AutoBlog came up with a list of the Top 10 Mid-Engined Hot Hatches ever. Though mid-engine hatches are extremely rare here in Malaysia and probably will cost an arm, leg and soul to own, it doesn’t stop us from admiring them or from sit around and dream of owning one some day. The entries include the one legend that never made it to production, the W12 engined VW Golf GTI, the iconic Renaultsport Clio V6, a shocking hot hatch Ferrari based on the 308 GTB, the Renault Megane Trophy Concept, and the Nissan Micra R. Fell free to add to the list in the comments section, maybe like an Evo 3 4wd Satria but meanwhile here’s Noah Joseph to run you through the list:
Number 1
We’ll start off with one of the most recent mid-engined hatchbacks, the Volkswagen GTI W12 650 concept. VW rolled out the concept for the brand faithful in 2007 at the GTI Festival in Wörthersee, , having whipped it up in no time. The formula was simply insane: a Golf with the rear seats ripped out and replaced by a twin-turbo, six-liter W12, driving a whopping 650 horsepower and 530 lb-ft of torque through a faux-paddle-shifted six-speed automatic to the rear wheels. To keep the spooled twelve cool, the boys from Wolfsburg added all manner of ducts and fans, making the W12 650 concept the meanest-looking GTI ever. And while it was purely a concept car, the GTI W12 actually ran, and ran fast. Mercy.
Number 2
Rally cars may seem like powerful beasts today, but today’s WRC and S2000 machines pale in comparison to the rally equipment of the 70’s and 80’s. Among the most insane were in Group B, a formula so dangerous it claimed several fatalities and the handle “killer B’s” before the FIA killed off the class after only four years. But between 1982 and 1984, a whole slew of mid-engined hatchbacks were made by a variety of automakers’ racing departments. There were too many to include them all, but the list includes the Daihatsu Charade De Tomaso 926R, Lada Samara EVA, Lancia Delta S4, Moskvich 2141-KR, Peugeot 106 & 205 T16, Renault 5 Turbo, Skoda 130LR and Talbot Horizon. What you see above, however, is the Metro 6R4. Developed by Williams Grand Prix Engineering, the Metro 6R4 bore only a passing resemblance to the staid budget hatch on which it was ostensibly based. It alternatively wore Austin, Rover or MG badges under the British Leyland umbrella, and drove up to 380 horsepower from its mid-mounted 3-liter DOHC quattrovalve V6 to all four wheels. The engine was so advanced that it ended up, in twin-turbo form, powering the Jaguar XJ220 supercar.
Number 3
Nobody does hot hatches like Renault, and the French automaker’s sport division has cranked out their fair share of mid-engined monsters. You’ll see more of ’em farther down the list, but we’ll start with the Renaultsport Clio V6. Like most of the others in this compilation, the Clio V6 started as a fairly ordinary budget hatchback, but from there all bets were off. The same gearheads responsible for Renault’s many F1 titles dropped a V6 into the little hatchback’s trunk and tuned up the suspension to proper performance standards with a little help from Tom Walkinshaw Racing. The 3-liter V6 drove 252hp to the rear wheels, which propelled the Clio V6 to sixty in 5.9 seconds. Poor power-to-weight meant that the mid-engined version wasn’t much faster than the more conventional Clio 172 Cup on which it was based, but the bottom line is that the Clio V6 is the only one here that was actually offered commercially. And that’s why we love it.
Number 4
While most of the crazy hatchbacks on this list were converted from ordinary hatchbacks into exotic supercars, our fourth entry went the other way. Conceived and executed by the enigmatic Franco Sbarro, the Super Eight was unveiled at the 1984 Geneva auto show. Sbarro started with a Ferrari 308 GTB, with a shortened frame and custom bodywork. The standard 3-liter 260hp V8 drove through a five-speed manual to…you guessed it…the rear wheels. Only one example was said to have been built, in follow up to the Super Twelve that was powered by two Kawasaki 6-cylinder motorbike engines.
Number 5
As far as budget hatchbacks go, the Kia-built Ford Festiva was about as ordinary as they came. The perfect car, then, to turn into an exotic, and hot-rodders Chuck Beck and Rick Titus did exactly that. Replacing the standard four-banger, Beck and Titus took the Yamaha-developed 3-liter V6 from the Ford Taurus SHO and dropped it behind the front seats. The requisite chassis mods followed, and hilarity ensued. The car could hit 60 in 4.6 seconds, cover the quarter mile in 12.9 and reach 1g of lateral acceleration. Only seven examples were made, each of them in a different color. Jay Leno owns the silver one, and it just so happens that it’s the car he drove to work the day he replaced Johnny Carson. (Photo courtesy of Jay Leno’s Garage.
