HOT HATCHES, RATHER like raves, 140bpm, glow-sticks and everything else that went with them, rather passed me by in period, even though, having been born in 1968, I should have been a prime target. No regrets. I realised this after much fevered debate with colleagues trying to draw the line in the sand from when hot hatch culture morphed into twocking and generally unpleasant larrikinism. We reckoned that as a cultural phenomenon the hot hatch probably peaked in the late 1980s and suffered its first death (of many) when big beasts Peugeot and VW failed to replace either 205 GTI or Golf GTI Mk2 to the satisfaction of their salivating audiences.
Even so, by then the hot hatch genre had become part of the establishment, which is why manufacturers are…
