speed devil

mercedes-benz
Originally uploaded by Antje Roestenburg

Last weekend, I was invited to participate in the Mercedes-Benz Active Safety Experience, sponsored by Hertz.

Edwin stayed home to look after the children and I stepped on the plane to Stuttgart early Friday morning. I had mixed feelings, as I'm not usually very keen on driving and not a fan of car racing, which to me seems a waste of money and unnecessary pollution.

I met the other attendants and the support team from Hertz and Mercedes-Benz at the airport. A very interesting and mixed bunch, including marketing folks, software engineers, entrepreneurs, accountants, construction workers, a retired pilot, and even a reporter from the London Times.

After check in at mo.hotel and a quick lunch, we were taken to a tour of Mercedes-Benz's test track, where we got to join some of the test drivers on their breath-taking rides, followed by a tour of the newly opened Mercedes-Benz Museum. Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take any pictures of the latest prototypes whizzing past. It was impressive to experience what the cars and drivers achieve on these test tracks, but I'm afraid I didn't enjoy the ride very much; flying through a vertical bend at 160+ kmh is not quite my idea of fun. It took a while for my brain to catch up again and stop bouncing around my scull.

The museum was very interesting, though. Certainly something to repeat with our son. Impressive architectural features, too!

Before dinner we were given an introduction of the next day's proceedings and a quick safety lecture by some of Mercedes-Benz's research & development engineers, Formula One racing crew, as well as a medical team. They took careful stock of our medical conditions and our heart rates were closely monitored throughout the following day, to ensure stress levels wouldn't get beyond critical point. I'm not sure if that was supposed to reassure us, but it certainly had the opposite effect on me!

After a rather restless night on my part, the bus took us early Saturday morning to an abandoned air field near Echterdingen. There several tracks had been set up and manned by Mercedes test crews and engineers. An exciting selection of fine cars were awaiting us. The sun was burning down on the tarmac. Kitted out with hats, t-shirts, sunscreen, heart monitors, and plenty of water we set out in five groups of six.

At first I was very scared, but as the day progressed I gained more confidence and the ability to master some tricky and dangerous situations. We learned how to brake and steer on ice and wet roads, how to evade sudden obstacles, take bends safely at high speeds, and regain control of a spinning car. As my fellow team members pointed out, my initially rather timid driving got bolder and bolder, turning into a veritable speed devil by the end of the day ;-)

We had the opportunity to drive cars with and without safety features such as ABS, ESP, etc. What a difference! It was also impressive to experience first hand how a car that is reasonably easy to manage on ice at 42kmh helplessly spins out of all control at only 46kmh!

After all a very enjoyable and valuable weekend! I feel my confidence and control of cars has improved tremendously. I certainly don't want to ever encounter these circumstances in real life, but should it happen then these skills will be invaluable to keep in control of the situation.

p.s. I find I also developed quite a taste for racing expensive sports cars ...