Mercedes B55 Burnout Video Is Hot Hatch Drama

When a new car is born, it goes through a monumental ceremony during which it is visited by the automotive gods who gift it with certain powers. However, with great power comes great responsibility, so when the vehicle eventually hits the road it must fulfill its destiny.

When talking about Mercedes’ latest below the line project, the B55, the list of things to do in life reaches monumental proportions. After all, you can’t expect to be a B-Klasse that receives a V8 heart and have no mission, right?

One of the things that this compact monster was created for is to punish its rear tires, offering human beings a piece of entertainment called “burnout”. We’ve been waiting for the vehicle to pay its dues even since we met it (on-line dating) back in December 2010 and now we got what we wanted.

The adjacent video allows you to see the hyperpowered B-Klasse in tire-shreadding action. We know, we’d like to see more, something like high-speed drifts or hotlaps, but for the moment we’ll have to use this to quench our thirst.

We’ll remind you that the little Frankenstein was brought to life by a team of Mercedes-Benz trainees at the company’s Rastatt plant. The thing causing all the stir in the footage is a M273 5.5 liter naturally aspirated V8, a powerplant that delivers 383 hp and 530 Nm.

The vehicle is packed with other goodies that come from a different performance world, such as a rear axle from an old E-Klasse estate and brakes form a C32 AMG.