Wheels Australia — June 2017

16 wheelsmag.com.au

MERCEDES-Benz’s new A-Class

heralds a welcome, if radical,

return to a clean, minimalist

design that is in total contrast

to the overwrought, convoluted

styling of many of today’s new

models. Revealed at the Shanghai

motorshow as the A-Class Concept

Sedan, the attractive new design

language ignores today’s trend to

ever more creases, edges and lines.

In an exclusive interview,

Mercedes’ design boss Gorden

Wagener told Wheels, “It’s basically

a progression of our Sensual

Purity design that I call Sensual

Purity 2.5. To our rational German

design we’ve added the beauty by

cleaning up the design to the next

level by taking lines off the car.

The previous A-Class influenced

mainstream design – by adding

more lines. Now we go in the

opposite direction.”

The new A-Class – expected

to be launched, little changed

from the A-Class

Concept, in sedan

and hatchback

forms at next

year’s Geneva

show in March

• introduces a tilt-
  forward grille to add
  visual length to the
  bonnet. Wagener
  denies this has an
  adverse impact on the new
  car’s aerodynamics.
  “The slightly negative grille
  doesn’t affect the drag,” he claims.
  “What’s most important [to aero]
  is the influence of the area in front
  of the front wheels, in front of the
  rear wheels and the height of the
  trunk [boot] lid area. We’ve been
  gradually putting our grilles more
  and more upright, and now it’s
  slightly negative, it’s a great design
  feature. Tapering the greenhouse
  [cabin] gives the car real shoulders
  and also helps the aero.”

Mercedes-Benz declares

less is more for the

next-generation A-Class

Purity of

essence

Striking front end gets a

touchofcomplexitybyusing

heavily detailed headlights.

Sculptured framing of low

grille and air vents clean and

simple. Neat rear end also

getsuniquelighting

Concept A Sedan uses so-called

Panamericana grille, as seen on

Mercedes Sculpture concept, from latest

production AMG models. Won’t appear

on the regular A-class models. Grille is

tilted forwards to add extra elongation

tothebonnet,doesn’thurtaero

JUNE 2017

Red

line

’Ring of authenticity

The Green Hell must be looking busier than

a Westfield carpark with a fresh batch of

Nurburgring Nordschleife laptime claims and

speculation. Porsche recently shaved 12 seconds

off its 911 GT3 laptime with the new facelifted

model. Honda also returned with its Civic Type R

to reclaim the front-drive record with a 7:43 lap.

There could be a new outright lap record soon,

with a McLaren P1 LM spotted at full tilt on an

industry pool day. Speculation says the street-

legal record of 6:48.28 held by a Radical SR

LM is the target time to beat.