Mercedes Benz World

Ok look, I know we are on a BMW site but I also know we are car enthusiasts and BMW don't offer the sort of thing I did on Sunday. Courtesy of Mercedes Benz due to a team winning performance of a course the they run throught the year within the dealerships (We came joint 1st) we were allowed to pick a day out of our choice within a given budget. We chose a day out at Mercedes world at Brooklands in Weybridge.

The visit itself is totally free and you can basically walk around the whole place which is a giant showroom full of all the current Mercs on offer but also a history of the company, a lot of classics, displays of up coming new technology as well as the formula 1 displays too including Hakkinens and Hamiltons F1 championship winning cars.

There is a really nice cafe downstairs as well as a top notch 'gullwing' resteruant where you can have a three course meal which is out of this world, real posh nosh!

However, the real highlight of the day was taking out a 6.3 litre V8 CLK AMG on the track!

For an hour you pay �170 with an instructor in the passenger seat. He will talk you around the various parts of the track which include The 'elk' run where you learn the cars handling capabilities by weaving at increasing speed through a number of flat ridges on the straight run. This is also the drag strip where you get to floor the loud pedal then brake hard at the end (or he brakes for you with his dual pedal hehe) Once you've got to grips with the acceleration and turning as well as the stopping, you go on the track which is a narrow tight n twisty track with some short burst straights as well as a longer part where you can blast the engine. After several laps of that there is the straight skid pan where you can learn to control the car whilst accelerating and turning onto the wet stuff as well as the circular skid pan where you learn to drift the car round the water sprayed, silicone painted surface which is made to replicate icy conditions. The last 10 minutes was spent being driven round by the instructor which was awesome fun and a hair raising experience.

A friend of mine has done a Ferrari track day and he said for the money the Mercedes world experience was by far better value and more overall fun as you get the other elements thrown into the mix too. They also have a 4x4 driving course and do driver learning for 7 year olds as well as younger driving courses too. There are other driving experiences too and twice a day there is a display by the 'silver arrows' display team who start in smart cars acting like circus clowns but then swap them for AMG's and start doing some serious tyre smoking and exhaust popping action.

Across the road is the brooklands museum which is another experience in itself and well worth a visit too.

Why can't BMW do something like that in this country??

Mike

I remember going to Rockingham when they brought the then new E90 3 series out, got to take it out on the road and then sling it round the track. Also got to floor a 330 with the active brake test (floor it towards a chicane, brake hard round a chicane the park. Also floored it round a water sprayed circular skid pan - the back end didn't step out at all. Also got to take an X5 off-road which was fun.
Grub wasn't bad either, a la carte all thrown in for nowt.