Summarize

The baby class delivers three cars that could not be any more different

Abarth 500 595 Competizione, Toyota Yaris 1.8 GRMN & Volkswagen Polo GTi

If you gave the Germans, the Japanese and the Italians a certain specification and set them off to build their own design to those requirements, I suppose you’d expect three rather different solutions to that expectation. Well this little shindig could not have defined it better – it’s a bit like flying from Germany to Italy – when you emerge from the aircraft, you kinda think, whaat the hell? – it seems pandemonium compared to what you’d just left.

Fast Fred
So, let’s start with that pandemonium – the little Abarth 595 may be a little out of its depth in this company, but everyone went ooh and aah as soon as they saw it – you know, like walking on the beach carrying a puppy…?
Quite plausibly the coolest car of this lot, the 132kW 230N 1368cc twin-cam turbo Scorpion is little changed from our old Esseesse, bar all those midlife puppy dog tricks. It still wants a sixth, but 595’s Koni suspension, Brembo brakes and Sabelt seats in an alcantara and carbon garnished, alloy and pedal and gear knobbed cabin are as pedigreed as its parts.
Add every acronym from ABS to EBD, ESR and ASR and TPM; a limited-slip diff, beefier wheel and tyre and that Sport steering to bring the real Italian out. Like Fred in my garage, 595 packs aircon, power windows, central locking and that fully stacked 7” TFT interface beefed up by seven-speaker Beats audio, so you really want for nothing.
Poised, sporty and racy, the Abarth delivers and then some in every driving scenario – OK, like everything else here, it’s a bit harder than the general taste would want, but then it’s not a general piece of kit. And don’t scoff at its performance – it’s still brilliant for a 1400.

Let’s go Gazoo
Our flip to Germany is complicated – we fly via Japan and hoo boy, is it worth the diversion? I’ve often asked why Toyota has never applied its vast resources to building unbeatable performance cars. Seems boss Akido Toyoda has been thinking the same. 
You can’t buy a Yaris GRMN in SA, but GR means Gazoo Racing – Toyoda-san’s pet Le Mans and Dakar project and MN tells you this is a full-spec Gazoo – get used to that.
And it’s brilliant – the 156kW 250Nm supercharged 1798cc 16 valve four-pot powers the front wheels through a six-speed manual with a limited-slip diff for GTI-munching six second 0-100 km/h and an electronically limited 230 km/h. 
Let’s get that straight – drop GRMN’s tough clutch at any decent revs, floor it and it lights the tyres right through first and into second before delivering an entry hatchback test record six-second dash partly thanks to a great power to weight ratio for kart-like dynamics and production racer habits. This wild thing is a little racer for the road…
Larger brakes and slick short-throw gear shift conspire to deliver ultimate point and squirt driving and it looks very much the part too. None of this model will come to SA, but with character like this, demand should quickly change all that. Come on, Toyota!

Turn the lights on
Remember my line about flying from Italy to Germany? Well it’s even worse the other way around – you seem to think, wow – has someone turned the lights off here? Well climbing from either of the above into the Polo GTI has a similar effect.
But never believe that Polo GTI is in any way inferior – it just goes about its business in a totally different manner. It’s more of a hustler – totally understated and you don’t even think it’s that good when you get busy — scratch a little and you’ll soon figure out that Polo GTI ticked off 100km/h in a Golf Clubsport-matching 6.17 seconds, all but matched Golf GTI on the quarter and produced identical pulling data in the gears, thanks in part to a splendid launch control.
Not everyone enjoyed that metallic red swathe across the dash, but I felt it brought a pretty cool techie edge and Polo GTI certainly packs it all in – enough to never notice the step up to its slower big brother.
Look, I’m not alone in calling Polo’s styling bland and it feels rather underwhelming to drive and listen to and while it may seem like not much is happening, prod it into Sport and Polo GTI really plays the part – it’s quick, frugal and easy to drive fast – perhaps even too easy, but mighty impressive all the same. 

Tacks
Getting down to brass tacks, the Abarth is the curtest performance car money can buy, but it has to yield to the white cars on the page, which employ totally contrary philosophies to achieve quite frankly bizarrely similar results. 
The Toyota is clearly more dynamic, more engaging and a ballhair quicker too, so it ought to go through, but you cannot buy one and we’d be cheating you if it did. So, the almost antiseptically perfect Polo cracks the nod – and most deservedly too… - Mario Lupini

“The little Abarth must yield to the white cars and you cannot buy this Toyota, so the almost antiseptic Polo cracks the nod – and most deservedly too…”

Images – Michele Lupini




Performance car of the year 2019 Index
Introduction - click here
The Lightweights
The Middleweights - click here
The Heavyweights - click here
The Winner & Podium - click here