For some GTi simply represents Grand Turismo, or grand touring. For others it represents the ultimate budget speedsters, capable of terrorising parents and insurance companies everywhere.
For us it connotes shiny suits, Roxy Music, big hair and bigger egos. Back in the early 1980s, when the original 205 Gti came out, the pocket rocket Pug vied with the Golf as the defining car for the yuppie generation; an accessory as vital as the filofax and mobile phones the size of breeze blocks.
Its taut compact look combined with buckets of power in the 1.9-litre version won an avid following, matching Gallic good looks with potent performance. Where the ultimate GTi crown lay is immaterial: the hot hatch market was under European control.
However, there's been a hiatus in Europe, with a backlash against the yuppie generation and the knock-on effect on the cars they drove (Porsche has only just recovered from the merchant banker image).
The Germans and the French softened their hatchback lines for the "caring 90s". They also softened their GTis. Peugeot ironed out most of the masculinity of the 205, creating a softer more feminine focus on the 206, sacrificing some of its brutish brawn along the way. Given that GTi is largely testosterone territory, the toned down approach didn't endear it to the hot hatch brigade.
The Japanese, however, were giving away no such ground. They spotted an underbelly of devotees not prepared to sell out on the GTi dream - a car that looks like your regular supermarket runaround hatchback, but could challenge any €100,000 supercar on the track. Hence the rise of the likes of the Honda Civic Type R.
The original 137 bhp GTi version of the 206 certainly failed to shake a rather limp-wristed first impression. Now, with the 180 bhp, we have found the real heir to the throne. At last, as the car itself enters the autumn of its years, we finally have a real GTi Pug of which Peugeot can really be proud. And, if further evidence were needed, look at the way the British media, like proud step-parents, are boasting about the fact it's built in Peugeot's plant in Coventry.
The trick has been to add 42 bhp, a few styling tweaks and a tightening of its suspension, steering and gear change. A comparable car would be Ford's Focus ST170 (the RS is ridiculously fast and in a way too powerful for its own good). The ST balances power with the bodyframe but sometimes overdoes it a little. For us, the 180 recipe is the more finely balanced of the two. Peugeot have got the power requirements just right.
The key to driving this is to watch the rev counter teeter on 4,000 rpm. Around there you have an intoxicating balance of power and handling. Ultimately the maximum acceleration comes at 4,750 rpm, which also means there's a lot more in the tank in each gear. It's one of the few cars we've driven that will take you from cruising to booming without changing down from fifth.
In fact, as a result of the big torque in fifth gear and the high revving engine, you reach for a sixth gear. I found myself doing this on several occasions on the motorway, coming perilously close to reverse. Capable of spinning up to a 7,300 rpm limit with a 140 mph top speed and a 0 to 62 mph sprint in 7.4 seconds, the high rev limit means less work for the left arm, but more noise from the engine.
Owners will discover their French beauty is also a little temperamental. Quelle surprise. The handling is very much trigger precise: point and shoot with your right foot. Overall, the new impish pug is light on its feet, which are soled by sticky Pirelli P7000 swathed around eye-catching 17-inch alloys. Yet in town you can feel the car sulking as it strains against the leash. The steering can be mighty torquey, and the Pirellis suffer slightly from tramlining, shirking off initial attempts to direct them off-line.
You learn a lot about roads when you drive the GTi 180. Perhaps they should be standard issue to all board members of the National Roads Authority. The suspension is uncompromising, telegraphing every groove and bump through the steering wheel and into the fillings in your teeth. It's a car that makes its driver work for a living.
There's been some criticism of the driving position in this car and, as with all 206s, your right foot can be impeded by the steering column from quick moves between accelerator and brake unless you get your seating right. However, we found the best way to overcome any problems here is to mimic the professionals and bury the seat to the floor.
The steering wheel grooves fit perfectly then, the pedals are just right and the aluminium gear knob just to hand. The two sporty front seats feature unforgiving side-bolsters to clamp your thighs together like splints.
As for the back seats, they dispel the lie that hot hatches only differ in bodywork and under the engine. Space is at a premium for the two rear passengers. The dashboard is regulation 206 bar a little stitching, and comes with the inherent benefits and drawbacks.
There is one major positive to this car: its build quality. While it's built at Peugeot's Coventry plant, and taking into account the general reputation of British-built cars, the 206 GTi is very solid and the one we drove was impressively free of rattles or shakes.
For all our fondness for the car, the hot hatches have one common problem to overcome: age. Not the car's, but the owners. Ridiculously high insurance premiums for anyone under 35 is unfortunate, given that it's the age bracket most attracted to hot hatches. And for older motorists, the thought of wrestling with it all the way to work on a winter's morning might prove a cross too heavy to carry.
On a more positive note, we managed to get just below 30 mpg from the two-litre engine. However, in an effort to keep down weight, the small fuel tank means you can actually watch the fuel gauge slide down as you drive.
This car can claim to be natural heir to the 205, and puts Europe back on the hot hatch map. However, there is another European contender that may just steal some of the GTi thunder: the Mini Cooper S. The seemingly better build quality on the Peugeot may win us over in the end, but it's a mighty close run thing.
So, with the arrival of the 180 GTi, could we see a return of the yuppie? Amid signs of a global financial recovery, perhaps the news that there's a six-month waiting list for the GTi 180 in Britain, will persuade some upwardly mobile youngsters to update their filofaxes.