Demian! – Hello, Felix. – Nice to see you. – And you. – Turning up in style, as usual! I wouldn’t have expected anything less.
You’ve brought along an all-wheel drive for me today, right? – Right. – And it’s suitable for drifting?
Before we start, I’ll predict that you’re going to have
more fun with this one than that one. – Really? Okay. So before we get going, tell me
a little bit about yourself. Who are you, what do you do at Mercedes-AMG?
I’m Demian. At Mercedes-AMG, I’m responsible for
vehicle dynamics, and in particular for the dynamics of this vehicle here. We have individual experts
for the various systems – like the ESP, all-wheel drive, steering, the locking differential –
but in the end, everything has to work perfectly together – like a complete work of art, as we say.
A dynamic artwork. That’s one part of our role. Then, we have
the privilege of honing and fine-tuning it all afterwards.
It’s a bit like the way an orchestral conductor
coordinates all the instruments to produce a melodious piece of music.
If you’d asked me about my dream job
when I was younger, I would probably have said something
just like that. What’s your background? How does one get a job
as a vehicle dynamics integrator? – As a child and teenager, I had the privilege
of being able to take part in motorsport –
formula racing, that kind of thing. I spent a lot of time on the Nürburgring Nordschleife. I also
competed in the 24-Hour Race, and I
even managed a class victory. But I continued my studies alongside it. That meant I had
knowledge on both sides: the motorsport component and vehicle dynamics,
but also the engineering side, the technical side. Ultimately, that led me to
my current position – and for me, it’s a dream job! – That I can believe. But back to
the topic at hand: drifting. As a racing driver, you’re probably not so
interested in drifting. You’re actually more keen on preventing it, because drifting
costs time. But you said you’ve got a few
tips and tricks up your sleeve? – Yes. Obviously, drifting
is something we want the car to resist if we’re trying to
drive a fast lap time. Because of this, in order to drift, you’ve got to sort of outsmart the systems.
Our all-wheel drive, our 4MATIC+, is a variable all-wheel drive. That means
that in normal mode – when you drive with the normal settings – you’ve always got
the optimal traction. And if you notice that the rear axle
is starting to slide, you can shift the force forward to
stabilize the car again. But if you apply a substantial
amount of throttle, you can also quite easily force the car to oversteer – a power oversteer – and the
4MATIC+ will drift really well. – Will the ESP catch you at some point? Do you need to
turn it off? – You’ve always got to drive in “ESP off” mode,
otherwise the ESP will directly prevent drifting. But the best thing is that if the
drift angle is a bit too big, you can just apply a really good dose of gas
and pull the car straight again, because the all-wheel drive responds to that and shifts the power
to the front. Then by easing off the gas again, you can get it back, and
control the drift angle really well just by using the gas alone. – I know what you mean,
because with a rear-wheel drive, when I oversteer, I just
turn in circles. I’ve not got the “safety net”
of driving force that can be transferred to the front wheels
to manoeuvre me out of the situation. Now, I’ve got to be
honest, I don’t have an incredible amount of experience in this field.
I can obviously already do a few things – I’ve tried it out on a
few occasions. But I’m very excited about what I
can learn today. My challenge for today is to do the best
drift possible on the beautiful asphalt here in Immendingen.
Maybe I can even manage one that’s better than
yours. So, I think we’ve spent enough time
talking. Let’s hop into the car, because there are a couple of
things I want you to show me. – Sure. – Let’s go!
I feel very safe sitting next to you. I know you know this car like the back of your hand.
You, as we mentioned, are responsible for the integration of vehicle dynamics systems
in this model, and you’re also the one who
holds the record lap time for the Nordschleife, right? – That’s right. – In this
vehicle? It was 7:25:41, right? – Correct. – Really impressive. At least as impressive as what’s happening here!
By the way, what’s happening here is a pure example of all-wheel drift. – We’re not in DRIFT MODE. Incredible! You can sense how gradually the car starts to pull. That’s probably
also due to your sensitive use of the gas pedal.
It’s almost enough to pull the skin off your face. We seem to have
endless grip, then at some point, the pull creeps in. –Yes. So, we don’t have a
a special all-wheel DRIFT MODE – rather, we’ve tuned the all-wheel drive system in such a way
that the car can accelerate quickly out of a bend. The key to this is that the all-wheel drive is slightly rear-biased.
The rear of the car is already pushing slightly in the direction
you want to go, and then you get a corresponding amount of momentum
on the straight. But of course, you can also get quite a good drift
simply by abruptly applying the throttle.
And when the car starts to drift, you can just as easily
use the throttle to bring it straight again.
Okay, I see. You touch on the gas pedal
very slightly by moving your knee and gradually see the drift through to the end.
Incredible, incredible. Very impressive!
Let’s take a look at DRIFT MODE. – Right. So basically,
we’ve got the whole car adjusted to the right settings. We’re set to
RACE, gearbox is set to manual, ESP is off, and now I can access drift mode by pulling both paddles.
I pull the paddle up to confirm drift mode on. – Easy-peasy. – Yes, easy-peasy. – But what comes next is probably
not so easy!
Now, 100% of the driving force is coming from the rear axle. – Intense. In the passenger seat, too,
it immediately feels different.
It comes around much faster. – Exactly. What we just saw is what happens
in purely rear-wheel drive mode. In this case, we also have the electronic
limited-slip differential.
What’s that?!
I know him!
Let’s get out and take a look. – Definitely!
Hi! – Good to see you! – All good with you? – I’m great! I heard you’re filming a video about drifts. – That’s right. – And our latest piece of handiwork wasn’t invited?!
Some of you might remember the car from the Mercedes-AMG Christmas video. When it comes to
the subject of DRIFT MODE, this is a very important specimen, right? – For sure! You might even say
it’s the future of agile vehicle dynamics.
It’s something completely new. – So, this one’s also an all-wheel drive, but a
different type of all-wheel drive? – Yes, exactly. This one works completely differently
than the vehicles you’ve seen so far. Here, we’ve got a front engine, installed
transversely, and we’ve got a drive shaft, which transmits the
energy to the rear axle. We’ve also got a specially developed
rear-axle drive, which lets us have the kind of fun
you saw a moment ago. – So, wait, I need a minute
to let that sink in. You start in
front-wheel drive, and you still manage to drift the car
in the way we’ve just seen? – Right. – Unbelievable! – It’s just another day at AMG.
Really incredible. Okay, we’ve now seen all the drive concepts one could
possibly imagine: pure rear-wheel drive, 4MATIC with DRIFT MODE
on the rear axle and a hang-on all-wheel 4MATIC+.
We have a huge area of asphalt. – So, let the games commence!
What’s happening here is absolute madness!
So, thanks again! I’ve got to be honest – I was absolutely astonished to catch sight of you here today! Before we finish, I wanted to give you the
opportunity to say a bit about yourself, about what you’re doing. – I do pretty much the same
things that Demian does for the X 290, except that I work
on the V2 Platform – so, everything to do with A-Class derivatives.
That’s my area of responsibility.
Demian has already told us a bit about your remit – and about the
division of responsibilities, how the whole thing works. So, what’s so
special about this car? We discussed it very briefly before.
The special thing about this car is that we didn’t need to use braking interventions
on the wheels to make the car sufficiently agile. Instead, we were
able to channel the driving torque to where it was really needed. – Okay. – This allows us to create a great
spread of gear ratios. One benefit of this is that we can build unbelievably stable vehicles –
culminating in the amazing vehicle you’ve seen here today. – We thought
we’d do a little challenge today and see
who can manage the nicest drift. I must say,
I’m feeling a bit daunted after what I’ve seen. I reckon I still need
a bit of practice, but I’d be very happy
if you two would get involved. – Of course! We’d love to.
Alright, then I’ll see you later. – ‘Til then!
I’d say it’s about time for the challenge. We’ll use the Mercedes-AMG C 63 S Coupé. Demian, since you put on such a good show earlier and taught me a bit about how it works, I think you should go first.
Are you two sure? – Of course! You should go first! But a quick question: How long
do we have to drift for? – So, each of us
gets one attempt, I would suggest, to make a big circle
here. – So, one clean circle? – Yes, if possible,
all the way round. – Alright, then let’s get started. – Let’s go.
Okay, I see what we’re dealing with!
Let’s see if your coaching was up to the job. – I’m excited.
Well, there was smoke. Not quite a circle. – We can allow that as a half circle. – Okay, we won’t be mean.
I would say that with a lot of goodwill, that was perhaps a quarter-circle? – We thought we’d allow you a half circle. – Half circle? Okay, thank you very much,
no need for further negotiations! Offer gratefully accepted.
And I’d say, René, that you’re up next. – I’m going to
drift in the opposite direction, just for the sake of the front and back
tyres. I hope that’s okay for you? – It appears that at the back left,
we’re approaching slick level. So away you go!
Okay, René warming up first!
Hey, sorry! – Chapeau, Mr. Szczepek! – The approach took me a bit longer than expected. I hope I made up for it afterwards. Sorry. – A close contest,
I would say. Between you two, a close contest. I’ll graciously remove myself from the competition!