Words by: Adam Allen
We love it when someone tries to out-crazy someone else.
It is this very mentality that encouraged Joey Chesnutt to chase the crown and undisputed reign as the worlds best competitive eater. The very same philosophy underpinned Smokin’ Ed Currie’s quest to create the world’s hottest pepper. We’ve tried eating as many hot dogs as we can in two minutes and sampled some chicken wings adorned with Pepper X hot sauce; both endeavors did not conclude particularly well. Mercedes Benz must’ve seen these examples of unbridled craziness and wanted to get in on the action. That is why the CLA 45 S you see here exists.
We love that it’s still alive and kicking. The last time we drove the hottest CLA was back in the pandemic days of 2020, and that one made ‘only’ 382 horsepower. This time around, the CLA 45 we borrowed wore top-spec S trim, meaning it made an additional 34 ponies for a grand total of 416 horsepower. From a four cylinder. Displacing only two measly litres.
To quantify how nuts that is, we remembered a time not so long ago when a four banger of similar size and power output was a grenade perpetually on the verge of exploding. We wistfully recall a friend’s turbocharged Honda Civic who fettled with boost levels until his engine block could take no more and promptly ejected its contents onto the shop floor. After procuring another running engine, he would not rest until it held together and successfully absorbed the huge amount of boost pressure being thrown at it. Eventually it worked, but drivability was virtually non-existent; you’d wait until the tach swung past 5,000 rpm and then all hell would break loose. He was always among the loudest talkers when it came to boast about power, but slinked behind the pit wall at the dragstrip when he’d get walked by teenager’s in Mom’s Chrysler Town and Country.
Let’s talk numbers surrounding the hand built M139 engine for a moment. The spec sheet says 416 horsepower and 369 pounds feet of torque and to be sure, those figures almost border on the unbelievable. If you want your mind blown even more, how does this metric grab you: it makes 208 horsepower per litre, or 104 horsepower per cylinder. It took a while for that to fit through the doors of our perception. This engine is all ate up with boost, to the tune of 30 psi. If you can imagine a can of pop that has been vigorously shaken for hours and then transferred to an industrial grade paint shaker for good measure you have the right idea- the contents are under extreme pressure. Yet somehow AMG engineers have managed the feat of taming this colossal amount of boost pressure into something that feels completely normal, imminently drivable and miraculously, all backed by a full factory warranty. We think that is nothing short of brilliant. Those who hail from the Fast and Furious generation may conveniently forget that great power was often linked to great fragility. Those engines from back then were usually boosted to within an inch of grenading themselves- which they often did- and the massive turbos slapped onto them made absolutely no power below 4,000 rpm at which point there would be an unmanageable explosion of power channeled into the drivetrain. There is a reason why light switches are not an engineering benchmark for engine power delivery characteristics so you can see why these were best left to bragging about outputs rather than putting themselves to use on the road. Antonio Krumov, the chap who hand built the engine under the hood of our tester, deserves an extra little something from Santa this year-the dude has earned it.
By now you know that the CLA 45 S is a genuine speedster. We haven’t lined ‘em up, but we would be hard pressed to see a drag race between the Benz, a BMW M2 and an Audi RS3- all direct competitors- where the Bimmer and Audi are left looking at the CLA’s taillights. Thanks to Race Start and 4MATIC+, the baby Merc puts its power down with devastating precision, leaving the line like a startled cat. It can also be as docile as a kitten, tootling around town without drawing much attention to itself. That too is another feat worth celebrating.
But the Benz is no straight line one trick pony. It has huge cross drilled brakes at all four corners which do a great job of reining in all the speed. It’s shod with very sticky Continental ultra high performance rubber and our tester had the AMG Driver’s Package option help the CLA to negotiate a twisty ribbon of asphalt with the poise and grace of a sports car. It’s got another cool trick up its sleeve (although we didn’t get a chance to try it out) and that would be Drift Mode. Once you figure out how to activate it- think entering a cheat code on a video game and you’re on the right track- lurid, smoky power slides are available to you for as long as your rear tires have tread to turn into smoke. Suffice it to say that this little number is undoubtedly deserving of its AMG badge.
Inside, The CLA 45’s cockpit is pretty much like any Mercedes. That is a good thing, folks, because these days the Benz crew is crafting some beautiful interiors. The digital screens might be smaller than what we have seen on some of the brand’s higher end stuff but work just as well and are equally brilliant to behold. The trim bits look the business, and all touchpoints leave you feeling satisfied. The best part are the seats up front. You get two very aggressive AMG buckets with cut-outs for a racing harness, and that usually spells a week of discomfort sitting in seats that are meant for holding you in place in high G cornering, not going to the shops. We are happy to report that we were wrong. On a long trip north to cottage country, we arrived at our destination feeling fresh and not in agonizing discomfort. Shout out to the incredibly tuned Burmester sound system, too.
When you spend time with a car that’s just do darn fun, it can be hard to pinpoint stuff that rankles. With the CLA 45 S, there really isn’t much to complain about, and we have therefore boiled down our bellyaching to just two gripes- but they are rather significant. The first is the ride quality. Yes, in Comfort mode is it subdued, but it is still seriously firm and can really jiggle your flabby bits while traversing what we call tarmac around these parts. The other issue? Price. Given how much this car is capable of, you would expect a window sticker on the higher side. Instead, you may become apoplectic when you see what this baby costs. To gain some context, the fire breathing 2025 C63 E-Performance with its hugely powerful hybrid powertrain starts at $9,000 more than the CLA 45 you see here- not a massive delta for a significant bump in performance. At the current threshold, we fear that the CLA 45 S is priced too far out of reach from the very demographic it was intended for; maybe not the kind of crazy Mercedes was aiming at. Faults notwithstanding, no one would disagree that this car is indeed delightfully unhinged.
2025 Mercedes-AMG CLA 45 S 4MATIC+ Coupe - Specifications
- Price as tested: $92,465
- Powertrain Layout: Front engine/all-wheel drive
- Transmission: 8-speed dual-clutch automatic
- Engine: 2.0 litre turbocharged inline-4, DOHC, 16 valves
- Horsepower: 416 @ 6,500 rpm
- Torque (lbs-ft.): 369 @ 3,000 rpm
- Curb weight: 1,636 kg (3,626 lbs)
- Observed Fuel Consumption: 10.7L/100km (22 mpg)