Cast your mind back a dozen years. The undisputed hot hatch king – the Peugeot 306 GTI-6 – has just deftly oversteered into 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 convincingly held the hot hatch high ground.
Two years later sees 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.
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Ex SC-6Now in a Megane R26