2022 hot hatchback battle: the middleweights

Sometimes I’ll find myself drawn towards perching at the counter. Other times the quiet room round the back will become my home from home as I line up the espressos and try to think of what to write. Currently my favoured spot in my local coffee shop is in the corner, just to the left of the door as you walk in. It’s particularly good today because I can see the high street and the steady stream of interesting vehicles driving up it.

There must be a car meet going on somewhere nearby because intermingled with the monochrome drudgery of SUVs is a succession of hot hatches. The traffic lights up the road turn red and as an ST and a GTI roll to a halt they both decide to exercise their distinctly non-OEM exhausts. The five-cylinder sounds better, but the four-pot is producing the more anti-social cracks and bangs. It sounds like a minor small arms scuffle between Buckinghamshire drugs barons. The couple at the table next to me tut and sip their cappuccinos as a second volley clatters around the walls of the quaint market town.

> 2022 hot hatchback battle: hyper hatches

There is the occasional R or RS and some superminis scuttle by, but the majority are the middle ground. The solid ham sandwiches in the hot hatch buffet. Sure, most have been modified, but the heartland of the hot hatch seems to be the size and state of tune that is under consideration in the third of evo’s three hot hatch heats. They may not be as powerful as those in the first heat but they are more practical and powerful than those in the second. The question is, are any of them good enough to progress to the final to fight it out to be crowned king of the hot hatches? And are any of them good enough to take on the elephant in the car park, the Honda Civic Type R?