Good drivers

Aptitudes run in families. Ours was driving. Passing driving tests first time was obligatory. The requisite gene, I am sure, was my mother's. She rode motorcycles in the war. Father wasn’t very good, but my eldest brother had whatever visual acuity or sense of balance that makes a natural driver. He never lost the keen spatial awareness and skill he showed in a rally car. Or a Challenger tank I put him into in his 70s. Son Craig shows the same sort of natural talent, masterminding yachts at Cowes or in Atlantic races. Daughter Joanna showed it as a teenager on horses. Daughter Charlotte? Well, she kept her head tumbling out of aeroplanes, much as eldest brother did a generation ago.

The gene is on show again. Teddy is only four but, just as you can tell racing drivers with natural class within four laps, he took to driving as naturally as walking. Mercedes-Benz put him in an electric at Brooklands last Friday. Before setting off the kindly man-in-charge asked him what would happen if another child’s car got in his way. Teddy’s appraisal of the danger was instant. “We’d crash.” He observed.

He didn’t crash. Kind man showed him the reverse switch only once and he backed up, counter-steering, as though he’s been doing it all his life. He leaned into corners, obeyed the traffic light and was totally unafraid. His great-grand-mama would have been so proud. But she’d be completely unsurprised. It was as natural as riding a motorcycle.

I started driving seriously aged about 12. All my family did, and I have long been convinced that the foundations of a long and safe career at the wheel are laid long before you are 17. Great credit then, to Mercedes-Benz for giving 118,000 under 16s their first drive at Mercedes-Benz World. These young people have driven around a million miles since the scheme was launched in 2007. The only requirement is to be tall enough to reach the pedals of an A-class. There is guidance from professional driving coaches in 30-minute or one-hour Driving Experiences, which extend to dynamic handling and skid management.

The youngest under-16 to drive at Mercedes-Benz World was a tall-ish seven year old. What a great use for the historic Brooklands track.

Dear Teddy. You could be behind the wheel again inside three or four years.

There was, of course, some serious road-testing to be done. Above is the S600L in Magnetite black metallic with Passion Sahara Biege and black leather. It was, not unexpectedly, superbly smooth and quiet and worth £137,810 (with all the accessories) of anybody’s money. The girls Joanna (Teddy’s mother) on the left and Charlotte were collected from school in press test cars so took in their stride the Bang & Olufsen rear seat entertainment package, Beosound AMG sound surround system with 15 speakers and covers in aluminium and illuminated tweeters. Below is another picture of them I took earlier, with another test car. Charlotte on left this time, Joanna right.

Mercedes-Benz and Brooklands

Motor racing history. Mercedes-Benz World towers cliff-like over a corner on the Campbell Circuit at Brooklands. The circular skid pan fits inside the old Aerodrome Curve of the road circuit, built inside the old banked track in 1936-1937. You can see in the picture below, where the new surface joins the old concrete in the foreground, the line of the historic corner, which continues parallel with the fence line to top centre. Mercedes-Benz allowed hacks to try the latest anti-skid gizmos on the skid-pan the other week, although with minders in the car it wasn’t being very reckless. It showed that you have to do something pretty crass to lose control of a Mercedes even in the slippery wet.
The only surprise was how remote you feel. Electronics now act as fail-safes for drivers who no longer need rely on their own reactions to get out of skiddy trouble. There really was little chance of coming to harm at 20mph. You just slithered to a stop.

Mercedes-Benz World has loops of demo track beside the Campbell Circuit’s long straight on the road circuit laid down in 1936-1937. Brooklands is best known for the 1908 bankings, but a change of regime, competition from Crystal Palace and Donington, and a conviction that road racing was more realistic than the old oval prompted change. The result was 2.25 miles of roadway, 32ft wide on the straights, 40ft on the corners, laid down between the aerodrome and sewage farm. There was a new bridge over the River Wey, pits in ferro-concrete, and a concrete road surface on 6in Expamet mesh. Building was entrusted to the Demolition and Construction Co Ltd and the circuit, which used a portion of the banked track, was opened by Dame Ethel Locke-King on 20 April 1937. SF Edge drove round it in a 1903 Gordon Bennett Napier, now at the National Motor museum, Beaulieu.

Other bits of the Campbell Circuit can still be found. We photographed the E220 Estate (above) on the sharp left-hander, now blanked off where it joined the old Members’ Banking.

Cool

Mercedes-Benz cool? Apparently it is. I’d always thought it distinguished, high status, the epitome of engineering achievement. But cool? Maybe it’s me. Not absolutely sure what cool is. Asked number one daughter: “Are you trying to hang out with the cool kids?” She identified, “Sock hop Red Bull trendy enjoyed by youff and up-to-the-minute.” Number one not much help.
The Centre for Brand Analysis put 1200 brands in order of innovation, originality, style, authenticity, desirability and uniqueness - or cool - and Mercedes-Benz is delighted at coming 16th. Aston Martin was third coolest after Apple and YouTube. Rob Halloway of Mercedes-Benz came to the rescue: "Coolness is in the perception of others. Cool things have a certain style, elegance and swagger. Cool people have these and cool brands blend a timeless quality with absolute topicality. It sounds like an oxymoron, but that’s what makes cool “cool”. Like style over fashion, cool endures where trendiness tends to be transient.”

Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT Official F1™ Safety Car saw a lot of action in Singapore

So that’s OK then. Other coolies were Twitter, Google, BBC iPlayer, Glastonbury, Virgin Atlantic, Bang & Olufsen, Liberty, Sony, Bose, Häagen-Dazs, Selfridges, Ben & Jerrys, Mercedes-Benz, Vogue, Skype, Nike and Niko. Liberty? Selfridges? All those ice-creams? I suppose they have to keep cool. Vogue? I will keep Mercedes distinguished, high status etc., and remember 1950s motor racing when it was über alles, 30 years before Vorsprung durch Technik. Now it is only a front runner by virtue of supplying Mclaren with engines. Red Bull Renault leads the constructors (297). McLaren Mercedes (261), Ferrari (245), Lotus-Renault (231), works Mercedes-Benz (136). That’s not cool.

Sebastian Vettel takes second successive Singapore Grand Prix for Red Bull Renault

Silver Arrows land on Goodwood

So, the Second World War is really over. Goodwood welcomes the Mercedes-Benz and Auto Union grand prix cars to the Revival in September. It is really about time. Westhampnett, satellite to Tangmere during the Battle of Britain, will echo to the noise of engines made by its adversaries and 75 years after their first appearance in the UK, it promises to be one of the most spectacular historic vehicle events ever.
(Top, Nick Mason drives the V12 Auto Union, above and below, W 125 Mercedes-Benz of 1937-1938)
It is 75 years since their first time in Britain and 74 since their second. This was 1938 for a Donington Grand Prix arranged on 2 October, but the teams had to pack their cars back into their transporters and retreat to Harwich for a ferry back to Germany as the Munich Crisis deepened. Only after Mr Chamberlain brought back his piece of paper was the race rescheduled for 22 October.

Although effectively British Grands Prix the 1937 and 1938 races were called the Donington Grand Prix. Dear old RAC, member of the Association Internationale des Automobile Clubs Reconnus (AIACR founded 1904), was chary about allowing provincial Donington to use the title. Even though Fred Craner, of the Derby and District Motor Club, and JG Shields, landowner, managed to persuade Mercedes-Benz and Auto Union to race against what were essentially local amateurs, the RAC couldn’t quite persuade itself that it should be a British Grand Prix.

Auto Union won both races, Bernd Rosemeyer in 1937, Tazio Nuvolari in 1938 after some disarray in the Mercedes camp.

D-type Auto Union, reconstruction of Nuvolari's winner.
There could be ten Silver Arrows at Goodwood. There were only six at Donington in 1937, eight in 1938 and they will compete with some of the also-rans, ERAs, Maseratis, Rileys, Bugattis and MGs. They will overwhelm them just as they did three quarters of a century ago. The German cars have appeared occasionally in Britain since then, John Surtees drove an Auto Union at Silverstone in 1990, along with Neil Corner in a Mercedes-Benz, but the prospect of seeing - and hearing – them all together is a heady one. Mercedes-Benz W25, W125, W154 and W165, plus the extravagantly rebuilt Auto Union Types C and D will take part

Perhaps it will make the Revival a touch less jingoistic. Motor racing at Goodwood was, essentially, a creation of the 1950s; it was only happenstance that it took place on a wartime airfield. Douglas Bader (below) and his brave contemporaries would be agreeably entertained by the most spectacular grand prix cars of all time on their old “perry track”.

Maybach: Mercedes' Mistake

Creating a prestige brand for Mercedes-Benz placed a fake jewel in its crown. Maybach was ill-advised and it is no use blaming its failure on 2008 And All That. It was a vanity project invented when BMW and Volkswagen outflanked Dainler-Benz AG in 1994.
Mercedes-Benz had made a bid to supply engine technology to Rolls-Royce, strapped for cash to replace its old V8. The proposals were well received but BMW enjoyed backing from Rolls-Royce’s owner, Vickers, in view of a joint aero engine project. By the end of the year Rolls-Royce’s board was in bed with BMW.

More bordello than boudoir, interiors were tasteless.
Autocar asked Vickers chairman Sir Colin Chandler: “Why select BMW ahead of Mercedes?” He claimed it boiled down to price. BMW offered a more competitive deal. Vickers exploited the competition between the German firms to get the best. “In the end we got what we wanted for less and didn’t give away any equity in Rolls-Royce.” Chandler claimed they went a long way towards drafting a deal with Mercedes-Benz, but “They took the loss philosophically.”

In January 1995 Peter Ward resigned the Rolls-Royce chairmanship, having favoured the Mercedes-Benz engine option, disagreed with the BMW contract and the measure of control given up to secure it, but had been over-ruled. Bernd Pischetsrieder of BMW arranged for more BMW involvement, drafting in suppliers for suspensions, air conditioning and electronics, with the aim of making the relationship secure. BMW drew up a long term contract for the supply of engines for the Silver Seraph and Arnage.

Fine craftsmanship but poor judgement of the market.
In the end it didn’t work. VW got Bentley, BMW Rolls-Royce, and Mercedes-Benz far from being philosophical about it, decided it wanted its own upper-class title and revived Maybach. Driven by pique, it appropriated a marque that hadn’t made a car since 1941.

There were two Maybachs, Wilhelm (1846-1929) partner of Gottlieb Daimler, and Karl Wilhelm (1879-1960) who set up the car factory in the 1920s with his father. The younger Maybach was principally an engine designer, responsible for power units in Count Zeppelin’s airships, a V12 diesel that sped the 1933 Fliegende Hamburger along the tracks at 112mph, and a mighty petrol V12 for the Königstiger tank of 1944.

Maybach cars were for ambassadors, such as Joachim von Ribbentrop, who wanted something more upper-crust than Horch or Mercedes. Only a Grosser Mercedes cost more and the Maybach boasted an overdrive transmission, providing eight gears and known as the Doppelschnellgang. The 1935 model was the SW35 (for Schwingachse 3.5 litre). Maybach made about 25 cars a year, perhaps over 2000 in all of which maybe 135 survive. The Reichsminister of Transport Dr Dorpmüller had a Maybach cabriolet with a voluptuous body by Erdmann & Rossi.

Maybach survived the war as an engine-maker MTU Friedrichshafen and was bought by Daimler-Benz in 1960. It was thus able to reinstate the Maybach name although still had to spend €1billion recreating its reputation. The cars were big, brash, exclusive and beautifully made but never got near the 1000 a year expected. Last year only about 200 Maybachs were sold, making some 3000 since the resuscitation of 2002. Rolls-Royce sold 2711 in 2010, Bentley just over 5,000. There was talk of Aston Martin producing a new generation of Maybachs on Mercedes’ behalf, but now Dieter Zetsche has said sales will end in 2013 and the S-Class widened from three to six to compensate, or save face depending how you look at it.

Mercedes-Benz is awash with gems. It didn’t need an ersatz Rolls-Royce.

Goodbye Maybach

Mercedes-Benz G-Wagen

Resurfaced roads in Spain convinced journalists of the superior ride and handling of Mercedes-Benz SLs. In an era when Spain’s roads were iffy at best, before all Europe shelled money out to improve them, Mercedes-Benz paid to have them smoothed-off for car launches. Or so it was once supposed. A publicity event for a new kind of Geländewagen was set up in Scotland and as this Sunday Times column of 2 December 1990 relates, I drove one across a grouse moor and waded it up a stream. Click column to enlarge It splashed obediently through a good deal more than the recommended 60cm of water, picked its way over wet boulders, then up a steep bank on to dry land. It was quite compelling. The G-Wagen was more accomplished than the Vauxhall Calibra, with which it coincided. I praised the Vauxhall carefully although faintly. Colin Dryden was kinder to the Land Rover Discovery V8 he drove in the desert. It was an era of extravagant car launches and with fuel at only 60p a gallon in Dubai he could happily recommend it for holidays.

Press launches could be memorable for the wrong reasons. Even though Mercedes-Benz planned its’ with more than usual care, they could take an unexpected turn. The Highland river test of the G-Wagen included driving through strongly flowing water, over a course marked by tall sticks. We were warned to keep between the sticks because of adjacent deep pools. One G-Wagen was more luxuriously appointed than the rest. It had air conditioning and leather upholstery, thick carpets and, it was said, was in the Highlands to be loaned for appraisal to a member of the royal family. Mercedes-Benz allocated it to a journalist more important than mere writing hacks.

Tom Ross was editor of Top Gear. The programme had been going since 1977, as a BBC Pebble Mill production with presenters Noel Edmonds, William Woollard and Angela Rippon. Contributors included Sue Baker, Frank Page, Tony Mason and Chris Goffey. It went on to BBC2 and the affable easy-going Ross was editor until 1991. Unfortunately, like many TV people, he not only thought he could walk on water, he was also sure he could drive on it.

He elected not to steer between the sticks Mercedes-Benz had provided.


Doug Wallace of Mercedes-Benz supervises recovery