There’s a whole new class of hot hatches out there. Never mind the upscale rides from the likes of Audi Sport and Mercedes-AMG – we’re talking about high-performance versions of mass-market hatchbacks from mass-market automakers like Ford and Honda.
These beasts pack turbocharged four-cylinder engines kicking out upwards of 300 horsepower and can trounce dedicated sports cars costing twice or even three times as much. Yet they can still do the school run, hauling your kids and all their stuff without breaking a sweat.
The question is, which is the best of them? Surely the Ford Focus RS and the Honda Civic Type R score at the top of the hot-hatch charts, but the matter of which is the best between the two is more complicated than a straight-up comparison of the specifications will tell you.
Fortunately the good folks at Carfection have lined up the two in an effort to determine which is the best all-out hot hatch – which embodies the better approach and executes it to the effect of the wider grin on the driver’s face. Watch the nine-minute video below to find out what they discovered.