Baby AMG for Paris '12

AMG will arrive at next year’s Paris motor show with a stonking 220kW+ small saloon, designed to blow away Audi’s A3 sedan and put the pressure on BMW’s facelifted 1-Series.

Based off the upcoming, all-new Mercedes-Benz small-car architecture (front and all-wheel drive platform that will underpin both the new A and B-Class models), the baby AMG will share its four-door bodyshell with diesel and petrol powered Mercedes-Benzes, but not its engine or powertrain.

Having been forced to temporarily abandon its high-risk, Hyprex forced-induction engine, AMG has scrambled to engineer a twin-scroll, direct-injection turbo-charged version of the existing C-Class’s M270 engine.

And, by all accounts, it will be fast – fast enough to force AMG into turning the front-drive architecture into an all-wheel drive unit.

AMG expects the turbo tearaway to burst to 62mph in 5.2 seconds and mid-corner acceleration will also be sharp, with almost 400Nm of torque on offer in a flat line from under 2000rpm. AMG will limit the car to a top speed of 250km/h.

The move has also meant a wholesale revision of the car's upcoming seven-speed double-clutch gearbox, with Mercedes-Benz engineers admitting they’ve had to completely redesign the unit to cope with the higher torque loads.

“Every gear in the ‘box needs to be strengthened for AMG, plus the clutch goes from four plates to five,” one Mercedes-Benz gearbox expert admitted. “It’s rated to 400Nm, but they will soon need more.”

But the baby AMG assault won’t stop at the small saloon. Sources have admitted there will be a hot hatch AMG based off the production version of the A-Class concept car (pictured) Mercedes-Benz showed at this year’s Shanghai Motor Show.

The hatch, aimed at the gap between the VW Golf R and the Audi RS3, will sit on top of the upcoming A-Class’s chassis, but will be lighter and, almost certainly, even faster than its bigger, saloon sibling.

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