Speed School
Two days of honing driving skills with high-speed exercises and on board data capture for analysis and evaluation? Expert on-track instruciton at famous Laguna Seca in some of the most powerful and capable vehicle s Mercedes-Benz has ever produced? Welcome to the AMG Academy
Article by Gary Anderson
Photography by Brooklin Rosenstock and Adam Kurtz
Words cannot prepare you for the experience of driving an AMG at speed on a world-class track, so I’ll try to convey in pictures my recent experience attending an AMG Driving Academy event.
The Academy guides students through all four dimensions. Classroom sessions and driving exercises teach a range of car-handling skills that will be useful on the street as well as the track. Students drive cars – from pure sports to high-performance luxury – across the AMG model range to understand the capability built into the cars. Insightful instructors guide students to improve the depth of their driving abilities. And time, the final dimension, becomes the ultimate measure of improvement.
These pictures are from a recent two-day advanced class at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in Monterey, California, but could as easily have been at Lime Rock Park in Lakeville, Connecticut, or Palm Beach International Raceway in Jupiter, Florida. The basic course covers the curriculum in one day, advanced includes a second day with more track driving including video and data analysis, and the pro class adds a third day of data-intensive track coaching. For more information on the 2012 program, visit amgacademy.com.
The AMG Academy fleet includes eight to 10 examples each of six different AMG models.
Exercises during the first morning include acceleration and braking and turning on dry and wet surfaces, with traction control on and off, to understand the dynamics of car control under extreme conditions.
In the afternoon, attention shifts to handling dynamics, first in slalom exercises, then in lead-follow sessions on the track.
On the track at increasing speeds, students shift from smaller C63 coupes to CLS 4-door coupes to the ultimate SLS Gullwings to understand how cars with different weights, horsepower, and levels of suspension tuning handle at speed.
Downtime is a chance to compare experiences and share tips.
The second day, emphasis is on car control at speed, with exercises on the track interspersed with autocross practice in the paddock. Two highpoints of the sessions are reviews of each person’s track driving – using in-car videos and data recorders – and timed runs on the autocross course.
Between sessions, the crew checks and maintains all the vehicles.
Students and instructors (that’s Tommy Kendall, second from right) gather for a classy dinner at the end of the first day, and a champagne reception at the end of the course.
The AMG Academy Fleet
C63 Coupe
Introduced: 2012
Engine: 6.2 liter V-8
Horsepower: 451 (481*)
Torque (lb-ft): 443
Weight: 3,935 lbs
MSRP: $62,305
Agile on the track and on the autocross course, suspension more comfortable on track than on street, but perhaps best of the bunch for mixture of daily use and frequent track days. Can be confidently compared, lap-time to lap-time, to an M3 coupe. This car would be perfect for personal transportation and track use, as long as there was a practical sedan in the garage.
C63 Sedan
Introduced: 2010
Engine: 6.2 liter V-8
Horsepower: 451 (481*)
Torque (lb-ft): 443
Weight: 3,924 lbs
MSRP: $59,805
Great combination of satisfying track performer but practical enough for daily use – and the least expensive in the fleet. Very light and agile but still reasonably comfortable for driver and three passengers in everyday use. Suspension is tuned more for track than street, and can’t be dialed back like the more expensive AMG fleet members.
E63
Introduced: 2011
Engine: 5.4 liter Turbo V-8
Horsepower: 518 (550*)
Torque (lb-ft): 516 (590*)
Weight: 4,048 lbs
MSRP: $88,475
Definitely a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde car, with one personality for the track and another for the street. Very comfortable for use as a luxury sedan, but suspension and stability controls allow it to be driven confidently at high speeds when conditions, or track time, permit. Still the car I’d pick if I were limited to one car and it had to meet all my transportation and recreational needs.
SL63
Introduced: 2011
Engine: 6.2 liter V-8
Horsepower: 518
Torque (lb-ft): 465
Weight: 4,398 lbs
MSRP: $141,315
Best feature of this soon-to-be-retired stalwart is the retractable hard-top, making it useful on the boulevard or for long-distance drives in all weather. But definitely not a sports car in the SLS mold; instead, a stylish grand touring car in the best Mercedes-Benz tradition – though still competent for an occasional track day, and a barrel of fun on a wet skid pad.
CLS63
Introduced: 2011
Engine: 6.2 liter V-8
Horsepower: 518 (550*)
Torque (lb-ft): 516 (590*)
Weight: 4,277 lbs
MSRP: $99,925
New for 2012, this fashionable take on the 4-door-coupe concept has a slight edge on the E63 for high-performance use, but not quite as useful for carrying passengers in comfort. Used along with the SLS for track practice and timing sessions, the car is obviously as competent as anything in the fleet, but the driver is much more conscious of the car’s size than in the other models.
SLS63 AMG
Introduced: 2011
Engine: 6.3 liter V-8
Horsepower: 563
Torque (lb-ft): 479 Weight: 3,661 lbs
MSRP: $189,875
The SLS AMG Gullwing operates on a totally different plane of performance than the other models with its extra power, lower weight, and favorable distribution of weight and center of gravity. After a few laps to build up confidence in the car’s inherent capabilities, going flat-out over blind crests then braking for challenging corners seemed like child’s play.