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End of year AMG event - C Black and AMG Private Loungs Day at Ascari

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Old 12-23-2012, 06:08 AM
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End of year AMG event - C Black and AMG Private Loungs Day at Ascari

Guys,

Although I have not been active at MBWorld much this year I thought I would post a little review of my last event with AMG in 2012. This post covers some personal training I did in C63 Black Series and also summary of AMG Private Lounge Days which were both held at Ascari race resort in Spain. The post below are some edits from posts I have did in the AMG Private Lounge as I am somewhat lazy to re-write the whole event.

I enrolled my wife Sona in Advanced event and I booked a C63 Black with private coaching for 2 days. We arrived on Saturday afternoon in Malaga, Spain and we shuttled to the hotel in Rhonda which is beautiful ancient city about 15 minutes from the track. As always the welcome dinner and familiar faces of ADA team started the event off well.

In all there were 40 students in Advanced training which were broken into 4 groups. Cars been used were SLS, C63 Blacks, CLS 63, C63 and a few SLKs. The C63 Black had the Dunlops on them which was a bit of shock considering the conditions but in defense of the ADA they had assumed logically that the weather would be warm and sunny and not cooler and wetter than northern Europe. So it was fair to say that most of the students got a very quick and intense lesson in car dynamic when driving the C63 Blacks. Ascari as a track is best described as challenging and very technical. It demands a certain level of respect and requires very accurate line and braking points. Overall the facilities are more like a country-club and are 1st rate! Garage was full of F1 cars and private collections. Amazing place!

On Sunday the 1st day of Advanced commenced. I did not drive as the track was been used for exercises and section training so I played the support team in the box for the day. The weather was less than ideal as it was very cool, raining and even some sleet making the track very slick and challenging for even the most experienced driver. The ADA team did an amazing job keeping things safe and fun as much as possible under such conditions. The day was uneventful until later in the afternoon when a radio call went out that a C63 Black had put itself into one the kitty-litter. Hmmm...I wondered...who could have that been. It was one of Maro Engels groups which just happened to be Sona's group. Hmmm...off go the Ascari rescue trucks....interesting. About 20 minutes later Reinhold Renger (lead AMG instructor) comes through the pits and stops by me....yes indeed Sona had a "little" off in one of the technical sections. No one hurt, all is well! Then I see a semi-sad C63 Black limping it way to the pits into garage area. I make my way to garage only to see a few hundred pounds of gravel been poured out of the front wheel-wells, front air dam, etc etc. I turn to the crew and simply say..."just send me the bill by email" Oh well, such is life and most important the car was ok and fixable and she was well, with only her confidence shaken (respect the track was lesson of the day) but to her credit she jumped right back into the action and drove the balance of the day. Just like falling off a bike!

Day wrapped up and we all headed back to the hotel for hot showers and some warmth. Very nice dinner at track and then packed off for the night. Hoping for better weather tomorrow!

Day 2 - the big guy upstairs was listening as the day broke to sun and warmth. Wonderful! The whole day was devoted to full lap sessions so off the groups went. Roland Rehfeld, who is my personal instructor for the private trainings, and I went out in the C63 Black. What was nice about this version of the car is that it was fitted with roll-cage and car set-up seemed to done for pure tracking. Dunlops were on the car. My 1st impressions of the track were, to be candid, were of a intimidating track and one that demands your attention and respect. In all 17 turns and some of them blind, some with walls, some with trees very close to track and some with zero run-off area. So in other words be on your toes, keep lines clean and tight as any mistake in one would be compounded greatly for the next 3-4 turns they are so inter-connected. The surface of the track is rough and offers alot of grip. Roland and I did 4 sessions in all and the Black performed as always like a amazing machine. The Dunlops did not make it to the end of the day so a new set of tires were put on the car mid-afternoon. It was a great time putting in some hard laps, weaving through some of the Advanced group and just letting the track come to me. Last session of the day I put Sona into my car so that Roland could give her some personal coaching and she of course did very well.

So some points of the day:

1. Sona put in a 35 sec run on the auto-cross which put her in the top 10 of all students and only 1 second off the podium! Only her third event and she was right there with some guys who had clearly done many other events from ADA or other driving schools and who clearly had some experience. Once again very proud of her for getting back into the game, getting back to her level before her off, and then progressing forward. Anyone who has a "off" will attest that when it does happen it shakes your confidence big-time and takes some time to get back to where your were as far as performance is concerned.

After Sona departed for home I drove later in the afternoon on the 1st day of Pro event when they were out doing some lead-follow and free lapping. I only put in 2 stints or so as there was limited time and mainly worked on some parts of track where I was struggling for line/brake points etc. Still great fun and looked forward to full day of open lapping the next day.

2nd day of Pro event was full day of open lapping sessions. Weather was perfect and temps just right to get best performance out of tires and car. Overall the Pro groups were pretty fast which was great as there were only around 8-9 cars on track at a time which allowed everyone some open track space to push things and also go at their own pace. Roland and I decided that late morning session with new set of Dunlops would be best time to go out and see what we could do in the car. As Ascari is a very rough and grippy surface you could only put in 2-3 hard laps before tires would start to "bake" and lose performance so we did sprint sessions of 2-3 hot laps and 1-2 cool down laps to keep things balanced. So net result against reference lap done by Bernd Schneider in SLS Instructor car which has performance enhancements of 2:30.4 was:

Myself - 2:32.25
Roland - 2:29.71 !

These times attest to the amazing performance of the CBS and to grip level of Dunlops as a track tire! Truly amazing when you consider the power advantage of the SLS, lower center of gravity, and top end speed. The CBS is still a heavy car per say so I am still amazed at how easy the car is to drive at limit and how comfortable it is even at the limits. Truly a great machine. After 2 complete sets of Dunlops I had the last set which were 50% done by afternoon sessions so Roland cut me loose to "use" the last of the tire left. Had a great time in banked turns hitting brake slightly punching the gas 100% and throwing the car = ala Jeremy Clarkson - a ton of blue smoke! Not optimal performance but a great time and way to end another great ADA event! For those of you who have done Pro level and are looking at something between the Pro level and GT3 Masters level, I highly recommend looking into personal coaching. Like with Pro level your rent the car but with personal coaching the focus on improving your performance is by far the best money spent. Besides the focus of personal coaching, you simply end up having a great time with the instructor as the two of you are focused on the same thing. Lots of laughs and well worth looking into if you plan on coming over.

Here is in-car video with telemetry from AMG Academy in Ascari.
Car was C63 Black with Dunlops. Please note roll-cage was installed on this car which I rented from AMG. Out-lap caught some SLSs in Pro class so had to back-off to create some clear track space before putting in hard lap. As always with Roland it was a blast and we had some great laughs.

Here is GoPro video mounted on front of car - sorry about background noise.

AMG Private Lounge Days

Rather than babble my way through the event, here is the review of the event done by Jason Barlow who was in my group and is contributing journalist to Top Gear. http://www.topgear.com/uk/photos/mer...F1sSZ.facebook

Why buy an AMG? Two main reasons, according to official research: for the performance and the noise. Watching an SLS GT3 hammering down Ascari's pit-lane straight, bellowing like a wounded buffalo, it's hard to think of a more explosive way of internally combusting a few litres of hi-octane unleaded. Performance and noise? These guys have got the template down, and never mind that they're going to be first to market with a near-silent pure-electric supercar when the electric drive SLS lands in less than six months.
They're also very astutely ‘building the brand'. Buy a new AMG Mercedes and your chassis number qualifies you to join what's called the AMG Private Lounge. After five years in the game there are now more than 20,000 members, which makes for a hell of a high-net worth data base and some dynamic forums. Take it a step further and splash out on a Private Lounge driver training day, and you might find yourself on the pit-wall at Ascari looking at a bellowing SLS GT3. A GT3 you're about to drive. So much for the cliché that Germans don't have a sense of humour.
Mind you, there are a few hoops to jump through first, not to mention a few cones that need to be slalomed. Day one breaks down the tricky and technical Ascari circuit - reckoned by some bloke called Fernando Alonso to be the toughest in the world, but what would he know? - into three chunks. Learning these chunks in, variously, an AMG CLS63, SLS and best of all the insanely good C63 Black Series beats my original driving instructor George's Datsun Sunny (Cuban heels with lifts, wispy ginger 'tache - George, not the Sunny).
Affable Berlin-born racer Roland Rehfeld leads my pack of seven cars, and offers an often wry, occasionally spiky running commentary as we stitch together the racing line around this 5.1km track like a bunch of student surgeons with sides of ham for hands and flippers on our feet. By the end of the day, though, I'm somehow lapping Ascari in the SLS about as fast as he is, squeezing all I can out of the car without triggering any tyre squeal, provoking the traction control or indeed driving into a tree (of which there are many at Ascari). The training really works.
Day two sees an auto-test that pits my team against a coned sub-section of track and the immovable enemy that is time itself. This is precision stuff, especially now that the heavens have opened, and it's quickly clear that power-sliding a C63 coupe round the course, while fun and impressive to watch, is also a drastically retarded way to go. A German gentleman in big glasses by the LED timing board is similarly unimpressed when I slither to a halt in the end box with a cone impaled neatly in the centre of the AMG's three-pointed star. This will never do. Two veterans of previous driver academy events, Dave and Scott, set blistering times, and Team Yellow will go on to win overall, mainly because we don't incur any penalties by knocking any cones over. Roland is pleased and a little stunned that we have actually learned something.
By the time former F1 driver and Le Mans star Karl Wendlinger is readying me for my stint in the SLS GT3 I'm both adrenalized and in need of a quick lie-down. Since debuting in 2010, the SLS GT3 has racked up 37 race victories, and despite its fantastically aggressive appearance - has anything got a bigger rear wing than this thing? - Wendlinger, Rehfeld and Mercedes DTM legend Bernd Scheidner all tell me that it's surprisingly friendly. This is good to hear, because it's now absolutely pouring. ‘The track has an amazing amount of grip, despite the conditions,' Schneider says, mustering all the reassurance he can though it must be said that motorsport probably remains a better career bet for him than, say, counselling. ‘I'm only a second or two slower than I would be on a full dry set-up.' He is also, however, a four-time DTM champion.
Thanks to the FIA's ‘balance of performance' equivalency rules, the SLS GT3 runs 552bhp, slightly less than the road car. But at 1350kg, it's also much lighter, and considerably trickier to get into. The seat is a huge, all-enveloping carbon item, but the instrument layout is easy to fathom, and overall it feels functional, purposeful and surprisingly comfortable (most racing cars tend to be like this, but you wouldn't get far in battle if they were the equivalent of a medieval Iron Maiden, would you?) ‘It was designed to be as easy as possible to drive,' Rehfeld confirms, ‘and everything is built around the driver.'
A firm prod of a surprisingly small and nipple-ish starter button wakes the beast. Even at idle it makes the most magnificent noise, a martial beat overlaid with a rather flatulent blare. Press the clutch, engage first with a hearty mechanical thump using the column-mounted paddle, and ease away on around 3000rpm. Wendlinger is up ahead in a regular SLS.
It is immediately overwhelmingly brilliant. We're on wets, and we will never go fast enough to generate decent heat in the rubber or brakes, and Wendlinger is keen to return to base without having to explain why his £300,000 charge fell off the track, but even so the immediacy of the thing and the purity of its responses floods your system like a fast-working narcotic. There is grip to spare, even in these conditions, and it powers forward with relentless determination, shrieking and parping and gurgling.
Suddenly the thought of monstering one round the Nordschleife in the middle of the night doesn't seem quite so scary. Then again, civilisations have risen and fallen in the gap between where I begin to brake and where I actually should be starting to brake. Having raced a bit, this confirms my theory that the world's best drivers aren't necessarily measured by how fast they can go, it's how good they are at slowing down that really counts.
After three short laps, it's all over. I feel like crying. The narcotic has me hooked, which is what always happens when I find myself in a decent racing car. ‘You have the best job in the world,' I say to Wendlinger, a seasoned SLS GT3 campaigner and pro endurance racer. ‘It is possible, yes,' he replies with a hint of a smile.
Jason Barlow


- SLS GT3 run done on last day of event. Just having some fun as there was no time to get things really going in the GT3. Bernd Schneider was my lead. On rain tires and since I was last PLer to go out, decided to hold back rather than crack up the car. The AMG team had done a great job running through 29+ PLers in the GT3 without a problem (which is amazing considering most people had not been in car and the weather was less than ideal) that it would have been a shame if I pulled a Homer Simpson and wrecked things for them. Anyway, fun as always.

Will load pics from the events for your enjoyment. Pics attached to this post are of the C Black Series I had for my personal training.

All my best to all of you for the holidays and wishing everyone the best for 2013.

Dave
Attached Thumbnails End of year AMG event - C Black and AMG Private Loungs Day at Ascari-dsc05427.jpg   End of year AMG event - C Black and AMG Private Loungs Day at Ascari-dsc05428.jpg   End of year AMG event - C Black and AMG Private Loungs Day at Ascari-dsc05429.jpg   End of year AMG event - C Black and AMG Private Loungs Day at Ascari-dsc05430.jpg   End of year AMG event - C Black and AMG Private Loungs Day at Ascari-dsc05431.jpg  

End of year AMG event - C Black and AMG Private Loungs Day at Ascari-img-20121113-00062.jpg  
Old 12-23-2012, 06:13 AM
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more pics of the events

just some more pics
Attached Thumbnails End of year AMG event - C Black and AMG Private Loungs Day at Ascari-amg-private-lounge-ascari-2012-005.jpg   End of year AMG event - C Black and AMG Private Loungs Day at Ascari-amg-private-lounge-ascari-2012-008.jpg   End of year AMG event - C Black and AMG Private Loungs Day at Ascari-amg-private-lounge-ascari-2012-022.jpg   End of year AMG event - C Black and AMG Private Loungs Day at Ascari-amg-private-lounge-ascari-2012-028.jpg   End of year AMG event - C Black and AMG Private Loungs Day at Ascari-amg-private-lounge-ascari-2012-035.jpg  

End of year AMG event - C Black and AMG Private Loungs Day at Ascari-amg-private-lounge-ascari-2012-044.jpg  
Old 12-23-2012, 06:15 AM
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more pics #2

more pics
Attached Thumbnails End of year AMG event - C Black and AMG Private Loungs Day at Ascari-amg-private-lounge-ascari-2012-050.jpg   End of year AMG event - C Black and AMG Private Loungs Day at Ascari-amg-private-lounge-ascari-2012-063.jpg   End of year AMG event - C Black and AMG Private Loungs Day at Ascari-amg-private-lounge-ascari-2012-065.jpg   End of year AMG event - C Black and AMG Private Loungs Day at Ascari-amg-private-lounge-ascari-2012-079.jpg   End of year AMG event - C Black and AMG Private Loungs Day at Ascari-amg-private-lounge-ascari-2012-095.jpg  

End of year AMG event - C Black and AMG Private Loungs Day at Ascari-amg-private-lounge-ascari-2012-120.jpg  
Old 12-23-2012, 06:17 AM
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more pics #3

more pics
Attached Thumbnails End of year AMG event - C Black and AMG Private Loungs Day at Ascari-amg-private-lounge-ascari-2012-148.jpg   End of year AMG event - C Black and AMG Private Loungs Day at Ascari-amg_ascari_advanced_2012_bestoff_lr_0073.jpg   End of year AMG event - C Black and AMG Private Loungs Day at Ascari-amg_ascari_advanced_2012_bestoff_lr_0108.jpg   End of year AMG event - C Black and AMG Private Loungs Day at Ascari-amg_ascari_advanced_2012_bestoff_lr_0109.jpg   End of year AMG event - C Black and AMG Private Loungs Day at Ascari-amg_ascari_advanced_2012_bestoff_lr_0128.jpg  

End of year AMG event - C Black and AMG Private Loungs Day at Ascari-amg_ascari_advanced_2012_leute_lr_0145.jpg  
Old 12-23-2012, 06:19 AM
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last pics

last pics...don't want to bore you....if you want more pics would be happy to upload. Just don't want to overload here. Let me know.

Happy Holidays!

Dave
Attached Thumbnails End of year AMG event - C Black and AMG Private Loungs Day at Ascari-sona-dave-019.jpg   End of year AMG event - C Black and AMG Private Loungs Day at Ascari-sona-dave-021.jpg   End of year AMG event - C Black and AMG Private Loungs Day at Ascari-sona-dave-035.jpg  
Old 12-24-2012, 02:22 AM
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2012 C63 Black Series Coupe
Nice shot!

Old 12-24-2012, 05:30 AM
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Love those red CBS ...

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Old 12-24-2012, 06:39 AM
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Thanks for sharing your experience, Dave. ADA in Ascari sounds like a blast! Perhaps one day I'll be able to check it off the list.
Old 12-24-2012, 03:58 PM
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Indeed. Many thanks for your write-up, and for sharing!
Old 12-24-2012, 04:13 PM
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Thanks for the pics and write up Dave!

Love the setup on that Red C63BS with the rollcage and cf backseat.
Old 12-24-2012, 04:23 PM
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Sounds like it was an amazing experience. Thanks for sharing!
Old 12-24-2012, 04:27 PM
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Thx for sharing ur event Dave.. It was awesome to read!! Props to ur wife for coming out top 10, the need for speed must be coming from u. Lol

Btw, did they ended up charging u for the damages? Ur such a good customer to them, I hope they gave u a free pass.

P.S I bet ur son will follow ur footstep as soon as he gets his driver license. Lol

Last edited by Roswell; 12-24-2012 at 04:30 PM.

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