RS3 Sportback Quattro.

Ringers at VW? No, of course not! We do not tune our car for journalists! Or governing bodies... who check our emissions.

These days hot hatches have 400bhp.

Yes they are (officially at least).

You are indeed. I drive a 175bhp hatchback and it’s the most powerful ”normal” one. I am easily faster than 70-75% cars I cross with.

The numbers quoted are to 62 and the official figures for the Golf are not better than that.

More than 230-240bhp is definitely hot hatch (C-segment) territory. That doesn’t mean that there are hatchbacks that have (far) more than that.

They racing successes might have helped (altough their foray into rallying in the late ninenties and early noughties left a lot to be desired) but you could argue that it came later on.

Good! So it is just as fast but rides better?

They were saddled with rubbish reputation here too. But they did an Audi at a lower price point: build high quality cars specifically aimed at the market they wanted to conquer. And so they did; the original i30 started the revolution and, well, the rest is history as they say.

It’s 270bhp hot hatch from Hyundai, that’s where the interestingness lies.

It’s fine. It’s also probably pushing 1500kg and front wheel drive isn’t the best for traction.

Nobody ever goes from nought to sixty. In-gear acceleration is far more important for daily drivability.

A bit too flashy. I hope you can delete the red trim or something.

I don’t know about the gearing (although probably taller on the turbo 4 to take into account the extra torque) but the cars I drove were both 6 speed manuals.

That is indeed curious. You do not drive manuals but buy high performance expensive manuals. We drive manuals but move out of them as soon as we can.

Well Jaguar engineered one for the F-Type when the 8-speed ZF auto is pretty excellent. Maybe there is hope.

You mean MX-5? It was far cheaper than the S2000...

The 328i was actually slightly less powerful than the 330i (245bhp v 272bhp) but it was the version that replaced it. It was also far faster than it.

Nobody can...