know they were $58k, i didn't think they were £50k in the U.K.? (that would explain why so few sold) From what i've read they never sold them all. Evo rate them in their 10 worst cars list http://www.evo.co.uk/carreviews/cargrouptests/2049...

Not to my taste, but if owners are happy, then that's all that matters i guess.

Edited by thewheelman on Friday 14th October 18:23

Hmmmm,

Article title said:

The ten worst cars we've ever tested

article said:

Apparently they don’t handle very well either

So they tested it but don't know how it handles?