The ones that got away AMG C63

There is no AMG C63  in this test, and hence for the first time in as long as we can recall, a sports saloon shoot-out hasn’t been overlaid with the furious, bassy score of an AMG V8. And, in case you haven’t heard, there will be no more AMG V8s, not in C-class saloons at any rate. The more expensive models will survive. For now. The next C63 will use a version of the four-cylinder turbo motor currently found in the A45 family, further bolstered by a hybrid setup to provide the 500bhp-plus performance that AMG will feel – like all performance car manufacturers, sadly – it has to provide to retain appeal in the market.

I’m trying to envisage what that might be like from behind the wheel of this very black CLA45, but the overpowering emotion is of sitting in a car one size too small after spending the best part of three days in the BMW and Alfa. Of course, that’s to be expected, but where the other two sit you low down in the car, ready for action, in the 45 I’m perched up uncomfortably high, the driving position nothing like as well resolved. There’s a lot of road noise, and the ride quality lacks the easy absorbency that both the M3 and Quadrifoglio can muster. You can get into one of these 45s from £40,825, and right now the £25k-plus price difference seems entirely justified. Then again, the one I’m driving is a whisker over 59 grand, which suddenly doesn’t seem that far away from the M3 after all…

All of the above is true right up until the moment I twizzle the 45’s steering wheel-mounted mode control and floor the throttle, at which point it sends the world into reverse in a way that feels every bit as potent as the big banger competition we’ve been talking about on the preceding pages. It’s a welcome reminder of the absurd pace Mercedes’ 45-engined cars possess; the question will be whether AMG can recreate, somehow, some of the old personality of the V8s from just four cylinders and electrical power. It’s a question for all car makers, really. In the meantime, the CLA45 is a car that grows on you with miles: small, expensive, ludicrously rapid and actually quite individual, it’s a car with very real appeal.

The reason you didn’t see Audi’s RS4 battling the M3 on the lanes of the Dales has nothing to do with the fact that it’s only available with an estate body. That’s not stopped us comparing such cars before and, after all, the new M3 Touring – the first M3 to reach production with such a body style despite the Glamour, on the internet at least, over the years for one – will soon make even a direct comparison possible. No. It’s that the Audi falls rather awkwardly between rivals and genres if you look a little deeper than face value.

Take this Turbo Blue example: its bulging arches, black wheels and fake vents all conspire to suggest it’s the muscle bound super-estate in that love-it-or-loathe-it aggressive way only the Germans know how to achieve. It’s the kind of car that says a lot about you upon arrival, accurate or otherwise. Yet in standard £72,000 form, a five grand premium over the M3 Competition, it offers ‘only’ 444bhp from its 2.9-litre twin-turbo V6 against the M’s 503bhp.

More to the point, without the embellishments of options, the RS4 is a surprisingly restrained car in reality, in spite of what the spec sheet might lead you to believe. The V6 is relatively muted and rather bland in character, with little of the fire and personality that define the similar-displacement V6 in the Giulia Quadrifoglio. Yes, you can spend a further £1250 on the sports exhaust, but while the RS4 hits hard and early, and certainly doesn’t feel weak on the road, there’s no mistaking that, wrung-out, it lacks the top-end fury of the other cars in this test.

This rather quieter character is at odds with the standard passive suspension, which can feel tiresomely agitated on a typical British road. The answer is to spend a further £2000 on the DRC adaptive set-up, for with this technology the RS4 enjoys a nicely fluid ride quality in its comfort setting, and that makes for a great ground covering combo with the effortless traction of the four-wheel-drive system and the punchy, lag-free delivery of the V6. All in, and to use that tired phrase ‘in the real world’, there isn’t much that’s quicker than an RS4. But this more traditional Q-car repertoire, effective but not the last word in excitement, seems a mismatch with the Audi’s looks, and it remains a car we respect rather than love.