Extract from Classic & Sports Car
Marketing Ruperts would argue that the Ford Racing Puma, Honda Integra Type R and Peugeot 306 Rallye –two coupés and a hatchback – were never competitors.
The reason they are here, though, is more about what they represented in the 20th century’s swansong.
A now extinct naturally aspirated tribe that placed high-revving full-blooded driving pleasure ahead of everything, bar a roof and an attainable price-tag.
The 1990s were not good times for hot hatches and performance cars. If they weren’t pinched by joy-riders and ram-raiders, they became untouchable due to painful insurance premiums.
Many manufacturers either rebadged their GTIs or abandoned the sector altogether. Fortunately for us, though, the French remained true to the hot-hatch espirit de corps.
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