Desperately wanted: A Hot Hatch for the Indian enthusiast

[volkman10]

Mass market hatches getting souped-up engines! Market response to these will bring in hotter hatchbacks to the segment.

Car makers are launching hatchbacks with engines powerful enough to haul a sedan or a mid-sized sports utility vehicle.

Volkswagen is all slated to bring the Polo GTI's to India this year, but it will be more of a halo model for the brand.



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[NiXTriX2004]

Originally Posted by volkman10

Mass market hatches getting souped-up engines! Market response to these will bring in hotter hatchbacks to the segment.

Car makers are launching hatchbacks with engines powerful enough to haul a sedan or a mid-sized sports utility vehicle.

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I don't think the expected prices for the Baleno and the Bolt Sport are correct. They cannot be priced higher than the GT TSI which comes with the DCT. They will have manual transmissions and all of them are turbocharged. The Baleno maybe be priced at 8.5Lakhs ex-showroom because of the existing demand. The Bolt Sport on the other hand I expect will be priced around 7-7.5 Lakhs ex-showroom.

[reignofchaos]

Originally Posted by volkman10

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This is old data - GT TSi is over 9 ex showroom now. 914k to be exact.

[mxh]

Commuter vehicles doing 10-11s to 100 km/h are nothing to write home about and IMHO shouldn't be called "hot hatches". 7-8s would be more realistic. I mean for god's sake VW's TSI engine is ducking below 1.2 lit to get the tax benefit. Even after the turbo, these cars reach "acceptable" level of performance (the old level of 15-17s to 100 km/h should be termed as "pathetic"). Is it necessary to have a third world definition of even hot hatches for India.

[Vik0728]

Originally Posted by mxh

Commuter vehicles doing 10-11s to 100 km/h are nothing to write home about and IMHO shouldn't be called "hot hatches". 7-8s would be more realistic.

Hey mxh, couldn't agree more with you on the 'True Blue Hot Hatch' tag, but this is India buddy, so lets try to think like an Indian here

In today's market, Abarth Punto is THE ONLY True Blue Hot Hatch, which is also a mainstream offering, albeit at a tiny premium.

Considering the infrastructure of the roads we have, the adulterated fuel we get, the congested highways to drive and the polluted air we have, I can bet my bottom buck that even the Global Hot Hatches can never match their own numbers here

0-100 Km timing is just a universally accepted measuring stick. There are cars plying on our roads that can do these numbers before the blink of an eye,..but an 'Eye Blink' is all it takes to crash into people/walkers/bikers in India.

So IMO, anything close to or <10s is a fast car in India, Hatch or not.

[RavenAvi]

Hyundai India has shelved it's plans of launching the Elite i20 N Sport variant in India, citing high costs and extremely limited economies of scale.

Produced by the newly started N Sport performance division of Hyundai, the Elite i20 N Sport variant comes with a 1.4L gasoline engine which produces 115PS of power and 160Nm of torque, which is paired to a 6-speed manual transmission.

This "hot hatch" version of the i20 comes with 17-inch alloys, stainless steel free-flow CAT back-exhaust system, multiple N badges on the front mudguard, fenders and rear boot-lid door, and ventilated disk brakes up front along with solid disk brakes at the back.

This news was confirmed to us in a recent interview by Mr. Rakesh Shrivastava Sr. Vice President, Sales & Marketing, Hyundai Motor India Ltd, who said that the company would not be bringing the Elite i20 N Sport to India. The reason cited for this move was that the production of this performance enhanced hatchback would be too costly. Moreover homologation posses an additional cost on behalf of the manufacturer, therefore to make this product viable one would have to produce and sell them in large quantities. Seeing the current segment, he said that economies of scale cannot be achieved therefore we are not looking it as an introduction anytime soon.

OnCars

[McLaren Rulez]

Originally Posted by RavenAvi

Produced by the newly started N Sport performance division of Hyundai, the Elite i20 N Sport variant comes with a 1.4L gasoline engine which produces 115PS of power and 160Nm of torque, which is paired to a 6-speed manual transmission.

Is this the i20 AT engine in a higher state of tune?

Either way, this sounds like a great car that will fit nicely between the Polo (gets excise benefits) and the Punto.

[swiftnfurious]

Originally Posted by RavenAvi

Hyundai India has shelved it's plans of launching the Elite i20 N Sport variant in India, citing high costs and extremely limited economies of scale....

... Produced by the newly started N Sport performance division of Hyundai, the Elite i20 N Sport variant comes with a 1.4L gasoline engine which produces 115PS of power and 160Nm of torque, which is paired to a 6-speed manual transmission...

That's sad. Just pulled up the below report & pic from IAB.

When tested by the publication, the i20 N-Sport did the 0-100 km/h sprint in a Fiat Abarth Punto-rivaling 8.9 seconds, and hit a top-speed of 190 km/h. Average fuel consumption was recorded at 12.04 km/l.

That's some performance from a NA petrol engine producing just 114 bhp. A soild "take it" shove on the face of Fiat who could manage just a 8.8s to the ton with a 1.4L Turbo engine producing 145 bhp!!

And the car looks fab! Low slung and oozing character! The 'N' division looks quite promising if this is what they have started with.

Originally Posted by McLaren Rulez

Is this the i20 AT engine in a higher state of tune?...

It's a manual transmission with the 1.4L engine, not the AT.

Image copyright: Respective owner

[McLaren Rulez]

Originally Posted by swiftnfurious

It's a manual transmission with the 1.4L engine, not the AT.

You misunderstood the question. I was asking if this is the same 1.4 engine as in the newly launched AT version except in a different state of tune or a different 1.4

[shortbread]

I hope when the Tiago Sport finally arrives its more than a luke warm hatchback that's simply has a lot of plastic cladding and simply 20 bhp more.

The product should disrupt the market norm than simply be one of the many options available to customers.

JLR have revealed the 2.0 Ingenium petrols, with power output upto 300bhp!!

So a 4cyl 1.6 litre version of the present 3 cyl engine, producing simply 120 bhp is simply lame when they do have the resources at their disposal. A 150bhp Tiago sounds more like it!

[pixantz]

I think the launch of VW GTI has pretty much nailed it and has killed the purpose of this thread! Its the real 'Hot Hatch' in the true sense of the word and there apparently is no question about that. Except if you want the even more higher priced Mini Cooper and the likes.

[VeyronSuperSprt]

Originally Posted by pixantz

I think the launch of VW GTI has pretty much nailed it and has killed the purpose of this thread! .

Not really. This thread will be killed when we have a GTI for the price of a 800 with the maintenance costs of a moped and FE of a bicycle. Until then this thread will remain open.