Why isn’t the MazdaSpeed 3 considered a hot hatch? Im just curious… thats exactly what its considered IRL. Along with the Focus ST and a few other hatches.
It is. Hot hatch club circuit series in career the Mazda is eligible.
It should be a hatch. Though I remember the one and only Mr Johniwanna saying it was an estate during a clue thread which doesn’t quite make sense at all. (You’re still cool though John 
)
It would be the only 4 door ever considered a hot hatch. Its a miniature estate at best imo. I’ve never heard Mazda themselves call it a hatchback. But I could be wrong. I know it was produced to compete with evo’s, sti’s, and r32’s when it first came out.
I meant wrx’s not the sti version…lol
Tell that to the 5 door Focus ST225 I owned. There are several hot hatches that come with an extra pair of doors. Not least of all the new Civic Type R and the new Focus RS which are 5 door only.
Technically hatches with 4 doors and a hatch lid boot are called 5 doors anyway. Pedantic I know, but I don’t make the rules 
4 doors usually means a sedan, with a boot/trunk lid to it. I.e BMW M3
Yes, the rules have changed. I was just thinking historically when hot hatches were actually light weight and small like the mini and fiat 500 used to be, instead of supersized like McDonald’s meal deal. I’m not knocking them. I do like the civics, vw’s, and ford’s personally. And, the mazda3…but c’mon you have to admit it’s stretched out like an estate when compared to the others mentioned. imo
Historically, in the UK anyway. Small but sporty variants of cars such as the classic Mini, have always been referred to as “super mini’s”. This includes the modern version of the Mini, plus the Abarth 500 and others like it. Cars such as the Golf, ford focus, vauxhall Corsa and Astra hatchbacks, and even the ford fiesta; have always been considered as hot hatches. At least here in the UK. Doesn’t matter if they are the 3 door (2 passenger doors and a hatch boot), or 5 doors (4 passenger doors and a hatch boot). If they are a sporty car with a hatch style boot, they are hot hatches.
1 Like
Agreed - the hot hatch concept (again, speaking from a British perspective) was originally defined by the VW Golf GTi and the Peugeot 205 GTi. 5-door hot hatches are certainly rarer than 3-doors (I have a 3-door Focus ST myself), but typically anything smaller than a Mondeo (or a Mazda 6, to pull the discussion back to the start) with a hatchback and a few extra hp gets the hot hatch label.
Cars with 4 doors and a hatched boot have typically always been referred to as 5 doors at least in Europe.
Is it stretched out? It’s certainly not significantly longer or heavier than the others I mentioned. All cars have gotten considerably bigger and heavier the past 20 years, but there are still smaller hot hatches about.
The likes of the 3 and the Golf are ‘full size’ hot hatches, the Fiesta and the Polo for example are the little ones still around. These full sized hatches now have immense power figures which makes them amazingly fast, and the smaller ones ain’t half bad either. 280bhp is par for the course these days with FWD hatches. Go back a mere 20 years and that was all you got in the standard Porsche 911!
The Golf R can do 0-62mph within a couple of tenths to a Ferrari 360 Modena, which only went out of production a decade ago. Just think about that for a second.
The Clio Williams is in the game anyway as well. It’s a fabulous car.
So the new R is not a hot hatch?
Ok yeah, I thought hot hatches were only 3 doors.
Ive questioned a few cars which dont deserve to be in categories. How is the Clio V6 a sport coupe for example? Or a golf r and Audi S1 a rally day hero? lel.