THE SUPERCAR

‘Honey, they shrunk the supercar’

It might not be a low slung, two-door, fire-breathing monster, but the AMG A45 S might just be the ideal supercar…

WILLEM VAN DE PUTTE

SUPERCARS remain only a dream for most of the world’s population but they remain sculptured beauties and aspirational masterpieces that are used as screen-savers, wall posters, paper weights and even computer mouses.

The Lamborghini Miura, produced from 19661973, is often said to be the first supercar and from there manufacturers have continued to produce cars that not only look beautiful (here, though, often beauty is in the eye of the beholder) but produce crazy performance figures too.

And that’s still with the internal combustion engine, wait till battery technology improves and range anxiety has been addressed and the figures will be through the roof, but that’s a story for another day though.

Think Ferrari, Lamborghini, Porsche, Maserati, McLaren, Aston Martin, Koenigsegg and Bugatti and your heart begins to race and kidneys turn to water when you glance through the pricing catalogues.

Supercar equals super performance for super money, even in the pre-owned market.

It’s an exclusive club that not many of us will be privy to, not to mention the assumed improved personal value attached to mentioning that you’ll be coming round for drinks in the Lambo.

Cynics and traditional supercar manufacturers aside, though, in the last few years brands such as Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz have had customers drooling over their supercar challengers.

Question is: should a car like the Mercedes A45 S 4MATIC+ be placed in the same category?

The short answer is no… even though the performance numbers and technology put supercars of a decade or two ago to shame and of course it’s a hatch.

What the A45 S 4MATIC+ is, however, is a car that makes a lot more sense than forking out a few million rand for the sake of having a thrilling drive.

You see, what the engineers at Mercedes have done borders almost on genius.

How else do you explain squeezing 310kW and 500Nm out of a four-cylinder turbocharged engine that will get you to 100km/h in 3.9 seconds?

And I tell you what: you’ll be grinning from ear to ear at a track day because it’s just so much fun to drive. Power is transmitted via Mercedes’ eightspeed DCT transmission and because you know they have spent thousands of hours perfecting it to work in sync with the engine and drivetrain even in RACE mode, there’s very little chance of a mechanical failure.

The launch control has no fancy electronics. Simply put your left foot on the brake and right foot down on the accelerator, release the brake

and it borders on brutal the way it slams you into the seats and changes gears as the rev counter hits the red-line and the exhaust hits all the right notes.

Sure, it doesn’t have a growl like a V6 or V8 but the snap crackle and pop you get gearing down and flooring it out of a corner with the 4Matic system keeping you honest, easily makes up for it.

And when everything’s cooled down you can easily put four people in and fit the day’s gear in the back as you leave past the 2+2 and two-seater supercars.

If a hatch isn’t to your liking though, there’s always the CLA 45 S 4MATIC+ with pretty much the same performance figures in a very elegant

design.

Don’t get me wrong. A supercar will always be something very special and placing a key with the prancing horse logo on the counter will get you a lot of attention from petrolheads and anyone who’s vaguely heard of Ferrari Red.

However the little A45 S 4MATIC+ is a fantastic and fun introduction to the world of speed and handling. Throw in a couple of niceto-have options, and for about R1.3 million, you may not be the envy of a McLaren owner, but a guaranteed smile will be worth a million bucks.

● Thanks to @SupercarsInAfrica and @ autocar for the shots.