I've driven both and was much more impressed with the mk2. Liked the steering feel of the mk2 I gave it death and it handled superb.

The mk1 my mate owned was supposed to be about 300bhp and it was terrible at putting power down in anything other than bone dry Tarmac and the boost fell off a cliff not much higher than 5k. Also felt very front end heavy would nose dive if lift off over a jump where as the mk2 felt more neutral and planted.

That's my own opinion after driving both cars, mk2 was standard aswell mk1 wasn't.