Quote:
Originally Posted by Red-86
IMO a hot hatch is not a sports car. It’s... well, a ‘hot hatch’ i.e. its own category.
A sports car IMO has to be a dedicated coupe or roadster, preferably with RWD, which is designed primarily for handling and performance, instead of practicality. You typically sit low in the car, and get a sports car like driving experience.
A hot hatch, on the other hand, is a more practical car, typically FWD or AWD upgraded for performance. They can be very quick, often quicker than dedicated sports cars like the MX-5 or BRZ, but they never completely leave their cheaper, mainstream car origins behind.
I realise not everyone agrees, but to me they are different segments, even if they sometimes share the same kind of thrill seeking buyer.
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Technically it is a unique dedicated sports coupe. But understand how it is linked to the Yaris and people think of it as a hot hatch....but
From this article below, worth a read:
https://www.caradvice.com.au/894381/...s-car-of-2020/
“One never mentions chassis origins when discussing hot hatches. After all, commonality is a big proponent of their affordability, so we’re told.
The star alumni from this class all share their genes with grocery getters – be it the Hyundai i30N, Honda Civic Type R (EP3), Volkswagen Golf 7 R, or the Renault Megane RS trilogy, to name my picks.
Those cars above are not belittled by such a fact. Nor does it mean that regular-based performance cars cannot rise above the sum of their parts.
All we know to date however, are all hot hatches with humble beginnings from something cheap, and pedestrian. That’s where the Toyota GR Yaris flips the script. It takes its lines from the playbook that Porsche uses.
Its platform? Unique; in a sense of marrying two-existing things to create something entirely new. Nothing else uses this platform, and nothing else likely will.
Could be why Toyota Japan specifically refers to it as a '
sports car'?“