Lancia Delta Integrale voted best hot hatch ever

According to Autocar readers the Lancia Delta Integrale is the hottest hatch of all. The poll opened in April and 3500 votes were registered. Following the Lancia in second was the Peugeot 205 GTi, with the Mk1 Ford Focus RS in third.

Chas Hallett, editor 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.”

Except it wasn’t the oldest car in the top 10, because in fourth place on the poll was the 1970s Mk1 Golf GTI.

The full top 10 list is available after the jump with the Autocar press release.  In the comments section why don’t tell us which you think is the best hot hatch ever.

As a special bonus, too, there’s a bunch of Lancia Delta images to help you reminisce when it was hip to be square. Not all images are strictly HF Integrale models, but, when you have to trawl the archives beggars can’t be choosers.

LANCIA DELTA INTEGRALE VOTED 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!”

On sale tomorrow, 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.

The Top 10:

1. Place Lancia Delta Integrale 14.3%
2. Peugeot 205 GTI 1.6 7.9%
3. Ford Focus RS (mk1) 7.7%
4. VW Golf GTI (Mk1) 6.8%
5. Ford Escort Cosworth 6.5%
6. Honda Civic Type R (Mk1) 5.8%
7. Seat Leon Cupra R (Mk1) 5.7%
8. Peugeot 306 GTi-6 5.4%
9. VW Golf GTI 16v (Mk2) 5.0%
10. Renault Clio Williams 4.9%