Shooting Brakes are so yesterday. Carmakers are ditching them one by one from their lineups, Mercedes included. But it seems that the sexiest form a wagon can get still inspires tuning houses. VATH squeezed almost 500 horsepower from the 2.0-liter turbocharged engine of this Mercedes-AMG CLA 45 S Shooting Brake.
Whoever said there was no headroom in the CLA was wrong. Yes, there is. For kids. So if you are in a hurry to take them to school, here is the car for you. Because who would choose a shooting brake but a family man? And who would choose an AMG Shooting Brake but a dad who is… always late. Or in need to hit the racetrack every once in a while.
The 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder of the Mercedes-AMG CLA 45 S Shooting Brake standardly churns out 421 PS (416 HP) and 500 Nm (369 lb-ft) of torque. Sounds like enough for a family man, right? But not for that racetrack part, apparently. At least VATH seems to think so, because the tuning house has just squeezed 490 horsepower and 620 Nm (457 lb-ft) of torque from that four-pot.
Blink and you’ll miss it. Because the extra oomph makes the AMG CLA 45 S Shooting Brake flash from 0 to 100 km/h (62 mph) in 3.7 seconds, down by three tenths of a second. Supercar personality much?
You need extra braking power for such mods, so here it is. The tuner fitted new six-piston front calipers and larger 390-mm discs at the front.
A set of lowering springs brings the car closer to the tarmac by 20 mm (that’s 0.78 inches). The model now runs on 20-inch wheels with 265/35 winter tires. Just in case you want to race along some mountain trails. Not recommended, though.
A new exhaust system with adjustable flap system is part of the plan in order to provide that extra emotional soundtrack to match the extra power.
