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Is it messed up to show up to an AMG driving school in an M5? Need to get past the break in period and this seems like the perfect drive to do it!
Do it, I would if my Merc broke down so many times it forced me to buy the competition...
Now lets see if my wagon can make a uneventful road trip up and back...
2018 E63, 2008 SLR DH, 2011 599 SA, 1995 F50, 2007 through 2011 GT3 RS
Originally Posted by ronin amg
Do it, I would if my Merc broke down so many times it forced me to buy the competition...
Now lets see if my wagon can make a uneventful road trip up and back...
Exercises were fun and a good sampling of AMG cars were used. Sadly, the E63 was not used for the lead / follow drills, but did get jubut we did get to drive the GT-R which was nice but I wasn’t overly impressed until we got to do a ride along with one of the pro drivers. The respect level then went up several levels, both for the GT-R and for the pro drivers.
Sounds good. I signed up for the November date so I'm looking forward to it. I know most of us, if not all of us here used our AMG purchase to sign up for for free but had you payed the normal price, is it worth it? What was your favorite part?
My attendance was part the AMG purchase, so no additional fee. I did however pay $250 for my wife to attend as a non driving guest.
For that, she got to have breakfast and lunch with us and watch as we drove around all day, then at the end she also got to do a hot lap with a pro driver. It turned out to be Pippa Mann, who was also one of the instructors for my team. So that was cool. Got a selfie with her to show my daughters.
She had a great time chatting with some of the other guests, including Ronin AMG’s wife.
Worth $250? Depends, pretty spendy for the food alone, but how much value do you put on the experience.
There were a number of attendees who went on their own dime for the whole $1895 or whatever the fee is and I got the impression they were all satisfied.
Exercises were fun and a good sampling of AMG cars were used. Sadly, the E63 was not used for the lead / follow drills, but did get jubut we did get to drive the GT-R which was nice but I wasn’t overly impressed until we got to do a ride along with one of the pro drivers. The respect level then went up several levels, both for the GT-R and for the pro drivers.
It was great meeting and having dinner with you guys after the track day we gotta do it again.
Yeah the event was very well run but too much time playing with intentional ABS lockup and sliding around a wet autocross layout..
It would have been a great pre-sales tool but we already own and drive the cars as they were intended to be driven.
Following the instructor at 1/2 normal speed was kinda boring the whole morning to be honest.
Best time was with the pro driver in the GTR for two hot laps at the end of the day.
Now I know how hard the cars can be pushed but there is no way you could do it in the real world..
I'm not a track guy but when I track only the best will do...stay quick my friends..
Last edited by ronin amg; Apr 11, 2018 at 05:58 PM.
I did finally get to spend some time in the performance/sport seats. It was in a sport setting with no extended seat time so didn't get any impression of long term comfort, plus didn't spend a lot of time fiddling to get the seat just right given the frequent driver switches.
One observation that I did make was that the upper head rest seemed to be too far forward when used with a helmet - had my head pushed ahead of the rest of my back/shoulders and that was somewhat awkward. Might be something that could be adjusted out but didn't have time to fiddle with it.
I would think this would vary a lot for drivers of different heights. I'm a tad under 6' and shrinking given my back issues and maybe that had a little to do with it.
When doing the hot lap with the pro driver in GTR I didn't notice the headrest issue, but I was thankful for the extra side support. I'm still amazed at how hard that car turned, braked, etc. and of course the driver's skills. It seemed like we were in free fall off the carousel, not just driving down hill.
I did finally get to spend some time in the performance/sport seats. It was in a sport setting with no extended seat time so didn't get any impression of long term comfort, plus didn't spend a lot of time fiddling to get the seat just right given the frequent driver switches.
One observation that I did make was that the upper head rest seemed to be too far forward when used with a helmet - had my head pushed ahead of the rest of my back/shoulders and that was somewhat awkward. Might be something that could be adjusted out but didn't have time to fiddle with it.
I would think this would vary a lot for drivers of different heights. I'm a tad under 6' and shrinking given my back issues and maybe that had a little to do with it.
When doing the hot lap with the pro driver in GTR I didn't notice the headrest issue, but I was thankful for the extra side support. I'm still amazed at how hard that car turned, braked, etc. and of course the driver's skills. It seemed like we were in free fall off the carousel, not just driving down hill.
I had the same issue but I did get the backrest angled enough for comfort... These sport seats are for road cars drivers without a helmet. On the road the sport seats were perfect for me and Toni said she loved the seats even after our 11 hr road trip down and back up the coast due to the road closure... Good times
Last edited by ronin amg; Apr 11, 2018 at 08:08 PM.
2018 E63, 2008 SLR DH, 2011 599 SA, 1995 F50, 2007 through 2011 GT3 RS
Originally Posted by ronin amg
I had the same issue but I did get the backrest angled enough for comfort... These sport seats are for road cars drivers without a helmet. On the road the sport seats were perfect for me and Toni said she loved the seats even after our 11 hr road trip down and back up the coast due to the road closure... Good times
Same issue here with the helmet with the performance seats however I tried the mult-countour seats on the SL63 and E63s and I was very disappointed to tell you the truth. They were not that much more comfortable than the performance seats and every time you took a turn the bolsters inflated after the fact. It was extremely distracting on a road course and cant imagine on a canyon run. Not sure how you guys do it!
At least I won the duffel bag in the timed event so that made up for it and our team won the team event so I got some swag!
Same issue here with the helmet with the performance seats however I tried the mult-countour seats on the SL63 and E63s and I was very disappointed to tell you the truth. They were not that much more comfortable than the performance seats and every time you took a turn the bolsters inflated after the fact. It was extremely distracting on a road course and cant imagine on a canyon run. Not sure how you guys do it!
At least I won the duffel bag in the timed event so that made up for it and our team won the team event so I got some swag!
I have the multi-contour seats and I wanted to like the active bolsters but I found them to be annoying and gimmicky. Pretty much as you described so I turned off the feature. Nice, congrats on the swag. I had heard the top prize is an AMG helmet. Were they still awarding those?
2018 E63, 2008 SLR DH, 2011 599 SA, 1995 F50, 2007 through 2011 GT3 RS
Originally Posted by BC-2
I have the multi-contour seats and I wanted to like the active bolsters but I found them to be annoying and gimmicky. Pretty much as you described so I turned off the feature. Nice, congrats on the swag. I had heard the top prize is an AMG helmet. Were they still awarding those?
Yeah that was the top prize but I only came in second
Same issue here with the helmet with the performance seats however I tried the mult-countour seats on the SL63 and E63s and I was very disappointed to tell you the truth. They were not that much more comfortable than the performance seats and every time you took a turn the bolsters inflated after the fact. It was extremely distracting on a road course and cant imagine on a canyon run. Not sure how you guys do it!
At least I won the duffel bag in the timed event so that made up for it and our team won the team event so I got some swag!
I have the sport seats in my cars, in fact I told my salesman after our test drive I would not buy the car without the sport seats...
I was too busy trying to find answers from the AMG techs to battle the cones..congrats on your win..
2018 E63, 2008 SLR DH, 2011 599 SA, 1995 F50, 2007 through 2011 GT3 RS
Originally Posted by ronin amg
I have the sport seats in my cars, in fact I told my salesman after our test drive I would not buy the car without the sport seats...
I was too busy trying to find answers from the AMG techs to battle the cones..congrats on your win..
BTW I broke another E63s at the event. They had to remove it from the brake test as it kept shutting down on me after the ABS kicked in. I am starting to think it is me and not the cars!
BTW I broke another E63s at the event. They had to remove it from the brake test as it kept shutting down on me after the ABS kicked in. I am starting to think it is me and not the cars!
Related to that, it did seem that these E63S cars had no problem stopping.
I don't have a comparison reference, but they sure did seem to haul down to a stop quickly with the brakes keeping the tires right at the locking point.
All the E63S cars used in the braking exercise had CCBs and I'm sure the brakes were quite toasty by the time we finished with the exercise. One thing that they were very good about doing was reminding people not to sit there with their foot on the brake while the car was stopped and to make sure that the parking brake was not set after the car door was opened. Otherwise the pads sit there against hot rotors and get cooked.
It was kind of fun to accelerate at full throttle in the E63 to the last braking cone and then stomp the peddle and see that you could kill a lot of speed quickly and while braking at the limit still drive around the obstacle without the car getting squirrelly.
Surprisingly, a lot of people had trouble staying in the throttle all the way to the last cone, and also fully hitting the brakes to the max. Not sure why. Worst case you kill a few mini-cones
Only second? That seems pretty good to me, congrats! Looking forward to my event in November, it's going to be a long wait!
Too bad he didn't drive Monday, would have won our event.
Wish they had published a list of the times, or at least showed them to you if you cared to ask.
There's a huge difference between someone running a 16.5 s vs 16.2. Someone doing a 18.5 s looked like they were on a grocery run and the folks in the 16s were clearly getting with it.
The little AMG they used had a 2 liter turbo motor that had pretty significant lag, but once it spooled up really took off.
It was fun trying out the various cars, but I would have rather spent more time in the lead / follow in the GT-R or even the GT-S. BTW, the difference in transmissions was very noticeable. The 7-speed in the GT-S was fairly clunky compared to the newer 9-speed.
BTW I broke another E63s at the event. They had to remove it from the brake test as it kept shutting down on me after the ABS kicked in. I am starting to think it is me and not the cars!
The e63s I drove did the same thing, it got too annoying each time i locked them up..
Solution is never lift and plow through..
Related to that, it did seem that these E63S cars had no problem stopping.
I don't have a comparison reference, but they sure did seem to haul down to a stop quickly with the brakes keeping the tires right at the locking point.
All the E63S cars used in the braking exercise had CCBs and I'm sure the brakes were quite toasty by the time we finished with the exercise. One thing that they were very good about doing was reminding people not to sit there with their foot on the brake while the car was stopped and to make sure that the parking brake was not set after the car door was opened. Otherwise the pads sit there against hot rotors and get cooked.
It was kind of fun to accelerate at full throttle in the E63 to the last braking cone and then stomp the peddle and see that you could kill a lot of speed quickly and while braking at the limit still drive around the obstacle without the car getting squirrelly.
Surprisingly, a lot of people had trouble staying in the throttle all the way to the last cone, and also fully hitting the brakes to the max. Not sure why. Worst case you kill a few mini-cones
I think it's about looking ahead as they kept pointing out for the track driving and survival mode kicks in and says to ya to slow the F down first.
Much the same for the wet slalom run. Who would continue to push and drift at speed on a wet public road ? This was completely wrong and counter intuitive for self preservation...
The event was a great pre-sales tool but nothing more in my opinion as an owner already..
. . .
The event was a great pre-sales tool but nothing more in my opinion as an owner already..
That is one impression that I had and which I told my wife. Most of the folks there had some other AMG that the E63S and some didn't have any at all.
So, it kind of seemed like they were throwing every AMG they had at you to see if one stuck as an upgrade path or maybe one for the spouse or kids.
The Audi event I did was different. We just drove the R8 all day. Still went through some fundamentals in the morning, but it was more focused on the lead follow. And, the track was much less crowed. No pulling over every couple laps to wait up for the slower group in front or to let the faster group by.
That is one impression that I had and which I told my wife. Most of the folks there had some other AMG that the E63S and some didn't have any at all.
So, it kind of seemed like they were throwing every AMG they had at you to see if one stuck as an upgrade path or maybe one for the spouse or kids.
The Audi event I did was different. We just drove the R8 all day. Still went through some fundamentals in the morning, but it was more focused on the lead follow. And, the track was much less crowed. No pulling over every couple laps to wait up for the slower group in front or to let the faster group by.
Exactly, there is nothing worse than someone in the left lane that won't pull over after flashing your lights to let you pass..
This was kinda like my drive home on the 101hwy.. People would just slow down traffic driving 60 mph and refuse to pull over to the right lane...
After the great AMG track day it was time to do a little road tripping and my AMG e63s wagon was the right car for the job.
I never needed to lower the back seats for all my drone/camera gear and luggage. Here is a little video of the Monterey coast down the road from Carmel..
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