The hot hatch scene changed dramatically in the last few decades. What was once an exclusive club with a rather low number of members is now populated by cars from almost every manufacturer. It’s quite an interesting development too, as the crossover and SUV boom we’re experiencing would imply hot hatches have no room to exist anymore. But hey, anomalies exist in every field and the BMW M135i is definitely one such anomaly.
BMW has been part of the hot hatch club for quite some time now. The latest iteration of the 1 Series is a bit of a step back, compared to the predecessor the Bavarians had, the M140i xDrive. Nevertheless, the Munich-based manufacturer is making the most out of what it has and still faces rivals in any sort of scenario. In the video posted below we get to see a rather interesting drag race with two such rivals.
On the one side we have the Mercedes-AMG A45 S model, the king of the hot-hatch segment today. Its 2-liter 4-cylinder 421 HP engine under the hood is unmatched. Normally, the M135i would have to deal with the less powerful A35 AMG, both cars having 306 HP at their disposal but in this case, the guys from Motorsport Magazine went all out. Good for them. It would’ve been nice if they also got their hands of a Ford Focus RS instead of the ST we have here. I guess that would’ve been trickier to get though.
Since this is an ST, the specs show 276 HP and 310 lb-ft of torque are being delivered by the 2.3-liter EcoBoost engine under the hood. Looking at all these figures, the result of the race is rather predictable. Nevertheless, the BMW was surprisingly close to the A45 or, at least, I thought the two would have a lot more room in between them by the time they crossed the finish line.
