Hot Hatch Heaven- an old Pug and a new Golf

[Exonian]

Back in the times before my hair turned Pure Grey and my waistline was still marginally smaller than my chest size I met up with an old mate who had just bought a black 306 GTI-6, I had a black mk4 Golf GTI with Koni suspension and a remap, and I was really impressed with how well the Pug went and how light it felt on its toes.
I seem to remember him saying it had previously had a head gasket failure which was a pricy fix but not an uncommon issue(?)
Huge fun to drive though, no wonder the motoring journos of the time used to rave about them.

[vapourtee]

The cambelt being changed at 3 year or 30k intervals was certainly an known issue with the GTi 6 engine. Peugeot swore blind it was 6 years or 60k, lots of owners didn't want to find out....Wasn't aware of head gasket issues, though.

But yes, they were epic fun to drive - lift off oversteer anyone???

[Watts]

Hot hatches are a new thing for me and my two GTIs have been/are great. I did have a MK2 Scirocco GT in white and I hated it. It felt heavy and slow and wasn't particularly comfortable. Part ex'd that for a Lotus, hmm, not sure I advanced much but at least it felt great to drive. But before the Scirocco I had a 1985 Alfa Sprint. I kept that one for as long as I could cope with things falling off, 3 years! I kept it because it was wonderful, only a 1350 so not fast but it felt so alive and zippy, great handling and the engine with it's twin twinchoke Dellortos sounded exciting and raspy. In fairness though to it's reliability, it never actually let me down, it just always had a list of things needing attention

[Yusee]

@vapourtee, that's quite a list of classic pugs.
The 205 XS was the first car I wanted to buy, though ended up with a 309xsi.
Yes, Peugeot stopped making good hot hatches after the mid 90s, but then no one did for a while.
The lift off oversteer is a lot more difficult to induce on these modern tyres, certainly not the snap oversteer I can remember back in the day. I remember a couple of anxious moments on motorway slip road bends I knew well.
Fun though it is, in truth that's not how you want a road car to behave. It should be benign on the limit, like the mk7 golf. Or maybe I'm getting old!

Haven't driven the pug for nearly 2 weeks- that's the longest I've not driven it since I bought it. Enjoying the golf on these PS4s too much. That and the terrible weather.

[vapourtee]

I guess building up confidence following all the Pugs I had meant by the time I had the Rallye and GTi 6 I could play with the lift off oversteer on roundabouts etc I was too much of a novice to "play" with the LOOS in the 205s, the were much more twitchy than the 306 TBH.
Anyway, went German after the Pugs, had a series of Audi S3's, the original 8L and then an 8P, and then finally ended up with a Mk5 GTi which was great, definitely when VW got their hot hatch mojo back. Replaced that with a carbon 5 door Mk7 PP, which I replaced 3 weeks ago with a tungsten Silver manual 3 door 7.5 PP. I would upload pics to the new arrivals thread but adding pics on this Forum is the biggest faff I have experienced on any forum! Can you upload from Google pics rather than photobucket/ flickr?

[Yusee]

Roundabouts were definitely the place to try and learn the car’s handling characteristics. Back in 90s Manchester  I can remember some big roundabouts on some deserted roads around the present trafford centre that were good for that.
Not an IT expert so don’t know about the other platforms but you can use postimage to upload pics. You have to register, it’s pretty straightforward.
Would be nice to see your golf, and indeed hear your thoughts on how it compares to your mk5 or even your previous pugs.

[vapourtee]

Yusee, thanks for the tip with Postimages. I have just posted the pics of my new 7.5 PP in the new arrivals thread!

[Yusee]

no problem. Just seen it. It's a very nice looking car.

[Yusee]

Came across this interesting short amateur video that reminded me that every great hot hatchback is based around a great hatchback.
205- best small car of its generation. I believe the mk7 golf will be remembered in the same way.

Warning- this is a video about a 25 year old cheap small car. 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1QnJ-Q8_RME