CLA 45 AMG Somewhat Keeps up With an Audi R8 V8

Combined with the probably less-than-stellar sales of the R8 V10 and all its variants, no less than 50,000 vehicles of the Audi R8 variety had been globally sold until the end of last year, qhich is quite a big chunk of Porsche 911 sales considering the fact that the R8 is a newbie at the +100,000 sports car game.

The car's mid-engine positioning, standard quattro all-wheel drive and dorky looks won a lot of hearts, while the relatively low price of the V8 version earned a lot of customers for quattro GmbH.

On top of it, the 4.6 seconds required for the manual version to reach 100 km/h (62 mph) from a stop also make it pretty good for an impromptu drag race with quite a lot of sports cars out there.

How would it fare against a much lesser-powered Mercedes-Benz CLA 45 AMG, you may ask? Well, looking at the official data the two should be neck and neck, despite the fact that the AMG four-door has “only” 360 hp and 450 Nm (332 lb ft) of torque from a “puny” turbocharged two-liter engine.

Even though each model can send power to all four wheels and it seems to be pouring rain, the following drag race between the two very different sports cars is done from a roll, thus eliminating the advantage of the launch control function on the CLA 45 AMG.

With that being said and somewhat expected, the Mercedes-Benz loses the race, but only by a hair and only at higher speeds. Considering we are talking about a somewhat similar weight, quite a lot less power and four less cylinders compared with the Audi, we think it actually looks pretty good for the little AMG, how about you?