New Top Gear (2011) BBC 2 8PM!
- Thread starter Andr3w
- Start date
my thoughts exactly, not what i would call hot hatch, focus rs is hot hatch and probably the big name you would expect, throw in megane 225 and the golf r, and maybe you have the top 3 names, may made the clio look absoluty poor when we all know its better, and for the fiat 500 arbarth with its rather low bhp in the hot hatch episode was a joke really, but still entertaining.
edit. i did mean the megane r26 doh
![[TW]Fox](/data/man-of-honor/2009.png){kind=avatar}
The Focus RS goes directly against the hot hatch ethos by costing a small fortune.
A hot hatch was a normal, every day car which was cheap to buy, cheap to run and would quite happily pop the kids to school, call into the supermarket and then rip up your favourite B road on the way home.
A hot hatch was a normal, every day car which was cheap to buy, cheap to run and would quite happily pop the kids to school, call into the supermarket and then rip up your favourite B road on the way home.
Soldato
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- 29 Jun 2004
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- 12,957
Ethos went out of the window ages ago.
Renault began the craze some years ago by replacing the rear seats of a Clio with a V6.
Renault began the craze some years ago by replacing the rear seats of a Clio with a V6.
In what way was that different to the first Renault 5 Gordini's?
[TW]Fox;19509036 said:
Yes but this is Top Gear! It's not like they've strived to bring you affordable cars is it? They built the section up by talking about the "best Hot Hatch" and then rolled up in three cars which are certainly decent, but not in the same league as cars like the Focus RS.
If it was a "cheap car challenge" with a £15K limit or something like that i'd happily take my comments back, but there was no stipulation about what could have been picked and what couldn't.
Caporegime
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It was nice to see something a bit different tbh. Liked seeing the cars they 'chose'.
Am I the only one thinking the hot hatch review wasn't actually....a review. They haven't focused on the cars at all and as usual, everything is overly contrived. Previous episodes were better, this one was wasted on a non-hot hatch segment.
I completely disagree. Whilst the 500 Abarth convertible/rollback was a bit of an oddball choice, this was only because it isn't actually a hatchback. Other than that (rather major!) technicality, the cars were the very definition of a hot hatch.
Don't make the mistake of thinking just because a manufacturer makes a faster hatch in the range, the less powerful sporting versions suddenly stop being hot hatches. Look at Ford in the 80s - they were producing the Fiesta XR2, the Escort XR3i and the Escort RS Turbo. All three hot hatches. Same goes for Renault with the Twingo, Clio and Megane - all three of which come in hot hatch form.
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