Say Hello To Merc's Mental 355bhp GLA45 AMG Crossover

Mercedes has officially unveiled its Porsche Macan-baiting GLA45 AMG super crossover. The production-ready model looks a damn sight nicer than the garish, sticker and wing-festooned concept we saw a few months ago, but is still suitably butch.

As expected, it uses the same brutal turbocharged 2.0-litre four-pot seen in the A45 and CLA AMG models. It's good for a mighty 355bhp and 332lb/ft of torque, sending the GLA from 0-62mph in 4.8 seconds, and on to an electronically limited 155mph.

Despite the inevitable extra bulk (there's no official weight figure just yet) that's only 0.2 seconds slower than the A45 AMG hatchback. More impressively, that's identical to the claimed 0-62mph figure for the Macan Turbo, which will come with 45bhp more than its Merc rival.

The more boring figures are also worth a look: despite all that power and performance, Mercedes is claiming a combined fuel economy figure of 37.6mpg, and emissions of 175g/km.

As per the A45 and CLA45, it has AMG's 4MATIC all-wheel-drive system, and a seven-speed DCT gearbox. It all looks promising on paper, but we'll have to wait and see if it's good enough to give the Porsche Macan and Audi RS Q3 a headache.