Although the Ford Focus RS isn’t due until next year, we’ve already seen plenty of pictures and heard lots of talk of its potential performance. Latest performance tests by Ford show that the 2.5-litre 5-cylinder engine, with a turbocharged 300bhp, will propel the Focus to 60mph in just...

To commemorate the centenary of the birth of Karl Abarth, the founder of the Abarth tuning company, Fiat are releasing a limited edition Abarth 500 with 160bhp on tap. The Abarth 500 ‘DA O A 100′ (0 to 100, for non-Italian speakers) gets an upgraded version of the turbocharged 1.4-litre...

If you’re the sort of person who likes a hot hatch to be festooned with luxurious goodies, Renault have your ideal car in the form of the Renaultsport Clio 197 Lux. The Lux trim level adds leather upholstery, automatic climate control, automatic headlamps and wipers, cornering headlights, tin...

The Seat Leon Linea R is another one of those special editions designed to breath a bit of life into an ageing range. But that’s not to say that the Linea R is in any way bad. It’s designed to fit in the Leon range between the sporty FR and the hot Cupra, so is immediately worthy of int...

Abarth have been hard at work on their latest  project - the Abarth Powerplay Extreme, a fantastic PC that’s ideal for videogamers with a hint of petrol in their veins. It’s a joint project between Fiat and Intel to showcase their new project, developing sophisticated electronic device...

Congratulations to Seat, who have won both the driver and manufacturer titles in the 2008 World Touring Car Championship. Victory was sealed earlier this week when Rickard Rydell won the Japanese round of the championship at the  Okayama International Circuit. Even though there are two rounds left...

Ford have just announced an upgrade to the Focus range in the shape of the Focus Zetec S. The ‘S’ upgrade takes a standard Zetec and adds a body kit, 17-inch alloys and ‘S’ badges on the front wings, with aluminum foot pedals and handbrake cover appearing on the inside. It c...

Following the release of the MkII version of the BMW MINI, the hottest version to date has been the 210bhp Works Cooper S. Now there’s going to be an even quicker MINI following the announcement of the 218bhp MINI GP. The 2009 MINI GP (2005 model above) is due to be officially unveiled at the...

If you’re worried that increasingly stringent emissions laws could spell the end of the hot hatch, you may be encouraged to see this electric-powered MINI E that could give a petrol Cooper a run for its money. The MINI E uses lithium-ion batteries to power an electric engine that generates an...

Say hello to the SEAT Leon Cupra Limited Edition, a super-hatch that breaks through the 300bhp barrier. Built by the Netherlands arm of SEAT, the Limited Edition takes the 2.0-litre TFSI engine from the Audi S3 and adds an ECU remap to reach 306bhp, with torque increased to a mighty 315lb.ft. The e...