User:TyOrlando/Hot hatch

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The Volkswagen Mark I GTI is the main car that made the Hot Hatches popular; Volkswagen Mark I GTI has been in production since 1976 and is still being made today.

The MkI is the main reason why hot hatches were and are still popular today. The MkI GTI was also the first step into making affordable sports cars for the average person and that soon created the golden age of cars. Many JDM, euro, and American car companies made affordable sports cars to compete with the GTI and helped pave the road for the community of tuners and car enthusiast that we have today.^[1] The original MkI GTI was made by a team of 7 engineers and had a top speed of 110 mph; they were looking to make a sportier version of the VW Golf and achieved that by putting a 1.6 liter in-line 4 inside of it gaining 110 HP.^[2] The MkI was later beaten by the 2.0 16V inside of the MkII and now the GTI currently has a turbocharged 4 cylinder 2.0 liter inside the Mk7 which is the current model of the GTI.^[3] The original GTI was popular around the 1970’s and was so popular that the limit to only 5,000 units had to be increased to 420,000 units because of demand.^[4] Now the original GTI is still in production and has sold over 2 million units. The reasoning for such a high demand was because it was an affordable family hatchback that was built for performance and is the main reason why hot hatches are so popular. Volkswagen did not even want the GTI initially but they needed a show car for performance and they wanted a newer car to surpass the beetle.^[5] The warm hatch was going to be the only version of the golf since Volkswagen didn’t want the GTI originally but the marketing genius Anton Conrad thought maybe the average person would like performance vehicles, especially with the younger customers. Conrad then took a small team and built the GTI even after the disapproval from his bosses which down the road became a huge success.^[5]

Back in the 1950-60’s you could only have either an affordable family car or a sports car, there was no in-between until the GTI was manufactured. It created a car renaissance in the 1980’s and inspired many other car companies to make affordable fast cars like the Skyline GTR and Mazda MX-5 which gave speed to the average person.^[5] It also inspired many of the hot hatches you see today like the Focus ST, Fiesta ST, Yaris, Bolt, Soul Turbo, Civic Type-R, Elantra GT, Mini Cooper, Veloster N, and BMW X1. ^[6]These Hot Hatches would not be here today if it were not for the creation of the GTI and was a very important car for the future of hatches. The GTI and most of the hot hatches received a lot of its fame from the UK since most euro cars companies came out with a hatchback body style.^[7] Also America did not receive the original GTI that came with 40 more hp instead they got a different version named the GTI rabbit edition that did not contain the European engine so instead it received the same engine with only 1 more hp which hindered the popularity of the vehicle in the US.^[3]

The GTI is one of the most popular hatches in the UK and Germany and will most likely stay that way. GTI’s are so popular that they have a car meet every spring in Australia specifically for GTI’s where people can show off their mods on the car. These mods may consist of a new air intake, a tune up, engine swap, lowering springs, body kits, under glow, wheels, turbo swap, and many others. This meetup is called GTI meet at Wörthersee and it is a four day event that people from all across Europe come to see and meet fellow Hot Hatch lovers. This meet is mainly for GTI’s but people bring many different types of Hatches.^[8] Meets like this help bring the culture of the hot hatch car community to light and brings the car communities together. Many hot hatches today average around 250-300 hp holding a 2.0 L 4 cylinder turbocharged engine and warm hatches average around 180-200 hp with a 1.8l turbocharged engine. ^[3]Volkswagen has a warm hatch version of the GTI which is the Golf TSI Mk7 which has 170 hp and is turbocharged as well as an electric golf named the e-golf which has 134 hp.^[9]