Mercedes' pumped up A-Class has more
power than a Porsche 911 and it's as quick to 100kph
AMG has pumped up the Mercedes A-Class,
creating a turbocharged hot hatch with more power than today’s base Porsche 911
Carrera. And the 265kW A45 AMG is set to be half the price of the Porsche too
when it goes on sale here in July.
Thank the BMW M135i, whose $49,595 price
tag has set a value marker for the Germans. While the BMW runs a 3.0 liter
straight six, the Merc’s displacement is just 2.0 liters. But its 265kW is the
highest output for any mass- produced four-banger, according to Mercedes. It
outpoints the BMW’s 235kW and translates to a 0-100kph time of 4.6sec, leaving
the 1 Series trailing by half-a-second. Despite that the official economy
figure is 6.9ℓ/100km, with CO2 emissions at just 161g/km.
A
MG has pumped up the Mercedes A-Class, creating a turbocharged hot hatch with
more power than today’s base Porsche 911 Carrera.
To achieve that remarkable acceleration
figure (which matches a PDK-equipped Porsche 911, by the way), Mercedes had to
stick a rear propshaft onto its front-drive A-Class to achieve necessary
traction, separating it further from the rear-drive BMW. Equally necessary is
the sole transmission option, a seven-speed dual-clutch unit.
For such a powersaurus, the standard car
wears surprisingly restrained styling. We’ve seen the AMG-body kitted version
of the A250 Sport which supplied the base form of the A45’s two- liter turbo,
but the brutal drivetrain makeover doesn’t extend to the exterior. The Turbo
AMG wing badging makes it clear, but you can get your A45 shouting a lot louder
via the options (as shown). Remove that polite rear spoiler in favor of the big
AMG wing, for example, or switch the standard titanium-grey 18in alloys for
19ins in optional gloss black. The front splitter can be switched to carbon
fiber, along with those door-length panels on the side skirts and the rear
apron trim.
The
Turbo AMG wing badging makes it clear, but you can get your A45 shouting a lot
louder via the options
Everything from the engine spec to the
optional roll cage suggests this hatch hasn’t just been breathed on by AMG,
it’s been in gested and spat out. The A by AMG should be spectacular, if its V8
siblings are anything to go by.
Personalized engine
Four cylinders it may be, but AMG still
hand-builds the engine, starting with a humble 2.0- liter from the A-Class. The
twin-scroll turbo is fed with intercooled air via an additional, water-fed
radiator tucked into the wheel arch
Few sports options
There’s no limited slip differential or
adaptive dampers. If you want more sport for your buck, there’s only the
optional AMO Performance suspension with tauter spring and damper tuning
Four
cylinders it may be, but AMG still hand-builds the engine, starting with a
humble 2.0- liter from the A-Class.
Like a haldex, but fun
The four-wheel-drive set-up works like VW’s
Haldex system: in regular driving, the rear propshaft is disengaged with power
going to the front wheels. Usually, the switch only comes when slip is
detected, but Merc’s 4MATIC system sends up to 50% of power rearward when it
detects the driver is having fun. Triggers include speed, cornering forces,
throttle and steering angle
Triggers
include speed, cornering forces, throttle and steering angle
Twin-clutch tricks
The A45 won’t get a manual: the seven-speed
twin- clutch is the only tranny in town. It offers three driving programs: C
stands for Controlled Efficiency. Sport and Manual quickens shift times to
match those of the SLS GT, Mercedes tells us. It also offers launch control,
which will delight boy racers everywhere
sports inside
Inside the A45 AMO flies the colors of all
sporting Germans: black, with accents of silver and flashes of red. The
standard sport seats are wrapped in Artico man-made leather, the seat belts are
red and the dasri trim s fake carbon fiber. The A-Class’s tablet-style screen
comes with an AMO menu that includes a race timer
