Hot Hatch

The bones are shared with the Mini Cooper and Mini Countryman.

Look for influence from Toyota Gazoo Racing's WRC Yaris rally racer.

A wider, even more powerful AMG A45 is coming to overseas markets.

Ford even modified the already-insane Focus RS.

The closest thing you'll get to a Fiesta RS.

And that first N car comes out next year.

We finally get to see the Type R that will come to America, in a loose "concept" disguise.

You're looking at a picture of a Golf R Sportwagen, which isn't sold in the US. Sigh.

A recap of the week in automotive news, including Honda Civic Type R spy shots, Toyota Supra spy shots, and a teaser of the Lexus UX crossover concept.

They want the Focus RS recalled and the Drift Mode feature disabled.

Hyundai's N division released video demonstrating the sound of their latest prototype, and we want it here.

The hot hatch has undergone rapid evolution and change so that it is now unrecognisable from its early beginnings with the latest offerings ushering in levels of performance that require a whole knew manner of perception regarding performance.

Autoblog senior editor Greg Migliore gives the highlights from the week in automotive news.

If you want to be the first person on your block with Volkswagen's latest Golf R parked in your garage, you need to clear some time from your schedule on January 8. VW is opening the pre-order books for the first 500 Stateside examples, complete with some nifty accessories.

They're pretty darn similar. And yet our views are oh so different.

Opel has used its Facebook page to show off more of the woven carbon fiber bits that will adorn its Astra OPC Extreme, promised to be the fastest production car it has ever made available to the public. Utilizing lessons learned during last year's campaigns with the Astra Cup spec-series car, it looks like every exterior component gets reworked in order to make the street-legal most of the turbocharged 2.0-liter that is expected to dispense over 300 horsepower through the front wheels (the stand

The V8 grunt of the Mustang has defined Ford performance cars in the US for the last 50 years, but in Europe, the Blue Oval has nearly as a long history of building some of the best hot hatches on the market with the Fiesta, Escort and later the Focus. The latest Fiesta ST has just hit the roads on both sides of the pond and has been enthusiastically received thanks to its combination of a peppy, turbocharged engine and hatchback utility.

A racecar for the road. Usually that statement is nothing more than marketing, but Opel may have actually done it with its Astra OPC Extreme. It promises that the hot hatch is the fastest production Astra it has ever sold.

Audi was out testing its upcoming S1 on the streets of Germany when our trusty spy photographers snapped the new, all-wheel-drive hot hatch that's set to succeed the limited-edition A1 Quattro.

As much as we may love hot hatches like the Volkswagen Golf GTI and Ford Focus ST, there are a number on offer in Europe that we'll just never get here. And soon we'll be able to add one more.