Geneva hot-hatch deluge

Honda, Mazda, Renault and Peugeot were among manufacturers to unveil production ready, or close to ready, high performance versions of normally innocuous shopping trolleys.

The Honda Civic Type R led the charge, with a concept version of the upcoming high hot hatch revealed in thinly disguised concept form.

Sporting yellow paintwork of an identical hue to the much loved, but now dead (in Australia, anyway) Integra Type R, the Civic Type R was based on the hatchback version of the Honda small car that so far, is a European prospect only.

This was the first look at the three door version of the Civic, which goes on sale in Europe later this year, with the Type R arriving early in 2007.

Honda Australia, however, has signalled it is looking at the prospect of bringing both the cooking version of the Civic hatch into Australia as well as the Type R once it goes on sale with right-hand drive in the UK.

Whether it will or not depends on how expensive the Civic is likely to be, and given it carries a Made in England stamp and is subject to a steep dollar-versus-Sterling exchange rate, the decision is likely to be touch and go.

Honda released few details on the Civic Type R at Geneva other than revealing a power output of 149kW from a further development of the high-revving 2.0-litre VTEC-R four-cylinder engine.

The show car was fitted with deep front and rear bumpers heavily ventilated with cooling slots and the standard car's translucent grille was replaced by a tougher-looking opaque black item. The rear window is bisected by a prominent wing.

If previous versions of the Honda Type R are any indication, expect sharp handling, plenty of grip and surprising agility from a powerful front-wheel-driver.

The Honda's natural enemy looks like being the Mazda3 MPS, also launched at Geneva.

With a turbocharged 2.3-litre direct-injection engine producing 184kW and a monster 380Nm of torque, the Mazda3 MPS will not be short on straight-line grunt.

The engine is similar to that in the Mazda6 MPS, although a little less powerful. That's probably not such a bad thing as the 3 MPS has front-wheel drive, rather than the 6's AWD.

But it features a stiffer five-door hatchback body, upgraded suspension and brakes on top of a host of other cosmetic improvements.

Peugeot's 207 RCup is no production certainty, but nevertheless shows what the French company can do when it decides to produce a muscle-bound hatchback.

Based on the new 207 small car that will eventually replace the 206, the RCup has wildly bulging wheelarches to house 18-inch rims and a massive airdam. Dropped to within centimetres of the ground and with quad exhaust tips exiting the deep rear bumper, it's a clean but extremely purposeful design.

The idea was to produce a car that conforms to new Super 2000 rally rules, which are based around Group A regulations requiring a run of 25,000 production cars that can be further modified.

The 207 RCup therefore has bite to match its bark: the naturally-aspirated 2.0-litre engine produces a whopping 209kW at 8500rpm channelled to all four wheels via a six-speed sequential manual gearbox.

Renault unveiled a production version the RenaultSport Clio previewed at Frankfurt last year.

Designed to replace the current (and beloved) Clio Sport, the new car is bigger than before and with surprisingly subdued styling. Whether it makes the most of its 2.0-litre power like the old Clio and delivers a driving punch beyond its weight class will be seen when Renault Australia announces its pending local arrival.