What Are Your Top Five Hot Hatches?

Yesterday was all about the top five sports sedans. Today? "Top Five Week" continues with this important question: what are your top five hot hatches?

We're purists and care most about the three-door/five-door, faster-than-you-think, top-mounted hatch variety, though we're open to slight variations. Below are the five that we dream about when we close our eyes.

5. Dodge Omni GLHS
What happens when Carroll Shelby gets ahold of a Dodge Omni? A 175 HP five-door hatch that could keep up with a Mustang and hit 135 MPH.

4. Mini Cooper 33EJB
One of the first hot hatches and one that set the tone for the rallying cars we love to come. It was so good the French had to cheat to keep it from winning too many Monte Carlo rallies.

3. Renault R5 Turbo
It's a Le Car on serious growth hormones, there have been many mid-engined turbo hatches since but none with quite the style of this pocket rocket.

2. Mk1 Rabbit/Golf GTi
The first widely available hot hatch available in the U.S., the Giugiaro design and potent little fuel-injected fourbanger combined to make one of the most memorable VW products and one of the bright spots of the 1980s.

1. 2009 Ford Focus RS
The spiritual heir to all hot hatches, the new Focus RS looks like a serious race car and can keep pace with some of the best sports cars out today. The prospect of nearly 300 HP/lb-ft of torque in a compact package has tempted more than one of us to consider opening up Jalopnik's European office.

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