To be entirely honest, it was hard to know what to expect from the AMG Winter Driving Academy. There was an itinerary but all that mentioned was 'warm-up training', 'advanced training' and 'perfection training'. There wasn't even a car list. So hugely excited then, but a little apprehensive too; would it be all theory with hardly any driving?
The oversteer is coming, and very soon
I needn't have worried. It was a sensational weekend. Even before the hour of Saturday theory there was a taster session on the Friday evening; you know, just to get in the groove. Our group was led by F1 safety car driver Bernd Maylander (an absolute dude, full PH Meets shortly) who was clearly very keen for everyone to have massive amounts of fun. Within 100m of entering the lake at Arjeplog, he was on the radio telling everyone to turn the ESP off and 'feel the car move around'. He gave the ESP Sport setting a token mention.
Friday night (well it was four in the afternoon but pitch black) was spent in the E63 AMG S 4Matic. As a total oversteer novice bar a few accidental slithery moments on the road, it felt like a good place to start. I was paired with Jason Barlow and he did make it look simple; turn in, bit of throttle, catch it, balance the slide, easy.
Yeah, right. My first forays into drifts just resulted in little wiggles caught too early. But the fantastic thing about this event was the amount of time spent driving. So with enough laps of the small circuit, it felt like I was getting somewhere. But then it was time for a car change. Into the SLK55. Uh oh.
On cold tarmac last month it had felt like a tricky little car. Unsurprisingly that sensation was intensified markedly on ice at night. That short wheelbase meant very quick transitions into and out of oversteer, the complete opposite of the E63. I left the lake on Friday perspiring lightly, and not just because of the heated seats.
After an hour on positive and negative oversteer (or drifts and spins to you and me) on Saturday morning, we were back to the lake. And that damned little SLK55. But with some sunshine and a little prior experience, it was a lot less daunting. Then I spun. I got some flow eventually, but it's not one for the powersliding neophyte.
Well how else can you drive a C63 507?
C63 507
most definitely is. It was responsive, balanced and just beautiful. How it is on the road actually. But the
A45
, that was something very different. I wasn't totally bowled over
in the UK
as it felt a little one dimensional. Fast and composed yes, but lacking a little on the driver interaction front.
Not on the ice. Beyond that limit that is so rarely breached on the road there are myriad options. Trail braking works really well with the A45, allowing it to be tucked into a corner or have the back end well out of shape or corner entry. Enter the corner normally and a lift with some extra lock will have the same effect. The stiffness of the A45 keeps the weight well under control so momentum can be used to swing it between bends. And don't think because it's 4WD the A45 doesn't present a challenge. Just ask Jason about his spins...
Aside from a couple of laps with Bernd driving, there wasn't a huge amount of dedicated instruction from the pros. They let you discover the limits of both the car and your ability in a very relaxed environment. Mostly this was great, but I think some dedicated tuition with the instructors in the passenger seat would have been beneficial. After all, if you're paying 4,000 euros for a weekend, you're entitled to some one-on-one time.
Hopefully you'll agree that driving a
G63 AMG
on a frozen lake is worthy of a separate blog; that's coming soon. By Sunday it was all starting to come together, or at least it felt that way. Back in the E63, I felt so much more confident working with the balance of the car and using the throttle to dictate so the slide. Driver's window down, V8 thundering and the sun setting, it was somewhere close to driving nirvana. Just as the flow was coming arriving actually, I overcooked it, half spun and got a face full of snow.
But all silliness aside, I think learning car control in such a safe, risk-free environment (alright, I had to be towed out once) has to be hugely advantageous. If a slide does occur on the road or the race track in future, I hopefully won't freeze in terror any more. Unless it's in a G63.