And how much do 5 gt turbos sell for?

I suppose at least they spoiled some of the less desirable 'hot' hatches.

A good Astra GTE 16V, Golf GTI 16V, Escort RS Turbo, R5 GTT would fetch several grand.

Exactly mate. Whatever the cars they almost anyways end up destorying destory them in some form or another....

If they picked some of the good ones they wouldn't do all the ususal crap which might (would) be better but thats a different rant.

Yes its also the same on astras doesn't apply to just Sri .any model with that hazard switch.

I thought it was rubbish and a waste of an hour .

Oxymoron alert!

But I agree with everybody else - less stupidity would have made it much better.

Oxymoron alert!

Not at all, the king of hot hatches in it's day, bar none - if you are that interested check the 1988 Autocar road test where is spanked the Golf GTI 16V, didn't understeer and could be 4 wheel drifted. Have you even driven one ?

No way the Astra was the king lol even the renault 19 16v was a better car.

I think I might still have a magazine with it on the cover from when it first came out and, yes, I have driven one.

As for spanking the GTI 16v - well, I didn't like them either (much preferred the Mk 1 GTi), but the Astra just felt like a tinny, badly bolted POS.

Edited to add: And that was when they were new. I'd say finding a 'good' one now must be on par with the quest to find rocking-horse poo-poo.

Agreed, we were both having a good laugh at that.

So much negativity towards this episode, yes it was going to be predictable at the end, but it easily passes a hour will silly antics. Some people need to lighten up, or maybe just switch the channel and watch something like Downtown Abbey.

Depends what year of the 1980s you are talking about . In 1984 the Fiat Strada Abarth 130TC was king until the Golf GTI 16V came along . I would have a Astra 16v over a Golf 16v gti or Renault 19 16v anyday .Would the Ford Sierra Cosworth 3 door hatchback not be the ultimate 1980s hatch ?

You'd think that any serious test of 80s hot-hatches would have to include the XR3i, and Clarkson did spend most of the 80s taking the p*ss out of them when he was writing for Performance Car, but load knows what a decent example costs these days.

Actually, a quick trip to eBay turned up this, which looks pretty tidy for £3k*

Although it would have been nice to see something a bit more off-the-wall - a Polo G40, perhaps.

* Not £3k of my money - I didn't like them then and I don't like them now - but £3k of the Top Gear budget would be fine.

Agree, it was not a representative selection of hot hatches.

My recollection of that era was:-
Atra GTE
Renault 5 Turbo
XR3i
Mg Maestro Turbo

You don't see any of the above around, most have dissolved and the rest have been trashed.

The comical alarms always going off was true to form though and explains my irrational hatred of such items.

The best one IMO. Quick in their time, good handling and plenty of hot start problems

Legendary car!

I can't remember the last time I saw any flavour of R5 on the road, but there's a few on eBay.

The best 5 turbo was uno turbo.better looking,handling more reliable and quicker.
Also had hot start problems due to exhaust being under inlet manifold.
The rare metro turbo was a right laugh too.

The dad of one of my friends used to insist that the Metro Turbo was the fastest production car ever built, and wouldn't hear any arguments to the contrary

Weren't they famous for eating their own gearboxes, though?

There was what I think to be a wide body Gordini turbo down the road.

My experience of 1980's hot hatches occured in the 1990's, The Astra GTE was epic but everybody I know who had one stuffed it. There was also a rumnour that you could twist the chassis if you pulled away at the lights to hard?
The Pug205 (Cheetah) used to spin all the time and the Escort RS turbo really suffered from hot start...
Being hard up I didn't get to own any of these and had to make do with a Alfa Sud (clover leaf), one of my mates had a Sunbeam Lotus, crap looking but went like stink!

In the GTE I drove the LCD speedo couldn't keep up with the acceleration. If you booted the car the speedo went blank, thought about it for a bit and then popped up a new speed.

I was never really into hot-hatches, although I did love my mate's Mk I Golf GTi. I nearly bought a Mk 2 GTi 16v, but it felt like a lardy sack of poo in comparison.

Personally I'd still rather get an 80s coupé than a hot-hatch. A nice X1/9, maybe, or another Capri, or perhaps even a Renault Fuego Turbo.

Oh, bugger, I'm off to eBay again

Renault fuego, blimey, not seen one of them in decades .

I saw one on the roads about 4 or 5 months ago - a real blast from the past. I assumed that they'd all been fed to tin-worms long ago.

Still a nice looking car, IMHO - never driven one (or even been in one), though.

I was looking at MG Metros on pistonheads/ebay the other day

Funny fact: the brakes on my Audi are bigger than the wheels off my old Metro.

I had a mk2 golf gti with a VR6 engine slotted into the front. Now that was fun! As was my bro's mk1 gti with a mk2 16v engine in it.
Also had a 1989 Corrado which was a nice little coupe. Handled better than a golf too.

I had a Corrado VR6 as a company car in the late 90s (the owner of the company I worked at was a petrolhead and encouraged people to order company cars he wanted to have a shot in, when I started there were some spare company cars, so I had the choice of a Corrado VR6, a Golf VR6, a Toyota Celica or an Audi A3 Turbo).

To be honest, though, I was never that fond of it. It was quick enough on paper, but never felt that fast when you were behind the wheel (I much prefer the kick that the Coop gives you when the turbo spins up*).

I can also confirm that if your girlfriend takes you to her parents' house in Somerset and then says, "Ooo, there's snow on the top of Exmoor, we should drive up there!" that the Corrado is not the puppy for the job

* Dangerously close to being on-topic for the forum there.

You needed the vortech sc kit that my mate had on his Corrado vr6.

The one my mate had was a bright yellow mg 1.3 turbo around 70bhp I think

Cant remember the last time I seen a metro turbo in the flesh seen a few for sale on ebay they are fetching good money now my mate had a mint mk1 in light green looked great but now match for a uno turbo performance wise

I used to drive a far few of these MGs ,turbo, maestro and montego back in the late 1980s .The bodyshop i used to work for did all the crash repair for Ray Powell main Austin Rover dealer at Gants hill . I like the MG Metro at the time i think it was about 70bhp . You really had to rev the engine to get it going . The MG turbo was only a little faster with 90bhp . It had a blow through SU carb which even at the time was ancient . I did like the look of the MG turbo in all white .

maestro turbo now they were rare even in the 80s went to look at one years ago but total rust bucket bet a good one of them is worth a few quid now