Remember the odd-looking CLA 45 AMG racing car that Mercedes-Benz showed on its official Facebook page this morning? Well, they finally released the press release and a couple of more photos of the model.
Just as we had suspected (no prize, though, since it was pretty self-explanatory), the concept car previews an upcoming customer racing car from Mercedes-AMG, which will join the highly successful SLS AMG GT3.
“With the CLA 45 AMG Racing Series we are providing a preview of another exciting customer sports racing car from Mercedes-AMG. The great success of our involvement with the SLS AMG GT3, which is now used by customer teams on five continents, means that we are very confident: in the popular four-cylinder segment too, we want to offer interested customer teams a competitive, near-series racing car with a high level of safety.” said Ola Källenius, now ex-Chairman of the Board of Management of Mercedes-AMG GmbH.
The technical specification of the model will vary according to the race rules and race series it will participate in, even though they are still based on the turbocharged two-liter, four cylinder engine from the “regular” CLA 45 AMG, which provides 360 horsepower and 450 Nm (332 lb ft). As on the road-going version, the power is transferred by a seven speed dual clutch transmission with seven forward gears.
What's interesting is that both the engine output and the type of traction is variable, with the car being able to function as either an all-wheel drive or as a purely front-wheel drive model. Just like the SLS AMG GT3, the CLA 45 AMG Racing Series was developed by Mercedes-AMG in cooperation with HWA – which we hope you already know that it stands for Hans Werner Aufrecht, one of the two founders of AMG.
Just as we had suspected (no prize, though, since it was pretty self-explanatory), the concept car previews an upcoming customer racing car from Mercedes-AMG, which will join the highly successful SLS AMG GT3.
“With the CLA 45 AMG Racing Series we are providing a preview of another exciting customer sports racing car from Mercedes-AMG. The great success of our involvement with the SLS AMG GT3, which is now used by customer teams on five continents, means that we are very confident: in the popular four-cylinder segment too, we want to offer interested customer teams a competitive, near-series racing car with a high level of safety.” said Ola Källenius, now ex-Chairman of the Board of Management of Mercedes-AMG GmbH.
The technical specification of the model will vary according to the race rules and race series it will participate in, even though they are still based on the turbocharged two-liter, four cylinder engine from the “regular” CLA 45 AMG, which provides 360 horsepower and 450 Nm (332 lb ft). As on the road-going version, the power is transferred by a seven speed dual clutch transmission with seven forward gears.
What's interesting is that both the engine output and the type of traction is variable, with the car being able to function as either an all-wheel drive or as a purely front-wheel drive model. Just like the SLS AMG GT3, the CLA 45 AMG Racing Series was developed by Mercedes-AMG in cooperation with HWA – which we hope you already know that it stands for Hans Werner Aufrecht, one of the two founders of AMG.