If you've never been you must go.
I have taken dozens of pictures and dozens of movies but for now I'll recap the day:

1) Great welcome reception, awesome breakfast
2) Team assignments (lots of guys from the board)
3) Road event bunch of 63s around a very fun track with an instructor driving ahead of you, braking cones, turning cones and apex cones teach you optimum turning. Absolute blast.
4) AMG go-carts!! the funnest go-carts ever around cones. Enough laps that you won't feel ripped off.

4.5) Lunch provided by Mobile 1
5) And now!! Ready for this?!? YOU GET TO DRIVE AN SLR around the track two laps, and they ask you to test the brakes by slamming on them. There were two SLRs at the event.
6) Autocross cone track and you're driving a very fast and fun SLK55 to beat time. A chance to win a $6100 IWC watch and a very fun relay event

7) Then something you really don't get to do every day. Drive a benz around the OVAL!!!! I'm talking about the banked oval that you can really get some speed in. Very fun. Any car you like! My fave was the Performance Package E63, that thing stuck to the road like glue
8) You think you've had enough, well how about letting a real professional driver do some work! You ride passenger while these maniac race through the track inches away from each other

Other highlights:
- Very courteous hosts
- Very professional drivers (Tommy Kendall, AL Unser III, Bobby Seymour ....) And you get to hang out with these guys and get real pointers from them.
- Very good food and drinks all throughout the day
- All new equipment, nothing compromised
- Very nice new helmets
- And last but not least CLK BLACK SERIES IN THE FLESH!!! We sat inside, heard her growl and took tons of pix

I am sure I am forgetting tons of stuff but I can tell you that the money you spend on this even is money well spent. You will have tons of fun and they never really ask you to back off the throttle.

 

So where are the pics?

 

Tell us more!!! How fast did you go? I knew the performance package was good for something! Bet that looks nice on the E.. CLK BLACK wow, sounds good?

Hope you got some good pics with your camera mounted of the hood of the SLR LOL

 

Did you take pictures of the E63 with Performance Package???

 

let me just say that the event was 100% as stated by TREZ63. I have tons of pics also BUT I'll let trez post them for you. Met TREZ at the event real nice guy .. DO NOT EVER MISS THIS EVENT IN THE FUTURE..

 

Dude I took pictures of the stiches in the waitresses' panties! J/K I did take pictures of every damned thing there but I'm afraid they'll have to wait till tomorrow cause I am still pretty trashed from last night in LA. But I promise I will post tommorow.

One thing I forgot to mention that really speaks to the classy-ness of this event:
There is a phtogropher that takes a picture of you next to the CLK Black during the day. They match the picture up with your name and put it inside this VERY COOL picture frame at the end which ends up in your personalized gift bag. The picture makes you look like a boafied driver which is sweet.

I know I am building this up a bit too much and that you all thinkit' you might be dissappointed next year after all this hype. But believe me, I can't even do this justice.

Oh and another thing! If you want to bring your girl friend or wife or if you ARE a woman (unlikely on this forum) you won't be the only one. I was actually surprised how many women were at the the event. I would say a good 10%. Even one pretty hot one. YOU know which one damn it! LOL

 

It's basically the 030 for the E. And let's just put it this way, it's really good only if you plan on going to the track. I personally would never buy an E without that package cause I think those wheels look amazing and it handles much better around turns.

 

It was great to meet you too man. I'm gonna sign up for next year for sure as well. Thinking of doing two days next week including one graduate day.

 

Common Trez, where are the pictures ??? Don't make us wait till tomorrow... Especially for those waitresses' pictures...

Post as many pictures as you can...

 

Pics? You guys want to see pics? well Lets just say that we had USB sticks that we pluged into some of the carS we drove that recorded our drives in a week or two they will send us a DVD that shows us driving ... I am looking at some pics right now and holy sh t NEVER MISS THIS EVENT!!!. iT'S BETTER THAN SEX!@#$%^&*(

 

Trez is right on about the challenge.
Awesome event. We went Friday.
I went last year too.
But this year. Getting to floor a SLR and get 3 short laps
with it. TOO MUCH FUN.
Great Bag of SWAG. My son won $ 250.00 Bucket from
Meguires Car Care. Too bad could not get that $ 6100.00 watch.
Just a little more practice on that course with the SLK55.
I will put the pics and videos on my FTP server later today for
everyone to enjoy. Link to follow later.

 

Damn!!! I left my camera at home today, I was gonna use my productive time at work to upload all that stuff. Sorry gang, looks like late tonight at the earliest. But I do have a bonus for you guys. I video taped both hot laps on my camera and the first one I did was pretty gnarly. We were inches away from the tale end of an E63 the entire time. Thos guys are insane!!

 

I just got word, that a board member crashed the E63 on the oval on Sunday, and totalled it. He is OK, just a little sore.

I agree with Trez, The AMG challenge was a lot of fun. I recommend it to every AMG owner. I got 3rd place overall on the autocross. I was so pissed. Just a second away form getting the watch. Overall, Very good times.

 

I wouldn't go that far. Nothing is better than sex far's I'm concerned. It was fun to be sure .

 

OH ****!!!!!
CRASHED ON THE OVAL!!!! DAMN!!!!!!
If anything crashed on the oval I would've bet it'd be the CL63, that thing was a f-ing pig. But the E63!!! ****!!! Was it your cousin? lol? I hope there is pix. Good to hear the guy is okay. To be perfectly honest, with the CL around the Oval I was really nervous, but with the E63 (performance pack) I could have easily gone 160-170 and not been the least bit scared.

What most people probably don't know is that on the Oval you have to turn off the ESP which could send you to the wall realllll quick like if you make a mistake.

 

It wasnt my cousin. It was a guy that actually owns an E63. Ill let him chime in if he wants. My cousin beat Tommy Kendall on the road coarse. He placed second on the autocross. The guy who won has been there 4 times already, and got him by like .01 seconds or something like that.
The crazy thing is, he crashed right before lunch, and they still let him go on with the rest of the day.

I couldnt believe the SLR had a check engine light on. That was funny.

 

They did mention it in the prelap instructons to us. ESP OFF.
When I went out with the first group on Friday. Some of the cars had the ESP
still on. I shut it off on the E63 I was driving. My son did not in the blue SL55.
Needless to say he almost crapped his pants before he figured it out.
Car got all kinds of squirrly in the turn.

I found the one E car to be the hardest to handle at speed. It was the one without the 030 package.
The CL was a boat but was steady. Sorry to hear someone bit the wall. Last year they told us that 135 was max. This year people were getting 150 type numbers. I rode with the Red SL55 driver.
He was hitting 155 Plus. And the ESP still kicks a bit with it even off.
Not a nice feeling in a turn at 120 Plus.

 

Yeah the Red SL55 instructor was insane!! I rode with that guy and had a huge smile on my face when I got out, mostly because I was happy it was over! Heh heh, in contrast that girl Stephanie in the CLS was driving pretty slow (135ish), I rode with her too and she had the suspension in the softest mode which I thought was retarded but I guess she knows better.

 

That girl is a funny car driver. Here best is a 4 something at 299MPH.
I did a hotlap with her too. Big tall blonde. The SL55 Driver I think was Jason. That kid could drive. You could feel the ESP kicking and he just hammered it more. They did a camera interview of me after I got out
of the ride with him. I told them I own a SL55 and that ride was awesome
and how great the SL55 performes with a professional driver. Jason and I were just talking normal at 150 Plus. He was so cool he could have had a beer in one hand. One of the best parts of the day. Just wish I had the camera with me for that ride along. The SL sounded so sweet at those speeds. Priceless

 

I had my camera with me and I taped it but it was really bumpy. That is NOT a smooth ride. I'll post all those things later tonight and tommorow. Sorry to keep everyone waiting. I can't wait to see them myslef.

 

http://www.mymbonline.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1746

 

When I was there on Saturday, I noticed only 2 cars with the 030 package. The SL (I think it was silver in color-not red) and the silver CLS. The wheels are a giveaway-I drove the CLS and the Steering Wheel was the Alcantar Wheel so I'm sure that it had the LSD.

I noticed no real differences between non LSD and LSD cars. I topped the LSD CLS63 at 150 MPH. Now I can go to heaven with a smile on my face.

I doubt that anyone exceeded 150 in cars other than the 030s due to the increased speed limiter settings. If they did, they need to check with their
Optometrist.

 

There were three cars on Saturday, E63, CLS63, and SL55. All with 030.
And I'll tell you what the diff was. You could only really spot it on the road course. I drove a CLS63 and a CLS63 030 back to back. The non-030 CLS was all over the place with the same exact track, the 030 stuck to the road like glue and never slipped more than a few inches. Felt very solid. Both cars were very fast and felt like they belonged on the track but the 030 would spank the non-030 around the track. On the oval you probably wouldn't notice much of a diff.

Oh and the limiter is at 155, so you can do 150 no problem in a non-030 car.

 

The SLR was the highlight of the event-The very 1st event, 1st car was the SLR-After that, it was all downhill-Can't describe the roar of that beast when it comes off the line at WOT. That is the money sound.

Enjoy the pics-I got more that I will add.

 

Pic 74
The cars in the pits ready to change solo driver-The instructor is in the 1st car and you follow in their tracks to get the sweet spot of the track

Pic 80
You follow the instructor-This was a pre-lap practice with 3 of us in the car with the instructor pointing out the locations of deaccelation/acceleration cones

Pic 96
The only one in the US at this time-CLK 63 Black Edition-500HP, 3in wider wheel base-no back seat and it takes 135K to put it in your driveway

Pic 99
The money shot-SLR driven at the Challenge course 0-100-0 then onto a autocross course. Driven all day 8 hours of this torture from the showroom to the track. It can take all this abuse and still go out to dinner.