It's a good thing this race was done in Germany and by Germans, because otherwise, it would be easy to come away thinking it's nothing more than an attempt to cast doubts over the country's entire automotive industry.
These two cars should have no business racing against each other. Not only do they belong to different segments, but one of them has - and you can almost take this literally - half the other one's engine. That being said, it has a lot more than half its power and torque, and since it's also lighter, maybe putting them head-to-head isn't as ridiculous as we initially thought.
It's not ridiculous, but only as long as the more powerful of the pair wins. You don't want a V8-powered AMG losing to one with just four cylinders, especially when they're not that far apart in terms of body style. And these two - a Mercedes-AMG CLA 45 S and a Mercedes-AMG C 63 S Coupe - definitely are not.
Digging deeper into their specs, you'll find the one detail that makes this race worthwhile, one that the organizers went to great length to hide in the title: the CLA 45 S is also a 4MATIC+, meaning it has all-wheel-drive, whereas the C 63 S can only rely on its rear wheels to put down all the power made by the 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8.
We're looking at 503 hp (510 ps) and 516 lb-ft (700 Nm) of torque, a more than significant amount that could definitely benefit from an all-wheel-drive system itself. The more compact CLA 45 S makes a bit less power - 415 hp (421 ps) and 369 lb-ft (500 Nm) - but has the advantage of its transmission, as well as a bit less weight. When it comes to the latter, though, both are extremely heavy: 4,012 lbs (1,820 kg) for the C-Class and 3,737 lbs (1,695 kg) for the CLA-Class.
The two drivers hold a total of six races, four over the standard quarter-mile distance, and two over a full kilometer (0.62 miles) - this is Germany, after all, and they do use the metric system. If you watch the clip, you'll see that it's hard to take the scoring too seriously since there are a few glaring mistakes and a couple of stolen starts. But overall, from a usable performance point of view, you're probably better off with the Mercedes-AMG CLA 45 S 4MATIC+.
The C 63 S would have probably won a rolling race comfortably, and it definitely scores higher in the sound department, but looking at the in-cabin footage, you can't help wondering how old-school and dated the interior in the C-Class looks now. It's amazing how not even that long ago, that design was considered modern and premium, if not even luxurious. Talk about not aging well.
Heads-up: the video is in German.
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