Carwow Pits the 2020 A35 AMG Against Germany’s Hottest Hatches
Teutonic shootout consisting of a drag race, rolling race from 50-mph, and a brake test, is frustratingly close, but the A35 still pulls through.
We love car videos as much as the next person. But we only have so much patience for yet another “Exotic Car DESTROYS [insert other fast car here]” video. It’s much more interesting seeing a knuckle-down brawl against evenly matched machines than these lopsided fights that seem to litter our YouTube suggested video feed. That’s why we love British site Carwow’s latest video, pitting four of Europe’s (well, Germany’s) hottest hot hatches (and one sedan) against one another. The best part of all? It pits host Mat Watson in a BMW M135i against fan favorite and YouTuber Yiannimize in a 2020 Mercedes-Benz A35 AMG. Oh, and there’s a Golf R and Audi S3 thrown in for good measure too.
On paper, this shootout, consisting of a drag race, rolling race from 50-mph, and a brake test, is frustratingly close. Every car here is powered by a 2.0-liter turbocharged four. The Golf R and S3 both make 300 horsepower. The A35 and M135i make 306. As for torque, the Bimmer has everyone beat, with 450 Nm of twist (about 331 lb-ft) on tap, while the AMG makes do with 400 Nm, or about 295 lb-ft of torque. The Audi and Volkswagen also top out at the 400 Nm mark.
More Good Clean Fun than Teutonic Deathmatch
With Ben in the Bimmer and Yianni in the AMG, it’s clear that the test is secondary, and that Ben really just wants to beat hotshoe Yianni in every test. The pair discuss their Christmas plans while each car’s stats flash across the screen. Then, the two friendly rivals rev their engines, and admittedly, the Bimmer has a sonic edge here. It has a nice crackling exhaust note, and while the Benz sounds good, it lacks the menacing edge that the M135i has.
“I so want to beat him,” Ben says in a voiceover during the countdown to the drag race. “I hate losing,” Yianni counters in his. Then the proverbial flag drops, and the AMG launches beautifully. Unfortunately, the BMW has a little more oomph, and Ben wins the race. Cult of personality aside, these two are still in a dead heat on paper; both cars share a 13.5 quarter-mile time. In case you’re wondering, the Golf R runs it in 13.6 seconds, and the S3 sedan takes 13.7 seconds to do it.
Then comes the rolling race from 50-mph, a test that really separates the wheat from the chaff. The cars are set in comfort mode and automatic; no tricks, just pedal to the floor at 50. “That’s why we run a test like this,” Ben says, “because that’s how even Yianni drives, and he’s a hooligan.” Again, the AMG pulls ahead, but it isn’t to be. Despite Ben complaining that the M135i “took ages to kick down,” it ends up pulling ahead, with the AMG finishing third behind the Audi. Still, Yianni defends the AMG, saying it felt “quite quick, to be fair.”
They run the race again from third gear in Sport mode, and sadly, the AMG A35 falls to last place, with Yianni’s head left “swiveling side to side” as the car sinks to the back of the pack. Then comes the 70-mph-to zero brake test, and the AMG A35 returns to the forefront. Ben finds that the Audi just beat him by a hair, but hey, the Benz beats the Bimmer here.
At the end of the day, these four cars are very similar performance-wise, and these two friends do what anyone would do with these simple tests: Have some fun with them. Of course, we’re more than a little partial to the AMG, but if you’re in Europe (most of these models aren’t sold stateside), there are plenty of 300-plus horsepower hot hatches for you to choose from. What a time to be alive.
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