12 Jun 06
Now, there's one place that hot hatches are really designed for - somewhere to explore every nuance of grip, acceleration and overall ability - and it's not a race track. No, hot hatches deserve much more of a challenge than that - something like the Great British Country Road.
And so I found myself in deepest, darkest Wiltshire on a summer's afternoon with the sun glinting through the trees and the promise of a barbeque at the end of a 15-mile uphill and down dale journey.
The Polo proved to be more than a match for the seemingly endless combinations of twists, turns and gradients. It doesn't grip as well as a Fiesta ST or Clio 197 though, with understeer being a prominent feature. Thankfully, the stability programme is late to react and doesn't set out to spoil the fun at every enthusiastic turn of the wheel. It can be switched off completely too, although this does give the Polo GTI a neat line in smoking-tyre getaways.
There's quite a bit of body roll, so it's best to warn passengers that they're in for a bit of a rollercoaster ride. The stiffened suspension can make for a pretty uncomfortable ride over the worst of our potholes, too.
However, although the Polo GTI isn't the fastest or the best-gripping hot hatch, it is one of the most fun cars I've driven for a long time. Even the new Clio 197, which we had high hopes for, lacks the kind of sparkle that makes the Polo so engaging.
Sure, the Clio will leave the Polo for dead on a quarter-mile sprint or on a track but the Polo driver will be having more fun. And isn't that really the point?
