Future classic: Suzuki Swift Sport

By Charlie Calderwood

| 20 Oct 2022

Classic & Sports Car – Future classic: Suzuki Swift Sport

Many of the very best hot hatches have been based on superminis.

The Peugeot 205 GTI and Renault Clio Williams are both class royalty, trading outright pace for lightweight agility and becoming connoisseurs’ choices in the process.

The Suzuki Swift Sport has, since 2005, continued that tradition to critical acclaim, and at a cut price.

The Suzuki Swift Sport has offered affordable, lightweight thrills for almost two decades

With legislation and market trends constricting the petrol-powered supermini market, however, this latest Swift Sport may well be the last.

And yet, despite its up-to-date looks and hybrid technology, the Swift remains an old-school experience, for better and for worse.

Weighing in at about 200kg less than a Ford Fiesta ST, the Swift remains the class lightweight.

The Swift Sport’s cloth sports seats and leather steering wheel are welcome additions to the standard Swift’s interior

Agility is flea-like, and the steering quick and direct, but it corners much as its glorious French inspirations: the Swift pivots on its front wheels, the rear axle bouncing along for the ride.

Hardly sophisticated, but that doesn’t stop it being fun.

Though slightly down on power on the previous-generation 1.6, a turbocharged torque increase of 52lb ft means that, on-boost, it feels quicker. It requires a different driving style, though, so this Swift Sport is all about riding the 3000rpm torque wave.

‘The Swift races up its rev range once the turbo comes on song, the front wheels scrabbling at the road surface and kicking back at the steering wheel’

It’s a challenge to drive smoothly in its lower gears – a linear power delivery it is not – but the Swift races up its rev range once the turbo comes on song, the front wheels scrabbling at the road surface and kicking back at the steering wheel.

The wheel you’ll be grabbing is a delightful perforated leather item, and all of the Sport additions, such as cloth sports seats and a leather gearknob, are genuinely nice pieces.

There’s no hiding the whiff of budget hatchback, though, including some hard plastics and a rather outdated infotainment set-up that, bizarrely, seems unconnected to the small screen between the dials, meaning the two clocks can tell different times.

The Suzuki Swift Sport’s 1373cc turbo ‘four’ produces 129bhp

The Swift hasn’t escaped such modernities as lane-departure and collision-warning systems, either, the latter being particularly overzealous.

Both can be disabled, but reset every time the car is turned off.

What’s harder to forgive is the Swift’s ‘mild hybrid’ system, an update added in mid-2020.

It’s unobtrusive, but adds weight and a second to the 0-62mph time – bad on a sports model when we’re talking about the difference between 47 and 50mpg.