June 14: Hot hatches, etc

Once upon a time VW introduced a heated up Golf and called it the GTI...........

This little wunder child became the first in a long line of hot hatches, that set the benchmark for sporty (i.e. better handling) and more powerful small cars. Seeing how well VW was doing with the GTI, other manufacturers cast their covetous eyes on this growing market segment, that VW had created and put out their own versions of the GTI.

The GTI arrived many years ago, like the dark ages of the 1980's. Since then, many hot hatches have rocketed to market. This term also came to mean any small, but powerful and great handling small car, hatch or sedan. We missed quite a few of them, since most were European and didn't come to our hallowed shores. Things change. 

First off, those hot "hatches" have gotten hotter, for example, Vdub's R.......

......which blows away the almost bargain priced GTI in price (the R is much higher) and power (26% more). Kind of set the tone for the competition, which consists of some very sweet and rockin rides. 

Secondly, the other big change is that many of these little hot rods are now available over here. Cars like the brutally ugly, but crazy, Honda Type R........

......which proves that the manufacturers have no imagination, after all there are many other letters in the alphabet. Or the Ford Focus RS.........

........which has been amusing those lucky Europeans for several years.

One of the first of these junior hot rods to come our way after the GTI was the Impreza WRX and later the much more potent and costly STI........

.......originally a hot hatch, now a hot sedan. High price and high power, a lethal, but fun combo.

Now there is a new player to the "hot hatch" game and with a new letter, N. Get used to seeing this N designation on anything heated up from Hyundai. The first was the 2019 Veloster........

Those folks from South Korea are taking this car business seriously. First they nail down their quality, then they tackle design, now they are going after the enthusiast. Gawd, where will it all end? After this potent little sportster, the Elantra GT is the next in lime to receive the N treatment.......

Bigger wheels and tires. Dual exhausts. A spoiler. More power. Perfect receipt. Oh, one more thing......being a Hyundai, the value for coin quotient beats the other guys hands down. One caveat though. The Europeans still get more power. Come on fellas, sure we don't got no stinkin' autobahn, but can't we have the chance to blow by our lower speed limits with reckless abandon?

Thank you VW. What you brought our way those several decades ago has spawned a small but tasty cornucopia of little road rockets built to engage and amuse those among us for whom a BMW or Audi is a bridge too far. 

Who said all the new cars are bring?

Until next time......