ONE WAY, OR ANOTHER
Two austere German hatchbacks drive onto the same stretch of damp asphalt … That sounds like the start of a bad dad joke, doesn’t it? Although, in this instance, we’re being deadly serious because although they possess different drivetrains, they are remarkably similar. Each exists a notch below their out-and-out performance brethren – the Mercedes-AMG A45 and BMW M135i xDrive – each has a four-cylinder turbopetrol, each has a two-pedal transmission and appeals to the performance-minded motorist at its specific price point. To decide which, if any, is worth your hard-earned Rands, we took them to one of the Western Cape’s most scenic, driving roads.
FOUR TO THE FLOOR
To many, Steenbras Mountain Road is little more than a quick and stupendously pretty detour along Clarence Drive (R44) that connects Gordon’s Bay with Rooi-Els. Perhaps distracted by the jaw-dropping scenery in every direction, few genuinely appreciate the ingenuity thatrings true in this instance. Its 1-in-12 grade means it is the steepest engineered road in the whole of the Western Cape and while any other road would have had to be “flattened”, the outrageous steepness was tolerated because it was merely a service road for the waterworks at the dam. We’ll take it.
