Alabama Byways
Touring scenic StarFest rallye roads in a 2018 Mercedes-Benz GLS
Plotting a route from Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta Airport in Georgia to the StarFest® headquarters hotel in Birmingham, Alabama, I decided to sample the competitive tour routes that Jim Roberts and his organizing team had laid out for the event, while driving – and reviewing – the largest of the Mercedes-Benz GLs.
I would be meeting guest speaker Graham Robson, who was flying in from his home in England; I flew in from the West Coast. Mercedes-Benz USA was kind enough to offer us a press loan vehicle for the week; we chose a 2018 GLS450, thinking about the appropriateness of making our trip in a vehicle that had been manufactured at the MBUSI plant in Vance, one of our StarFest venues.
Taking the Interstate highways, we could have made the trip in just over two hours. Because our schedule at StarFest wasn’t going to allow us the time to drive the rallies, we decided to spend our transit day sampling the scenic drives and attractions Roberts had promised to event-goers for his “rallyes.”
Just get off the Interstate
Looking at the map on my computer, my first choice was obvious: avoid Interstate 20 as much as possible. Propitiously, the hotel at the airport where our car was delivered was on a road heading in the desired direction – the Camp Creek Parkway. That not only sounded like a promising start, but the parkway becomes U.S. Highway 278 and follows a curving westward route for 70 miles to Piedmont in eastern Alabama.
Looking at the Alabama Byways website, I found that Piedmont was on Alabama Highway 9, the Appalachian Highlands Scenic Byway, and that designated byway would take us south 30 miles to Cleburne, where we could pick up one of the StarFest rallye roads – the Talladega Scenic Drive – and drive through Talladega National Forest.
The highways west were just what we wanted. As soon as we were out of the greater Atlanta suburbs, we were on a lovely tree-lined four-lane highway that traveled through – as opposed to bypassing – a series of small towns, just what Graham wanted for his first trip back to the United States in several years.
We stopped briefly in Piedmont when I noticed that it was the county seat of Cherokee County. During my high school history classes in Oklahoma, I had learned that the Cherokees, one of the Five Civilized Tribes that had been forcibly moved into Indian Territory before the state was established, had originated in Alabama. The next leg of our route, south to Cheaha State Park on Highway 281, followed the first leg of the Cherokees’s forced migration, a painful part of the 19th-century process of opening the West to immigrant occupation. Today, the only vestiges of that heritage could be found in the gift shop next to an attractive little restaurant, stocked with Native-American-style jewelry and dolls – made somewhere in Asia.
Taking the well-paved scenic route through the forest and state park lands, all that painful history would be easy to forget, with our GLS450 confirming with each confidently driven curve its promise to be the best full-size SUV in the market today. Sitting up high next to the large windows, visibility was terrific.
Driving couldn’t have been more different from the old days when I took car trips through the South with my family. With the air-conditioner on and my iPhone bluetoothed through Apple CarPlay to the Bang & Olufsen sound system, we could enjoy the scenery in comfort. I could even add an appropriate sound track to our enjoyment – “Yellowstone Concerto for Violin and Orchestra” – by Jett Hitt, a composer who had spent summers in the national parks as a wrangler and guide.
The limits of maps
And then the road ended. Seriously. Coming around a corner at about 55 mph, I found myself driving into a trailhead parking lot past a sign saying, “Road Ends.” Fortunately, the collision mitigation system and I hit the brakes at about the same time, and the only disturbance was to Graham, who hadn’t been watching the road.
What to do next? According to the online maps, the road was supposed to continue; obviously, Alabama’s road-construction folks hadn’t quite finished it yet. All we could do was turn around and drive 10 miles back up the road to the last marked intersection, where we had seen a directional sign marked “Talladega.”
Unfortunately, that road quickly narrowed to one lane – about the same time it disappeared completely from the navigation screen. Graham joined me in lamenting the passing of a time when paper maps were available at every gas station. We were glad, however, that our range indicator still showed we had sufficient fuel in the large fuel tank to go another 250 miles.
After way too many curves that continued to test the handling of the GLS and our inner ears, we finally came to an intersection that was actually shown on the screen. A sign pointed to the right saying, “Talladega Superspeedway” and “International Motorsports Hall of Fame,” two destinations that we would visit later in the week.
But with the time we had spent on our unintended detours, we punched in “shortest route to hotel” and were soon on Interstate 20 and back at the headquarters hotel on the outskirts of Birmingham about 45 minutes later.
The GLS450 in normal use
For the rest of the week, our GLS450 would take us back and forth to the various event sites: the MBUSI factory in Vance, the Southern Museum of Flight, Barber Motorsports Park, Mercedes-Benz of Birmingham and Talladega Superspeedway, each a 30-minute to one-hour drive in commute-time traffic in various directions from the hotel.
I really came to appreciate the new semiautonomous driving feature of the GLS during this simulation of the realities of most drivers’ lives. With the cruise control set for 70 mph, and the systems enabled in the optional driver-assistance package, freeway traffic became almost tolerable. Feet didn’t have to be on the pedals and hands needed to only rest lightly on the steering wheel; the car took care of subtle adjustments in speed and direction that normally occupy the driver’s full attention.
The premium sound system provided relaxing background music; Graham and I were free to comment on the silly maneuvers of texting-distracted drivers around us. We didn’t even mind the miles-long backups due to road construction on every major freeway. The short-lived torrential downpours typical in springtime Alabama that punctuated our drives – stopping just as quickly as they had started – were easily handled by the 4Matic all-wheel drive and stability systems.
Conclusions from our week?
By the time we once again returned to Hartsfield Atlanta Airport – this time by the short route – we agreed on two things. First, Alabama has some of the nicest scenery and enjoyable driving roads any state could wish for; all you have to do is get off the freeways and out of the traffic created by a thriving economy. And second, in comparison tests of full-size SUVs, whether on curving byways or in freeway commute traffic, the GLS450 deserves all the accolades it has been getting.
SPECIFICATIONS
2018 Mercedes-Benz GLS450 4Matic
TYPE: Five-door, seven-passenger sport-utility vehicle
ENGINE: 2,996cc biturbo V-6
HORSEPOWER: 362 at 5,500-6,000 rpm
TORQUE: 369 lb-ft at 1,700-4,000 rpm
DRIVETRAIN: 9G-Tronic 9-speed automatic transmission with 4Matic all-wheel drive
PERFORMANCE: Zero-60 mph 6.5 sec (est.)
TOP SPEED: 130 mph
FUEL ECONOMY (mpg): 17 city/22 highway/19 combined
CARGO CAPACITY: 3rd row folded – 49.4 cu. ft.; 2nd row folded – 93.8 cu. ft.
TOWING CAPACITY: 7,500 lb with optional trailer hitch
PRICE: $69,550 list; $84,160 as tested
Mercedes-Benz considers the GLS to be the S-Class of SUVs.
The GLS450 proved a fine vehicle to explore some of Alabama’s beautiful and winding back roads on the way to this year’s StarFest in Birmingham.
Although unmistakably a large vehicle, the GLS hides its bulk well with smooth lines and good proportions while offering surprisingly responsive handling, lively performance and commanding views of Alabama’s green and varied rural landscape.
Providing a welcoming cocoon of leather and luxury, state-of-the-art electronics, and every safety feature available from Mercedes-Benz, our GLS became a welcome home away from home.
