Top 10: Forgotten hot hatches
It was the original Volkswagen Golf GTi that kickstarted the hot hatch sector, leading to a plethora of copycat models from rival manufacturers. Some of them sold in huge numbers and are now revered on the modern-classic scene, whilst others have largely disappeared off the radar.
For every best-selling go-faster 205, Escort and Golf there were a number of less popular hot hatches that were fairly rare when new – and are positively scarce all these years later. So let’s celebrate some of the most overlooked hot hatch classics, paying tribute to those that many of us have long since forgotten about.
Think of a sporty version of Lancia’s quirky little Y10 and you probably conjure up images of the original Turbo of 1985, a model that offered surprisingly nippy performance from its ‘blown’ 1049cc engine. The Turbo disappeared by 1989, however, to be replaced by the normally-aspirated GTie, featuring a 1301cc multi-point fuel-injected OHC unit pushing out 78bhp. It was a more sophisticated little sportster than the Turbo, but within just two years was dropped from the UK line-up due to poor sales. Nowadays the Y10 GTie is a rare sight, a model long forgotten by non-Lancia folk.
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