**The Mercedes-AMG CLA 45 S: A Sports Car with a Twist**

As I appreciate the technical stuff behind this car, it's clear that the previous AMG models, such as the A and CLA 45, made an engine that delivered impressive 381 horsepower. However, this new engine is not just about brute force; it's designed to rev and rev, building up power with each gear shift. This approach creates a driving experience that's all about engagement and connection between the driver and the vehicle.

When I switch to "Race Mode," I can see how easy it is to use the manual gearbox, which is not just a gimmick but a key feature of this sports car. The gearbox has been significantly improved from previous models, with aggressive shifting and downshifting that's both smooth and exhilarating. The AMG drivers pack also adds features like launch control and a top speed of 270, making this car a true performance machine.

One of the standout features of the CLA 45 S is its all-wheel-drive system, known as 4MATIC+. This system makes it possible to use all the power at your disposal, even in wet or slippery conditions. The Michelin Pilot Sport 4 tires provide exceptional grip, and when I put the car through a challenging corner on the Autobahn, it was clear that this system is doing its job.

The CLA 45 S also features a "Drift Mode," which allows drivers to intentionally over-rotate the rear wheels. While I couldn't fully engage this mode in cold weather conditions, I did experience some exciting moments as the car's rear end stepped out and popped with every turn. The sound system has also been improved, with a more aggressive and racy sound that complements the driving experience.

**A Comparison to Other Performance Cars**

When I compare the CLA 45 S to other performance cars, such as the BMW M2 Competition or the Audi RS3, it's clear that this car is in its own class. The new AMG V8 engine has been developed specifically for hybrid applications and will soon power a new generation of C63 models. While some might be disappointed by the use of a turbocharged engine, I think it's a wise decision, as it allows Mercedes-AMG to create an engine that's both fast and efficient.

The CLA 45 S is also notable for its ease of use and accessibility. With a top speed of 270, you'll have plenty of "playroom" at your disposal, making this car perfect for drivers who want to push the limits without feeling overwhelmed. And with launch control enabled, I can confidently say that this car is quick – perhaps even quicker than it has any right to be.

**Conclusion**

In conclusion, I think the CLA 45 S is an amazing car that offers a unique blend of performance and accessibility. Its advanced all-wheel-drive system, aggressive gearbox, and powerful AMG V8 engine make it a standout in its class. And while some might be disappointed by the absence of a traditional rear-wheel drive layout, I believe this car's strengths far outweigh any weaknesses. With its price tag, I think it's one of the best value propositions out there – and if you're looking for a four-door coupe with real performance credentials, this is definitely worth considering.

If you'd like to see more reviews from Max, be sure to check out his video on the AMG GT R Pro. And for those interested in different perspectives, our playlist features some great POV reviews that are definitely worth checking out.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enokay so let's get started out of my way mister out at YouTube thank you if you look at it like this awful let's be honest AMG Sport race in the new c63 the new gen good morning ladies and gentlemen and welcome to this lovely morning and this lovely AMG CLA 45 s and it's in the perfect color for this perfect Windsor morning it's really sunny it's cold it's sullen gelt which means Sun yellow so today I'm going to review this car take it on a lovely piece of road we've just discovered and we're going to use the Autobahn to see how fast this thing really is so before we begin I want to ask you to subscribe to our Channel and please turn on the notifications so that you know when there's a new video okay so let's get started this is the Mercedes AMG CLA 45 s 4matic plus but hey let's see if it lives up to its long title so let's walk around it so the first thing I noticed is is that it has these little winglets at the front so this is derived from DTM Racing and it's been to push the car down so it's like an extra little spoiler we have huge AMG wheels these are 19-inch I believe yes they are it's a Michelin Pilot Sport forests are this one is perfect this tire is really perfect for these conditions you know it's quite cold it's damp then you want these tires so we also have these AMG brake calipers in red really quite large you can really see why they fit it these huge wheels because that brake system is pretty massive so you need a huge wheel to fit it what I don't like is that fake centre look look they keep on doing that at AMG stop doing this just put a real sense of lock on it or stop doing fake central or caps like this one so what I don't like either is the chrome on the door handle I think it should be yellow or it should be black but this is a bit too flashy for me so at the rear I'm going to sit right here this is where you can really appreciate the car for what it is because the previous CLA was handicapped when it came to design it was like a baby CLS and the proportions just weren't right with this one though it's a lot better don't you think if you look at it like this it's kind of perfect I think it's it's it's small and just looks like it's got too much muscle for its suit and I really like that look it really looks like a true AMG car and that's also because we have that black diffuser and those four tailpipes and this diffuser really sucks down the car to the tarmac and yeah that's a great great addition to the CLA so we also have quite a large rear spoiler which also pushes down the rear and you may think I just spotted a 4matic plus badge yes you did it's right there so why push the car down well this car has a drift mode and it really wants to send the power to the rear to make it behave like a true sports car so it really has to push down that rear axle so what do you think of the look guys let me know in the top right corner you can vote really curious what you think of this new AMG CLA 45 s so let's take a look at the engine Wow even this little cover is yellow how cool is that so when you open the bullet you immediately have a staredown with this huge turbo the engine is only 2 liters big so it's not really what we're used to from AMG you know big muscular 3/8 2 liters big but this huge terrible kind of multiplies the engine capacity because it delivers 421 horsepower and 500 Newton meters which is immense they even installed this AMG strut brace to make the front end even sharper and as always this thing is handcrafted and this one is made by Christian wrestler at Mercedes AMG we've actually visited the factory when we did the AMG GT our pro review and the a 45s review so if you want old technicalities about the engine go watch Max's review on the a 45s and click in the top right corner so let's get in and let's enjoy this gorgeous interior the previous cla45 had one huge issue kind of an Achilles heel if you ask me it was the interior it was awful let's be honest but it now is one of its strong points I mean this looks and feels gorgeous you have that dual screen setup you have this amazing AMG steering wheel with these configurable buttons so you can switch to all different driving modes right here but if you want to change just one thing you can click on this button and you have two little icons where you can choose what you want to change like the exhaust sound and you can change it with this button and you can change the traction control with this button or if you want to change the damping you can use this how cool does that look I mean you really feel like you're in a race car and in an s-class at the same time it's immensely impressive how they combined the two so what do you think of the interior guys let me know in the top right corner okay so I'm going to turn on this little GoPro so I have a rough counter available for you guys because a rev counter is what you need to appreciate the technical stuff behind this car because with the previous a and cla45 they made an engine that delivered 381 horsepower or 360 if you had the pre-facelift but it was kind of a boring engine and that was because it made peak torque at 2200 rpm and then it just plateaued so there was no gain anymore after 2200 rpm let me just switch to race mode and see if we have any grip we're going for manual for the gearbox see how easy to use that is that's just that's not just a gimmick that's really that really comes in handy when you encounter different driving conditions oh my god as I said the previous engine of the a45 in CLA 45 they plateaued but this one it just wants to rev and Rev and breath and you really feel it building up the power with the revs and that's what you want in a sports car we do have some fake sound coming from the speaker's but it's a racy sound and it contributes to the driving experience so I'm perfectly fine with that the gearbox that was the second problem I had with the previous II and cla45 this one though is so much better they really made an effort making it as aggressive as the engine really really a huge improvement the downshift was the biggest problem with the previous gearbox this one really likes to downshift oh Jesus Christ what a car just come to wipe the windshield oh you really feel all the differentials working to give me grip because 500 Newton meters 421 horsepower it's a lot to process on a wet road like this and it's far from perfect it has a lot of imperfections little potholes some gravel on it but this system this 4matic plus system make sure I can use all the power I want and even though it's pretty cold outside and when those Michelin Pilot Sport 4s tires offer a lot of grip that's impressive it just catapult me out of that corner Jesus Christ so as I said drift mode is available for the cla45 s but I think today it's just too cold too wet to really do that to really try that oh that was the back end stepping out a bit from the inside you get a lot of little pops and bangs which are quite entertaining I have to say from the outside though the sound you hear that it's filtered here we are at the Autobahn I'm going to put it in race mode and leave the transmission in Auto so here we go this is equipped with the AMG drivers pack self that means we have a top speed of 270 instead of 250 out of my way mister how did you - thank you wow this thing is fast that's really really impressive oh you can just feel how big that turbo is and once to rev you need to feel that turbo so oh man that's 275 Jesus Christ this thing 277 what is that okay it thinks that I want to use come on system but I don't I don't need any help going this fast mrs. c'mon system Wow okay now from lowdown here we go Wow I don't think this car is that much slower than a c63 and you may know the reason for that this engine will be featured apparently in the new c63 the new gen and that's because they developed this engine and made sure that it could connect to a battery so we are going to have the hybrid c63 and they will use this engine I mean that's maybe a bad thing because we're used to a v8 but it's also a good thing because this thing is like nothing else I mean in terms of speed and performance the rs3 its main rival no chance the BMW m2 competition with that huge 6-cylinder 2 twin-turbo engine no chance well this thing is fast I mean if you wouldn't have that AMG drivers package and a top speed of 250 you'd be driving the top speed all the time because it's just so easy to get there with that extra 20 kph yeah you have more playroom which I think this car needs it's just so fast okay I now have a bit of temperature in my tire so I am going to do a launch control run for the acceleration video and with that I'm going to leave you thank you so much for watching this cla45 s review I really really like this car to conclude it's awesome and I think it's a better car than the a45 because it's a four-door coupe a and no the hatchback and for this money I think that's best thank you for watching if you want to see Max's review on the AMG GT r pro click right here if you want to see a different POV review go check out this playlist thank you for watching and I'll see you at the next video bye guysokay so let's get started out of my way mister out at YouTube thank you if you look at it like this awful let's be honest AMG Sport race in the new c63 the new gen good morning ladies and gentlemen and welcome to this lovely morning and this lovely AMG CLA 45 s and it's in the perfect color for this perfect Windsor morning it's really sunny it's cold it's sullen gelt which means Sun yellow so today I'm going to review this car take it on a lovely piece of road we've just discovered and we're going to use the Autobahn to see how fast this thing really is so before we begin I want to ask you to subscribe to our Channel and please turn on the notifications so that you know when there's a new video okay so let's get started this is the Mercedes AMG CLA 45 s 4matic plus but hey let's see if it lives up to its long title so let's walk around it so the first thing I noticed is is that it has these little winglets at the front so this is derived from DTM Racing and it's been to push the car down so it's like an extra little spoiler we have huge AMG wheels these are 19-inch I believe yes they are it's a Michelin Pilot Sport forests are this one is perfect this tire is really perfect for these conditions you know it's quite cold it's damp then you want these tires so we also have these AMG brake calipers in red really quite large you can really see why they fit it these huge wheels because that brake system is pretty massive so you need a huge wheel to fit it what I don't like is that fake centre look look they keep on doing that at AMG stop doing this just put a real sense of lock on it or stop doing fake central or caps like this one so what I don't like either is the chrome on the door handle I think it should be yellow or it should be black but this is a bit too flashy for me so at the rear I'm going to sit right here this is where you can really appreciate the car for what it is because the previous CLA was handicapped when it came to design it was like a baby CLS and the proportions just weren't right with this one though it's a lot better don't you think if you look at it like this it's kind of perfect I think it's it's it's small and just looks like it's got too much muscle for its suit and I really like that look it really looks like a true AMG car and that's also because we have that black diffuser and those four tailpipes and this diffuser really sucks down the car to the tarmac and yeah that's a great great addition to the CLA so we also have quite a large rear spoiler which also pushes down the rear and you may think I just spotted a 4matic plus badge yes you did it's right there so why push the car down well this car has a drift mode and it really wants to send the power to the rear to make it behave like a true sports car so it really has to push down that rear axle so what do you think of the look guys let me know in the top right corner you can vote really curious what you think of this new AMG CLA 45 s so let's take a look at the engine Wow even this little cover is yellow how cool is that so when you open the bullet you immediately have a staredown with this huge turbo the engine is only 2 liters big so it's not really what we're used to from AMG you know big muscular 3/8 2 liters big but this huge terrible kind of multiplies the engine capacity because it delivers 421 horsepower and 500 Newton meters which is immense they even installed this AMG strut brace to make the front end even sharper and as always this thing is handcrafted and this one is made by Christian wrestler at Mercedes AMG we've actually visited the factory when we did the AMG GT our pro review and the a 45s review so if you want old technicalities about the engine go watch Max's review on the a 45s and click in the top right corner so let's get in and let's enjoy this gorgeous interior the previous cla45 had one huge issue kind of an Achilles heel if you ask me it was the interior it was awful let's be honest but it now is one of its strong points I mean this looks and feels gorgeous you have that dual screen setup you have this amazing AMG steering wheel with these configurable buttons so you can switch to all different driving modes right here but if you want to change just one thing you can click on this button and you have two little icons where you can choose what you want to change like the exhaust sound and you can change it with this button and you can change the traction control with this button or if you want to change the damping you can use this how cool does that look I mean you really feel like you're in a race car and in an s-class at the same time it's immensely impressive how they combined the two so what do you think of the interior guys let me know in the top right corner okay so I'm going to turn on this little GoPro so I have a rough counter available for you guys because a rev counter is what you need to appreciate the technical stuff behind this car because with the previous a and cla45 they made an engine that delivered 381 horsepower or 360 if you had the pre-facelift but it was kind of a boring engine and that was because it made peak torque at 2200 rpm and then it just plateaued so there was no gain anymore after 2200 rpm let me just switch to race mode and see if we have any grip we're going for manual for the gearbox see how easy to use that is that's just that's not just a gimmick that's really that really comes in handy when you encounter different driving conditions oh my god as I said the previous engine of the a45 in CLA 45 they plateaued but this one it just wants to rev and Rev and breath and you really feel it building up the power with the revs and that's what you want in a sports car we do have some fake sound coming from the speaker's but it's a racy sound and it contributes to the driving experience so I'm perfectly fine with that the gearbox that was the second problem I had with the previous II and cla45 this one though is so much better they really made an effort making it as aggressive as the engine really really a huge improvement the downshift was the biggest problem with the previous gearbox this one really likes to downshift oh Jesus Christ what a car just come to wipe the windshield oh you really feel all the differentials working to give me grip because 500 Newton meters 421 horsepower it's a lot to process on a wet road like this and it's far from perfect it has a lot of imperfections little potholes some gravel on it but this system this 4matic plus system make sure I can use all the power I want and even though it's pretty cold outside and when those Michelin Pilot Sport 4s tires offer a lot of grip that's impressive it just catapult me out of that corner Jesus Christ so as I said drift mode is available for the cla45 s but I think today it's just too cold too wet to really do that to really try that oh that was the back end stepping out a bit from the inside you get a lot of little pops and bangs which are quite entertaining I have to say from the outside though the sound you hear that it's filtered here we are at the Autobahn I'm going to put it in race mode and leave the transmission in Auto so here we go this is equipped with the AMG drivers pack self that means we have a top speed of 270 instead of 250 out of my way mister how did you - thank you wow this thing is fast that's really really impressive oh you can just feel how big that turbo is and once to rev you need to feel that turbo so oh man that's 275 Jesus Christ this thing 277 what is that okay it thinks that I want to use come on system but I don't I don't need any help going this fast mrs. c'mon system Wow okay now from lowdown here we go Wow I don't think this car is that much slower than a c63 and you may know the reason for that this engine will be featured apparently in the new c63 the new gen and that's because they developed this engine and made sure that it could connect to a battery so we are going to have the hybrid c63 and they will use this engine I mean that's maybe a bad thing because we're used to a v8 but it's also a good thing because this thing is like nothing else I mean in terms of speed and performance the rs3 its main rival no chance the BMW m2 competition with that huge 6-cylinder 2 twin-turbo engine no chance well this thing is fast I mean if you wouldn't have that AMG drivers package and a top speed of 250 you'd be driving the top speed all the time because it's just so easy to get there with that extra 20 kph yeah you have more playroom which I think this car needs it's just so fast okay I now have a bit of temperature in my tire so I am going to do a launch control run for the acceleration video and with that I'm going to leave you thank you so much for watching this cla45 s review I really really like this car to conclude it's awesome and I think it's a better car than the a45 because it's a four-door coupe a and no the hatchback and for this money I think that's best thank you for watching if you want to see Max's review on the AMG GT r pro click right here if you want to see a different POV review go check out this playlist thank you for watching and I'll see you at the next video bye guys\n"