New issue out now: it’s time for Top Gear’s hot hatch supertest

With the shiny new Alpine A290 arriving on UK soil, we felt it was about time to gather the current hot hatch crowd to re-establish the pecking order. So, grab this latest issue of Top Gear magazine to read our full hot hatch supertest.

Initially we weren’t that optimistic about attendees – the headlines would have you believe that the hot hatch is a dying breed – but with 10 new or recently refreshed contenders, with a couple of recognised favourites thrown in, our hot hatch buffet was a menagerie of metal, a mix of household names and total newbies, traditional powertrains and ballistic grade electronics.

GTI, ST, Type R, these are the staples in a hot hatch diet that’s kept us fed for decades, but now we find VZ, Alpine, Ioniq 5 N. Much debate raged around that last one, whether it even deserved to be here, given its £65k price, SUV size and supercar power output, but hey, we’re an equal opportunities place. We’re not about to spoil the ending though, so you’ll have to buy a copy of the mag to find out our overall winner.

You can click here to order a copy of the new issue online and have it delivered direct to your door. Or perhaps you’d like even more from TG? Start a subscription today and save 50 per cent to get six issues for just £16.50. Bargain.

That’s not all for this month, either. We’ve also been to the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas to see what’s attracting carmakers to the world’s biggest tech show (although we did get slightly distracted by the bright lights of Vegas. Oops), and we’ve put the new Land Rover Defender Octa – the big, bad, 626bhp, £161,000 dune basher – to the test. There’s also a faceoff between the newly hybridised BMW M5 and the old-school Audi RS7 Performance. The winner might come as a surprise.

Don’t miss out. Grab your copy of Top Gear magazine now.