28 Jan 04
Out on the road, you can instantly tell that this car is special. That new exhaust produces a wonderful boom not dissimilar to a BTCC Touring car - which gets more vocal throughout the rev range up to the 7,200rpm limiter. Winding the windows down is obligatory when driving through tunnels, where the roar envelopes you.
The new tyres have immense grip in the dry, where you can chuck the car between corners with aplomb, revealing little understeer and a hint of lift-off oversteer. This will please drivers hankering after a car which matches the old-school daddy of hot hatches, the 205 GTi. Unfortunately we've not tested the car in the wet yet, so can't judge how they'd fare.
Where the tyres do struggle, though, is on greasy roads, but admittedly the roads we tested on were polished and very slippery due to early morning rain on otherwise sun-baked Majorcan roads. This would make progress difficult for any car/tyre, let alone a hot hatch being driven enthusiastically. In this instance, the car would start to understeer, but then the Bosch ESP system would jump in and kill the power to the wheels, leaving you to ride it out until the yellow warning light stopped flashing. However, you can switch the ESP off if you want to, and it stays off no matter what speed you are going, unlike Renault's Megane, where the ESP reactivates itself once you reach 30mph.
The quick power steering rack with 2.8 turns between locks isn't overly assisted, and gives plenty of feedback. Braking is provided by discs both front and rear, 280mm and 238mm respectively, and is extremely effective - maybe too effective at low speeds, where you can find yourself stopping more sharply than you intended. Anti-lock brakes with Electronic Brakeforce Distribution (EBD) help you out if you leave things a bit too late.
