Back to school, AMG style
As the cliché goes, most of us probably look back to our days in school with fond memories. Unlike the daily stress and grind of working life, your biggest concern in school is whether or not you ‘pass up’ your homework on time. Gramatically speaking though, you definitely wouldn’t have wanted your work to have been ‘passed up’, because the dictionary says ‘pass up’ actually means “to let go by; reject” – which makes me wonder as to who started using this phrase, to the point which it had become so prevalent in our schools?
Back then, we used to sigh whenever the ‘adults’ tell us how they wished they were back in school, as deep in our hearts we were more than happy to swap places with them – for their freedom and their money earning power. While I didn’t quite hate going to school per se, I was more than happy to sit for my SPM and be on my way to university, and eventually the ‘working world’. The trend continued in uni, where I remember most of my friends eagerly awaiting graduation and then the eventual freedom of the ‘working world’.
Now that we are all here, everyone is missing school and uni, and we now become the adults telling kids how we wished we were back in school. What can I say, life is a vicious cycle. While we now do indeed look back to those days with fondness, most of us did not quite live through them with the same sentiment. We went through school dreading every class and eagerly awaiting the bell to go home, though there was no dreading classes in uni, because many people just didn’t bother to turn up.
However, I have recently found a school that you would not only show up at each class full of enthusiasm, but you wouldn’t want it to end. You would probably be bouncing out of bed every morning eagerly anticipating the day’s classes and you would definitely be grinning your way home every evening. After it’s all over, you would still be looking back at the experience with fond memories, wishing you were back in school too.
Ladies & gentlemen, introducing the AMG Driving Academy. Classes start now
Would you skip classes like these?
The Brief
The AMG Driving Academy was founded in 2007 by Mercedes-AMG to partly to ‘give keen drivers the opportunity to hone their sporty driving skills under professional guidance and to experience unforgettable events with like minded enthusiasts’, and also, I suspect, partly to serve as an additional source of revenue to fund for projects like the upcoming SLS AMG.
The academy draws on the strength of the AMG brand with the aim of equipping its participants with all the necessary skills to face critical driving conditions. A common wisdom among driving enthusiasts is that driving should not only be safe, it should also be fun and enjoyable. People who properly enjoy driving, with the benefit of proper training, go on to become safe and confident drivers.
According to the brochure, the top priority of the driving academy is to ‘learn more about yourself and your vehicle’, under the guidance of top drivers. It’s not just the driving too, the programmes include classy accomodation with beautiful scenic routes thrown in. It all adds up to a very tempting preposition.
A very tempting preposition indeed.
The Gurus
The team of instructors at the AMG Driving Academy are some of the people with the very best driving credentials on the planet. They are led by chief instructor Reinhold Renger, himself a man of extensive racing experience. Other members of the team include former German Touring Car Championship (DTM) driver Thomas Jäger, and the current Formula One Safety Car drive Bernd Mayländer. A new recruit to the team is distinguished racing driver, Bernd Schneider, winner of five DTM titles and the FIA GT championship.
Chief Instructor Reinhold Renger
Thomas Jäger
Bernd Mayländer: Goes driving F1 safety cars when he’s not teaching.
New addition to the team: Bernd Schneider
The Curriculum
“Gentlemen, start your engines.”
For the 2009/2010 ‘academic year’, the AMG Driving Academy is offering eleven different events categorized into five different themes. They range from merely lifestyle-oriented events to winter driving to full-on race training – all under the guidance of the aforementioned driving pros. Depending on programme, participants are exposed to legendary race tracks such as the Nürburgring Nordschleife and the Spa-Francorchamps.
Drives through legendary European tracks await.
The EMOTION skill level has four programmes with fun scenic drives in Mercedes AMG vehicles. Participants can choose from the Bregenz Festival, Chiemgau, DTM and Spirit of AMG tour packages. The Bregenz and Chiemgau packages are essentially sightseeing packages with challenging driving conditions for you to tackle in an AMG vehicle. Meanwhile, for the DTM package, participants take a drive to any one of the Hockenheim, Norisring or Nurburgring to watch a DTM race live, with full access to the Merc-AMG lounge, paddock and a grandstand ticket thrown in.
For a few days, you get almost unlimited driving of the best machines from AMG
The abovementioned programmes include accomodation, catering, tour of AMG’s factory in Affalterbach, and not to mention the chance to drive a proper AMG-tuned Mercedes. A day event consisting of just the tour of the AMG factory and a day’s worth of driving in the AMG Mercs is also available in the form of the Spirit of AMG package. This is a far more affordable package compared to the rest and should appeal to enthusiasts on a limited budget.
Next is the BASIC skill level, with two different programmes – Basic Training Boxberg and Basic Training Power & Passion. The Boxberg course is a one and a half day programme which gives the participants the chance to have a go at a handling course and a high speed oval in addition to receiving full guidance from the AMG trainers. The Power & Passion course is aimed at owners of Mercedes AMG vehicles who opt for the Code 250 AMG Driver’s Package - their participation is covered in the purchase price of their vehicle.
The ADVANCED skill level also contains two programmes – Advanced Training and Winter Sporting. The former consists of a two day training course in Mercedes AMG vehicles on any one of Hockenheim, Imola, Spa-Francorchamps or Zandvoort racing tracks in Europe; while the latter takes the participants to Arjeplog in Sweden, where they are trained to drive through the harshest winter conditions in cars such as the E63 AMG, C63 AMG and SLK 55 AMG.
“Look, ma! Driving on ice!”
PRO skill level takes the game further, continuing the progress in ADVANCED, in the form of Pro Training and Winter Sporting Pro. Pro Training picks up from Advanced Training, putting participants through another two days worth of driving training, but this time in the famous North Loop of the Nurburgring. Winter Sporting Pro, meanwhile, takes the participants back to Arjeplog for even more challenging winter driving.
Participants who complete at least the ADVANCED skill level are entitled to participate in the MASTERS SPORTS TROPHY, where you and at most 24 other drivers undergo an intensive four day training course which covers racetrack training and individual vehicle suspension tuning (yes, you can participate with your very own Merc AMG car). Trained sports therapists are also present to assess each participant’s physical condition as they compete amongst each other for the prize of having the unique prize of a chance to drive the AMG Mercedes C-class DTM.
Chance to drive the AMG Mercedes C-class DTM in the agenda.
Prices
If the above description was good enough to have you packing your suitcases, I hope what follows is good enough to have you checking your bank balance first. Participation is not cheap. The only one day program on offer – the Spirit of AMG tour – costs €285 (RM1.4k), which covers your meals for the day, and the use of an AMG vehicle shared with a partner for the day.
The only other three figure sum in the catalogue is the two day Basic Training Boxberg course at €980 (€850 if you bring your own car). This sum does cover for accomodation in an ‘upmarket hotel’, catering for the entire duration. You also get an AMG vehicle shared with a partner, which brings us to the other advantage of bringing your own car – you don’t have to share.
The rest of the EMOTION programmes cost between €1,200 and €1,500, while for the ADVANCED courses, costs rocket beyond the €2k mark. It starts at €2,090 if you bring your own car, but it goes up to €2,540 should you choose to go through proceedings in an AMG-supplied vehicle shared with a partner. Meanwhile, the four day Winter Sporting course at Arjeplog, in which participants drive in a closed ice-circuit, and have full access to the AMG Lodge, an AMG-owned hotel with exclusive rooms, restaurant, and a large spa, would set would you back a whopping €3,540 (RM17.5k!!).
If you could afford the cash, and come back wanting more, well, there is more. Participation in the Winter Sport Pro programme costs €4,890. You once again go back to Arjeplog, but for a five day programme with even more advanced activities, and have the car all to yourself. Pro Training costs €2,350 with your own car, but you can opt for a hired Mercedes AMG vehicle, with costs varying with model. Similarly, the Master programme starts at €3,690, and you once again have a choice to opt for your favourite Mercedes AMG variant, starting from the SLK 55 AMG to the SL 63 AMG - each with different cost impact.
How do I sign up?
If, after going through all the figures above and working out the sums, you have decided that you can afford a trip to see and experience the very best that AMG can offer, pay a visit to the official website set up by AMG for the Driving Academy.
Should you go, whichever programme you eventually choose might end up costing you a lot of money, but the money is definitely going to be very well spent, whether you’re a driving enthusiast or not. At the very least, it’s a holiday worth considering. Definitely not an opportunity to ‘pass up’.
