Turn up the heat
The Sydney Morning Herald
Friday November 12 2004

The Subaru WRX has been the hot hatch king for a decade. Who'd have thought the strongest challenger yet would come from France? Bob Jennings introduces the next cult car to its rivals.

When it comes to having fun in cars, we're spoiled for choice right now. One of the best ways to put a smile on a motorist's face is with a hot hatch --they're smaller, quicker and more nimble than family sedans and there's something appealing in backing diminutive David against the hulking Goliath.

Today's hot hatch is a mature beast; like its potential buyers, who no longer need to tolerate compromises in comfort and quality in order to find performance.

The arrival of the Renault Megane Turbo has thrown the proverbial cat among the pigeons and prompted us to revisit the hot hatch batch.

We lined it up against the recently revised Mini Cooper S (the long-time yardstick of the genre), the Subaru WRX in hatch form rather than sedan (the class benchmark for performance and price) and Alfa Romeo's raucous and beguiling 147 GTA. Here's how they compared.

Alfa Romeo 147 GTA

This is the most expensive and most powerful of the group and one of the most obviously sporty, from the bodywork's huge, mesh-covered front and rear air openings, which expose hints of the mechanical componentry, to the raucous engine and exhaust notes.

It has a seriously sporting interior, too, with grippy, supportive seats. Although the cabin looks compact, there's a surprising amount of room and the tilt-and-slide mechanism of the front seats makes the back seats surprisingly accessible. There's reasonable space there, too, and the seats are well-contoured for comfort.

The new Selespeed gearbox with automatic clutch in the GTA is more robust than previous efforts, allowing more aggressive programming of the gearshift, which in turn makes its operation sharper. Paradoxically, it is smoother, especially in the automatically shifting city driving mode.

In manual mode, the shifts need to be assisted by easing the foot on the accelerator and generally it works well, although most testers said they'd rather save the $4000 it costs and drive a manual car.

At 1360kg it is lighter than the Subaru, so it's not surprising that the Alfa is a strong performer and it has the sort of tough feel which indicates it would be a good club competition car as well as a usable road car.

Being an Alfa Romeo, there are some quirks. At times the instrument panel picks up reflections which make the "acqua" and "benzina" gauges difficult to read, and on some bumpy corners the exhaust system banged against something under the car.

And the ride is uncompromisingly firm to the point of being uncomfortable on typical Australian minor roads.

For: Appearance. Lusty engine which is tractable for round town use. Roomy, comfortable interior. Sharp handling. Uncompromised character.

Against: Ride is uncomfortably harsh. Exhaust bangs against something else during hard cornering. And the front end had a mysterious groan. Selespeed takes some getting used to. Fiddly radio controls and well below average sound quality. The price.

Mini Cooper S


The least powerful and least spacious of the group but what it lacks in these departments it makes up for with its X-factor - the indefinable measure of fun. Even after a couple of years on the market, Minis still turn heads on the road and bring smiles to people's faces.

With the extras fitted to our test car, the Mini Cooper S costs almost as much as the much more seriously performing Subaru and Renault but Mini buyers aren't laying out this sort of money for performance alone; they're buying an image carefully nurtured by its maker, BMW.

The latest Cooper S has a tad more power than previously but retains its sharp reflexes.

While there is plenty of room for the driver and front seat passenger, there's woeful leg room in the back although the headroom's fine. Great if you're a shortlegged person with a tall hat ...

I particularly like the instrument layout with the satellite navigation option because the rev-counter and speedometer are grouped in two little binnacles in front of the driver, while the satnav system occupies the central-facia, circular binnacle normally occupied by the rev-counter.

While the steering and handling are spot on and the ride is fair, if a little bouncy at times, the seats lack the heavily bolstered side support of most of the others and don't locate their occupants as well.

The boot is pretty small, despite the Mini not having a spare wheel; BMW puts its faith in run-flat tyres. We admire their optimism. Of particular note is the excellent (but optional) sound system which was the best of any in the group.

For: Funky looks, inside and out. Sharp steering and handling reflexes. Reasonable performance. Sweet gearbox. Good space in the front, ample headroom in the back. Optional sound system.

Against: Minimal leg room in the back seat, which is difficult to enter and leave. Seats lack side support. No spare wheel.