Tuesday 18th November 2014

The Unusual Suspects: PH Blog

We all love our hot hatch icons; Matt thinks its time celebrate some of the also-rans as well

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It's now six months since I sold Shed Civic, the 1998 five-door VTI with three electric windows, rust, some worrying stains on the driver's seat and rust. It's not currently MoT'd or insured though, which makes me rather sad.

See, weird six-cylinder BMW hatches aren't new

It wasn't a brilliant car, I'm not sure it would have been superb when new, but it was different. That's why I liked it. It was a car that looked like a Rover 400 but revved to 8,500rpm and had a proper limited-slip diff to transmit all 122lb ft (!) to the tarmac. It would make a great track project.

But anyway, my point here is to celebrate the oddities of hot hatch history. I love a great hot hatch but I also love a curio. If you have driven one then I would love to know. If you have owned one then even better. If you have one for sale then... actually, best not go there. It's just a few paragraphs on those that have slipped under the radar and that I want to celebrate. Some of them are even quite good.

Best of all, not all are old timers. The Leon Cupra 265 we had in recently was a perfect case in point. Nobody will buy it because in this spec you can't have five doors, you can't have a DSG and you can't have the Performance Pack. But that's enough reason to like it, if you see what I'm getting at. That it's a very talented three-door manual turbo hot hatch is even better.

Fast Xsaras have to be this colour

How on earth the BMW E46 325ti Compact wasn't discussed more when the M135i was launched I'll never know. Yes, the performance differential is significant, but the same fundamentals of straight-six power, rear-wheel drive and slightly gawky yet restrained looks remain. Really nice cars seems to be around £3K. I like them.

And it gets weirder. The Rover 25 GTI is a car I have a huge soft spot for. It was the very antithesis of the MG ZR but still used the revvy VVC 1.8 and once upon a time would do 130mph. The juxtaposition of that performance with the leather and wood and Werthers image is something that really intrigues me too. It was the successor to the 200 vi which was even more staid to look at. And who can forget the 200 BRM?

Anyone who says looks aren't a priority when buying a hot hatch is lying. Want proof? The Peugeot 309 GTI. Blessed with 205's legendary underpinnings but not its pretty good looks it has never been coveted as highly as the smaller car. I love them. There's a Cherry Red three-door model on my desk (alongside a Talbot Sunbeam Lotus in fact) and I would love to drive one. It's probably the underdog Brit spirit; I want to see something disregarded do well, especially when it deserves to.

Odd? Certainly. Fast? Sort of. Cool? Oh yes

And as we're on uglier relatives, how about the Citroen Xsara VTS? Alright, so it lacked a gear and some of the 306 GTI-6's magnificent handling as well as the looks but all reports suggests it's still damn good. I want a pre-facelift car in that yellowy gold.

A final one to ponder as I did in fact see one for sale recently: the Toyota Corolla T-Sport Compressor. Now here is an odd one. Despite a VVTI engine that revved to nearly 9,000rpm, the standard Corolla T-Sport of the early 2000s was a fairly unremarkable car. For the last 250 Toyota supercharged the Corolla flagship to 218hp and 158lb ft. It still wasn't the last word in dynamics (and it cost as much as a Golf GTI) but that what a cool thing to do as a run out special. Most of the way to an Exige engine as well.

There's a whole long list that could go here but I'm waffling now. Stuff like the Proton Satria GTI, Alfa 145 Cloverleaf and Fiat Bravo HGT. Anyway, I'd love to hear about other oddball hot hatches as I'm sure there are plenty to about. Just don't send any Xsara VTS links as it could result in my family going another Christmas without gifts!

Matt

 

 

[Ryvita]

You're going to get people telling you to put down the rose tinted spectacles and step away from the keyboard I suspect.

I can see your point though. I would also value rarity or unusualness, but only as a single factor in the total decision making for a choice. Sometimes the reason the popular choice is popular is because it's the best.

The trick comes in finding the unusual, rare, unappreciated gem which is also CHEAPER. Then you have the making of a great deal and a value proposition that works.

Other examples, and here it's probably my turn to get shot down:

VW Scirocco GTII instead of Mk. 2 Golf GTI
Vauxhall VX220 Turbo instead of Lotus Elise
Fiat Barchetta instead of Mk. 1 MX-5

Edited by Ryvita on Tuesday 18th November 10:02