Renault Sport has established quite a reputation for cracking sporty hatches. With a perky engine, beefed up driving dynamics and a whole heap of attitude, this hot Twingo GTshows that the French brand hasn’t forgotten its younger customers.

And on the road? Well no, the 110bhp that the GT’s tuned 898cc 0.9-litre TCe turbo engine develops isn’t a great deal but then, this car does have a superb power-to-weight ratio of 110hp per ton, so you don’t actually need that much grunt to get this little skateboard going quite indecently fast, flicking through the slick ratios of the 5-speed Renault Sport-tweaked gearbox. 62mph from rest takes 9.6s en route to 113mph.

This styling of this Twingo GT is apparently based on the looks of Renault’s wild ‘Twin’Run’ concept car which paid homage to the brand’s legendary Renault 5 Turbo and Clio V6 sporting models. The Twin’Run’s influence is most obvious in the GT’s 17-inch ‘Twin’Air’ diamond-cut alloy wheels and also extends to the lateral air intake, the rear bumper diffuser - redesigned to i ncorporate the twin exhaust pipe - and the Renault Sport markings on the side and rear of the car.

The Twingo GT is priced from just under £14,000. If that’s a little much for you, then your dealer will point you towards the less potent but almost equally sporty-looking ‘Dynamique S’ variant, a derivative that isn’t quite as powerful but will be cheaper to insure.

Setting off the GT’s distinctive look is a special ‘i.d Blaze Orange’ metallic paint colour that’ll be popular with buyers, or customers can choose ‘Crystal White’, ‘Lunar Grey’ or ‘Diamond Black’ body colours. All of the shades have optional contrasting NACA aircraft-inspired stripes, which are black on the Blaze Orange paintwork and orange on the other bodywork colours. There is also a contrasting Sport exterior touch pack that adds orange or black detailing to the front grille, side door strips, door mirrors and rear spoiler.

In summary, this Twingo reminds us exactly why the hot hatch genre took off in the first place. It was all about practical performance that almost anyone could afford, something most brands have forgotten. Renault hasn’t. Thank goodness for that.