The differences between all the hot hatches are very small on the road. Its more about how much risk you want to take to be honest.
I have driven against ST, R26, MPS, and CTR and left them for dead (see the infamous "who have you beat in your gti" for details
). Usually because the route included a number of roundabouts... something that FWD cars are not a fan of
Revo (remap) will of course help the GTI to hold its own against many of the cars mentioned above, but its probably more important to train yourself as a better driver than to expect your car to do the work for you