£5,000 budget? Here are 10 hot hatches with over 200bhp for sale right now

Citroen only intended to make 1,000 examples of the DS3 Racing, but demand was so high that production actually ended at closer to 2,400. Still a rare car. And one with a smidge over 200bhp, sports suspension and sprinklings of carbon fibre trim. Here’s one for just £4,495.

The fifth-gen Golf R32 has a fine six-cylinder engine. The noise it makes en route to its 6,800rpm redline is what you'd call 'rorty', the numbers equally so: 247bhp, 236lb ft of torque, 0-62mph in 6.5s and a limited top speed of 155mph. This one’s available within budget, or here’s the same engine repurposed into a Mk2’s body.

Angry thing, the MPS: big bonnet bulge, six-spoke alloys and a rear end combining a neat wing with a pair of exhausts. Beneath it all sits a turbocharged 2.3-litre four-pot rated at 256bhp. It also features a stiffer body shell, re-tuned dampers and a limited-slip front differential over the standard car. Solid changes for some hearty hot hatch magic.

The only thing more British than tea and crumpets is a souped-up Vauxhall Corsa. Here's one that's been dropped to within an inch of its wheel well space and fitted with snorklier bonnets, smoked rear lights and an Airtec windscreen sticker. Classic Corsa.

Here’s a metallic blue ST-3 for 20 quid below budget. Looks marvellous for a car with 112,500 miles to its name, no? More so within the cabin, which gets leather Recaro seats, light-up switchgear and a turbo pressure bar along the central gauge cluster. That’ll make even the most grown of grown-ups excited. But if it doesn’t do it for you, this Martini-liveried XR2 track car just might.

We know this Phase 3 Clio dips below the power threshold, but it weighs just 900kg thanks to fibreglass doors and plastic side windows. It’s also lost the rear seats and gone through a full interior conversion, with racing harnesses, a quick-release steering wheel and a fire extinguisher in place. Simply put: it’ll feel like it has far more than 200bhp. Bargain, too, at under three grand.

One of the original overpowered hatches, with an estimated 261bhp/258lb ft of torque from its turbo-four engine to deliver a sub-six-second 0-62mph sprint. It’ll even do 31mpg if you don’t hoon it around all day, which is respectable for a car with this much potential on tap. Here’s one coated in much silver paint and the more desirable six-speed stick. 

We love a high-mileage hero here at TG, and this 13-year-old Seat Leon Cupra R hits that note with 153,000 miles on its read-out. Good spec, too: quilted leather seats, red brake calipers behind the 19in wheels, and blacked-out exterior trim to let the shiny white paint take centre stage. Its 2.0-litre turbocharged four-pot puts out 261bhp, and is shared with the… 

You’ll need to get yer very best ‘please lower the price’ face on if you want to sneak this example in under budget, but do so, and you’re getting one of the prettiest hatches of the 21st century in exchange. That long bonnet and sweeping silhouette won’t go out of date anytime soon. Not in our eyes, at least.

Welcome back to the Nineties, and the magnificence of this red top Astra GSI. It's got a cracking 2.0-litre naturally-aspirated engine, so - at least when new - had a very hearty 150 horses. It also started life as a... Merit, but who cares when it's free of rust and looks mint?