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Are we living in the greatest era of the hot hatch?

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Are we living in the greatest era of the hot hatch? | Top Gear

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Time to realise just how good we’ve got it for fast, fun family cars right now

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Are we living in the greatest era of the hot hatch?

# data.attributes.metatag[].attributes.content
Time to realise just how good we’ve got it for fast, fun family cars right now

# data.attributes.metatag[].attributes.content
Are we living in the greatest era of the hot hatch?

# data.attributes.metatag[].attributes.content
Time to realise just how good we’ve got it for fast, fun family cars right now

# data.attributes.metatag[].attributes.content
Are we living in the greatest era of the hot hatch?

# data.attributes.metatag[].attributes.content
Are we living in the greatest era of the hot hatch?

# data.attributes.metatag[].attributes.content
Time to realise just how good we’ve got it for fast, fun family cars right now

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Sometimes in the car world, we can be a bit guilty of being so transfixed on the next big thing – a new version of this car, a faster special of that – we forget to step back and take stock of just how good we’ve got things right now.

This thought crystalized in my head while driving along in the Seat Leon Cupra 290 this week. Because, hot hatch lovers, you’ve never, ever had things as good as they are right now. As long as you live in Europe.

The 290 is a Leon Cupra with another 10bhp (which it hardly needed but we’ll happily take), and a louder baritone exhaust (ditto). This particular car has a decent six-speed manual gearbox, strong brakes, a magical limited-slip front differential and three-way adaptive dampers. It’s brilliant. Fast, hugely grippy, but attentive to my inputs (and mistakes) and generally up for a laugh. A bit of a dark horse really. The Cupra’s been honed over the past two years, and it’s ace.

But, we agreed in the TG office, and as Stephen Dobie pointed out in his full first drive, it’s not the best hot hatch. A great all-rounder, but not the last word. That’s how high the standard is, and how fast the pace is changing. Because as little as five years ago this thing would’ve been a contender for best all-round car on sale, full stop. Now, in the face of the Focus RS and Golf R, it’s almost an also-ran. Crikey.

Just about every carmaker has woken up, smelt the unleaded, and set about building a go-faster/harder/louder version of its regular, practical old hatchback.

Some, like Seat, Ford, VW and Renault, have perfected it into a fine art. Others – Kia, Mercedes, and BMW – have stormed into the market with haymaking first efforts.

Video: sideways in the new Ford Focus RS

Skoda, Abarth and Vauxhall are still there, under the radar. Meanwhile, at long last, the likes of Peugeot and Honda – one-time masters of the genre – are getting back into a game they’ve been sat on the sidelines of for far too long.

I think it’s only Mazda, Toyota and Volvo who make mainstream hatches without a turbo-nutter range topper. If you allow Nissan the Juke Nismo anyway. And the DS 3 Performance is a Citroen all day long.  Alfa Romeo? Well there’s that Giulietta QV Quadrifolgio Cloverleaf or whatever it’s called this week. Not much cop to drive, but it with a 4C drivetrain under the pretty body, it makes the grade on performance.

What’s getting downright amusing is the infighting. Just as Seat perfects the Leon and sets scintillating Ring laptimes in it, VW goes one better and lifts the record with its GTI Clubsport S.

Meanwhile Ford goes and moves the goalposts for fun on the road with a novelty RS drift mode party trick, and 345bhp. Which would be a lot, if Audi and AMG hadn’t got into a scrap putting north of 360bhp in the RS3 and A45 respectively.

Whether you prefer front or rear-drive, manual or paddles, four, five or six cylinders – even diesel fuel, for goodness sake – you’ve got to appreciate the sheer variety of hot hatches on offer, and how madly accessible they’ve made searing, supercar-baiting performance. All thanks to the turbocharger, really, and so an honourable mention goes to Suzuki’s cracking Swift Sport: the only naturally aspirated hot hatch left.

Everywhere else, the modern hot hatchback has democratised the urgency you used to find only in Monaco-dwelling exotica, maintaining the ace cards of a big boot, idiot-proof safety and on-board creature comforts. We’ve never had it this good, and as long as you keep buying into the arms race, the hot hatchback halcyon days ought to be sticking around for a while yet.

These are the fastest accelerating hot hatches on sale today

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Sometimes in the car world, we can be a bit guilty of being so transfixed on the next big thing – a new version of this car, a faster special of that – we forget to step back and take stock of just how good we’ve got things right now.

This thought crystalized in my head while driving along in the Seat Leon Cupra 290 this week. Because, hot hatch lovers, you’ve never, ever had things as good as they are right now. As long as you live in Europe.

The 290 is a Leon Cupra with another 10bhp (which it hardly needed but we’ll happily take), and a louder baritone exhaust (ditto). This particular car has a decent six-speed manual gearbox, strong brakes, a magical limited-slip front differential and three-way adaptive dampers. It’s brilliant. Fast, hugely grippy, but attentive to my inputs (and mistakes) and generally up for a laugh. A bit of a dark horse really. The Cupra’s been honed over the past two years, and it’s ace.

But, we agreed in the TG office, and as Stephen Dobie pointed out in his full first drive, it’s not the best hot hatch. A great all-rounder, but not the last word. That’s how high the standard is, and how fast the pace is changing. Because as little as five years ago this thing would’ve been a contender for best all-round car on sale, full stop. Now, in the face of the Focus RS and Golf R, it’s almost an also-ran. Crikey.

Just about every carmaker has woken up, smelt the unleaded, and set about building a go-faster/harder/louder version of its regular, practical old hatchback.

Some, like Seat, Ford, VW and Renault, have perfected it into a fine art. Others – Kia, Mercedes, and BMW – have stormed into the market with haymaking first efforts.

Video: sideways in the new Ford Focus RS

Skoda, Abarth and Vauxhall are still there, under the radar. Meanwhile, at long last, the likes of Peugeot and Honda – one-time masters of the genre – are getting back into a game they’ve been sat on the sidelines of for far too long.

I think it’s only Mazda, Toyota and Volvo who make mainstream hatches without a turbo-nutter range topper. If you allow Nissan the Juke Nismo anyway. And the DS 3 Performance is a Citroen all day long.  Alfa Romeo? Well there’s that Giulietta QV Quadrifolgio Cloverleaf or whatever it’s called this week. Not much cop to drive, but it with a 4C drivetrain under the pretty body, it makes the grade on performance.

What’s getting downright amusing is the infighting. Just as Seat perfects the Leon and sets scintillating Ring laptimes in it, VW goes one better and lifts the record with its GTI Clubsport S.

Meanwhile Ford goes and moves the goalposts for fun on the road with a novelty RS drift mode party trick, and 345bhp. Which would be a lot, if Audi and AMG hadn’t got into a scrap putting north of 360bhp in the RS3 and A45 respectively.

Whether you prefer front or rear-drive, manual or paddles, four, five or six cylinders – even diesel fuel, for goodness sake – you’ve got to appreciate the sheer variety of hot hatches on offer, and how madly accessible they’ve made searing, supercar-baiting performance. All thanks to the turbocharger, really, and so an honourable mention goes to Suzuki’s cracking Swift Sport: the only naturally aspirated hot hatch left.

Everywhere else, the modern hot hatchback has democratised the urgency you used to find only in Monaco-dwelling exotica, maintaining the ace cards of a big boot, idiot-proof safety and on-board creature comforts. We’ve never had it this good, and as long as you keep buying into the arms race, the hot hatchback halcyon days ought to be sticking around for a while yet.

These are the fastest accelerating hot hatches on sale today

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Time to realise just how good we’ve got it for fast, fun family cars right now