What makes a real driver? The guts to drive dangerously during rush hour, pedal to the metal past slower vehicles and whisking in and out lanes to get ahead? Movies such as The Fast and the Furious and Need for Speed promote such driving behaviour as a form of artistry, as 'real men's driving', but such antics are in a misguided mastery and misrepresentation of what driving is.
Some people want our jobs; going sideways in a Mercedes-AMG C 63 S Coupe on track for work is probable reason why
The Mercedes-Benz Driving Experience aims to equip participants with the necessary skills and knowledge to handle a vehicle under critical driving situations and the know-how to respond appropriately and safely.
An arsenal of AMG machines - from super hot Mercedes-AMG A 45 4MATIC hatches to every new Mercedes-AMG 43 model and the creme de la creme Mercedes-AMG GT S - were to be our learning aids for the day. Not only did we get to drive some of the best cars in the world, but we were also guided by famed AMG racing instructors such as Peter Hackett, Jake Fouracre, Dominic Storey, Nathan Antunes, Mikko Nasi, Elliot Barbour and Garth Rainsbury.
Gentlemen, start your engines
The first of the four driving exercises was drag racing, which required us to employ the use of the Race Start function in the Mercedes-AMG C 63 S and the Mercedes-AMG GT S.
Race Start is essentially a launch control feature, which is described by one of the instructors as a weapon to take down provoking Audi and BMW drivers at stop lights. It has multiple jobs to complete to get the car off the line as efficiently and quickly as possible. It needs to eliminate wheel spin and hop, maximise useable power, weight transfer and traction and - in the C 63 S and the AMG GT S' forced-induced powertrains - it helps to build boost to a required level.
Racing each other down Sepang's main straights, we not only got to experience the total brunt of the cars' horsepower and torque, but also got used to how powerful they were, for a later exercise. It was the easiest exercise of the day, and really allowed us to have some juvenile, stress-relieving fun.
Going sideways
Once we've had a taste of the C 63 S' power, our next exercise was learning to control its rear-wheel drive characteristics. For this, we were to try and kick the car's tail out and control a drift for as long as we could. For starters, our training car was a C200 fitted with Easydrift tyres, which made kicking the car's tail out really easy. To make things even more interesting, the track was sprayed with water.
The instructor taught us the basics of turning in, inducing the drift, counter-steering and controlling it. If you increase the throttle too slowly, it's unlikely anything other than understeer will occur; too hard and the car will spin.
Since we got accustomed to doing it in the less powerful C200, reapplying what we learnt in the much more powerful C 63 S with regular tyres was a whole new ballgame. After several tries and many failed attempts, we managed to hold a slide for a few seconds at best.
Knowing your lines
Now that we've got a hang of the cars and how to control them should we lose grip, our next exercise taught us how to understand track markings and how to carve the perfect racing line. Even if you've mastered cornering techniques like Lewis Hamilton, you will be no faster than a NASCAR driver attempting to turn right if you are not on the correct racing line.
For this, I jumped into an A 45. The instructors placed cones to indicate which points we should aim for and how to open up the corner as much as possible, allowing for the greatest possible amount of speed through. This was broken up into three phases - entry, middle and exit.
For the entry, we went wide. To take a right-hand turn, we stayed on the far left side of the track, with our left wheels inches from the grass. During turn-ins, we brought the car across to the apex and punched out of the corner by sliding back across the racetrack to the far left hand side once again, giving it full throttle. Thanks to the massive amount of grip and muscle from the A 45, this was relatively easy.
Lapping it up
Finally, we put everything we learnt into a lapping session around the full Sepang circuit, with an instructor in front and us attempting to chase him down, or even pressure him into going faster. We did this in a couple of cars, including the Mercedes-AMG C 43 and the Mercedes-AMG GLC 43.
Having learnt the proper racing lines really helped, as we minimised wastage of track space and let the car's all-wheel drive systems and powerful turbocharged engines do their best. With every corner and lap, we pushed the cars harder and harder, braking later, turning faster and accelerating at full throttle.
I later left the all-wheel drive models for a go in the rear-wheel drive C 63 S and boy did the drifting crash course help. Due to its massive 503bhp and 700Nm of torque, the car was pretty tail-happy, even with traction control on. It was a lot harder to control around the circuit, but that made for an even more fun experience, fighting to keep it in check whilst trying to go as fast as I could.
As much as the Mercedes-Benz Driving Experience was about having fun in the AMG cars, the lessons we learnt were important ones. It taught us proper driving techniques, how to avoid common driving mistakes most drivers usually make, and the things that could go wrong should you disrespect the car and the road you're on.
