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Farming Motoring
Friday, May 15, 2020
www.guardianonline.co.nz
Motoring May 15, 2020
Mercedes
AMG A45 S
I
t’s 1976, and Volkswagen’s engineers look over the first of the Golf GTIs heading out into the wide world. I like to think they knew that the brand had a revolution on its hands; not the world’s first ‘hot hatch’, but at the very least the car that was going to popularise an entire genre. Their eyes would fall clean out of their sockets if they could see this bright yellow bullet and what the hot hatch segment would become. The new Mercedes-AMG A45 S feels the beginning of a new ultra-bruising hyper hatch chapter. A large chunk of that stems from its M139 twin-scroll turbocharged 2.0-litre, paired to a new 4MATIC all-wheel drive system (more on this later) and an 8-speed dual clutch transmission.
With 310kW/500Nm on tap, it’s the most powerful four-cylinder engine ever produced; sporting more power than a Ferrari 360 and more torque than most double-cab utes. That’s 85kW/100Nm more than its AMG A35 sibling, and – crucially – 16kW/20Nm more than the Audi RS3. The S is the solitary A45 model offered to Kiwis, bringing with it a 270km/h top speed and 3.9-second 0-100km/h acceleration time. It also means a somewhat jaw-dropping $111,000 starting price, with the $7990 AMG Edition 1 options pack attached bumping its bottom line to $118,990. The extent of that price is enough to position the A45 S in the same monetary ballpark as bona-fide sports cars like the BMW M2 Competition, Porsche Cayman, and
Chevrolet Camaro. Whether a hatch should be priced against these heavyweights is a conversation that could last forever. I wonder just how many people are truly cross-shopping between the two worlds. Probably not many. Anyway, there’s a more pressing question here. How can a grocery getting, schoolrun performing, hatchback possibly put down such a wanton amount of power and torque without snapping in half or simply melting into the pavement? It isn’t AMG’s first rodeo when it comes to stuffing illogical amounts of grunt into a hatchback of course, and the last-gen A45 was plenty capable of handling its horses. But this new A45 is a new lofty benchmark again. Twirl the steering-wheel mounted drivemode adjuster to Sports+ or Race, plant
your left foot on the brake and your right foot on the throttle, and you’re greeted with a red flashing tachometer and the words Race Start. Sidestep the brake, and you’re instantly teleported somewhere else. The way the A45 handles its power off the line and out of corners is an equal parts clinic in brutality and efficiency. The SpeedShift 8-speed is as rapid as you’d expect – arguably more capable left to its own devices rather than when a human takes over via the paddles. Inattentive passengers will have their heads violently slammed back into the leather buckets, but from the driver’s seat it all feels very controlled and predictable. The engineering masterclass under the bonnet reiterates that Mercedes-Benz is still an engineering benchmark in its field.