Hot hatch is so very civilised

What’s your understanding of the GT tag that carmakers attach to models they presumably want to appear both a bit more powerful and a tad racier than the average car?

I have always understood the letters grouped together thus stood for Gran Turismo which translated meant Grand Tourer. After all if you add the lower-case “i” on the end well, we all know what that means: thereby lies the myth or otherwise of the boy racer in his GTi.

I have owned one GTi long ago, and it was indeed a boy racer’s dream. Yet, dare I say it, it could also prove a little tiresome to drive because it always wanted to go with no calmer moments in between.

But if we stick with the term GT which is presumably there to denote something more civilised then what we get in various available definitions is Gran Turismo. One is a distinct video game but it goes further back I think.