This is it! The time has come to put BMW’s latest hot hatch up against its competition in a proper drag race. The guys from CarWow put together one of their drag races and they got the BMW M135i xDrive to go up against its main rivals, the Mercedes-Benz A35 AMG and the Audi S3 alongside an outside, the Volkswagen Golf R. I’m saying the Golf is an outsider because it’s not a premium car but the specs will tell you otherwise.
That’s because the Golf and the Audi have the exact same drivetrain. Both cars have 2-liter 4-cylinder turbocharged engines under the hood good for 300 HP and 400 Nm (295 lb-ft) of torque. Both are all-wheel drive and both use the same transmission.
As a matter of fact, there’s very little to set them apart, except for the badge and styling. And yes, they have a Sedan S3 here because that’s what they could get their hands on but the difference compared to the hatch version is rather small anyway.
On the other side of the drag strip we have another set of Germans. The BMW M135i xDrive and Mercedes-Benz A35 AMG also have 2-liter 4-cylinder engines but they are not shared between them. Both have 306 HP but the BMW has the edge in terms of torque, with 450 Nm (332 lb-ft) vs the 400 Nm (295 lb-ft) of the Merc. Both cars are all-wheel drive too so launching them should be pretty easy.
Who won, might you ask? Well, the BMW claimed both wins in the acceleration tests. The standing 1/4 mile and the rolling race were pretty darn close though, but the BMW won them both. When it came to braking, the Audi S3 won it, rather surprisingly, since it is the heaviest of the four. Quite an eventful race, to be honest, but good fun nonetheless.
