Just in case you weren't quite excited enough about the arrival of the supernaturally powerful Mercedes-Benz CLA 45 AMG hot saloon (or four-door coupé if you believe the marketing bumph), Mercedes has only gone and developed a racing version of it. You know, just in case you had some spare poster space on your wall or something.
Destined for use in in 2.0-litre turbo racing categories, the CLA 45 AMG Racing Concept features wider, adjustable suspension, a high-performance ABS braking system and a massive carbon fibre body kit including front and rear splitters, rear wing and side skirts. Essentially, it looks as if an CLA and an early eighties ground-effect F1 car had a romantic tryst and this is the staggeringly sexy offspring.
Inside, there's a proper racing cockpit with fully integrated roll cage and a carbon fibre Recaro P1300 GT racing seat, with prep for a full harness and head-protecting HANS device. Needless to say there's also a racing-style steering wheel with a paddle-shift gearbox. Sadly it's not for road use, but we suspect a quick trawl through the AMG accessories catalogue would get your road-going CLA 45 AMG looking pretty similar. You can have it in four-wheel drive or, rather excitingly, front-wheel drive (wheel spin!) depending on the category rules.
Anything else?
"The CLA 45 AMG Racing Series demonstrates our desire to further increase our commitment to customer motorsport. We are also seeking to offer interested customer teams a competitive, near-standard racing car with an excellent level of safety in the popular four-cylinder segment," says Ola Källenius, CEO of Mercedes-AMG GmbH. "The tremendous success of the SLS AMG GT3, which is now being raced by customer teams across five different continents, makes us highly confident.