Mercedes unveils racing CLA 45 AMG

Well this is rather dandy, no? It's called the Mercedes CLA 45 AMG ‘Racing Series', and, as you can probably guess, has been built for going fast on the track.

It's available for customers as an off-the-shelf racer, built for the "crowd-pulling race series featuring 2.0-litre turbocharged cars", and complements Merc's SLS AMG GT3 customer offering.

Precise tech spec will vary according to race series and rules, but under the bonnet you're looking at the 2.0-litre turbocharged four-pot engine doing decent service in the 360bhp A 45 and CLA 45 AMGs - as a production road cars, that's the most powerful production four-cylinder turbo engine... in the world. Merc says you can spec this CLA racer as a four-wheel-drive version, or purely front-wheel-drive.

The front and rear tracks of this special racing CLA have been widened over those of the road car. The suspension level, spring rate and dampers are all adjustable, as are the track and camber at the front and rear axles. You get AMG's high-performance braking system complete with ventilated discs all round, as well as carbon fibre reinforced polymer front and rear aprons, flared arches and side sills. The flared carbon fibre rear wings even have large cooling apetures for the brakes, and of course, no racecar would be complete without a ruddy big rear wing.

Inside, there are the usual vegetable-crushing bucket seats and racing harnesses, a steel rollover cage, fire extinguisher and a racing steering wheel with paddles. It'll make its public debut at next week's Frankfurt Motor Show. Surely you need to make this road-legal, Merc?