Remembered Incidents, Land, Sea, Air. ( Land ).

[gamba]

I was filming in the Daimler - Benz works in Stuttgart for a BBC programme comparing their methods of car production with one ( not to be mentioned ! ) of ours. After several days I was asked by a senior member of their staff if I'd be prepared to do some filming from a car on their behalf.

A beautiful 4.5 litre Mercedes is waiting outside, with driver. The car is similar to the Safety Car we see at Formula 1 events.
Very impressive. Off we go & soon reach what is their test track, a massive circuit, overhead lights, different road surfaces, corners banked to varying degrees, anything you can think of, they have it !

We pull over into a lay-by. Much time is spent ensuring my seat belt is really firm. He, the driver,to my astonishment says he will not be wearing one, why I know not. Then to take care of the camera, as I shall be ' hand-holding ' it. More bits & pieces to help limit its travel should it attempt to escape from my grasp.

Off we go ! A marvellous feeling - such acceleration is fantastic !
He says he has instructions for me ;
When we have reached the required speed he will shout " Camera " - I will switch the camera on, then he will count out loud, " Eine, Zwei, Drei we will then instantly turn to the right ".
" Turn to the right where ? I haven't seen any right turnings " say I .
He says nothing but makes a gesture with the forefinger of his right hand as if he was stirring a cup of tea or coffee.

Oh dear ! I think I know what that means !

Shortly, on a long straight stretch he shouts the speed of the car to me in kilometres, I'm unsure if I'm hearing correctly although the dial appears to read almost 200kph. & he's not there yet !! Eventually, after gaining even more speed I hear him shout " Camera - Eine, Zwei, Drei " .....in a fraction of a second there is a vicious downward wrench on the wheel -
I freeze in my seat & hold my breath as we spin. Through the viewfinder a 360 degree panorama of all that is around us flashing past the windscreen. To my surprise the weight & speed of the car, which with a smooth road surface, is now obviously able to maintain its original trajectory. As well as rotating at high speed we appear to have travelled in a fairly straight line. Incredible !!

[gamba]

Ultimately, having slowed down, we pull off the road & stop. I give him a weak grin. He slaps me & says " Bravo ." Arriving back in the works a colleague says, " Are you alright, you look a bit shaken ? "


" Not shaken, only stirred "



Why was this message cut -off before I had finished ? If something I did wrongly - please will someone let me know, thank you

[umslopogaas]

I recall reading an article on test driving by Alan Clark (Clarke?: he who put it around a bit, but was very keen on fast cars as well as fast women) and he spoke of that moment of terror in a rally when there is suddenly complete silence and you know that all four wheels have left the road.

[Mr Pee]

Ultimately, ( having been cut-off ) having slowed down, we pull off the road & stop. I give him a weak grin. He slaps me & says " Bravo ." Arriving back in the works a colleague says, " Are you alright, you look a bit shaken ? "


" Not shaken, only stirred "

Love that story Gamba, the car would have been a Mercedes SLS, from your description, I think. It makes a fantastic noise! There will be one on my shopping list if I ever win the lottery....

[greenilex]

Sounds a bit like my feelings on takeoff last week. I do like thrills, but the imagination has a tendency to boggle.

Prairie storms seem to have moved away now. But I should save that for another thread.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Another brilliant anecdote, gamba; MANY thanks!

When we have reached the required speed he will shout " Camera " - I will switch the camera on, then he will count out loud, " Eine, Zwei, Drei

... sounds like an early draft of the Helicopter String Quartet.

[amateur51]

Another brilliant anecdote, gamba; MANY thanks!



... sounds like an early draft of the Helicopter String Quartet.

[anotherbob]

I was filming in the Daimler - Benz works in Stuttgart for a BBC programme comparing their methods of car production with one ( not to be mentioned ! ) of ours.

Can you recall when this was?

[gamba]

Can you recall when this was?

anotherbob, an interesting question ( as they say ! ).

Firstly, sometime in the mid '60's & I know that ain't much help, I was still a film cameraman & had not yet aimed for greatness.
However there are landmarks should you wish to follow them up. It occurred because we were going to make a film about the inaugeration of a Freightliner Service by Scottish Rail ( or whoever ) between Edinburgh & Stuttgart so we already had our fare paid by them. So it would have co - incided with this.
I mentioned in passing to the producer the importance of Stuttgart to the German motor industry.

I then find, a few days later, we are booked in to a delightful German Olde World hotel with cars at our disposal & bits of the Black Forest hanging around outside.

My previous experience of car assembly lines had been at Linwood. It seems wrong to make such comparisons, should this be the outcome of our visit.

[anotherbob]

Firstly, sometime in the mid '60's........ Freightliner Service by Scottish Rail....

That sounds right

My previous experience of car assembly lines had been at Linwood.

The disastrous Rootes group plant in Renfrewshire.

I'm interested as a lifelong car-bore. Mercedes-Benz didn't make a 4.5 litre coupe in the mid 60s according to my works of reference, but maybe the precise litreage was not foremost in your mind at the time. It is possible you may have had a ride in that most wonderful of '60s MB sports cars the 300SL which the current SLS (F1 Safety car) is designed to resemble. The 300SL was a descendant of the fabulous 300SLR in which Stirling Moss won the 1955 Mille-Miglia navigated by Denis Jenkinson (Contnental Correspondent of MOTOR SPORT magazine.)
If that is the case you were fortunate indeed, and Mr. Pee would need more than just one lottery win to aquire a genuine 300SL.

[Nick Armstrong]

Only just had a chance to catch up with this thread, gamba - terrific anecdote, what an experience!!

It is possible you may have had a ride in that most wonderful of '60s MB sports cars the 300SL which the current SLS (F1 Safety car) is designed to resemble.

That's the one I had in mind, abob

Was this it, gamba?





My only frame of reference for what it must have felt like was when I was taken for a 1 hour 'driving experience' at the Mercedes visitor centre at Brooklands, 2 or 3 years back http://www2.mercedes-benz.co.uk/cont...AMG_Range.html

It's within the old race circuit:



You are allotted one of their sporty "AMG" test cars, and a test driver - he demonstrates and then 'coaches' you on stopping and steering in the wet; then how to negotiate a circular track kept soaking wet, in a constant state of 'opposite lock' - it's called 'drifting' I think - balancing throttle and brake to keep the tail out but the car moving in the right direction around the circle, with you looking out of the side window rather than the windscreen at the way you're going (I eventually managed a complete 360º - the driver had done a record-beating hundreds); and finally, time on a dry race track, how to brake, find the line through corners etc. It was an exceptional hour!!

Can you remember the sound of the motor you were in? Perhaps you were concentrating too hard on the camerawork!!

[anotherbob]

Only just had a chance to catch up with this thread, gamba - terrific anecdote, what an experience!!


That's the one I had in mind, abob

Was this it, gamba?

The car-bore in me forces me to point out that your picture is of a 300SL Coupe (Gullwing) and these were discontinued in 1957. The 300SL continued in production until 1963 but as a convertible only. I should get out more but I can't afford the petrol

Edit. There is of course no reason why MB would not have used a Gullwing to intimidate BBC staff in the mid 60s; it's just that it would have been getting on a bit for such aerobatics.

[gamba]

Thanks anotherbob,

I too was something of a bore in the same direction, my passion was & still is the Bugatti type 35 & Delage 1.5 straight 8.
Sorry cannot add to information on the car I was in. Had it been a 300 SL, where were it's wings ?
I also remember Denis Jekinson's article in Motor Sport re. the '55 Mille Miglia - was he not rather sick from time to time ?

In finding an alternative to school I spent quite some time in the paddock at Brooklands & was able to meet drivers & cars. They found me to be a reliable source of cheap labour. I didn't expect to be paid for polishing a Maserati or 4.5l. Bentley - little did they know, that even with my little pocket money, I would have paid them !!

Anyway, glad to hear from you,

Good Wishes

gamba

[anotherbob]

.....my passion was & still is the Bugatti type 35 & Delage 1.5 straight 8.

Two very beautiful cars. I used to see them at VSCC meetings at Oulton Park in Cheshire, the ideal setting for them.

Sorry cannot add to information on the car I was in. Had it been a 300 SL, where were it's wings ?

The term GULLWING was because of the way the doors opened on the Coupe. They were hinged along their top edge in the roof and to gain access you lifted them up. If you can picture both doors opened you will see why the term was used. The convertible 300SL had conventional doors for obvious reasons.

[Nick Armstrong]

Sorry, it seems I might have confused things by depicting that Gullwing

Bugatti type 35 & Delage 1.5 straight 8

Beauty, about which I know too little, specially the latter which had never really crossed my radar... http://www.sportscardigest.com/1926-...x-car-profile/ Look at the detailed design work on that steering wheel... !!