The “scene” that NZ forgot.

It’s not surprising that it was missed really, a scene that exploded in Europe and the UK went by relatively un-noticed here in NZ.  Reasoning was likely due to the lack of need or requirement.

After-all, why get into small, compact, low capacity cars when there’s no insurance or congestion reason to do so.  So, whilst NZ and Australian (and America) were still kicking about in V8s and large saloons, the UK and Europe got onto something altogether different, no doubt the Mini was a contributing factor to it all, however the 205GTi, the Golf GTi, the Alfasud’s and others kicked this up a notch.

VW Golf GTI - MKI

Renault 5

Alfa Romeo Alfasud

Peugeot 205GTI

For the most part, the start of this whole boom the Japanese cars were essentially ignored.  Especially in Europe.  The second wave of the Hot Hatch generation was of course more welcomed in NZ than the previous though that is likely due to the fact that the Japanese were more on board in this phase and Japanese cars, come this time, were much more easily available as well as more affordable than their european counterparts.  Regardless of the ease of access, the scene was never really embraced in NZ to anywhere near the capacity it was in Europe or Japan, only the few really got into the performance aspect of a well tuned, lightweight, hatch.  It’s a positive in one way, that the Japanese equivalents are usually quite cheap to attain, even to this day.  I’m always keeping a wary eye open for an EF Civic.  Even if I have no space to keep it and have still to sell one of my two S12 Silvia’s…   Hmm…

-Michael