seven four-cylinder cars that’ll reach 100km/h in five secs
Cape Town – Whether you`re a walking Wikipedia, a keyboard cowboy or an actual robot-to-robot rebel, few things matter as much as your car`s acceleration.
0-100km/h are what separate boys from boys, the Ms from the M316is and the R’s from the Polo Vivo GTs. To petrolhead, it`s much more than a measure of your manhood; it is nothing brief of your internal being. You know that a one thousand nine hundred ninety five Mitsubishi Eclipse tops out at one hundred forty miles per hour (225km/h). If you have to, you overnight your Chevy Spark`s air freshener from Japan. You only eat tuna sandwiches (no crust).
Apart from fantasy films whose name embark with Rapid and have many sequels, the automotive universe is cresting a halcyon era.
Rather, the true four-wheeled white knights of this equation are the less well-endowed. After all, who doesn`t love it when the underdog slams it to the big dawg? Wouldn`t you pay money to see Sergio Perez`s Force India demolish Lewis Hamilton`s Mercedes at Monaco, drifting around in the rain on slicks while downing a bottle of tequila and brandishing a searing Donald Trump flag?
So take a moment and bow down to a very special club. It`s a league of speed merchants that have the unique capability to at the same time keep bank managers blessed, petrol attendants pitiful and traffic cops on total alert. Bringing hope and sanity to a world of overpriced spectacle cars, they`re the only seven cars you can buy right now – of which each has just four cylinders and can smash to 100km/h from standstill in under five seconds: the Sergio Perez of the speed underworld. We salute you.
Mercedes-Benz AMG A45 4Matic
Traction, low weight and correct gearing are the ingredients of the 0-100 hero. And of course power; in which the Mercedes lightly leads its class. A frankly astonishing 280kW and 475Nm from a two-litre gives the A45 bragging rights as the most powerful production engine of its size in the world – more specific power, even, than a Bugatti Veyron. Add to that launch control, all-wheel drive and a rapid-fire twin-clutch transmission, there`s little wonder why so many BMW drivers look away when one of these pulls up at the traffic lights.
As a rather uncommon view on South African roads, there`s a lot to like about the Alfa, but more to despise. Thumbs up to the carbon-fibre monocoque, which is both light and strong and F1-techy, but it`s all downhill from there. One is the headache-inducing canoe factory smell, another the the awful R799 grey import Hi-Fi Corporation radio which permanently drowned out by the drone and hissing from the non-bespoke and dreary 177kW 1.75-litre Giulietta engine. Conversation with a passenger takes place via telepathy rather than shouting – and your chiropractor is on speed-dial, too. But beauty (and speed) is anguish, right?
If the fact that hot Quattro-equipped Audis are often a not particularly engaging drive, console yourself to the fact that they are also not slow off the line. To put this into context: you can reach 100km/h in 0.7 of a 2nd swifter in an RS7, but that privilege will cost you an extra R1-m. If the second-gen TT was too Golf-like in its manners and mediocrity, the fresh one will surprise you. Everybody knows TT`s are fast-ish, but the fresh one takes sleeper status to the next level.
Say «Awethu» to Pravin-pleasing value. At R638k the S3 is the cheapest on the list, acing the rands-per-tenths-shaved ratio by a country mile. If you`re shopping used, however, note that the pre-2017 car was limited to 206kW/380Nm, whereas the current model gives you the total 228kW and 400Nm. Now that`s the type of affirmative activity that is worth a case of Bell`s. Should you tire of the Monster Energy flat-bill cap and white-rimmed Oakley juvenility of hot hatchery, just get the sedan version: it`s just as swift but with a lot less daft.
VWSA confirmed to us that the facelifted Golf R, which launches side-by-side with the Golf GTD in July, will ultimately equal its European sibling`s output by having the maximum 217kW on suggest – and reach 100km/h and an Audi S3-matching time. Which does not come as a surprise, as the two are practically identical, save for the class difference: the Audi`s posh, the VW proletariat. Snobbery aside, for the fresh R to have knocked 0.Four seconds off its forebear`s spectacle takes some doing. But if it comes in cheaper than the S3, it`ll be a victory for the masses.
Ford needed 300cc more than Mercedes did in their A45 to extract twenty three less kilowatts from its stupidly-named «Ecoboost» engine (since when does spectacle have a green conscience?). As one of the most-anticipated spectacle cars of 2016, the Concentrate`s spectacle is plagued by excessive weight (it`s the most powerful car here, by more than 100kg) and the absence of a twin-clutch transmission. That means at least one example where power is temporarily cut in the rush to 100km/h and the possibility of a much swifter sprint time. But hey, at least you drift it if you lose. Kind of.
Say hello to the best sportscar you can buy for under R900k. Ultra-lightweight, a turbo boxer four-cylinder (that sadly now sounds like a Subaru) instead of its former iconic flat-six, the Cayman – like the nine hundred eleven – proves that you don`t need four driven wheels to get off the line quickly. The R31 zero Sport Chrono pack prizes you with another 0.Two seconds. Bear in mind, tho’, that arriving at a haul race with a Porsche is unspoiled sacrilege. Unless it`s a nine hundred eleven Turbo S (an official time of 0-100km/h in Two.8 seconds, however regularly tested to do it in Two.6), in which case it will just be murder.