► Vauxhall Corsa VXR vs Vauxhall Astra GTE
► Hot hatch 1990-style meets 2015’s pocket rocket
► How performance hatches have evolved over 25 years
Hot hatches today are more powerful, faster, safer and better equipped than ever before. But are they more fun? Has the endless addition of technology and equipment blunted their fun factor?
There’s one way to find out. Select a new addition to the ranks of the pocket rocket – and compare it with its brethren from a quarter century ago.
CAR magazine’s editor-at-large Chris Chilton took the new 2015 Vauxhall Corsa VXR and its 1990 Astra GTE ancestor to the Rockingham race track in Northamptonshire to see how the two stacked up. Watch our hot hatch history lesson on video above and be sure to tell us if you think genus hot hatchdom has been spoiled or improved over the intervening quarter century.
Be sure to tell us in the comments below if you prefer today’s performance hatchbacks or the ones from yesteryear.
And you can check out Astras from yesteryear for sale – including the odd GTE – on our sister site Classiccarsforsale here.
