Mercedes-Benz A45 AMG 2.0 turbo good for crazy 185 HP per liter

[Wretched]

We have just joined the journalist hordes in Affalterbach for some early peeks at AMG's imminent future, and the downsizing trend is really catching on, even here with Mercedes-Benz and its traditionally big-engined high-performance arm.

The biggest news was the smallest news: a really hot-looking high-performance A-Class model dubbed A45 AMG that will take it to the soon-to-be tested BMW M135i and future Audi RS3. Specific numbers are not out, but engine bosses tell us to expect around 370 hp and 300 pound-feet of torque. The engine is all-new: a twin-scroll turbocharged 2.0-liter called M133 and based loosely on the Daimler 2.0-liter turbocharged unit. If those figures are accurate, that would mean the M133 has the greatest true series-production power-per-liter rating in the world. This is the first AMG engine not built at Affalterbach, but at Daimler's state-of-the-art four-cylinder assembly plant at Kölleda, but the "one man, one engine" approach remains unscathed.

Word has it that the United States and Canada most likely will not get this wee AMG, but we hear this same powertrain with strengthened seven-speed dual-clutch transmission will come to us in a four-door CLA 45 AMG version, and possibly also in a smaller crossover vehicle based on the modular chassis beneath the A- and B- Class ranges.
Official pics from this early peak-a-boo at HQ come out only after we leave, but we just got hold of these spy photos that show the car with very little left to the imagination. Best example of what we're talking about is the main show car unveiled at this past March's Geneva motor show – the A 250 Sport with the full AMG treatment pictured here.

Of what little we could divulge from the stone-faced Teutons, these little 45 AMGs will all come with all-wheel drive, and we don't intend a full-on 4Matic treatment. It is aidsed instead by a hang-on rear differential. But you can switch off completely the ESP and have a solid Sport rear bias. The challenge for all this dynamically will be the projected 60-percent of total weight resting over the front axle, 60 percent of around 3,300 pounds.

Redline on the tach is currently shown at 6,300 rpm, so we'll almost certainly be wishing it were left to go higher when we test it. The center transmission lever of all AMG models is there as well, which is a much finer interface for us than the civilian trim steering column lever-ette.

AMG folks say that there is a good chance that there will also be an optional Driver Package that will let the top speed go to 174 miles per hour versus the stock 155 mph. Pricing is said to be competitive with a BMW M135i or where an RS3 could end up. AMG is planning that from creating the three versions of the new compact lineup – hatch, sedan, and crossover – by 2017 and the 50th anniversary of AMG that total annual volumes will climb from today's 20,000+ units to 30,000+.

http://www.autoblog.com/2012/06/13/m...5-hp-per-liter

Even with the camouflage on I really like the shape of it.
Can't wait to see it.
Go AMG

[FPV8U]

Mercedes AMG hot hatch?

I like it!

[GQ_Smooth]

Headlights look like they are off a Volvo S60

[Rodge]

That's 276 KW's and just over 400 nm's of torque from a 2 litre motor.
You nailed it with the thread's title "Crazy"
Longevity must be affected, surely

[HULK EF]

makes "Hot hatch" seem an understatement. 276 kw. "PH" me!!

[MITCHAY]

Originally Posted by HULK EF

makes "Hot hatch" seem an understatement. 276 kw. "PH" me!!

Exactly what I was thinking

[Cobramad]

Should be a brilliant bit of kit... full on rear wheel bias sounds like a hoot!

[Bossxr8]

If they make the AWD rear biased this thing will be a hoot to drive.

[05_ENFORCER]

That is why we pay big dollars for these euros.................technology and refinement

Great work Merc

.

[ltd_on20s]

Originally Posted by 05_ENFORCER

That is why we pay big dollars for these euros.................technology and refinement

Great work Merc

.

WE pay.......probs very affordable in europe....

[jpd80]

and yet, a good Focus RS could be right up there with it too..

The newest, and smallest member of the AMG family has been snapped on the road wearing precious little disguise. Now confirmed as the A45 AMG, the hot-hatch will take the fight to the BMW 135i and Audi RS3.

Look beyond cladding and you can see a jutting front bumper, as well as chunky side sills and a lower ride height. At the rear a bigger bumper and a set of twin tailpipes are just visible through the camouflage.

At the same time as these pictures were being taken, Mercedes was busy revealing official details on the A45 at a special event in Affalterbach celebrating AMG's 45th anniversary.

As expected the enging will be a 2.0-litre turbocharged unit, with 321bhp making it the most power per litre capacity of any mainstream production engine in the world. The handcbuilt engine will feature a twin-scroll turbo and an innovative induction system to help reduce lag and sharpen throttle response.

Maximum torque will be well over 400Nm and sent to all four wheels via a Haldex system capable of diverting almost 100 per cent of it to the rear when required. Maximum torque will arrive as low as 2,000rpm and continue all the way to 5,000rpm, and with a total weight of roughly 1,500kg, the 0-62mph time should be in the region of five seconds.

Prices for the A45 AMG are yet to be revealed, but expect to pay around £35,000 when it goes on sale later this year.

AMG also announced that it will introduce another eight new cars over the next five years, three of which will be based on the A Class family, with each new model lighter than the one it replaces. By 2017 it expects to boost annual sales from the current figure of 20,000 to over 30,000 units.

Read more: http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/news/au...#ixzz1xyExHyLK

[Franco Cozzo]

35,000 pounds.

If it sells here it'll probably be $150,000 haha.

I'm quite interested.

[Elks]

It wont be cheap but it won't be $150K either.

And expect 0-100 times within a fraction or 2 of the C63.

[Nikked]

jeezus!


Apraently the next focus RS is going to have 230+kw...

[Franco Cozzo]

The 135i is in the $70,000 bracket isnt it? It will probably be somewhere in that range.

[dylancox]

Damn. All that power out of just 2.0L. Makes the 2.0L ecoboost and similar Jap motors look limp in comparison.

[Wretched]

Chris Harris review...can't wait to see the video

Looks to be a cracker of a car, pity no manual :(

Well, they certainly stuck to their guns. Almost exactly a year ago I watched a heavily disguised A45 AMG fire its way up a Swabian hillside and couldn’t quite believe how loud the exhaust bangs were on each upshift. Several months later I asked the man from AMG whether these would make it into the full production specification, assuming that they would not. He insisted they would.

OK, it's not V8 noise but it is noise, and lots of it
Given the company’s recent track record of vehicular noise, and the quality thereof, I really shouldn’t have ever doubted them. I would like to say that the A45, driven with the automatic gearbox in manual mode and using all the available engine revs, sounds like a racing car. But given the increasingly stringent race-track noise limits in the UK I think that the comparison is unfair. The A45 sounds better than any BTCC machine.

Enter 'that' BMW
It’s probably a good deal faster in a straight line too. With 360hp and 332lb ft pulling 1,555kg it always feels very potent, but the power delivery is something of a surprise. Peak torque arrives at 2,250rpm and plateaus until 5,000rpm, but peak power isn’t produced until 6,000rpm. On the road this equates to vast, low effort performance for overtaking, but leaves a delicious kick at the top end. The way the motor revs beyond 5,000rpm and delivers a decisive extra surge that moves it into a performance category beyond even the RS3 and M135i is unexpected. It’s urgent, free-revving and at those high engine speeds doesn’t feel in any way turbocharged.

It's not AMG as we've known it but it is impressive
The noise is unspectacular when you’re not trying, but it’s never harsh. Mechanical refinement is good, but you get the feeling that AMG felt the need to allow a low-level fizz to be transmitted from the engine block to the bodyshell. Curiously, and much like the best Honda VTEC installations, the A45’s powertrain is smoother and much more musical further up the rev range.

Against the flow
The gearbox is an all-new AMG developed seven-speed double clutch unit and, like the motor it has been tested to destruction by machine and engineers. AMG always seems to be completely out of sync with the rest of the world when it comes to transmissions. Five years ago when the world was going dotty for dual clutch systems, AMG gave us a seven-speed wet clutch automatic, which was rather impressive. In fact I suspect its robustness and usability in fast cars probably strongly influenced the brilliant new ZF eight-speed auto ‘box which has quickly established itself as the new benchmark over dual-clutch alternatives in everything from luxo-saloons down to the little M135i. So, everyone now wakes up to the possibilities of a fully automatic transmission, whereupon Merc gives us a dual-clutcher.

Downer on paddles? Generally no
It’s a very good effort, not quite the fastest or most incisive ‘box out there, but it is pretty damn good. In auto mode it’s utterly painless and uses the torque curve with great efficiency to help return well over 30mpg when you’re tootling along. I found it a bit frustrating that you could override the auto mode with a quick paddle flick, but couldn’t send it back into auto without fiddling with the mode switch by the gearlever. In other Mercs you just pull the up paddle beyond seventh and it re-selects D. Small point, but it would irritate me over a year’s driving.

Exit the old-school
Perhaps the biggest question hanging over the A45 was the potential contamination of any kind of chassis enjoyment by the evil that is called Haldex. Yes, the same 4WD system that has blighted VW products with understeer lurks under the skin of this car. On the road, the car neither under nor oversteers. It just demolishes anything in its way. The ride is firm, in fact it tippy-toes right on the edge of what is acceptable in town and at low speed, but then it rewards you as you travel faster. The quality of the damping shines through, it remains flat but doesn’t get deflected and the payback for the firmness is an agility that must render the A45 one of the faster point-to-pointers on sale. Certainly, on a mixture of A- and B-roads a C63 wouldn’t see where it had gone. Nor would anything in that class. Torque, traction, grip, dimensions, no deflections, no understeer; the A45 is perhaps the perfect road recipe. And that’s before it rains.

It's a grip monster but does give you options
On the track it is miles more fun than an RS3. Provoke it harshly and the rear axle will begin to rotate, but it never feels like it’s rear-wheel drive. It also never feels like, say, a Mitsubishi EVO with its insane turn-in and instant oversteer. But it’s fun and very effective, helped enormously by electric power steering that is bettered only by the new GT3’s system for weight and sense of connection and a truly brilliant brake pedal. Can’t remember the last time I had such confidence in road car brakes.

Doing a number
Some people think the cabin is too chintzy; I don’t. The new electrically adjustable Recaros are superb, the wheel is standard issue AMG, as is the snazzy gear selector. They’ve done a good job covering as much of the ordinary A-Class undergarments as possible, although the hard plastics down by the centre armrest are pretty nasty. And of course the electric handbrake is utterly hateful. Then again, once you’re used to it, the way you can open the driver’s door to trigger the gearbox into Park is a stroke of genius for everyday use. Until you’re accustomed to it, that is – up until this point you might head-butt the steering wheel.

So is it worth the money? Let battle commence
So it’s great fun to drive, indecently fast, sounds good under duress and is laden with standard equipment – but is it really worth £37,845? Not if you’re making the usual PH comparisons with used M3s and the like. But the world doesn’t always work like that. Factor in a decent finance deal (ducks) or people who just want something discreet, effing fast and untouched by another’s bottom and it doesn’t look too pricey to me.

Box ticking
Of course you can go loopy with the extras list. The car I drive had carbon exterior mirror housings for a mere £1,230. The Comand sat-nav thing is a silly £2,100. Then again, to drag an M135i up to a similar spec as the A45 reduces the price difference considerably. I shall do this when we release the twin-test video in a few weeks.

Even the bling doesn't quite set it apart enough
No, the lingering impression here is of a car with immense talent and much to offer many people. I just wish AMG had been given free rein to add some wider arches and give the car some more, well, stance. The RS3 is trounced by this car in just about every department of driving dynamics, but Audi knows how to sell cars and those wide arches and suggestive ride height are showroom gold. From the rear three-quarter the A45 does have some menace to it, but in your rear view mirror it is quite innocuous looking. That will endear it to those looking for subtlety, but I suspect they’re in the minority in this marketplace.

Otherwise, I thought the A45 was mostly brilliant.

http://www.pistonheads.com/roadtests...?c=110&i=28045

[malazn mafia]

Wow, Merc just got serious with the A-class. Not long ago the A class was an atrocious looking thing with no bonnet and no boot.

[BadMax]

I'd love to test drive one of these rockets. Pricing is estimated to be about 90k from what I read a while ago.
I highly doubt that longevity of the engine will be an issue, since when have Merc motors been?

Then the is the CLA45.

[Wretched]

Chris Harris' review.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOA5Y...9B84BD346EEEFA

A good watch, love the AMG, the sound and the look but for me i think it would have to be the M135 in a manual.

[SumoDog68]

This runs 26psi boost ....EVO with the same boost will also be around 350HP.

[Uwish]

Originally Posted by SumoDog68

This runs 26psi boost ....EVO with the same boost will also be around 350HP.

Then the evo would go POP........

[SumoDog68]

Originally Posted by Uwish

Then the evo would go POP........

4g63 won four world rally championships running this level of boost

[Alan D Segal]

I'd prefer a brand-new manual evo for ~$65k with a 'limp' 217kw 2 litre, than this car.

[Uwish]

Originally Posted by SumoDog68

4g63 won four world rally championships running this level of boost

Was not a standard though... Subaru did also but you don't go pumping 26psi though them ;) Take it from me..... I went through 5 EJ motors

AMG know how to build a bullet proof motor

[Bossxr8]

Originally Posted by SumoDog68

4g63 won four world rally championships running this level of boost

And how much do they cost, when you also factor in the huge amounts of cash they would have spent on R&D. Pointless point is pointless.

You just can't compare race engines with production engines.

[mcnews]

N/A BMW S 1000 RR motorbike beats that hp per litre without a turbo. Just sayin....

[flappist]

Originally Posted by mcnews

N/A BMW S 1000 RR motorbike beats that hp per litre without a turbo. Just sayin....

Yeh so have most if not all of the MX and enduro bikes especially the small ones.

Power is torque times revs so if your vehicle does 20,000 RPM then it will demonstrate a lot of power for not a lot of torque.

There is a reason why motorcycle engines are not used in cars..........

[Alan D Segal]

Originally Posted by mcnews

N/A BMW S 1000 RR motorbike beats that hp per litre without a turbo. Just sayin....

So does the GSXR1000 The litre-bikes have been making great power for ages.

Why don't we see cars with that kind of power per litre without turbos? Probably has something to do with cars needing torque, commonly more than 112nm a lot earlier than at almost 10,000rpm. This is probably due to cars commonly weighing at least 6 times what sports bikes weigh, and people wanting them to be drivable under a range of conditions, not ringing their necks constantly. Cheers.

EDIT: flappist posted while I was still typing - similar theme there.

[blueoval]

impressive. I like it