Recently attended the AMG Challenge in Dallas and came away with some interesting info and observations.

1) AMG is really on top of its game. Amazing array of machines, and the AMG Challenge provides the opportunity to test each of them to its full capacity. No holds barred. Drivers are encouraged to max out the capacities of each car. It was very well worth the time and $$ to attend. The competitions among the attendees (slalom, autocross, figure 8, etc) were a lot of fun.

2) I asked a few of the pro drivers which AMG car was thier favorite (no qualifiers). The most common answer was E55, followed by SL55, then S55.

3) 2 of the pros raced the SL55 and E55 at the end of the day. The E55 won by about a car length (a little more than a quarter mile I'd estimate).

4) I talked to the head of AMG USA for about 20 minutes. He's very excited about the 65 engine. States the SL65 will run under 3.7 sec's 0-60 without question, though MB will list the time as 4.2. ~$179,000 w/o options.

5) So what's the head of AMG drive? An Aston-Martin (can you blame him?).

The AMG Challenge is an extremely well run, first class event. Starts at 7:30 AM, finishes at ~5 PM. Includes 2 sessions on the oval, 2 sessions on the slalom and autocross courses, skidpad, figure 8 work, avoidance exercise, class time, catered breakfast and lunch, awards at the end. By the end of the day they let us have essentially unlimited runs on the track (hot laps). Most everyone was cooked after a few laps. Not that they would have let us run for 30 more minutes, but everyone I was with was too tired to be sharp enough for hot laps by then. It's a long day with plenty of drive time.

No, AMG's don't handle like Porsches and they're not as comminicative as M's, but as a total daily driver package they're impressive products from the C55 up to the S55/SL55.

 

That's good to hear. Thanks for the informations provided. Sounds like you had a blast!

 

Sounds like you had a nice time. The real heads of AMG (DEU) all currently drive 211s (and a fair number of wagons). The USA head probably drives the Aston, cause even he can't get the good stuff into this country

 

I agree it was well run, they stuck to the time tables very well.

I also agree that the E55 was the preferred car, I only heard one guy complain and that complaint related to driving position problems.

Impressions on the cars:
the SL 55 had a harder ride than expected on the oval but it sounded better than anything else. Steering response was good but it seemed less refined that the E 55 on the oval. Could be I was predisposed toward the E series.

The new C 55 has a good deal of undeersteer as you might expect but it was fun on the autocross and I'd love to try it with the ESP off. A very quick car but like many automatics, don't miss the powerband or you'll wonder where the power went.

The CL impressed me on the slalom course, it was quick and predictable edge to edge and throttle reponse was good.

The S 55 was fun on the slalom course although you felt its heft. Great acceleration for it's size and when you got in it you just wanted to start a road trip to LA.

The CLK was used for the Figure 8 and skidpad. Plenty of power and plowed a bit (understeer) into the 8's but that can be controlled with a bit less speed, right? Great fun during the practice runs and plenty of 360's. Forget the less speed part.

The E 55 has power that the 210 model can't match. It would be no surprise to some of you, but it got my full attention coming out of the pit at 80 and screaming to 125 much faster than expected.

I had a very short ride in the SLK 32 and couldn't comment on any attributes.

The instructors were great, they had no problem with letting you hammer the $100,000 machinery for all it was worth.

 

Just a small correction- I was intrigued by your statement that the head of AMG drives an Aston, so I emailed him today and he stated that his primary ride is a G500 and he has an older SLC, but when he wants to drive a car with a manual transmission, he owns a Ferrari 360, no Astons.

 

Hehe.. :p

 

Depends on who you e-mailed.
I was referring to Rob, who was the AMG rep for the AMG Challenge.
I have his business card and he told me to e-mail him any time with questions or concerns (like "is the 2005 E55 going to have 7G transmission, should I wait to get one"; answer "no it won't")).

I didn't really want to give away his name since he didn't tell me about his personal car to brag, he was answering my question "so, how often do you guys personally test drive competing marques?". His answer was, "every day...I own the competition".

Who did you e-mail?

 

We are talking about the same guy, whose privacy I will also respect.