Mercedes-Benz CLA 45 AMG

So all that power, all that torque, in a chassis of size of a match box is probably something that can kill you is what you might think and so did I. So I decided to risk my life for all the readers of this magazine to do them a service. I came down to the Buddh International Circuit in Greater Noida to test it out and see for myself. Mind you, this was my first time driving on a track, therefore I left the manual gearbox alone and the traction control on as advised by the professional driver from Mercedes. And let me tell you this, if you ever want to know what time travel feels like, put it in Sport mode and all you have to do is floor the throttle. The surge of power will make you see the future flashing in your head thinking you’d probably break through the barriers of the track and kill yourself in the next couple of minutes. But as soon as you lift-off and brake, you come drastically down to almost a standstill in a matter of a few seconds with the 4 cylinder engine screaming at you and everyone around.

The growls at every upshift just melt your heart, but on track there was no time to stop and catch your breath, as the car kept searching for corners. It darts in as you turn, and nibbles the apexes, devouring corners. Tyre squeals are momentary when you turn in as when the back starts stepping out, 50pc of the power is sent to the rear to keep you alive and to ensure that you do not need a change of underwear.

The ride is fantastic on the track, there is no body roll, the nose or the rear doesn’t pitch at all on acceleration or braking, but I can only confirm when I see how it copes with pimply Indian roads. The steering is light but has a slight heaviness to it making you actually drive the car, and turning into a corner it just knows what you want. It feels like it knows what tracks it’s on and what corner it’s at and what I want from it. Yaw rotation is just perfect, not too much that you get oversteer, and not too little that you end up with understeer. 

The styling of the entire car is just breathtaking. From the giant front grille, the perfectly tailored headlamps and tail lamps, the coupé styled roof, the interestingly designed and spacious interior as dash panel, the twin 5 spoke 18 inch alloy wheels, and the millimeter perfect lines along the gorgeous body, the Quad exhaust pipes and the diffuser. I fail to find anything that looks as good as this in its segment in the Indian market today.

So for the CLA 45 AMG, the lunatics at AMG have done a fantastic job. Their hours, days and years’ worth of work has paid off. Now it’s my time to work as hard as the engineers at AMG did to afford the 68.5Lakh rupees price tag, I have never wanted anything as badly as I want this. That’s how good this car really is.