The last gasp of the hot hatch as we know and love it – car pictures of the week
Volkswagen’s Golf GTI Edition 50 meets the Honda Civic Type R and Toyota GR Yaris Aero Performance for a road and track battle
The hot hatch breed as a whole is thinning out but through the discontinuations and culls, a few stars continue to fly the flag as some of the very best hot hatches, not just of the moment, but of all time. We got Honda’s Civic Type R, Volkswagen’s Golf GTI Edition 50 and Toyota’s GR Yaris Aero Performance together to duke it out on road and track. Here are our favourite shots from the test.
The odds stand in favour of the Civic, which bows out of production as the high bar no rivals (of those left) have yet managed to clear. It’s the car at which Volkswagen’s hardcore Golf GTI Edition 50 is aimed. It’s the effective successor to the sublime Mk7 Golf Clubsport S and is on the impressions we have so far, worthy of that title and therefore, in with the best possible shot of topping the Civic.
> Audi RS3 v Toyota GR Yaris v Mercedes-AMG A45 S – which is the best AWD hyper hatch?
The Aero Performance is the outlier. Then again, the GR Yaris is always the outlier given it’s almost in a micro-class of its own, as a tiny-wheelbase, rabid AWD rally refugee. Last year the standard car proved a more fun device with which to dissect a country road than either the Audi RS3 or Mercedes-AMG A45 S, so the Aero Performance stands a good chance here. Which will win out, as the best hot hatch of the moment? There’s an excerpt from the test below, but you can read it in full in issue 347 of evo, that you can buy here.
‘The Golf’s biggest strength on the road, its superb front end, also defines its character on track. Hop in after the Civic and you miss the intimately connected steering and firm brake feel, but as you approach the limits you relish its balance and how hard you can commit on corner entry. It takes a little longer to get there, since the Civic and Yaris communicate their limits more clearly, but once you’re in tune with how hard you can attack, the GTI is devastating.’ – Yousuf Ashraf, evo senior staff writer.
