VW Golf R vs Mercedes-AMG A45S: DRIFT Mode Showdown | 4K

If you saw my film on the Golf R, then you'll know that I really liked that car. But I didn't love it, and the reason is that Volkswagen, in their infinite wisdom, sent me the version without the performance pack, and that version didn't have drift mode. So I did what any sensible grown-up motoring journalist would do, and I complained about it on the internet until they sent me the right one. And this is it. This is the Golf R Performance Pack. It comes with all the power, all the noise, and at the push of a button, the ability to help you completely destroy your tyres. The Performance Pack costs £2,000 more than the 39 Grand Base car. For this, it gets drift mode, which on its own is surely worth every penny. It also gets 19-inch wheels, a bigger rear spoiler, and a bump in top speed from 155 to 168 miles an hour. With the 3,000-pound Akrapovic exhaust and 800-pound adaptive dampers, we're looking at a super hatchback that, in this example, costs just shy of £50,000. And that puts it in direct competition with another £50,000 super hatch, the Mercedes-AMG A45 S. Oh, he's gaining on me. He's gaining on me. He's got more power. 415 versus 320. He's catching. Oh, this feels completely wrong. We shouldn't be doing this in hot hatching. We really shouldn't. It gets very sideways as well. Skidding around on the edge of traction is one thing, but how do these two cars compare from a standing start? The Merc's 2.0-litre engine makes a massive 420 PS, 100 horsepower more than the VW's. It'll do 0-62 in 3.9, 8 tenths of a second quicker. I have a sneaky suspicion VW's performance figures might be a little conservative, but there's only one way to find out. Slight lead on him. Slight lead, but here he comes. That thing is massively quick. So, that is what 100 horsepower looks like. Really big on the track, but I'll tell you what, in the real world, maybe not as impressive as you might expect. Damn those Merc engineers. Stay with him. Stay with him. Stay with him. He's just edging away, isn't he? So, the Merc is clearly the quicker of the two, but what's the Golf R performance pack like to drive when you head towards the limits? So, the Golf R is massively fast in a straight line. It really is, but they do have a reputation for not being particularly playful, but out here on the track, when you can let it off the leash, you start to get a sense, God, the brakes are good, for how playful this car is because the chassis, it does let you have a laugh. With the addition of drift mode, it does like to throw shakes, and that's a trick that it learned from the Focus RS R.I.P., but that car arguably did it a bit better than this thing because in that car, it could send up to 70% of power to the rear wheels and then use clutch packs to distribute that power across the rear axle, either 100% to the left or 100% to the right to initiate the slide. In this car, it works a little bit differently. The Golf R can only send up to 50% of its torque to the rear wheels, but then it can distribute that 100% to the left or 100% to the right to initiate the drift and then even it out to sustain that drift through the corner. It works really well, but being honest, the Focus RS does feel that little bit more intuitive, a little bit more rear biased. Speaking of being intuitive, you do have to concentrate really hard on what specific mode you happen to be in because drift mode can work with the traction control on or off and with the traction control on, it never really feels as if the car wants to let loose completely. It actually tends to break the front wheels to try and straighten itself out. However, with the traction completely off like that, then it's a lot more playful. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Good stuff. So drift mode does what it says on the tin, but what's the difference between drift mode in the Golf R and in the A45 S? There we are in the AMG A45 S. Now, the drift mode in this car works very similarly to the drift mode in the Golf R, but there are subtle yet important differences. Like the Golf R, the A45 can send power front and rear and left and right at the back, but importantly, it can send more than 50% of power to the back. According to Mercedes, the distribution is completely variable. In other words, hypothetically, there's no maximum amount of power that you can send to the rear and honestly, this car feels way more rear biased than the Golf R. Chuck it into a corner here, second gear on the power. Instantly sideways. It is a complete beast. It is completely wild. In the Golf R, you have to be really violent in the way that you turn in just to get the back end to come around, but in the AMG, go anywhere near the throttle and this thing will throw shapes like you wouldn't believe. On top of that, the A45 feels like it has a slightly better balance through the corners and also because the Mercedes has more power and more torque, the back end is more responsive. Every time you go anywhere near the throttle, it feels as if it just wants to swing around on you, which is exactly what you want when you're looking for a hatchback that likes to drift. You have to be way more violent, more aggressive with your inputs in the Golf R to get that back to rotate. And it's not just the rear that's impressive. It uses the front strut brace to increase chassis stiffness so there's less body flex and more front end bite. In fact, on this circuit, it's the front tyres that begin to wear more quickly. The Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tyres seem to have more grip than the Hankooks supplied on the Golf, giving you a sharper, more predictable, less understeer prone front end that settles more quickly, giving you more confidence to rotate the car under power. The biggest compliment I can give the A45 is that it genuinely feels like a rear-wheel drive car, whereas the Golf R feels like a front-wheel drive car that can occasionally get sideways if you provoke it. And it's just so much faster! It's a savage! So what have we learned about these two cars? Well, I think if we ignore their performances on track for just a second, my biggest takeaway from today is how far hot hatches have come over the years. Cast your mind back, and they were very, very low down on the food chain of performance cars. They were practical cars that also happened to be quite sporty. These days, it's flipped completely on its head. They are now genuine sports cars, and the practicality is almost secondary. As for which one of these two I'd choose personally, that's a tricky question. The Golf R is genuinely impressive, and with the performance pack, it's playful enough to entertain even if you do need to work slightly harder for those thrills. The A45 S, meanwhile, feels like a more accomplished sports car. It's clearly faster, has a drift mode that feels more in line with what you'd expect from a rear-wheel drive car, and ultimately feels more exciting. But then it is more expensive. Money no object, I'd pick the AMG. But if you're a hooligan looking for a hatchback that indulges you in oversteer, you'll have a brilliant time with Golf.