So here we are again at another beginning of a Vivid Racing Project Car. Something that we made a staple back in 2002 with our Subaru WRX. Over the years we have done a handful of Japanese cars, many European cars, and just a couple Domestics. We have been continuing on this Euro trend because they keep building incredible cars for the money that just fit the tuner world. Lets rewind a bit to the Mini Countryman S JCW… This was a great compact turbocharged car. With our VRTuned ECU Flash, Quicksilver exhaust, and 3SDM wheels on NM Engineering springs, it was the cats pajamas. With the Mini being such a huge market, we had visions of this car with a certain JDM company (fail) and really making it a rocket box. But the Countryman only shares a few engine parts and is not the hot ticket in the Mini world. On a personal level, I have to have 1 car with 4 doors for the family. Yes the 991 Turbo has rear seats, but only midget strippers are fitting back there! So here we are on what to do next.
I have had a chance to own many rad cars. Subaru WRX and STI’s, Mitsubishi EVO’s, BMW’s, Porsche’s, and even had a Noble M400 for no apparent reason than it was cool. The other half here at Vivid (Rob) has had a couple of Mercedes Benz cars. Me personally have never been to stoked on them until the C63. That thing was a 10,000lb guerilla and just wanted to rip pavement. We even made a video which has 1.5 million views on YouTube of this. Along his Mercedes path, he also had the new 2012 CLS63 Bi-Turbo V8. This was ultra fast but just did not have the grunt like the C63. But hey, if I needed a back massage, get moved back into my lane, or have the car stop on its own, it did it! So to replace the Mini, what do I do?
The new BMW M3/M4 was tempting, but not on my immediate radar. Going back to the roots with a 2015 STI would be cool, but they are 6speed manual only (sorry need a flappy paddle). One of our sales guys had a CLA250 that we did a couple mods on and I really liked the styling. But FWD was not for me after our Focus ST we did. So I kept my eye on the CLA45. These cars are rare to come across and I wanted to make sure that whatever I got atleast had the AMG seats and steering wheel. Finally I found this beautiful red one at Mercedes Benz of Tucson here in Arizona where they hooked it up. So here we are now with a stock Mercedes CLA45. What to do…
First let me give my review of the car. Being the last Mercedes I drove was the CLS63 we had, I had different expectations. The CLA45 reminded me a lot of driving my old EVO VIII. Very snappy, rode like it had coilovers on it, braked amazing with the factory Brembo’s, and that stock exhaust noise between the gears was A M A Z I N G. So as it has been called the little brother of the CLS63, its nothing like it except the body lines. But I like it! The interior has nice Mercedes queus like the black piano wood trim, silver AC bezels, seat adjustments on the door, and a very cockpit like feel. The AMG seats were key and very comfortable. They have tons of adjustment and feel sporty. The steering wheel is great with its flat bottom and top complete with alcantara hand grips and nice aluminum paddles. The dash gauges are tricky to figure out but once setup, they work nice. The digital speedo is key or you would be going 90mph all the time with the orientation of the speedometer. The red paint is nice and reminescent of our C63 and I really dont mind the silver accents for trim. Overall, I am shocked on the awesomeness of this car.
So the mod list for this is mentally all planned out. First we are going to do one of our VR Tuned Tuning Box Kits for the CLA45. These are a plug and play tuning solution that gives the car another 50+ horsepower making this 355bhp over 400bhp. Thats fast! With Agency Power we are going to make a new high flow downpipe. Depending on the exhaust design, we may leave that till last to make a truly unique product. A nice cold air intake will be done along with some other billet components to keep the chassis handling well. Agency Power actually already has a cool carbon fiber steering wheel option we might throw on. The super cool factory of exterior styling will be by Revozport and their CLA RZA Carbon Fiber Aero Kit (pictured below). Since the stock suspension is pretty good, we may just do some H&R lowering springs similar to what we did on the CLA250 we had here. This will give it a nice lowered look and still ride as it does stock. For wheels, we will stick with our partners at Niche Wheels. They manufacture the industries wheels and we love to get the quality with style that they offer. Right now we have our eyes on these directional wheels, 1 piece forged wheels called the RS10 in 19 or 20 inch. We have some more plans and will continue to R&D as we go on this amazing AMG machine.
Stay tuned for more pictures, videos, data, and fun stuff on our Project Mercedes CLA45!
Our Dream List
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