AMG the ultimate automotive skunkworks? Back in the day, perhaps. Now, exactly 45 years after the outfit was founded by just two men in a big shed, it's a 1000 employee-strong pillar of the Mercedes empire, the one whose signature eight-cylinder engines emit the most famously thunderous noise in the business. It's even part of the Mercedes F1 team, underlining its strategic importance to the company.
All of which makes the confirmation of its smallest, most affordable model ever, the A45 AMG - which we first told you about last year - equal parts exciting and, for purists, a tad worrying. Rest easy, V8 fans. In a ridiculously early anniversary preview, TG.com has seen the new car, and although it's powered by a heavily revised version of the 2.0-litre turbo four that lesser A classes will use, AMG's big guns assured us that the A45 will a) have the highest specific output of ANY car, eclipsing even the McLaren 12C, which points to around 330bhp b) more than 300lb ft of torques and c) will sound ruddy marvellous, despite its cylinder deficit. Over to Fritz Eichler, AMG's head of powertrain. ‘The sound our cars make is hugely important, we know that. Which is why I've said to my guys, "I want this thing to sound like a Rory Gallagher guitar solo".' This is our sort of analogy.
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