The Swabian Alb, Germany - Between Stuttgart and Munich, the Swabian Alb is a driving heaven, with wonderful roads, very little traffic, stunning scenery, and patchy law enforcement. It's the perfect playground for the Audi S4 Avant, the BMW M3, and the 2002 Mercedes-Benz C32 AMG--the ultimate batch of compact supercars. All three offer driving pleasure in abundance, despite having dramatically disparate design and engineering. The S4 Avant is a wagon, for instance, the M3 is a coupe, and the C32 AMG is a sedan. Audi believes in turbocharging and all-wheel drive. BMW's credo is a high-revving, normally aspirated in-line six-cylinder engine. And Mercedes-Benz breathes fire into its V-6 via an AMG-prepared supercharger.
The C32 AMG is the new kid on the block here. In the current German automakers' locker-room contest, its main mission is to beat the M3, the S4, and Audi's Europe-only RS4. To accomplish this mission, its supercharged V-6 engine makes 349 horsepower, sixteen more than the M3 and almost a hundred more than the S4.... Read full article