Mercedes Star Drive from Issue 6
[gallery columns=”7" orderby=”title”]
Mercedes Benz India organized their Star Drive Experience recently and it was an event held all over India. This is an annual event and we were invited for the Chennai round of the event held at the Madras Motor Sports Track (MMST) at Sriperumbudur. This is an event which showcases the highlight of Mercedes vehicles. It also aimed to demonstrate to the existing customers what their Mercs were capable of.
The event was neatly organized into segments. The first was the Driver Briefing where we were shown first hand how Mercs were incorporated with intelligent features. The widely respected Pre-Safe was the highlight of this briefing. Pre-Safe is the name given by Mercedes Benz to a wide array of features their cars come with, all aiming to avoid an accident or protect you from it to the maximum possible extent. Pre-Safe starts with the seatbelt first. As soon as you strap on your seatbelt, it automatically tightens itself around you. By doing this, your movement is restricted during a crash and as a result you’re protected from hitting the steering column or the dashboard of the car. The next Pre-Safe feature deals with sensors placed in the car which monitor the driver movement and they detect any erratic inputs from the driver of the car. This happens when the driver tends to fall asleep at the wheel and the car warns you to stop. A very intelligent and novel feature from MB.
Pre-Safe also includes the various technology featured in the car such as ABS, TCS and EBD. In a normal car under hard braking, the vehicle tends to shift its direction by moving towards the left or the right. This is called as Squirming of the wheels. It can be very discerning at high speed braking. However, in the Merc, no matter how hard the braking, the car continues to be stable and we found this very impressive. In the event where you need to change the direction of the car under hard braking, ABS is a must. However, in our normal cars, there are times where we have experienced a time delay in the ABS kicking in. In fact a week before the Merc Star Drive, I was involved in a serious accident while driving a Nissan Micra. Though the car I drove was the top end XV Premium model, there was no ABS in the car. As a result, I could only wait and watch as I saw the car crash even though my foot was planted on the brakes and I made every effort to turn the steering. Those diagrams which are shown in marketing brochures depicting how a car brakes with and without ABS is actually true. Also changing the direction of the car at high speeds depends on how well the car is balanced as well. Our professional Mercedes driver demonstrated this for us by braking the car heavily through a few cones. The car turned in perfectly without hitting any of the cones and came to a stop without much drama. I was very impressed with this particular act and in the current state in which our highways are, I feel that the Merc could be the safest brand one can drive. Pre-Safe goes a bit beyond as well. While under panic braking, if your windows are rolled down, the windows automatically raise themselves up to a level leaving a small gap. There is a good explanation for this. The windows roll up so that foreign material from the crash does not enter the cabin. It leaves a small gap because in the event of deploying airbags, there is a pressure rise in the cabin. To get rid of the excess pressure, a small gap is left. The inclination in my head to own a three pointed star just grew a bit more!
We got to experience the above Pre-Safe features on the track. There was a C-Class, E-Class and a C63 AMG at our disposal. Naturally, we went for the AMG! I was more impressed with the fact that after an entire day of tires screeching and hard braking, there was no wear in the braking effect of the car. It was like they were brand new!
The next segment of the event was the SUV demonstration. This segment aimed to highlight the off-road capability of the GL and M Class. MB had set up a mini course for us, and these, simulated conditions where the axles of the vehicles would be put to their test. They also demonstrated how the Hill Assist and differential lock worked. We took the GL Class and first up on the course was a steep side bank. The GL effortlessly climbed the bank and stayed there sideways like as though it was a flat piece of road. Getting the car out of the bank meant putting one of the front wheels in the air. Once again, the GL was very impressive and performed the task with aplomb. The axle twister track lay ahead and compared to the side bank, it was a piece of cake. It was here that we witnessed how the differential locks worked and with just a push of a button the GL devoured the course! Do keep in mind that you should not try turning the car when the differential is locked. Once this was done, it was time to put the GL through a steep climb and descend. This test also demonstrates how important some specs such as approach and departure angles and ramp breakover really are. While climbing, the GL was stopped midway to demonstrate the Hill Assist feature. With this feature turned ON, the car does not slide behind while trying to move forward. Though I doubt anyone is going to take their GL up a mountain, this feature could come in handy while going up our steep underground car parks! Once at the top, the Hill Descend feature was activated. With this, you just need to set a speed anywhere between 4km/h and 14km/h and the car automatically goes down at the set speed braking automatically. We could literally see how the brake pedal automatically depressed and released itself in small intervals. The ABS sensor is used for all these features to detect wheel slip and selectively apply the brake to that particular wheel. We definitely had a new found respect for the GL and the M after completing this course.
The next segment was actually a slalom contest. MB had laid out a slalom course for us and we were required to post a time going through the slalom, taking a U-Turn and coming back through the slalom once again. Points would be lost for hitting the cones. As it turned out, we posted the fastest times with the help of a Merc E-Class Diesel! No, we were not allowed to use the C63 AMG! The E-Class demonstrated good body control while going through the cones at a high speed.
Overall, we developed new respect for all the Mercs and that urge to someday own a Mercedes Benz just grew deeper! We hope MB India continues to make this a ritual every year.
