If we were to make a ‘Best All-Time Enemies’ list featuring nothing but nameplates and sort it in horsepower rating order, Audi, BMW, and Mercedes would fight for the top spot for two eternities. The Germans have the excuse of the autobahn, where the lack of a speed limit is the perfect excuse for the carmakers to push motoring limits ever higher. However, gearheads found a more straightforward way of determining the best: a drag race.
In yet another brief shootout between the eternal German rivals, the rear-wheel drive BMW M2 flexes its Bavarian muscles against the all-wheel-driven Mercedes-AMG A45 S. Unbalanced straight from the very beginning, given the difference in tractive axles, but, as the great rocky Balboa once said, ‘It ain’t over ‘till it’s over.’
The South African motoring outlet CAR magazine is enjoying the Southern Hemisphere summer, and the opportunity presented itself for a quick leg-stretching session. In the most fashionable quarter-mile manner, the two adversaries are represented by the best weapons money can buy in their respective classes.
In the Munich corner, the BMW M2 (the ugly one, launched in 2022) is revving up its three-liter straight-six turbocharged engine, spitting 454 hp and 406 lb-ft (460 PS, 550 Nm) through an eight-speed automatic. The two-door coupe puts 1.7 tons on the ground, but the most powerful letter in the alphabet doesn’t flinch when the lights turn green.
Photo: Youtube/CAR
The M Steptronic transmission allows the M2 to sprint from 0-62 mph (100 kph) in 4.1 seconds. The electronically limited top speed of 155 mph / 250 kph can be raised to 177 mph / 285 kph with the addition of the optional M Driver's Package.
In the Stuttgart corner, the AMG-imbued hatchback Mercedes compact, the A 45 S, has three extra doors, two cylinders fewer, and one liter of engine displacement less than the Beemer. In car people's parlance, that’s a two-liter turbocharged inline-four with 416 hp (421 PS) and 369 lb-ft (500 Nm). The five-door Merc is on par with its rival in body mass (1.7 tons), but the 4MATIC+ dual-clutch eight-speed auto transmission puts the power down through all four wheels.
On paper, the beefy compact is faster than the M2 by four-tenths of a second from a standing start to sixty-two miles-per-hour (3.7 seconds), while its top speed is capped at 168 mph (270 kph). Let’s recap: a quicker 4WD Mercedes AMG versus a torquier BMW M2 with just the rear pushing forward.
Photo: Youtube/CAR
Unbalanced, but fair? Well, no. The Mercedes driver has a slouchy reaction time and misses the mark by a blink. Luckily, the car makes up for the faulty part between the steering wheel and the driver’s seat and catches up with the hasty Beemer, albeit momentarily. The M2’s superior torque pays off in the 400-yard-long run, and the BMW walks away from the pompous tri-pointed star badge splashed across the AMG A 45 S grille.
Curiously, the South African car journalists don’t give the loser a second chance – it’s a winner-take-all type of showdown at the Aldo Scribante Race Circuit in Port Elizabeth. Until next time, the BMW M2 is taking home the laurel wreath (by about three car lengths).
After nearly two decades in news television, Răzvan turned to a different medium. He’s been a field journalist, a TV producer, and a seafarer but found that he feels right at home among petrolheads. Full profile
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