Down The Hatch

Advantages: Great food, pleasant location, children welcome
Disadvantages: Baby changing facilities are pathetic and the prices are over the top.

...The Hatch Family Restaurant and Public House DIRECTIONS AND DETAILS : Situated on Greywell Road, just off London Road, Old Basing, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG24 7JL. Tel: 01256 473077 e-mail hatch.2111@thespiritgroup.com www.pub-explorer.com/hampshire/pub/hatcholdbasing From the M3 coming from London, take the junction marked 6 for Basingstoke / Southampton. Just off the A30, follow the road round until you come to a large roundabout, from this point turn right into Old Basing. The Hatch is sign posted with a small square sign if you are approaching from Basingstoke town centre. London Road is the main road off the motorway and leads you through to Old Basing. Keep going straight for about two miles and The Hatch is on the right hand side of the dual carriageway. There is a large VW dealership on the opposite...

mrsmopples 18.09.2006 · Read review
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Review of The Hatch Restaurant

The Hatch - Hatch Warren - Basingstoke

Advantages: great food, good prices, pleasant staff.
Disadvantages: not good for the waistline

...fix of rubbish food and my husband found by chance this wonderful family friendly pub in Hatch Warren, Basingstoke. It is called quite simply ?The Hatch? and is situated opposite a VW dealership and close to the Old Basing turn off. There is a huge well lit car park to the rear in which I noticed there were many MPV?s situated. That?s a good sign when you?re looking for a family pub! To access the Hatch you have to go over a small bridge in which my children will stand for ages looking down at the fish. The garden is safe and secure, ideal for the summer evening out (weather permitting). Inside it is very quaint, with old wooden beams and candlelit tables. There is a separate side for smokers. Watch the candles with the little ones. They don?t mind if you blow them out on your table. The Hatch is owned by the Chef and Brewer...

debbie_marway 16.04.2004 (03.05.2004) · Read review
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Review of The Hatch Chef and Brewer

The Vauxhall Corsa SXi - The Best HotHatch

Advantages: Reliabilty, Handling, Economy, Insurance Prices, Safety, Acceleration, Depreciation
Disadvantages: They don't make this model anymore! The new corsa's interior is just hideous!

...This small, sporty, cheap hatchback is, frankly, the work of automotive genius! I am only 18, and this was/is my first car. I always wanted a Corsa, ever since my uncle bought one. As i was browsing through the pages of a well known auto trade magazine i stumbled across a black Corsa 1.2 SXi. I thought 'wow, now that's a sexy hot-hatch' and thought no more of it, dismissing it with thoughts of tear-inducing insurance prices. But, it turns out that this was one of the easiest and cheapest cars to insure! Now, unlike the Peugeot 206 Gti or the Citroen C2 VTR, the Corsa has got all the looks, without the enormous, fuel guzzling engine (and also minus that scratchy black plastic wrinkly french interior!). After going and looking at a couple, my mind was set - i was going to have one of these cars. And what a choice it turned out to be...

whitehouse.adam 29.08.2008 · Read review
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Review of Vauxhall Corsa SXi 1.2i

Jananese Hatch Prowess

Advantages: Attractive style, nice revisions
Disadvantages: A bit too conservative

..., the sporty 1.6-litre VTEC DOHC VTi hatch and coupe variants develop an outstanding 140BHP. This unit is tuned very much for performance. The driving experience on offer does not rule them out from being one of the best on the market. Whatever the gear, you'll find the Civic is happy to hurl themselves all the way to a whooping 115mph in the 1.4 engine. Rest to 60mph actually takes 11.8 seconds which is quite a long time. Honda has recently introduced a new Sport trim grade for the three-door hatch. It now has alloy wheels and a leather-rimmed steering. As mentioned earlier, equipment levels are good, with all models featuring driver and passenger airbags and seatbelt pretensioners as well as an immobiliser. Anti-lock brakes, electric windows, air conditioning, a sunroof and power steering are standard on most models too. The prices remain...

andycharger 06.02.2002 (18.11.2002) · Read review
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Review of Honda Civic 1.4i

Best diesel hatch now at bargain prices!

Advantages: Performance, Economy
Disadvantages: No ABS

...cars such as the VW Golf and Audi A3 offer better build quality and smarter interiors. However, if you?re after a dynamic, powerful yet economical family hatch, you would be hard pushed to find a better car for the price....

James_titcombe 27.01.2005 · Read review
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Review of Ford Focus 1.8 TDCi Hatchback

A wonderful place in the "Garden of England"

Advantages: Great facilities, excellent view of the circuit, great corners for real nail biting action
Disadvantages: The car parking is terrible and be prepared to queue for a long time to get out

...After being to many race circuits throughout the UK I have to admit that Brands Hatch is my favourite of all time, and whilst it is a good two hours drive from where I live, it is reasonably close and I make sure that I get to both rounds of the British Superbikes every season. Brands Hatch circuit is located at Fawkham, Longfield, Kent. It is located off the A20 and is clearly sign posted from junction 3 of the M25. There has been a race track at Brands since 1926, when the land was first used for grass track bike racing. In the early days competitors ran anti-clockwise, but the direction of the circuit was switched in 1954 to be consistent to that of other circuits. Brands Hatch hosts both national and international championship rounds. The Grand Prix used to be held at Brands Hatch and consequently many famous drivers...

yackers1 30.10.2009 · Read review
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Review of Brands Hatch, Longfield, United Kingdom

VTS - A Fun Sporty Hot Hatch

Advantages: Cheap to buy, handles well, very nippy
Disadvantages: fuel consumptions not brillaint, dealership parts can be expensive

...Citroen Saxo VTS 1.6 16v Citroen is a French car manufacturer that produces amazing rally cars and also general cars for road use some of which are made with the rally versions in mind. French build quality and reliability are often slated but after having 5 French cars they really aren't all that bad, they certainly have character and are very unique. The Saxo VTS has a 1.6 16v (1587 cc) 4 cylinder engine the top model Saxo which produces 120bhp at the flywheel with 107 lb-ft it as a book top speed figure of 127bhp all though I have had mine faster as standard as figures aren't always 100% accurate and can even vary from car to car but they won't be far out. It weights only 935kg so has a lot of power and not a lot of weight making it a rather fast car with a nice 0-60 in just 7.6 seconds. They are a very small hot hatch...

Hsaxo 17.03.2008 (17.04.2008) · Read review
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Review of Citroen Saxo 1.6i

Hot Hot Hatch

Advantages: Power, Chassis, Price
Disadvantages: Fuel ecomony, limited practicality

...improvement in the second 2000's either. The drivers seat back is fixed, which although increases stability does not allow entry to the rear seats from the drivers side. Noise. Road noise is louder than your normal car, which if you ever get fed up of the sound of the engine, will get on your nerves. OVERALL This is quite simply the best hot hatch i have driven, and i've driven a few. The negative points i've mentioned, are minor when compared to the driving experience this car gives you. And to be honest, if you bothered about fuel consumption, noise or letting people in and out of the rear seats then this is not the car for you....

Weemor 20.05.2004 · Read review
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Review of Honda Civic Type R

  HANNAH'S HOT HATCH

Advantages: Quick, nippy, good looking and fun.
Disadvantages: Fairly high insurance group and not the cheapest car to run.

...Yes, I know, I am supposed to be on a sabbatical ? but being a bit of a girl racer I couldn?t resist Angus?s car op challenge. So, here I am. Back in 2000, I was driving a VW Polo 1.4 CL, which I liked very much, but when Volkswagen brought out the Polo GTI I could hardly contain my excitement. I?ve always loved cars and even by the age of 22 I had become bored with ?normal? cars and wanted something a bit more special. My main aspiration was something fast ? ideally I?d love a two seater sports car, but my tender years made the insurance costs somewhat prohibitive. My second proviso was that whatever it was had to be small and nippy. I rarely have passengers in my car, so anything large is just wasted space. Not surprsingly, this meant that my other favourite car genre is the hot hatch. It was this which led me to conclude that...

Pumpkin 08.02.2002 · Read review
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Review of Volkswagen Polo GTI

SSssshhhhh...

Advantages: glad it's never been used! very informative
Disadvantages: bit scary when you really think about it all

...I have just seen that SusanLesley has done an op on the Secret Nuclear Bunker, so I going to resist temptation and write mine before I read hers. As we were there together and we don’t want to end up with the same op! Hopefully if you read both you’ll get memories from each of us and a well-rounded view of the place. I first noticed the place, when I used to live in Brentwood and drive to Harlow to work. There are about 3 huge signs proclaiming this ‘secret’ which I didn’t stop having a smile to myself on each journey every day (sad – but I’m easily amused!) It is situated in a place called Kelvedon Hatch, which is between Brentwood and Ongar in Essex, on the A128. Opening times ************* Summer Weekdays 10 – 4 Weekends and bank Holidays 10 – 5 Winter Open...

pagan 30.08.2001 · Read review
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Review of Kelvedon Hatch Secret Nuclear Bunker