Mods and rocker covers: Does tuning a hot hatch intensify the fun or burn it to a cinder?

摘要

Cast your mind back to the turn of the millennium. The undisputed hot hatch king -the Peugeot 306 GTI-6 - has just deftly oversteered off to the great car park in the sky. With a fizzing 167bhp from its naturally aspirated 2.0-litre twin-cam engine and six forward gears, it has convincingly held the high ground in the hot hatch performance arena. But just two years later arrives the 212bhp Ford Focus RS and the 210bhp Seat Leon Cupra R, and an all-new breed of hyper hot hatch is born, mutating like a freak organism over time into the giant-killers of today; 250bhp has become the minimum requirement in this class.