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Hot Hatch
Hot hatch shootout: cutting 20 contenders down to 10 on the drag strip
Our search for the UK's best hot hatch starts at Bruntingthorpe. On your marks...
An ex-Cold War US Air Force base littered with the decaying carcasses of aircraft fuselages isn’t your average automotive test facility. You won’t catch Euro NCAP smashing up new motors here in deepest Leicestershire. But Bruntingthorpe (or Brunters, if you’re so inclined) is perfect for doing big speeds in cars in a safe, controlled environment. Its two-mile-long runway, once the stomping ground of nuke-laden bombers, gives us the chance to drag race several hatches and record multiple acceleration and braking runs in each car.
The surface is more like a British B-road than a racetrack, too: pockmarked, gritty and as much of a nightmare for shonky traction control and ABS set-ups as it is for windscreens. Brunters also gives us the space to line up the cars for a Weight Watchers lie-detector test and out any closet porkers among the Hot Hatch Class of 2015. By the end of the day, we’ll know which hot hatches deserve a diet, which is fastest in a straight line and which has the best brakes.
But there’s more. Hot-footing it back around the racetrack cum access roads that zigzag around the airfield give crucial first impressions on handling, noise and gearshift. Which has the oh-so-important best seats? And can the dog-slow cherry picker make it to the cover shoot location before nightfall? It’s time to dodge the Boeings and start crunching the numbers, because only 10 can go through...
Read the rest of TG’s quest to find the best hot hatch on sale in the UK:
Ten become six – Shakedown at Knockhill
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That’s not smoky yobbery, that’s launch control. The M135i’s Traffic Light Grand Prix (TLGP) mode was a tad vague, bonfiring the rears before you lifted off the brakes; better to drive it off the line smartly, minimise wheelspin and get it hooked up – the creamy straight-six was possibly the strongest mid-range hauler here. Between 30mph and 70mph, the M135i ripped seven tenths out of the hard-charging Civic, and was 0.3 seconds quicker than the DSG-equipped Golf R. Even the rabid A45 was a tenth behind in the motorway slip-road stakes. It stopped too: only the 115kg lighter Megane halted quicker.
We all look up when the RS3 girds its loins, the five-pot brapping like a Group B car on anti-lag. Its squat ’n’ go routine belies the ferocity with which it rocketed from standstill. There was an annoying delay before detonation as you came off the brake in launch control mode, but thereafter it pulled most g-force and crushed everything, especially 30–70mph. Heaviest here, though, so the Golf R, M135i and Megane stopped sooner.
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PEUGEOT 208 GTi by Peugeot Sport
It might be the hottest Pug hatch ever, but the 208 GTi wasn’t a natural drag queen. It’s powerful, sure, and the Michelin Pilot Super Sport tyres are wider and stickier than the other little ’uns’ boots, even the Mini JCW’s. However, we need to talk about The Gearbox. Besides the obtusely XXL knob itself, the vague, long-shift action limited the 208’s pace badly, and wouldn’t allow flat shifts. From 60–100mph, the Fiesta ST actually clawed a tenth back, but the Pug still managed an impressive 21.1secs 0–100–0 time. With a sweeter ’box, it could do better...
You’d imagine that the JCW, with its wealth of power and paddleshift gearbox, would be a straight-line hero – but it was no piece of cake. The launch control was unpredictably vague, and it’d rampantly wheelspin unless the throttle was feathered all the way into second.
By being super-precise and careful with its boost, Ollie Marriage managed to shave a full 0.5sec off its 0–60mph time in the end, which it ran three tenths faster than Mini’s claim. Just a tenth off the Type R from 30mph to 70mph, it romped along in the powerband, but the brakes were appalling. Only the Swift Sport – the slowest car here – took longer to stop. Yikes.
The yellow rectangle denotes a Mountune induction kit: +33bhp, +22lb ft, +£599, and supposedly -0.5sec on your 0–60mph. The Fiesta was fairly easy to launch – its relative lack of power meant traction wasn’t the issue it was in the bigger Focus, but the recalcitrant clutch didn’t bounce back up after a quick change. Weird. It arrived at 60mph 0.2sec slower than claimed but was a remarkably composed little tyke under brakes.
You could give the only nat asp car here everything off the line. With only 134bhp on tap, it’d accept a 5,000rpm launch...and still be by far the slowest, at 7.8 seconds to 60mph and a leisurely 23.9 to 100mph – two and a half times that taken by the rampant RS3. Still, it wiped almost a second off Suzuki’s 0–60mph claim.
But try as we might, no one could actually hit the Swift’s brakes hard enough to activate the ABS. It didn’t really have any stopping power, it just drifted down from 100mph in 105 metres. By the time it was stationary, the RS3 could’ve almost done a whole other run. Outgunned but still charming.
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Incremental power gains of 20bhp and 28lb ft only unlock, says Renault, a 0.1sec advantage over the regular Clio RS, but this was a seriously muscular little car. It romped from 60mph to 100mph a whole second faster than the tuned Fiesta, its unlovable dual-clutch ’box finally paying dividends.
Accessing max attack mode was a pain, though: gearbox lever into Manual, press Sport, then press and hold again for Race. No such complication with the brakes, which, like the Megane’s, were progressive and powerful. None of the superminis stopped faster. Nor many of the bigguns.
Expectations of the Corsa VXR were sky-high, given how much hardware it borrows from the excellent previous-gen Clubsport special.
So what went wrong? Partly, it’s the characterless engine, which did the numbers adroitly enough, but lacked a distinctive noise or sharp throttle response. And you were forever negotiating with it via a vague, nasty ’box that didn’t take kindly to fast shifts, thanks to fragile-feeling linkages. It was almost enough to make you wish for the Clio’s fuss-free auto. Almost. Looks good, and has cracking Recaro seats, but lacks the Fiesta’s panache as a driver’s car.
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From past experience, we know the Leon Cupra 280 is a bit-champing maniac when equipped with the DSG paddleshifter, but as you can see, this one’s a manual, with a fairly artificial but mostly satisfying shift.
Of course, with no launch control, the traction control issue raised its head (off should mean off, VW Group), so both it and its wagon sister were slower than Seat claims for 0–60mph (6.4 plays 6.0 for the hatch). The wagon’s superior high-speed aero meant it was actually two-tenths faster from 60mph to 100mph as well, despite being identical from 30mph to 70mph.
Funny how cars with the same platform, basic drivetrains and chassis components can feel so disparate head-to-head. The Skoda felt soft and vague compared with its fellow-MQB Leons and Golfs, and though it was as fast 0–60mph as the Golf GTI, it lost 0.4sec between there and hitting the ton. Then again, it clawed all that back and more under brakes to record a healthier 0–100–0 than the VW.
AUDI S1 and HONDA CIVIC TYPE R
So, which would be faster: a 4WD tiddler or a BTCC refugee wading into battle with the damp powder of front-drive? The S1 hit 60mph in 5.5secs by building up the revs against the handbrake and dipping the clutch smartly. Smelt a bit, but the times were stellar.
Meanwhile, the Civic was trickier. It wouldn’t beat 5.5secs until you realised that full throttle was a no-go anywhere in first gear, as it triggered insta-spin at the wheels. Grab a clean shift into second, open the taps and manage the wheelspin into third (really). Torque-steer was impressively reined in, and a 5.3-second run resulted. Both are lively under brakes.
Look, VW, this is a GTI. Your iconic, benchmark hot hatch. The traction control shouldn’t cut back in without being asked. Yet between 4,500rpm and 5,000rpm, the ECU decided it’d interfere, hurting acceleration.
As a result, the little Polo GTI embarrassed the pricier Golf by hitting 60mph a tenth faster. Are you listening now, VW? GTI was the only ‘big’ hatch that needed over 100m to pull up from 100mph, too.
Though Merc has just launched an updated A45, we couldn't get hold of the new version, and used a kind owner’s car instead. It wouldn’t do a super-aggressive launch, preferring to slur off the line with some clutch slip instead of simply leaping away like the RS3.
Mind you, from 60mph to 100mph, the 355bhp A45 was just 0.4 seconds off the RS3, and with a more powerful version coming very soon, we wouldn’t bet against that trend reversing in the near future.
But as this is now the ‘old’ A45, it can’t progress any further than Bruntingthorpe. You can almost hear the boys and girls from Audi breathing a sigh of relief.
Initial traction was great, but this was the only car here in which it was advantageous not to use the entire rev range. It tightened up and ran out of puff at 5,000rpm; limit the revs to 4,300rpm, and the GTD makes much better use of its torque swell, dipping from 7.6 seconds to 60mph to 7.3. That heavier engine helped under brakes too, pressing the tyres down and stopping 1.8m before the Golf GTI. We were surprised too.
A properly serious performance car, this. No front-driver – not even the Type R – pulled more gs off the line (0.65g), demonstrating just how well-sorted the Megane is for inital traction. The long gearlever was the Achilles’ heel here, ultimately limiting how fast the gears could crash through the gate.
Those red-calipered Brembos deserve huge credit too, with the Megane recording easily the best stopping distances of all the cars present. 100mph to a dead stop in 86.8m is damn impressive.
Sounded great, good gearshift too. But that bombastic engine couldn’t get all its power onto the road, so like the Leon ST, initial traction and accelerative g were relatively low. Once it’d found its feet, the Focus went at a similar lick to the Golf GTI, and actually made a similar hash of coming to a halt, almost precisely 100 metres from the spot it hit 100 miles per hour.
It felt tough, though – repeated runs and drag races brought no complaints from the clutch, nor baulkiness from the shifter, and it didn’t even eat its tyres too badly. With a proper front diff to distribute the drive, it’d be a much stronger contender.
Easy to find launch control, easy to, er, launch, and simply sit back and watch the transmission do the rest. Turn off the DSC (the R is the first Golf ever to actually allow that – about time), put the gearbox into Sport or Manual mode, then cover the brake and flatten the gas. It’ll hold 4,000rpm, make a wonderful warble, then does the full startled rabbit once you disengage the brakes.
We took 0.3 seconds off VW’s conservative 0–62mph claim (albeit getting to 60mph) thanks to the R’s neat, unfussed, effective acceleration. You just get the sense not a single horsepower is wasted. Good brakes too; it stopped ahead of the lardier RS3.
Don’t assume it’s a half-rate hatch, the little GTI. It’s actually so strong in the mid-range, wheelspin knackers its times, so it’s crucial to maintain traction. Both the Polo and the 208 were properly rapid to 60mph, their shared 6.2 second times putting them well ahead of some tastier candidates.
The Polo lost out at higher speeds, but felt bombproof for run after run, with a rorty engine note and robust ’box.
Yet again, another MQB car in which you can’t have dominion over the traction control and ESC. Except, in the estate, you’ve got less traction anyway, due to the rearward weight distribution. Nevertheless, feeling the car cut power right as the turbo hit its stride was always an infuriating pain. The Leon ST regained its composure under brakes, which were downright mega.
A front-wheel-drive estate car has no right to feel this much of a weapon, but we’re very glad Seat decided to drop the Cupra powertrain into a wagon body.
The Results
20 need to become 10 before we leave Bruntingthorpe. Not enough drivers to take cars north to Knockhill, that’s the key issue.
But 10 feels like a good number: realistic, containable – we don’t want too many cars that overlap with each other, do similar jobs. So let’s make some tricky decisions now.
We’re only going to take one Golf. And that’s obviously going to be the R, which means we’re waving goodbye not only to the GTD diesel, but also, controversially, to the GTI. It was (and arguably still is) the benchmark hot hatch, but the R proves that GTI is no longer the ultimate Golf. The 4wd is not only faster, but sharper to drive and a hefty dollop more fun.
In fact only one Volkswagen is going through. We’re also waving goodbye to the Polo GTI. It’s really improved in the current generation – a convincing mini-Golf – but there’s an underlying issue with the supermini class. The Fiesta ST is too damn good. It might be a few years old now, but equipped with the Mountune pack it’s lost none of its dazzle.
That means we’re only going to take through other supermini-sized rivals that have an edge in one area or other to do battle with it. That means the Clio is off to Scotland. Yes, straight line testing at Bruntingthorpe has revealed that the newly-modified gearbox is still pants, but the sharpness of the chassis, its eagerness to perform ensures its place in the next round.
Same goes for the Peugeot 208 GTI. There’s something about its meaty engine and small steering wheel that’s… intriguing. That’s enough to put it through at the expense of the Vauxhall Corsa VXR and Mini JCW, both of which feel a bit clumsy in comparison to the class best.
Hard not to be disappointed by the Mini. While the standard Cooper S is nimble and balanced, JCW versions always come across as ‘too much engine, not enough composure’. It’s gob-smackingly fast: sixth fastest to 100mph, beating the 275bhp Megane Trophy amongst others, but Mini needs to prove it can do better.
There’s not much wrong with the new Corsa VXR – it’s quick and sure-footed. But the engine lacks character, and the whole car is short of panache.
Suzuki Swift Sport and Skoda Octavia vRS are going home – both just felt too limp in this company. The Swift needs more straight-line speed, the Octavia to have a more deliberate focus on driving dynamics, not all-round composure. It’s just too sensible.
Right, time to make some harder calls. Focus ST. There’s something about it – it’s a big-hearted, generous-spirited car, but we can’t in good conscience put it ahead of a Seat Leon Cupra.
Estate. Yes, really. That’s the Cupra we’re going to put through. It’s not that it’s sharper than the hatch (although the more sideways operatives amongst us swear the extra weight of the tailgate gives the chassis even more swing into corners…), but that it’s such an unlikely and yet still rollickingly good fun machine to drive. This over a similarly practical Octavia vRS any day.
Debates are being held about other VW Group entrants. The Audi S1 has as much spring in its step as a frog on a trampoline and is making the vastly more powerful RS3 feel a bit of a lead-foot. However, the RS3 is so roisteringly fast that we can’t not put it through. The feeling is that the RS3 has the measure of the Mercedes A45 AMG, which, of course, is on the verge of being replaced (we did this test before we has access to the new model).
There was no real debate over the presence of the final three to go through. The Renaultsport Megane Trophy is the yardstick by which the handling of all hot hatches should be judged, the Honda Civic Type R is basically nine-tenths touring car and the BMW M135i is rear wheel drive. And we need something that can do skids when we get to Knockhill.
Read the rest of TG’s quest to find the best hot hatch on sale in the UK:
Ten become six – Shakedown at Knockhill
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