Lancia Delta Integrale Autocar’s greatest hot hatchback of all time

The polls are closed, the votes have been counted, and the greatest hot hatchback of all time, according to Autocar readers, is Lancia’s unforgettable Delta HF Integrale.

Autocar asked its readers to vote for the greatest hot hatchback ever back in April. More than 3500 votes were cast on Autocar.co.uk throughout April and May, and 14.3 per cent of them were for Lancia’s homologated rally legend. Its closest challenge came from the Peugeot 205 GTi 1.6, which attracted 7.9 per cent of nominations, followed by Ford’s original Focus RS with 7.7 per cent of the votes.

Chas Hallett, editor of Autocar said “It’s no surprise Autocar readers have voted for the Lancia, when launched back in the 80’s it very quickly acquired a large and enthusiastic fan base founded on its rally success. Interestingly, it is the oldest car in the Top 10 – proving age is no barrier to desire.”

“The closeness of the voting didn’t surprise me either,” Hallett went on. “Voting for a greatest hot hatchback is clearly a very personal choice. Even here at Autocar, we can’t agree – which is why we’ve written about so many of them in this week’s magazine!”

Autocar’s bumper 9th June issue contains twenty-two extra pages, all of them devoted to the greatest hot hatchbacks ever.

Not-so-highly rated in Autocar’s hot hatchback poll were the Renault 5 GT Turbo, original Mini Cooper S, Citroen Saxo VTS and Renault Clio 197, which all scored less than 2.0 per cent of the vote.