Before Volkswagen’s engineers secretly appropriated an Audi 80 GTE engine with Bosch K-Jetronic fuel injection, nailed it into a stiffened Mk1 Golf shell, then lowered and uprated the suspension, nobody used the term hot hatch. But having convinced VW management that their skunk works project had legs early in 1975, the German company launched its new Golf GTI (Grand Tourer Injection) a year later in late 1976 and spawned a whole new genre that’s still going very strongly to this day.
Despite this, arguments rage about which car was the first hot hatch. According to some enthusiasts of the marque, the Simca 1100 Ti started the whole thing back in 1973. Others argue it was the Renault 5 Alpine in 1976. Even more ardent fans insist the Sunbeam Lotus was the first proper hot hatch
