We have a feeling that we are going to be looking at these three cars all year, and that doesn't bother us at all. Only a couple of days after South African magazine Cars gave the M2, RS3 and A45 to a racing driver on a track, some Australians did the same thing.
This time around, there weren't any Honda Civics or Ford Focus RS's around, so we were left with an all-out battle between the Germans. And what a battle that was!
On paper, these things appear quite evenly matched, but of course, they aren't that at all. The AMG and RS models both use the all-wheel drive to motivate their hatchback bodies around and have the engine placed line any ordinary car. Meanwhile, the BMW M2 is like an M3 with one less turbo... that about sums it up.
The weird thing is that even though these three cars all have different numbers of cylinders, their power outputs are very close, with the smallest of the bunch having the most grunt (the A45 with 381 PS).
If we remember correctly, the BMW M2 won the South African test by a very small margin. This time, the car won it convincingly, with a manual gearbox we might add. It seems every extra gram that you can remove from the car helps the lap time.
But the Mercedes-AMG A45 didn't come in the second place like last time, despite being fitted with an optional mechanical differential. The RS3 was actually faster, which we find a little strange. But, as we all know, the Audi is a little bit lighter.
In the end, nobody expects AWD hot hatchbacks to be faster than the BMW M2. It's a true driver's car and the surprise of the year, even beating the M4 in some tests and reviews.
Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida. Full profile
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