What is it?
Maybe it’s the comically offensive exhaust. Think reverberant metallic boom, punctuated by a resounding crack on the upshift, and often finished with the cymbal hiss of the dump valve’s release. Or perhaps it’s the styling that – to these eyes at least – has stuck two fingers up at tasteful and gleefully gone on to embrace flamboyancy.
More likely than any of that, it’s the no-prisoners performance served up by the 452bhp, 398lb ft 2.0-litre turbocharged motor.
Regardless of the specifics, the Renntech Mercedes A 45 AMG is an oddly addictive thing.
For £3599, the Nürburgring-based tuners will take your stock A 45 AMG, update its software, put a bigger turbo on that boosts pressure up from 1.85 to 2.05bar and deliver you a car that will do 0-62mph in 3.9sec and strop right on to a faintly ludicrous 186mph. That’s improved from 4.6sec and a limited 155mph in the (hardly faint-hearted) standard A 45 AMG, which produces a mere 355bhp and 332lb ft.
Naturally, Renntech will upgrade the chassis and brakes, too. For £2050 including fitting, you get a set of Pagid brake pads and Bilstein coilovers (tuned and set up by Renntech) in the softer of two available set-ups, catchily titled the ‘Fast Road B16’ package. Opting for the firmer Clubsport set-up, as fitted to our test car, will cost a further £1626. Finally, our car also came with Renntech’s sports exhaust downpipe and catalytic converter, at £1935. At least the trick Dunlop tyres are thrown in for free.
You can opt out of the carbonfibre bonnet and garish decals if you wish, and the £6000 19in forged alloys that our car sits on are also probably an unwise expenditure.
Join the debate
Add your comment
This is insane
Having just been given an A45 to play with - loan car...
Back of the A-Class