There has been a whole load of new hot hatches setting OUTRAGEOUS times at the Nurburgring, and by that, I mean way faster than some of the supercars that used to top the rankings. Look, this Audi RS3 is faster around the lap than a Pagani Zonda S, the Honda Civic Type R is faster than a Nissan GT-R and this Megane RS Trophy-R is the quickest of the lot – faster than every supercar you used to stick on your wall. Yep – Bugattis, Lamborghinis, Ferarris – THE LOT. Even the holder of the moose test record, the mighty Citroen Xantia. And whilst it’s obvious that new cars are faster than old ones, these are hatchbacks – family cars. They have no reasonable right to be beating the Ferraris and Lamborghinis of just ten years ago. So let me tell you about the key engineering breakthroughs that made them so fast.