12 of the most thrilling four-cylinder cars ever built

Eleven generations of Honda Civic have bred six different iterations of Civic Type R. Each and every one uses a 2.0-litre, four-cylinder VTEC, and since the second-gen, EP3 ‘Breadvan’ that VTEC has been identified by a K20 engine code (see also the Ariel Atom). 

But it’s the latest and greatest FL5 Civic we’ve picked here; equipped with a turbocharger for monstrous 325bhp and 310lb ft outputs – put through only the front axle! – it ranks honourably among the greatest hot hatches ever.

A modest 1.8-litre turbo four that didn’t exactly ignite our flame in the third-gen Megane RS is elevated towards greatness in the middle of its daintier Alpine cousin. 

It makes a pleasingly rorty sound whichever spec you opt for, but props must go to the end-of-the-line A110 Ultime, which uses GT4 racecar internals for a 340bhp peak if you can find 102-octane fuel. And a still useful 321bhp if not…

The throaty warble of a four-cylinder boxer engine – whether on song or merely at idle – is among the most recognisable in the business. In recent years it’s emanated from Toyota ‘86s and Porsche 718s, but the car your mind surely draws up – each and every time you hear it – is an EJ-powered Subaru Impreza. 

Preferably a stock original Nineties Turbo or a rally refugee 22B, but just about anything with a whiff of WRX or STI about it pleases us, and the 450bhp Prodrive P25 restomod is the most unhinged of the lot.

Plenty of Fords could have made the grade here, but this is the wildest looking and performing of the lot. The Sierra RS500 was spun from motorsport regulations, designed for Group A glory and the eventual recipient of more Touring Car titles than it knew how to polish. It also won the 1987 Nürburgring 24 Hours, fact fans. 

Cosworth’s heavily reengineered (and now turbocharged) 2.0-litre ‘YB’ engine, produced 224bhp in roadgoing homologation form, but over twice that in some competition specs.

Another car whose story involves Group A rules, the initial 190E 2.3-16 saloon borrowed Cosworth thinking to produce 182bhp on road or around 300bhp on track. It was granted instant icon status when it was used for an all stars one-make race at the Nürburgring, then-upstart Ayrton Senna taking the victory.

The engine grew to 2.5 litres for subsequent Evo and Evo II iterations which cranked up both body muscle and power, peaking at 232bhp in road-legal form. It took the 190E’s whole life to win a championship – but the competition 190E Evo II did that in style by scooping DTM title honours in 1992. And there’s now a very pricey restomod that pays tribute.

A two-time DTM title winner and the 190E’s toughest foe; together, the pair spurred each other onto greatness in both showrooms and race paddocks. Those willing to really get stuck in consider it one of M Division’s greatest ever cars, but its highly strung S14 engine – peaking at 2.5 litres and 235bhp in road-going Sport Evolution trim – needs a lot more stirring than a modern straight-six or V8, while its driver must calibrate around a tricky dog-leg manual gearshift. 

But crikey do they look good (and cost an unfathomable amount of money) today.

Volkswagen’s EA888 engine family has been with us for almost two decades now, its most famous application – or indeed infamous, if your local high-street is plagued by antisocially driven Golf Rs – being the 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbo peppered across a spectrum of Golfs, Cupras, Octavias and S3s. 

Peak output is 328bhp in the current Leon VZ3 and Golf R, but peak EA888 is surely the slimmed-down, ‘Ring-crushing Golf GTI Clubsport S special. A near perfect car.

Or how about the original, slimmed-down, ‘Ring-crushing hot hatchback? The Renault Sport Megane R26.R arguably is perfection, though the car launched to an unconvinced market that simply couldn’t fathom paying a premium for a three-door hatch with plastic windows and a bright red ‘cage where its back seats should... sit.

Using a turbocharged version of the F4R engine from a bunch of iconic Clios, the 227bhp and 229lb ft of the Megane’s F4RT (yep) hustled its scant 1.2 tonnes to a 8m 17s Nordschleife time – quicker than a contemporary Vanquish.

The big stat here is ‘specific output’. Squeezing 415bhp out of a 1,991cc four-cylinder engine – and therefore 208bhp/litre, when a GMA T.50 hypercar claims 165 – is no mean feat, but if AMG does a hot hatch, it clearly does it properly. 

Much of the attention directed at the A45 concerns its drift mode or wild aero kit, but the almighty M139 squeezed beneath its stubby bonnet is the real hero. The appearance of a similar unit in the controversial C63 hybrid? Let’s move swiftly on.

TopGear.com’s reigning Performance Car of the Year, no less, a stunner that channels the spirit of two other, highly thrilling four-cylinder heroes into one, mesmeric product. Visually, the EVO37 cribs off the Lancia 037 road and rally car, one which deployed a 2.1-litre supercharged unit for a peak of 321bhp. That was replaced by the Delta S4, which used a smaller 1.8-litre engine with supercharging and turbocharging for almost 500bhp. 

Both would ably make this list if Luca Betti hadn’t combined the former’s size and the latter’s twin-charging to produce a 550bhp piece of art that’s fully road legal. What a thing.

Driving a Lotus Elise ought to be a bucket list experience, a car that any true petrolhead dabbles with at least once during their time on this planet. Early Elise S1s sourced a 1.8-litre K Series engine from Rover with just 118bhp – but their slim weight and chassis majesty transformed supermini power levels into a superstar driving experience. 

Power peaked at 187bhp in the track-prepped Elise Sport 190 and the manic 340R ‘moon buggy’.

Yep, another Honda to bookend proceedings. The FL5 Civic may be a true modern icon, but the purest, most thrilling Type R of them all remains the late Nineties ‘Teg. With 187bhp and no turbo it offers little more than half the power of its modern hot hatch relation, but it compensates with a nape-prickling 8,700 rev limit and a FWD driving experience so raw and intense, you’ll wonder why anyone bothered with RWD performance cars afterwards.