RE: PH poll: best hot hatch
Discussion
You have FAR too much time on your hands!Integrale, escort cosworth, impreza etc are not hot hatches, they are super hatches/rally car road versions, totally different from a hot hatch. What a load of shiezen! Mk1 gti the daddy, clio williams and 182 cups, R5's, S1 rs turbo, 205 gti etc are hot hatches, 300bhp per tonne sort it out punkass!
falconhoof said:
Integrale, escort cosworth, impreza etc are not hot hatches, they are super hatches/rally car road versions, totally different from a hot hatch. What a load of shiezen! Mk1 gti the daddy, clio williams and 182 cups, R5's, S1 rs turbo, 205 gti etc are hot hatches, 300bhp per tonne sort it out punkass!
Since 'hot hatch' isn't an easily defined entity, the OP can make whatever rules he wants, surely. If you have an alternative definition then perhaps starting your own thread is the way forward. 
LuS1fer said:
Agent Orange said:
Surprised the Vauxhall Nova GTE isn't in the top 50. I remember a very memorable drive aged 19 in a G reg dark metallic grey one. I think they were 1.8 from memory.
Awful box and front wheels bounced under acceleration but bloody hell was it fun!
I fear you are confusing fun with automotive incompetence.Awful box and front wheels bounced under acceleration but bloody hell was it fun!
A bucking bronco is "fun" but it's not a good racehorse.
falconhoof said:
A well sorted nova with a redtop will embarrass most precious metal on a twisty road, the gte was epic, in silk violet, nova should be in the top ten, I still love the shape, the nova is a great looking car and with decent shocks/tyres is a b road weapon! Lusifer you are K-nob!
Better that than blind. I like the way you vaunt it and immediately qualify it by changing the suspension and tyres.
LuS1fer said:
Agent Orange said:
Surprised the Vauxhall Nova GTE isn't in the top 50. I remember a very memorable drive aged 19 in a G reg dark metallic grey one. I think they were 1.8 from memory.
Awful box and front wheels bounced under acceleration but bloody hell was it fun!
I fear you are confusing fun with automotive incompetence.Awful box and front wheels bounced under acceleration but bloody hell was it fun!
A bucking bronco is "fun" but it's not a good racehorse.
LuS1fer said:
falconhoof said:
A well sorted nova with a redtop will embarrass most precious metal on a twisty road, the gte was epic, in silk violet, nova should be in the top ten, I still love the shape, the nova is a great looking car and with decent shocks/tyres is a b road weapon! Lusifer you are K-nob!
Better that than blind. I like the way you vaunt it and immediately qualify it by changing the suspension and tyres.I had a white G reg Nova GTE in the early 90's and I dont remember it being fun at all, hatefull little car. Chopped it in for a G reg Astra GTE 16v, now that was fun - in a scare you death here comes a tree kind of way.
My friend had a red R5 GT Turbo which sat about an inch off the floor, tuned, seriously fast and seriously terrifying as the seats moved on the brackets when accelerating or braking.
Owned loads of Golfs, and the only scary one was the Mk4 R32 - but only scary as the traction control nearly killed me, twice.
I remember the scary ones and smile when I do, that for me was part of the magic of a hot hatch. No airbags, traction control or much else. Recaro seat, engine, smile.
My friend had a red R5 GT Turbo which sat about an inch off the floor, tuned, seriously fast and seriously terrifying as the seats moved on the brackets when accelerating or braking.
Owned loads of Golfs, and the only scary one was the Mk4 R32 - but only scary as the traction control nearly killed me, twice.
I remember the scary ones and smile when I do, that for me was part of the magic of a hot hatch. No airbags, traction control or much else. Recaro seat, engine, smile.
Test drove an intergrale once - horrible thing.
All starts from the moment you get into the passenger seat to do the driving??!!
Then you cant get comfortable cos everything is offset from everything else - and to top it off its quite slow tbh.
Tested an Escort Cossie around the same time - fantastic thing. Really should have bought it and to this day the one car i've never owned but wish I had - my number 1.
All starts from the moment you get into the passenger seat to do the driving??!!
Then you cant get comfortable cos everything is offset from everything else - and to top it off its quite slow tbh.
Tested an Escort Cossie around the same time - fantastic thing. Really should have bought it and to this day the one car i've never owned but wish I had - my number 1.
clarki said:
Test drove an intergrale once - horrible thing.
All starts from the moment you get into the passenger seat to do the driving??!!
Then you cant get comfortable cos everything is offset from everything else - and to top it off its quite slow tbh.
Tested an Escort Cossie around the same time - fantastic thing. Really should have bought it and to this day the one car i've never owned but wish I had - my number 1.
Funny how 2 people who have the same (slightly oddball) car can have such a different opinion on another car, I would LOVE another Integrale!All starts from the moment you get into the passenger seat to do the driving??!!
Then you cant get comfortable cos everything is offset from everything else - and to top it off its quite slow tbh.
Tested an Escort Cossie around the same time - fantastic thing. Really should have bought it and to this day the one car i've never owned but wish I had - my number 1.
clarki said:
Hmmmmm - well i guess it would be a pritty boring world if we all liked the same thing??
Obviously though the survey is wrong and our oddball car is the best, lol!!
OBVIOUSLY!!!!! :-)Obviously though the survey is wrong and our oddball car is the best, lol!!
The fact that the R isn't sprung ridiculously stiffly and that it seems unflappable over uneven surfaces does remind me of an Integrale actually!
This is an odd thing to say considering the press and hype that the R has had but I actually think it's underrated!
oh dear.. dandarez said:
I recognise that era when it all began because I was there.
The Integrale was a 'dream' car. Few owned them, fewer even drove one. I used to drool when I saw one (not very often).
Strange... the Integrale recently came top in an Autocar Poll of 'hot' hatches. Nobody I knew at that time thought of the Integrale as a hot hatch.
Anyway, there is one car missed out here. Is it because you are all too young or because it's an embarrassment and the bias of the motoring masses in this country who will make you believe anything?
But this particular hot hatch deserved the title hot because it also embarrassed other so-called hot hatches on its launch.
It rotted and fell apart - but then so did almost every car of this era, although none rotted as fast as an Alfa or Lancia.
However, the Turbo version of the car in question went like hell (I know!). Its performance at that time allowed the company to do adverts that others could only dream about. Like, 'the fastest accelerating front-wheel drive car in the world' at the time of its launch. It even had massive billboards saying so.
This was true too.
Cynics (and there were loads of them!) quickly went into print and retaliated 'Yes, but it doesn't handle like them.'
Of course it bloody didn't, none of the others were 5 door family hatches!
The best ad was the one aimed at the Golf GTi for the standard car.
Yep, that dreaded name, Maestro.
Love it or hate it (most hated it of course because of what they read, but never drove one) but it 'was' there among the 'hot' hatches.
Probably the most unbiased review of the Maestro Turbo was written by someone in more recent times with no preconceptions of the model’s strengths or weaknesses, it appears in an American publication called Hot Rods, as part of a series of “Street Racers” pullout supplements about iconic cars. They concluded after an enjoyable, spirited test-drive that:
“…its boxy shape hides a real performer which is much faster than the VW Golf GTi. It operates best when the engine is spinning near 3,000rpm when full-throttle gives acceleration that can surpass several super-cars. It will hurtle to 100mph in under 20 seconds. The other surprise is that it doesn’t torque-steer and is able to corner at very high speeds with very little body-roll. The ride is very rigid but you can forgive that simply for its sheer performance…”
Traditionally British (or more likely, traditionally English)are the self-mocking and self-deriding, much to the puzzlement of other countries who have a higher regard for our achievements and products than we do on native soil. One does wonder how far that attitude has, as a self-fulfilling prophecy, contributed to the decline and virtual extinction of our home-grown manufacturing industry.
Even Clarkson for a change didn't really diss it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Cwx09GHwkA&fea...
Heap of s
te? Naaaaaa
'Hot' Hatch. Oooh yesss!
The Integrale was a 'dream' car. Few owned them, fewer even drove one. I used to drool when I saw one (not very often).
Strange... the Integrale recently came top in an Autocar Poll of 'hot' hatches. Nobody I knew at that time thought of the Integrale as a hot hatch.
Anyway, there is one car missed out here. Is it because you are all too young or because it's an embarrassment and the bias of the motoring masses in this country who will make you believe anything?
But this particular hot hatch deserved the title hot because it also embarrassed other so-called hot hatches on its launch.
It rotted and fell apart - but then so did almost every car of this era, although none rotted as fast as an Alfa or Lancia.
However, the Turbo version of the car in question went like hell (I know!). Its performance at that time allowed the company to do adverts that others could only dream about. Like, 'the fastest accelerating front-wheel drive car in the world' at the time of its launch. It even had massive billboards saying so.
This was true too.
Cynics (and there were loads of them!) quickly went into print and retaliated 'Yes, but it doesn't handle like them.'
Of course it bloody didn't, none of the others were 5 door family hatches!
The best ad was the one aimed at the Golf GTi for the standard car.
Yep, that dreaded name, Maestro.
Love it or hate it (most hated it of course because of what they read, but never drove one) but it 'was' there among the 'hot' hatches.
Probably the most unbiased review of the Maestro Turbo was written by someone in more recent times with no preconceptions of the model’s strengths or weaknesses, it appears in an American publication called Hot Rods, as part of a series of “Street Racers” pullout supplements about iconic cars. They concluded after an enjoyable, spirited test-drive that:
“…its boxy shape hides a real performer which is much faster than the VW Golf GTi. It operates best when the engine is spinning near 3,000rpm when full-throttle gives acceleration that can surpass several super-cars. It will hurtle to 100mph in under 20 seconds. The other surprise is that it doesn’t torque-steer and is able to corner at very high speeds with very little body-roll. The ride is very rigid but you can forgive that simply for its sheer performance…”
Traditionally British (or more likely, traditionally English)are the self-mocking and self-deriding, much to the puzzlement of other countries who have a higher regard for our achievements and products than we do on native soil. One does wonder how far that attitude has, as a self-fulfilling prophecy, contributed to the decline and virtual extinction of our home-grown manufacturing industry.
Even Clarkson for a change didn't really diss it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Cwx09GHwkA&fea...
Heap of s
te? Naaaaaa 'Hot' Hatch. Oooh yesss!
Excellent post and nice to know there are others like me who remember when hot hatches were something different. Nice to see that you are still living the dream with the old Maestro...Are the gearboxes still as bad as I remember them...Seem to remember it being like a pudding stirrer..But then it may have been just a bad example of the car and I was in love with Fords and their lovely boxes at the time.
N
300bhp/ton said:
As for the quattro, does the vehicle size and category not have a bearing on it? Would have thought that a far more obvious point than engine or drivetrain or flared arches.
As for your other points, well can I ask what are these:
-Talbot Lotus Sunbeam
-MG Metro Turbo
-Alfa 147GTA
-Golf MK3 VR6
-Galanza Turbo
-Audi S3
They would all seem to fail your list for being a hot hatch. So I'm genuinely curious as to how you'd categorise them.
The Talbot Lotus Sunbeam was rear drive and based on a Hillman Avenger platform. No idea what a Galanza Turbo was! It was not very good really. As for your other points, well can I ask what are these:
-Talbot Lotus Sunbeam
-MG Metro Turbo
-Alfa 147GTA
-Golf MK3 VR6
-Galanza Turbo
-Audi S3
They would all seem to fail your list for being a hot hatch. So I'm genuinely curious as to how you'd categorise them.
MG Metro Turbo was a hot hatch - don't seem to be many left though.
The 147GTA , VR6 and S3 are all hot hatches, just loaded up with 21st century safety which you gotta have these days.
Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff