Power Pint

Small car. Big power. Much fun

- Parth Charan

Of all the attempts to give equine power to the people, the hot hatch has to be the noblest yet. Sure, the chaps in Detroit gave the world its first blue-collared, automotive pulp hero in the form of the muscle car – but, much like the lantern-jawed, bristly, one-dimensional protagonists of pulp fiction, it’s a bit too bombastic and obtrusive for everyday functioning. Ask any real-world MI6 agent where an unhealthy fondness for martinis and skirt chasing will land him (hint: not the beaches of Barbados).

That’s where hot hatches come in: unassuming, focused and positively monastic compared to other power-driven derivatives. And no hot hatch, certainly none in the country, is more so than the new Volkswagen Polo GTI – a car and a badge that confused many a bystander while I drove it around. So, let’s clear a few things up first, shall we: Is this Polo GTI still a Polo? Yes, very much so. And, also, no, absolutely not.

After the widespread success of VW’s resident hot hatch-in-chief, the Golf GTI, the company decided to extend the GTI line – essentially an in-house tuning of its models, much like Merc’s AMG or Audi’s Quattro divisions. It made sense for the Polo to be the next model to receive this heady injection of power – the Polo R WRC has, after all, won the last four World Rallying Championships.