While it’s easy to crown the most powerful hot hatch just by looking at some numbers, finding which one is the quickest-accelerating in the segment demands a good old-fashioned drag race.
Evo brought the Audi RS3 and the Mercedes A45 AMG together on an empty straight to find out which of these two super-hot hatches is the king of the drag strip.
On the one side we got Audi’s five-cylinder turbo 2.5-litre engine with 362hp and 343 lb-ft (465Nm) of torque sent to all four wheels via a dual-clutch gearbox, making it a true slingshot of a car. Audi says that 0-62mph (100km/h) takes just 4.3 seconds and if you tick the right option, your RS3 won’t stop accelerating until it hits 174mph (280km/h).
Mercedes, on the other hand, threw AMG’s four-cylinder turbo 2.0-litre unit into the A-Class giving it more power than the Audi, with 376hp and 350 lb-ft (475Nm) of torque. Just like its rival, power is sent to both axles via also a dual-clutch transmission. The company claims that the A45 AMG can sprint from zero to 62mph (100km/h) in 4.2 seconds, with the top speed limited to 155mph (250km/h).
The hot-hatch game has moved on significantly and who could possibly expect this kind of sportscar-challenging performance coming from not one, but two five-door hatchbacks? All we know is that we like it. A lot.