V8 Supercars eat your heart out – now THIS is a racing sedan…the Mercedes-Benz CLA 45 AMG Racing Series will be unveiled tonight (our time) at the Frankfurt Motor Show.
Of course in recent years Mercedes-Benz has been hugely successful in Formula 1 with the Petronas team and in GT racing with customer SLS AMG GT3 machines and now the CLA 45 AMG Racing Series is destined for the German VLN Series and various turbo 2.0-litre Touring Car Championships throughout the world (but sadly not in Australia).
We just love the looks of the CLA 45 AMG Racing Series. As a racer, the four-door sedan is off to a flying start as the road-going version is powered by the world’s most powerful series production four-cylinder engine.
In fact under that spectacular skin, the CLA 45 AMG Racing Series has a lot of kit straight from the road-going version - the 265kW/450Nm turbocharged 2.0-litre engine drives through the regular AMG Speedshift DCT 7-speed transmission.
Bodywork is all carbon fibre with massive wheel-arch flares to accommodate the wider track and 18-inch alloy wheels. At the rear the massive wing and diffusers are also made from carbon fibre.
Inside is pure motorsport with the massive roll-cage, Recaro seat with HANS system and racing instrumentation.
AMG developed the CLA 45 Racing Series in conjunction with HWA AG – the same company responsible for the E 63 AMG racers campaigned in the Australian V8 series.
