It never fails. An automaker – say, like Mercedes – reveals a new model, and enthusiasts can’t help but wonder (and artists can’t help but render) what the performance version might look like. And so it is today, albeit with one of the least likely of Benzes to get the AMG treatment.

That’s right, fanboys and girls: it’s a Mercedes-AMG version of the new, third-generation Mercedes-Benz B-Class, just revealed at the Paris Auto Show last week.

We say it’s among the least likely of candidates for Affalterbach’s attention because, first of all, the two generations that have come up until this point never got the go-fast treatment. (There was a B55 AMG concept built in 2011, complete with V8 engine, but it never saw production – and probably with good reason.) Doing so would be like BMW making a M2 Active Tourer. Or Abarth tuning a 500L. Or Nismo producing… you know what, scratch that.

These days, though, AMG has found a way of applying its skills to just about everything passenger car and crossover that Mercedes makes – short, that is, of its commercial vehicles. And that includes the smallest of Benzes, like the A-Class, CLA, and GLA, alongside which the new B-Class sits at the bottom end of the Silver Star lineup.

So we wouldn’t count on a full-on B63, like Nikita Akysonov, our man in Saint Petersberg, has labeled these latest renderings. But a B35 or B45 wouldn’t be entirely outside the realm of possibility. We’re just not about to call our bookie and put money on it, is all.