Mercedes-Benz Driving Experience

6th March

The Mercedes-Benz Driving Experience is a day long course aimed at promoting the finer aspect of defensive driving. Trainers guide the participant through a series of exercise, showing them how to correctly respond to and handle difficult situations as they present themselves.


Participants also get to try their hands on different variants of Mercedes cars, from the C-class up to the top line S-class. Such pleasures doesn't come cheap though.. Mercedes owner pays RM1800 while non-owner needs to cough up RM3800. That's one expensive test drive session..


I was there to do some coverage on behalf of Continental tires, which was the sponsor for this event. The heat was horrible, barely 15mins on track and I'm on the verge of collapse. Luckily the organizer arranged for a buggy to take us around the track, or else I would spend most of my time in the hospitality lounge enjoying ice cold Coke..


The course is divided into few segments. One of them is the Slalom. The objective of this intensive exercise is not to speed but to complete the course as smoothly as possible. Other exercises include steering manoeuvres, correct handling and driving positions.




The next segment is Braking/Single Lane Change. This portion teaches the art of emergency braking and changing lanes, perfect deceleration techniques and how to brake safely on dry asphalt at speeds of approximately 100 km/h!


Participants also learn how to drive and brake in on bends. This training recreates real-life traffic situations. Trainers teach about what causes understeering and oversteering plus their effects, as well as the pitfalls of extreme behavior when cornering.


The most interesting part of the course has to be the skidpad. Participants worked on braking and swerving on different types of road surfaces (half asphalt/half skidpad). Using two different road surfaces, participants will experience how a vehicle behaves in an emergency braking situation on a surface that is slippery on one side – with and without the aid of ABS.


It was fun watching cars doing a full 360 degree turn when too much throttle was applied. And if you think a huge size E and S-class can't pull of a power-steer, you'll be surprised..