New Top Gear (2011) BBC 2 8PM!

The hot-hatch shootout is good fun, but i'm more than a bit disappointed.

I was thinking along the lines of Focus RS, Audi RS3, Megane R26, Golf R, etc.

Instead we get a garish looking Citroen, a Clio (not really in the same ballpark as the cars above) and a Fiat that isn't even a hatchback?

I'm not going to complain because I still like the show, but that's just taking the mick quite a bit. :/
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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
 
To be fair though, all three probably have more in common with something like a Mk1 Golf GTI which is widely viewed as one of the first hot hatches than a current Golf R or Focus RS does.
 
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.
 
[TW]Fox;19509036 said:
The Focus RS goes directly against the hot hatch ethos by costing a small fortune.
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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.
 
Don't get me wrong, it was a brilliant section, including the excellent part on the circuit (Horner made me LOL with his ranting at Hammond) but I just found the choices very strange, that's all. :)
 
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.
 
nalla said:
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
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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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Do you actually want to watch a review of cars you aren't going to buy. It's entertainment, not a review and shoukd never go back to a review style show.
Are you really looking to buy a hot hatch at this precise moment?
 
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