8. Dodge Omni GLH
While Europe was embracing the hot hatch class and developing it further in the mid-80s, America seemed quite uninterested. The Golf GTI sold well in the States but the domestic manufacturers didn`t produce any models which could be considered hot hatches until the legendary Carroll Shelby teamed up with Dodge and introduced his version of the compact Omni model.
Called Omni GLH, it was a proper hot hatch and one of the best affordable performance models money could buy in those days. Nobody expected that Dodge could produce a hot hatch that could beat the European competitors but with Shelby’s help, it did just that. Shelby took the 2.2-liter four-cylinder and added a turbocharger to produce a total output of 175 hp and 0 to 60 mph time of fewer than 7 seconds which was very impressive and highly competitive for the day. Of course, the Omni GLH had suspension modifications and other bits improved so it could handle all that power.