Hatchback

Ken Block needs no introduction by now. The inventor of Gymkhana has gathered a huge fan base on- and off-line, and for good reason: he’s been sitting behind the wheel in cool rides since forever. Speaking of those, this time around, Mr. Block gets to shakedown the living daylight out of the all-electric Ford Fiesta ERX that he actually raced over the last weekend in FIA’s World Rallycross Project E race series. And as usual, some tire slaying ensued.

Perhaps equally popular and recognizable as the Golf nameplate is the GTI badge. It has been honoring the Golf moniker since 1976 and during that time, it became synonymous with fun driving as well as daily driving suitability.

Along the years, Volkswagen refined the recipe and it’s safe to say that the 2020 Golf GTI is the most advanced of its kind. VW never went astray from the FWD setup in the Golf GTI, but it had to find ingenious solutions to keep it relevant and engaging.

The Honda Civic is one of the most iconic cars that’s ever been built. The Civic has been around since the early 70s and is going strong even today. There’s no denying that the car has a loyal fan base, especially amongst enthusiasts, and one of the main reasons for is its mod-friendly nature. You pick any generation of the Honda Civic and you’ll find plenty of examples with bespoke customizations. One such example is this 1984 model.

This third-gen Civic has gone through numerous mods, and the biggest of them includes a heart transplant. It is one of the rare examples that was converted to a mid-engined layout around three decades back and it is now on sale on Bring-a-Trailer.com.

The initial plan was for Tesla to be an affordable EV company. Now, cars like the Model 3 and Model X are fairly affordable to some – especially with various federal and local tax credits – they still aren’t exactly able to compete with other entry-level cars. During a recent conference call, Elon Musk stressed this fact and even alluded to making things right, part of which means that a smaller Tesla could grace the market, and in this case, we could be talking about a Model 3 Hatchback.

Engine swaps, we’ve see quite a few. Burly V-8s replacing puny flat-fours or screaming V-10 engines giving new life to Japanese sports cars and muscle cars alike. A motorcycle engine powering a Mini, however, is not something you see every day.

While we’re waiting to see how the Golf 8 GTI really is like, let’s take a moment and appreciate this unique, Golf 7 GTE called the GTE HyRacer. Developed by the members of a Volkswagen Retail Group Germany apprenticeship program, this is the latest in a rather long line of interesting one-off builds and it was supposed to take center stage at the annual Worthersee show in Austria. Sadly, the show’s been canceled due to the pandemic but not the project which did get completed and now we can share with you the result, a stunning prototype that one-ups even the Golf 8 GTI in terms of power.

When Mugen revealed its parts list for the 2020 Honda Civic Type R, it brought tons of carbon fiber, Alcantara, and some extreme exterior elements. For the most part, the same can be said for the standard Civic hatchback, but nothing is near as extreme. That is, arguably, a good thing, though, so let me explain to you what you can get for the base Civic hatch.

Created to do battle against the likes of BMW M135i, Mercedes-AMG A45, and to some extent, the VW Golf R, Audi’s squeaky-new S3 Sportback (and Sedan) debuts two decades after the original S3 hit the shelves. And we like what we’re seeing.

Nissan Leaf has been on the block for a decade now. It was one of the earliest entrants in the market and continues to live on. While it can be considered as the veteran in this segment if you go by its age, the Leaf didn’t make a mark like, say, any of the Tesla models did in their respective segment.

The electric hatch comes with acceptable aesthetics and decent tech features, but not the best powertrain or battery specs. But, there’s certainly more to this than meets the eye, and we’re here to uncover it. The Nissan Leaf arrived at TopSpeed’s headquarters recently, and here are our impressions about this urban electric commuter.

The Mini was conceived by Alec Issigonis to be the ultimate city car, small in proportions but featuring a groundbreaking platform that made it surprisingly spacious on the inside. It sold in over five million copies and is considered one of the most influential designs ever. So good was BMC’s biggest hit that it even made waves in the racing world, both on the rally stages and on the circuits of the world. It is, then, not that surprising that a latter-day Mini with enough mods is capable of putting 500 horsepower to the ground.

The Hyundai Elantra GT and GT N-Line, especially in regard to the most recent generation, had all the makings of a true hot hatch that could have competed with the likes of the Ford Focus ST, Honda Civic Type R, and even the Volkswagen Gold R. It has the looks, but Hyundai forgot one major ingredient – performance. Now, with a new Elantra GT N Line sedan on the horizon and the introduction of the Hyundai Venue, the Elantra GT hatchback is going to be killed off for the for the 2021 model year – at least in the United States, anyway.

By now you all (should) know who Ken Block is and what he does for a living, so we’re going to cut the blabber and get straight to the point: he’ll be hooning an all-electric Ford Fiesta prepared by STARD in the Projekt E racing series. Now let’s explain what’s what.

There’s no shortage of hot hatches on the market - in fact, the niche is becoming a rather cutthroat arena slowly but steadily. There’s also no doubt that two of its hottest representatives come from Honda and Mini, in the shape of the Civic Type R and the bonkers John Cooper Works GP. These two happen to make the subject of a recent comparo by Edmunds. Care to see which one came out on top?