Road deaths in Mzansi have reached epidemic proportions, and that’s why an advanced driving course in South Africa matters. According to the last available figures released in May 2023, the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) notes 12 436 people died on South African roads in a single calendar year. Clearly, road safety is at an all-time low.
The sad irony, of course, is that car manufacturers spend billions on R&D to make cars safer. And somehow, we’re less safe on the roads then we were 40-years ago. Just imagine, statistically you were actually safer in the ‘80s in your dad’s Ford Cortina with no airbags.
VEHICLES EQUAL INCIDENTS
There’s a fairly straightforward explanation for all this, say experts. The greater number of vehicles on the roads, equals a greater number of deaths. It’s chillingly plain and simple. For us, any improvement in vehicle safety is being outpaced by the sheer amount of traffic on Mzansi’s roads.
Then you factor in the increased speeds we travel, and distractions like smartphones and social media. Soon the sobering realisation hits home that no matter how safe our cars are or how well or badly policed our roads are, we are no safer. The only thing that’s guaranteed to make a difference is your driving skill.
UP YOUR DRIVING SKILL
This is why we recently attended an advanced defensive driving course to brush up on our skills. And rid ourselves of those nasty, lazy habits that could one day prove to be fatal. We opted for the Mercedes-Benz Dynamic Driving course based at Zwartkops Raceway, Pretoria. But they do travel to Phakisa, Kyalami, Gerotek and Cape Town occasionally.
If you’ve never been to an advanced driver’s course, you’ll probably guess the clientele is a heady mix of testosterone-fuelled blokes who want to learn what to do with their supercars. Upon arrival you’re quickly disabused of this sentiment. These courses genuinely have road safety at their cornerstone. And the training aims to equip attendees with advanced vehicle control. Plus, the advanced cognitive ability of a professional driver. Think of it as a masters in driving safety, if you will.
DRIVE LIKE A PROFESSIONAL
On their website there are four levels of AMG experience to choose from based on your skill and ambitions. By all accounts, according to GT3 racer and AMG master trainer Clint Weston, once you graduate from level 4, you’re all but ready to further your racing career.
Nevertheless, the ‘Dynamic Skid and Track Course’ from kicks off in the morning with a safety lecture that’s accompanied with plenty of sobering information. This is followed by practical time out on the magnificent Zwartkops skid pan.
SKID-PAN EXCERCISES
The assembled Benzes on the watery skid pan make for a truly mouth-watering sight. There are some very powerful AMG variants to move between. Vehicles like the AMG E63 with its trick 4Matic+. Of course, there are locally assembled C43 and C63s sprinkled amongst them. All skid pan exercises are done between 50 – 80 km/h, and conditions are infinitely slippery where the hot tarmac meets cool water in sudden disagreement. You must navigate through cones that require calm steering inputs atop a surface seemingly covered with a million marbles, so slippery is the skid pan.
It starts with a simple ‘load alternation’, to get comfortable with how the weight shifts and tyres react. At this point you’re doing almost everything wrong but then the AMG instructors help you with the best steering, braking and acceleration techniques. Rinse and repeat. That’s the whole point of the skid pan: to go from slapping hands and pumping feet to precise manipulations of the steering and pedals. With each run, the impossible seems less so. You start to navigate the cones and gain speed through the course.
DRIVER AIDS DISENGAGED
Then it’s onto collision avoidance and emergency lane changes. The Mercedes-AMGs can almost do a lot of this stuff for you. But you switch all the electronic gubbins off and take full control. We found the lane-change exercise to be the most educational as it reminds the driver of just how unprepared you can be in an emergency situation.
The grand finale for the day involves a spot of AMG drifting. In the 4Matic+ equipped cars this can almost be done purely on electronics. Simply floor the gas with the steering crossed and the algorithms handle the rest. The buxom backside of the AMG E63 in two-wheel-drive mode, however, takes much more coercion. First left, then right, and with stomach curdling slickness you need to balance throttle and steering, and somehow bring it all back again without murdering every orange traffic cone in a 100m radius.
TRACK BEAST
For many, open track time on Zwartkops will be the real drawcard to Mercedes-Benz’s Dynamic Driving course. You learn to load up on brakes and gears for Zwartkops’s tight, banked turns and cut a quick line to the corner apex. After a few laps you begin to appreciate that good track craft is about smooth, pronounced inputs and concentrated repetition. Soon you’re carrying three-digit speeds through even the tightest corners.
All in all, it’s a great day out that we can recommend to everyone. Whether you have a high-performance AMG like the A45 S we just reviewed, or you just want to improve your driving, it’s totally worth it. Better still, it will teach you skills that could one day save your or another’s life on the road.
Book your Mercedes-Benz Dynamic Driving or AMG experience HERE. All the details are online, however, if you’d like to call or email for more information:
- Telephone: +27 (0) 12 384 2298
- Email: auret@mbdd.co.za or irene@mbdd.co.za
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