Renault 5 Alpine: the hot Le Car America never got to drive Ask an American of a certain age about the Renault 5 and you’ll get a smirk. Over here it was Le Car, a tin box with a canvas sunroof and a name that sounded like a joke from a sitcom writers’ room, sold … Read more
Opel Corsa GSi: the Spanish-built GM pocket rocket Britain called a Nova General Motors built one of the best small hot hatches of the eighties and never let a single American buy it. It came out of a GM plant in Spain, wore an Opel badge in Europe and a Vauxhall badge in Britain, and … Read more
Volkswagen Golf GTI Mk4: the GTI that went soft, and the R32 that made up for it The Mk4 is the GTI Americans bought by the truckload and enthusiasts still can’t quite forgive. Volkswagen sold it here from 1999 to 2005, it put VW back on the map in the United States, it had an … Read more
Volkswagen Golf GTI Mk2 and Mk3: Pennsylvania’s GTI, the weight problem and the VR6 America got the second-generation GTI before it ever got a car called Golf GTI. Volkswagen of America sold it simply as the “GTI”, a model of its own, and some of the early ones were bolted together in a factory in … Read more
Volkswagen Golf GTI Mk1: the bootleg hot hatch America bought as a Rabbit from Pennsylvania In 1982 Volkswagen of America was in trouble. Rabbit sales that year were down a devastating 44 percent on the year before, according to the Christian Science Monitor, and the cheap, clever little hatchback that was supposed to replace the … Read more
The Fiat Uno Turbo i.e. packed injection, a turbo and an intercooler into 845 kg. Its story, both series, why so many died young and what it’s worth now.
The Peugeot 205 GTI weighed 1,874 lb, set the hot hatch benchmark and bit on lift-off. Peugeot nearly sold it in the US. Here is what America missed.
Le Car’s European big brother: a 1962 pushrod engine, a Garrett turbo and a carburetor. The full story of the Renault 5 GT Turbo.
The Astra GTE 16V and Opel Kadett GSi 16V had a Cosworth-headed 156 hp Red Top. Americans got the 74 hp Pontiac LeMans instead. Here’s what they missed.
The Nissan That Was Right Three Years Too Early — and Lost Anyway Here’s a car that in 1992 already knew exactly how the World Rally Championship would be won for the next decade. It knew before Subaru. It knew before Mitsubishi. The recipe was sitting right there under its own bonnet: two litres, turbo, … Read more
Renault Gordini — What’s Left of the Sorcerer When the Sorcerer Is Gone A Name on a Hatchback You are standing in a Renault dealership somewhere in Europe around 2011. There is a Clio in the showroom. It is blue — not just any blue, but a deep, specific shade called Malte Blue. Two white … Read more
GOLF R32: BACK WHEN VOLKSWAGEN STILL TOOK RISKS Chris Harris said it once and it stuck: the trouble with modern hot hatches is that they all feel like the same car wearing different jackets. He was talking about the latest Golf R when he said it, but he could have been talking about any of … Read more
