With performance saloons becoming scarcer and more coveted, we put our best-buy choices to the test
Can’t help smiling when I see the VW Golf GTI being credited with inventing the concept of the practical performance car, often by journalists and enthusiasts too young to appreciate what came before; sometimes by those old enough to know better. Unless the term ‘practical’ is defined by an ability to swallow large boxes of flatpack furniture or maybe a washing machine, this concept is of course much older, in the form of the sporting family saloon. Room for four or five plus spiced-up engine, sharpened handling and a little performance-aesthetic garnish equals a car for all needs and moods. And if you’re not happy to punish your beloved car’s interior trim rather than pay a few extra pounds
to have your new home goods delivered, there’s always the option of heaving them up onto a roof rack. It’s retro fun for all the family. The performance hatchback merely enhanced an existing concept, making weekend trips to out-of-town retail parks less of a weather gamble.
Unfortunately, for all of these entertaining workhorses, their utility was the very factor that condemned oncelarge numbers to disproportionately low survival rates. And with that they’ve become precious commodities, values pushing against the current softening of the classic car market.
Our five best buys for 2019 offer an exciting range of flavours across three decades of design – rear-wheel drive and front-wheel drive, carburettors and fuel injection, normally aspirated and turbocharged, and yes, booted saloon and hatchback. And to get the most out of our test, we asked saloon racing ace Patrick Watts to explore their limits, with design guru Peter Stevens giving his typically direct style verdicts on each.
The only thing we didn’t do was take our chosen saloons to a flatpack furniture store. We have way too much respect for them to do that.
Enjoy the issue.