Forever garage hot hatches | Six of the Best

The thing to like about hot hatches – indeed, the whole point of them – is accessibility, both in terms of cost and ease of use. The standard temperature hatchback is the Swiss Army knife of modern automobiling; the heated-up version was intended to be the same, just with some fancier tools. But because blokes can’t leave anything alone for a second, the go-faster concept was always destined to be taken out beyond the Thunderdome, where virtually anything could happen. Many are magnificent in their own way; some have achieved outright greatness – but the qualifying criteria here is simply that we liked them enough to cling to when combustion has gone the way of the horse-drawn carriage. First among them the humble Renault Clio with an immodest V6 inserted into its back cabin. Is it the quickest, best-handling, best-built hot hatch in the world? Lord, no. But you absolutely won’t forget what it’s like to drive one. Big money is required to acquire one, of course – and rightly so because they are rare and bonkers and brilliant. Looks the business in Black Gold, too. 

Okay, granted – there’s an element of wishful thinking involved here, as PH was lucky enough to drive the strictly limited (and absurdly expensive) 2.2-litre Mugen back in the day, which came with more power and drove with such naked exuberance that it stuck in the memory like a teenage reading of ‘The Right Stuff’. But the slightly tamer, halfway house version was still very nice indeed, and a rare sight given there were only 200 sold. Subsequent Type Rs have tended to make the FN2 look a bit anaemic on the output front, although we’d argue that getting to wring the famed VTEC’s neck more often and for longer is now a defining part of the CTR joy. This one, having covered just 25k under the shoes of two owners in 15 years, has clearly been cherished. That is exactly what you want from a used Type R, especially one priced from a fiver under £18k. 

Having said that, if it’s value for money you’re looking for – and hot hatches are always more appealing when bought cheap – the original generation A45 makes a fine case for itself. Sure, the later versions got quicker still and much cleverer, but let’s not forget that this was the first car through the hyper-hatch wall and arguably one of AMG’s defining achievements of the last 20 years. With 360hp available on demand, it still has the capacity to turn a B-road commute into a tarmac rally stage, and (not for nothing) it looks a lot more discreet than some of the later derivatives, especially if you forgo the stuck-on rear spoiler, as this example does. Better yet, owing to its popularity at the time, depreciation found the A45 fairly swiftly – meaning that a decade on from leaving the showroom, you can have this one for less than £17k. It’s hard to think of a car that delivers more pumped-up energy for less. 

If the second-generation of Ford Focus RS were a person, it’d almost be old enough to drive now. Presumably with an appropriately scallywag sort of attitude. It was July 2008 that an Ultimate Green Focus stole the (motor) show at Excel, and it hasn’t been anything less than fast Ford royalty ever since. Never before had so much power been diverted through the front wheels of a hot hatch; there was a concern, after the unruly first RS with 212hp, that a 300hp, five-cylinder follow-up might be undrivable. Not a bit of it: the Revoknuckle worked wonders for containing front axle fury. With the character of the 2.5 engine, the chassis’ sense of humour and rally car styling, the RS has never been so in demand. This upcoming PH auction is dream-grade: Mountune fettling to 350hp, just 30,000 miles, not a single advisory in its life and in great condition. A hot hatch hero of the highest order.

For those that prefer pocket rockets to mega hatches, there’s little beating a classic French three-door. Citroen, Renault and Peugeot have all produced their fair share of icons over the years, and there are hints that the glory days may be returning if cars like the Alpine A290 are anything to go by. As you might expect, we’ll be sticking with the old school here, and they don’t come much more old school than a 106 Rallye: willing little four-pot, pert supermini shape and pretty much zero extraneous mass. The 1.6-litre Phase 2 Rallye may have lacked the homologation kudos of the mad-cap 1.3-litre original, but it’ll still feel raw, exciting and demanding like little from this century. Given the age, mileage and intent of a car like this (i.e. drive it like your Francois Delecour everywhere) this one seems to scrub up very nicely indeed. A recent significant spend – very nearly £10k – means it should be better than ever, in fact. Probably as much fun as it’s possible to have on four wheels. Or three. 

It says a lot of the Delta’s significance that, three decades after the last one was made, it’s still a must-have in a list like this. A left-hand-drive-only hot hatch, remember, from a pretty niche manufacturer – even when they were selling cars here. This isn’t an Escort Cossie or a Golf GTI, a flagship version of a family car everybody knows. This was always a rare groove thing, which probably makes the folk keen on Deltas – the old rally fans like us – even keener to preserve the legacy. Like quattros before it and Evos after it, the Lancia was the definitive rally car for a period; despite very humble origins, it became a Group A stage superstar. This one is pre-Evo but 16-valve, and arrived here from Japan a few years ago. Which might help explain the lovely condition. That and all the money spent since. Probably not as viable an everyday option as some others, but to many people classic cars – especially five-door ones – don’t come any cooler.