A day at Mercedes-Benz World
Discussion
For christmas my wonderful wife bought me an hour long experience at Mercedes-Benz world to drive the SLS AMG.
I've always wanted to learn something about car control along the way and I spent the first 45 minutes in an E63 AMG with the 5.5v8 Bi-Turbo engine looking at basic car control, how the different safety systems work and how to handle oversteer conditions. Basic stuff to the average powerfully built company director for sure but well worth doing for a guy like me who hasn't driven close to the limit on public roads. The kind of exercises were things like avoidance (rapid lane changes), stopping on low grip surfaces, pulling out onto low grip surfaces, recovering understeer/oversteer and making sure that the car is balanced correctly through corners.
The professional instructor I had throughout (Kieron - highly recommended, great guy who is easy to get along with and so professional too) was very patient and happy to focus on the areas of control that I wanted to look at.
What can I say about the E63 AMG? Well the first thing that struck me is that when you don't want to be going mad it does a brilliant quiet exec express job. The engine is incredibly smooth and in comfort mode will slip into 5th at 30 and sit at 1000rpm. There's no noticeable turbo lag in the way I was driving and the engine felt responsive and smooth. Quiet when you don't ask for noise but with a good bark when you do. The stop-start was brilliantly smooth - so smooth in fact you couldn't feel the start up happening, however a little piece of the engineer in me died inside because it can't be good for the turbos to come off a full power run and then just have the engine shut down. Having said that the way it combined with the auto gearbox was very impressive indeed - I just think I'd probably want it deactivated. More than anything though, driving the E63 didn't feel like you were driving a full size exec, it seemed to shrink far more than some other models in the class do.
Then we moved on the main event - 5 laps in an SLS Roadster.
Even from the moment you start the SLS you can tell it's something a bit special. The engine does have a proper V8 rumble but it also barks and crackles at idle as though it's impatient with you. The car itself gives an impression of being "all bonnet" and you feel like you're sitting back on the rear axle. The handling inspires confidence - it does feel planted, though I admit I was probably nowhere near 10/10 - probably 6-7/10 at most. When you downshift the engine barks and crackles and I'm sure if it were night you'd see little pops of flame out that back. The 6.3 AMG engine is truly one of the great V8s and I'd love to own one. Hustling the car through the bends is incredible and the smoothness with which you can make it change direction is incredible. Was it worth the money? Oh yes I'd say so!
I got a video of both parts of the day which was a nice if expensive extra. I'd recommend anyone who wants to experience this to go to Mercedes World. If nothing else it has convinced me not to spend any more money on cars that I don't really enjoy driving. I think this means a higher fuel bill in the future as I was man-maths justifying a C63 AMG Estate to myself today...
I've always wanted to learn something about car control along the way and I spent the first 45 minutes in an E63 AMG with the 5.5v8 Bi-Turbo engine looking at basic car control, how the different safety systems work and how to handle oversteer conditions. Basic stuff to the average powerfully built company director for sure but well worth doing for a guy like me who hasn't driven close to the limit on public roads. The kind of exercises were things like avoidance (rapid lane changes), stopping on low grip surfaces, pulling out onto low grip surfaces, recovering understeer/oversteer and making sure that the car is balanced correctly through corners.
The professional instructor I had throughout (Kieron - highly recommended, great guy who is easy to get along with and so professional too) was very patient and happy to focus on the areas of control that I wanted to look at.
What can I say about the E63 AMG? Well the first thing that struck me is that when you don't want to be going mad it does a brilliant quiet exec express job. The engine is incredibly smooth and in comfort mode will slip into 5th at 30 and sit at 1000rpm. There's no noticeable turbo lag in the way I was driving and the engine felt responsive and smooth. Quiet when you don't ask for noise but with a good bark when you do. The stop-start was brilliantly smooth - so smooth in fact you couldn't feel the start up happening, however a little piece of the engineer in me died inside because it can't be good for the turbos to come off a full power run and then just have the engine shut down. Having said that the way it combined with the auto gearbox was very impressive indeed - I just think I'd probably want it deactivated. More than anything though, driving the E63 didn't feel like you were driving a full size exec, it seemed to shrink far more than some other models in the class do.
Then we moved on the main event - 5 laps in an SLS Roadster.
Even from the moment you start the SLS you can tell it's something a bit special. The engine does have a proper V8 rumble but it also barks and crackles at idle as though it's impatient with you. The car itself gives an impression of being "all bonnet" and you feel like you're sitting back on the rear axle. The handling inspires confidence - it does feel planted, though I admit I was probably nowhere near 10/10 - probably 6-7/10 at most. When you downshift the engine barks and crackles and I'm sure if it were night you'd see little pops of flame out that back. The 6.3 AMG engine is truly one of the great V8s and I'd love to own one. Hustling the car through the bends is incredible and the smoothness with which you can make it change direction is incredible. Was it worth the money? Oh yes I'd say so!
I got a video of both parts of the day which was a nice if expensive extra. I'd recommend anyone who wants to experience this to go to Mercedes World. If nothing else it has convinced me not to spend any more money on cars that I don't really enjoy driving. I think this means a higher fuel bill in the future as I was man-maths justifying a C63 AMG Estate to myself today...
It's def a good day but the hour SLS AMG experience did cost my wonderful wife £300... you can pay less and just drive the normal AMG range and they will take you for a drive round the track for £15 with you in the passenger seat. Most people we saw there were going for a hot lap with a professional driver rather than driving the car itself.
Chris Hinds said:
It's def a good day but the hour SLS AMG experience did cost my wonderful wife £300... you can pay less and just drive the normal AMG range and they will take you for a drive round the track for £15 with you in the passenger seat. Most people we saw there were going for a hot lap with a professional driver rather than driving the car itself.
Honestly I was expecting you to quote alot more than that.I bought my Dad an Ariel Atom experience at 3 Sisters and that set me back about £90 for him to do 6-7 laps all in 3rd gear with lots of other cars about.
This seems more like a proper driving experience at a very decent price!
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