The Mercedes-AMG A45 S Is Gonna Be A Rip-Snorter
The new Mercedes-Benz A-class is quite good. It may currently be the least-expensive car in the company鈥檚 U.S. CLA-class鈥攚hich is on hiatus鈥攊t actually feels like a proper Mercedes. Beyond the base car, a sportier A35 AMG variant is in the works鈥攁s is a full-bore and even more powerful A45. But just how powerful will that range-topper actually be? Can it significantly top the 375 horsepower of the similarly sized CLA45 and GLA45? It seems that will depend on which version of the A45 you buy. Even though Mercedes has yet to release official specifications for the A45, HUK24, an online insurance company in Germany, already lists power outputs for both the A45 and the A45 S on its site. First reported by Motor1, the insurance company states the A45 will make 382 hp, while the S version will crank out an impressive 416 horses. That power will come from a turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine, giving the A45 S a specific output of 208 hp/liter. When the A45 S is officially revealed, most likely at the Geneva motor show in March, expect it to be shown in hatchback form. But don鈥檛 assume we won鈥檛 get the car here. It鈥檚 true we won鈥檛 get a hatchback, but AMG chief Tobias Moers has indicated that Mercedes plans to sell at least one hot A-class sedan here. It just has to decide whether to pick one or offer both, although the price of the S version could be high enough to keep it from our buy-by-the-pound vehicle market. But either way, we鈥檇 be willing to bet there鈥檚 an A45 sedan in our future. Based on the basic goodness of the regular A220 sedan, we鈥檒l assume it will be a little more well-rounded than the CLA45 AMG was.
In September 1979, Daimler-Benz presented a new S-Class generation at the IAA in Frankfurt. In addition to improving ride comfort and safety, development of the new model series focused on decreasing energy consumption. The use of weight-reducing materials and an aerodynamic body optimized in the wind tunnel helped the new S-Class achieve a ten-percent reduc-tion in fuel over its predecessor models. The two eight-cylinder en-gines of the predecessor series were replaced with two redesigned units with larger displacement and light-alloy crankcase. The 5.0-liter engine, which replaced the 4.5-liter cast iron unit, was already familiar as the power unit from the 450 SLC 5.0, while the 3.8-liter light-alloy engine was developed based on the long-serving 3.5-liter V8 with cast iron block. With both higher output and reduced weight, the new V8 engines could now achieve improved performance while at the same time using less fuel. The carburetor and injection versions of the 2.8-liter six-cylinder remained in the range unchanged.
The W 126 series also saw development of a diesel version for export to the USA. Like its predecessors, the 300 SD Turbodiesel offered a turbocharged 3.0-liter five-cylinder engine, though with output now in-creased by ten hp to 92 kW (125 hp). Chassis design was essentially the same as for predecessor models. The new S-Class sedans also featured a diagonal swing-axle at the rear and double-wishbone front suspension with zero-offset steering. The body design incorporated state-of-the-art findings in safety re-search. Thanks to its new design principles the passenger compartment was now able to withstand the so-called 鈥渙ffset crash鈥?un-scathed at a speed of 55 km/h. The W 126-series sedans were the first production cars worldwide to meet the criteria of the frontal offset crash. Many of the characteristic design elements of the S-Class are to be found beneath the waistline. For the first time, a Mercedes-Benz passenger car had no bumper bars in the classical sense, having instead generously proportioned plastic-coated bumpers that were seamlessly integrated into the car鈥檚 front and rear aprons. Broad lateral protective strips made of plastic created a visual link between front and rear aprons, positioned at bumper height between the wheel arches.
At the IAA in Frankfurt of fall 1981, two years after the debut of the W 126 series, an elegant coupe was added to the family, available only with eight-cylinder engines. Both V8 units underwent comprehensive revision as part of the recently initiated 鈥淢ercedes-Benz Energy Con-cept鈥? a program geared to reducing fuel consumption and harmful emissions. In addition to an increase in compression, the list of improvements included camshafts with modified valve timing, air-bathed injection valves and electronic idle speed control. Camshafts with modified valve timing enabled maximum torque to be achieved at a lower engine speed and in the case of the 3.8-liter engine torque was even increased. This unit was subjected to particularly thorough revision: In order to achieve a more favorable volume-to-surface ratio, the bore was reduced and the stroke increased. The modified 3.8-liter V8 thus benefited from a slightly larger displacement. But by way of compensation for their significantly better fuel economy, the two eight-cylinder units were obliged to accept a minor drop in output. In both cases, rear axle ratios were tuned to meet the modified characteristics of the engines.
And the two six-cylinder units also saw a whole series of minor modifications that likewise led to fuel economies, even if these were less dramatic. These measures did not affect power output. Four years after the launch of the Energy Concept the company carried out a comprehensive model refinement package, so that in September 1985, once again at the IAA in Frankfurt, it was able to introduce a completely revised S-Class lineup. In addition to discreet facelifting measures affecting primarily the bumpers, side protection and the wheels, the focus here was above all on restructuring the engine range. Two newly-designed six-cylinder units, which had been premiered nine months earlier in the mid-range W 124 series, now replaced the trusty 2.8-liter M 110 engine. The most spectacular innovation in the engine range was a 5.6-liter eight-cylinder unit, which was developed by lengthening the stroke of the 5.0-liter V8 and which unleashed an output of 200 kW (272 hp). If required, an even more highly compressed version was also available that delivered a mighty 221 kW (300 hp), although it was not possible to combine this unit with a closed-loop emission control system.
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