Has The Mercedes-amg A35 Really Got What It Takes?

The makers of C63 want in on Honda Civic Type R and VW Golf R Turf. But has the Mercedes-AMG A35 really got what it takes?

- Ben Miller

Like the back of my hand. If I’ve been down this road once, I’ve been down it a thousand times, albeit on a motorcycle – flowing between the verges, climbing forward over the front wheel to keep it down over the lumps, flies popping on my visor like fat rain in a summer storm. Hard work, then? Of the very best kind, the bike always accelerating, braking or turning, the delicate but critical issue of just how much you can ask of its two tyres all-consuming.

The same road in the new Mercedes-AMG A35 – due on sale here around October – is a piece of cake, the AMG’s ludicrous traction, power and poise making a mockery of any caution or sensitivity you may deem appropriate.

Jumping out of the Honda Civic Type R into the A35, you first curse the seats. They look the business, with cool little slots at the back of your neck ready for a race harness, but even on their lowest setting the seats are set so high you can spot swimmers in difficulty off Bondi Beach, while lateral support is so lacking you realise the steering wheel’s as much for hanging onto as for dictating the mega-hatch’s trajectory.

You approach the first couple of corners gingerly, thinking you might need to manage a little understeer if your approach is too hot, or be in some way restrained about the way you re-introduce the turbo four’s 225kW of power or 400Nm of torque (effectively always on, given peak twist chimes in from just 3000rpm). But it’s soon clear that the A35 doesn’t require any such niceties. Turn stability control off, ramp up the drive mode to Sport Plus, not least for the silly barrage of noise that now pours from the exhausts, and just launch the AMG at the road ahead – nothing will go wrong, promise.