BUYING GUIDE
The GTIs have it
Is this petit French fancy the greatest hot hatch of all time? Robert Ladbrook looks at the growing argument in its favour
Don’t you wish you’d kept hold of yours?
The 1.6 GTI was launched in 1984, with a 1.9 arriving in ’86
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The 1980s was a golden age for the hot hatch fan, and few did it better than the French. Sure, the Germans may have got there first with the mighty Volkswagen Golf GTI, but if you wanted a true lightweight, performance pocket-rocket, you just needed to look across the Channel.