There are some fast stars and they usually wear the badge of the luxury forge AMG. So far, the entry was in this elitist class of sportive starsModels the C-Class with the fabulous 6.2 liter V8 naturally aspirated engine. Since this year there is a new entry into the sporty class of the AMG league. The A45 AMG and the four-door coupé variant of the A-Class, the CLA 45 AMG.

CLA 45 AMG - four doors, four cylinders, one turbo!

About my experiences with the A45 AMG on the “Bilster Berg” race track I've already written and even if the CLA 45 AMG was provided with the same technology under the sheet metal cladding, the character of the package changes with the body. Sounds strange - but it is true. Why? I will try to explain this in this article about the CLA 45 AMG.

Four-cylinder 360 PS in the four-door coupe

While the A45 AMG is poaching directly in the vehicle class of the Volkswagen Golf compact car, although it currently forms the top of the performance society without any competitors, a CLA is inherently at home in a completely different sphere. Even if the interior space is terribly small. The headroom in the second row is actually a joke. And even if you realize that you only get one representative of the segment below for the price of a good middle class. But the CLA wipes away all this, the concerns, the criticism and the rebuke with the sympathy of its successful form. The wonderful little domed roof, the elegant shoulders, the beautiful bottom. The CLA plays the card of the “beauty model”. And this is where the most powerful engine in its class meets a super model. Power meets elegance and that results in different expectations than with the Über-GTI, the A45 AMG.

Engine performance:

360 PS

Acceleration 0 to 100:

4,6 Knot.

Vmax:

250 km / h

The power remains the same, the result is different

Also in the CLA 45 AMG meets the impressive four-cylinder turboprotz on the 4matic all-wheel drive and gets as a gear partner, the 7-speed dual clutch with the addition of Daimler: Speedshift to power management by the side. And yet: Reassured by the elegant exterior one would rather stroll instead of squeezing out the two-liter engine. In 4.6 seconds at 100 km / h? That's possible, but let's just stroll. 

Subjectively, the sound of the CLA45 is not nearly as obscene as the roar of the A45 exhaust. Here, the body with the closed trunk compartment plays the role of additional noise damper.

In the head the elegant external appearance of the CLA, which indeed sports the usual AMG masquerade, but due to its more fluid form simply does not appear so shamelessly with its power. Here drives a powerful, a dynamic, a full of tension, drawn coupé (inadvertently delivered with four doors). In addition, a less acoustic motivation for the driver, but please in manual mode of the DCT transmission to turn the gears out with a massive exhaust riot in each gear. And the entire aura of the vehicle changes.

From the awkward A45 to the powerful handsome. 

make pressure
However, you should not be fooled. As soon as you let it happen, the CLA pushes through the tacho tape. At any time there is the possibility to push the head of the passenger on his, in the sports seats integrated headrests. It hisses the turbo four-cylinder aggressively the sound of a massively charged sports engine. The exhaust rattles especially when downshift, but just less cheeky and cheeky than in A45. Subjective.

I could not move the CLA 45 on the race track - only on public roads and since I want to keep my license, I have to limit myself to the impressions that are possible within the speed limits. To do it in one sentence:

The CLA 45 AMG drives like doped. A model with traces of coke under the nose.

 And how does the CLA's brother with the steep rear ride? Driving report A45 AMG