So I've just completed an hour in a CLK63 as part of the AMG experience at MB World. Thought I'd write a little review to let you all know what it's like if you ever fancy it.
After the driver briefing I was introduced to Tiff, my instructor for the hour. Tiff was a stunning young lady and clearly knew a lot about what she was talking about. MB contract out the instructor's jobs to racing drivers and the like, so they all know a thing or two about driving fast. Due to the short notice I booked my slot at, the choice of cars was limited but I managed to get the CLK63. Although I faniced the SL55, Tiff informed me that because of the nature of the track being a handling course the SLK55 is actually the most fun car to take around.
So we set off. Fortunately, owning an MB, the controls were reasonably familiar to me. We set off on the the dry straight to get a feel for the car. We started off with three runs of accelerating as hard as we could to 80 and then braking as quickly as possible to a standstill. I think they start with this to see how much fear you have of the car. Fortunately, although I'm no Lewis Hamilton, she saw enough in me to move quickly onto the next tasks.
Next up was slaloming in and out of cones on the same straight. The idea here is to progressively get faster and faster until the tyres are squealing and the car is engaging ESP to stop you losing it. They deliberately get you to run in a wide rather than efficient slalom so you understand when the car is cutting in and saving your ass.
They then bring the two together and get you to accelerate as hard as you can at a line of cones pretending to be an obstacle in the road. You have to wait until the instructor tells you to brake and swerve and try and avoid the obstacle before comign to a standstill. Here they're demonstrating the electronics can allow you to brake and turn at the same time which is bad practice in a car without such aids.
Next up was the wet straight, which is basically a skid pan. Here they go through various exercises with the ESP on and off. This culminates in the ESP being off and then being instructed to boot the throttle and enter the pan at 90 degrees. I'm not shy with the throttle and 10 seconds later, after 720 degrees of donuts I came to a halt with smoke surrounding the car. Rather than looking annoyed with me, the instructor seemed to be rather pleased that I was prepared to 'give it some'. Having shown me what happens if you just floor it, we then worked up to repeat the excercise and control the car into a quick entry without losing it.
The second to last stage was the handling track. A short and narrow course, you get to build up speed and learn the lines and then get a few really quick laps, using the paddles rather than the auto. On the fastest straight you can get up to about 110 but it is more about handling than pure speed.
The final phase, and my favourite, was another skid pan which was basically a soaking wet 100' diameter circle. Moving at only about 15mph, Tiff turned the ESP off and then proceeded to tell me how to get the wheels spinning and try to hold a drift on the throttle. Many 360s followed and it wasnt until after ten minutes or so that I finally managed to balance the 480bhp beast in a slide for about half the track.
So was it worth £120? Well I had a great deal of fun. The thing that struck me compared to other car "experiences" you can buy is that you were encouraged to rag the car when appropriate. There really was no holding back and although the overall speeds were much lower than say driving exotica around a proper race track, the excitement was much more heightened. In fact the most fun I had was on the slowest part, trying to drift the car. You also learn a little about the principles of advanced driving and handling cars in difficult circumstances. And for an MB owner, it was nice to see that all those electronics really can get me out of trouble.
As for the car? Well I'd have one in a flash. Being a very large capacity normally aspirated engine it just pulls hard at any point all the way up to 110 (and beyond I'm sure). The handling reminded me a bit of my old E46 3 series coupe. It is in no way as direct and communicative as a proper sports car but much better than I am skilled enough to exploit. Being a lazy driver who likes a rapid car in a striaght line it would be perfect for me. The flappy paddle gearbox though is useless. The paddles move with the wheel and it makes it very difficult to change gear when you have full lock on. The interior is much more modern than my car and getting much closer to Audis I've been in recently. I've not tried an RS4 (or new M3 obviously) so don't really know how it compares to its peers, but in isolation I thought it was great.
After the driver briefing I was introduced to Tiff, my instructor for the hour. Tiff was a stunning young lady and clearly knew a lot about what she was talking about. MB contract out the instructor's jobs to racing drivers and the like, so they all know a thing or two about driving fast. Due to the short notice I booked my slot at, the choice of cars was limited but I managed to get the CLK63. Although I faniced the SL55, Tiff informed me that because of the nature of the track being a handling course the SLK55 is actually the most fun car to take around.
So we set off. Fortunately, owning an MB, the controls were reasonably familiar to me. We set off on the the dry straight to get a feel for the car. We started off with three runs of accelerating as hard as we could to 80 and then braking as quickly as possible to a standstill. I think they start with this to see how much fear you have of the car. Fortunately, although I'm no Lewis Hamilton, she saw enough in me to move quickly onto the next tasks.
Next up was slaloming in and out of cones on the same straight. The idea here is to progressively get faster and faster until the tyres are squealing and the car is engaging ESP to stop you losing it. They deliberately get you to run in a wide rather than efficient slalom so you understand when the car is cutting in and saving your ass.
They then bring the two together and get you to accelerate as hard as you can at a line of cones pretending to be an obstacle in the road. You have to wait until the instructor tells you to brake and swerve and try and avoid the obstacle before comign to a standstill. Here they're demonstrating the electronics can allow you to brake and turn at the same time which is bad practice in a car without such aids.
Next up was the wet straight, which is basically a skid pan. Here they go through various exercises with the ESP on and off. This culminates in the ESP being off and then being instructed to boot the throttle and enter the pan at 90 degrees. I'm not shy with the throttle and 10 seconds later, after 720 degrees of donuts I came to a halt with smoke surrounding the car. Rather than looking annoyed with me, the instructor seemed to be rather pleased that I was prepared to 'give it some'. Having shown me what happens if you just floor it, we then worked up to repeat the excercise and control the car into a quick entry without losing it.
The second to last stage was the handling track. A short and narrow course, you get to build up speed and learn the lines and then get a few really quick laps, using the paddles rather than the auto. On the fastest straight you can get up to about 110 but it is more about handling than pure speed.
The final phase, and my favourite, was another skid pan which was basically a soaking wet 100' diameter circle. Moving at only about 15mph, Tiff turned the ESP off and then proceeded to tell me how to get the wheels spinning and try to hold a drift on the throttle. Many 360s followed and it wasnt until after ten minutes or so that I finally managed to balance the 480bhp beast in a slide for about half the track.
So was it worth £120? Well I had a great deal of fun. The thing that struck me compared to other car "experiences" you can buy is that you were encouraged to rag the car when appropriate. There really was no holding back and although the overall speeds were much lower than say driving exotica around a proper race track, the excitement was much more heightened. In fact the most fun I had was on the slowest part, trying to drift the car. You also learn a little about the principles of advanced driving and handling cars in difficult circumstances. And for an MB owner, it was nice to see that all those electronics really can get me out of trouble.
As for the car? Well I'd have one in a flash. Being a very large capacity normally aspirated engine it just pulls hard at any point all the way up to 110 (and beyond I'm sure). The handling reminded me a bit of my old E46 3 series coupe. It is in no way as direct and communicative as a proper sports car but much better than I am skilled enough to exploit. Being a lazy driver who likes a rapid car in a striaght line it would be perfect for me. The flappy paddle gearbox though is useless. The paddles move with the wheel and it makes it very difficult to change gear when you have full lock on. The interior is much more modern than my car and getting much closer to Audis I've been in recently. I've not tried an RS4 (or new M3 obviously) so don't really know how it compares to its peers, but in isolation I thought it was great.
