Jason Harper

Wet and Wild: An SL63 AMG at the AMG Driving Academy; shot by J. Gregory Raymond/Bloomberg

Review by Jason H. Harper

Sept. 17 (Bloomberg) — This is a high-tech piece of Teutonic machinery: a sedan with a 518-horsepower, hand-built V- 8 assembled by a single technician in Affalterbach, Germany. And I’m drag-racing the sucker.

A signal man standing between me and my competitor holds up both arms and counts down from three. The challenger and I rev our $88,000 E63 sedans, the latest powerhouse from Mercedes- Benz’s performance arm, AMG. The guy drops his arms and we launch down the straightaway.

In just over 4 seconds we blast past 60 miles per hour and then crank on the brakes. We’re supposed to come to a thundering halt between two sets of cones — a stop box only slightly longer than the sedans themselves. Travel beyond and you’re disqualified.

Tires howl, brake dust flies and my car stops perfectly. I win.

It’s a hell of a way to treat a brand-new E63, but I’m actually being encouraged by the company. This is part of its AMG Driving Academy, a one-day $1,895 performance-motoring course that just started in the U.S.

The goal is to improve driving skills and provide experience on a racetrack, all the while piloting Mercedes’s fastest and most expensive cars. Every student will drive four or more AMG models — that’s at least $350,000 worth of hardware.

Smokin': An C63 AMG at the AMG Driving Academy; photo by J. Gregory Raymond/Bloomberg

Mercedes has offered driving courses in Europe since 2007, ranging from one-day, basic classes to three-day, master programs. They are held on tracks across the continent, including the legendary Nurburgring in Germany.

Laguna Seca

The company began a U.S. program this year, with a limited number of days later this month at Palm Beach International Raceway in Florida and a handful in November at Laguna Seca in Monterey, California.

Special options include a two-day event for $3,495, and a one-day course with time in the new 2011 SLS supercar, an homage to the classic Mercedes SL Gullwing. That one costs $2,295.

I attended one of five available days at Lime Rock Park in Connecticut, which concluded earlier this week.

I’ve taken driving courses offered by other manufacturers, including the Porsche Sport Driving School just outside Birmingham, Alabama, and the Audi Sportscar Experience at the Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, California. Both are first-class programs with extensive classroom instruction and lots of laps on the racetrack. Aston Martin and BMW have their own versions.

In comparison, the Mercedes program feels a bit looser and newly organized, with less formal instruction. Novice performance drivers will not be the master of the racetrack by the end of a single day, but they will get a pretty good idea of what these cars can do. And they will practice skills that come in handy in the real world.

Power Skid

I begin my day by power sliding a $135,000 SL63 AMG convertible along a patch of wet asphalt. A sprinkler has been turned on the inside of a corner, and the goal is to make the back end of the car slide out (an effect called oversteer) so that we can then practice catching the skid. (The car’s electronic traction control has been turned off.)

Many students quickly find they are not quick or skilled enough to curtail the skid, spinning the pricey cars in expressive, smoke-spewing 360s. The instructors laugh. It’s all part of the exercise and neither autos nor drivers are harmed.

The rest of the morning is spent in a variety of handling exercises, including learning to use the AMG cars’ powerful brakes to their full potential. Too many drivers are hesitant to press on the pedal aggressively, even when trying to avoid an accident.

Watch the Road

We also practice keeping our eyes on the road. Drivers have a natural tendency to fixate on things they want to avoid, like telephone poles and trees, and it’s disturbingly common to steer directly into those objects. So, even as we’re about to skid off the road, we concentrate on keeping our eyes locked on the track. It’s harder than you might think.

While none of this is new to me, I find my skills are rusty. As with all technical skills, it’s important to practice, which is why performance courses are so great. Driving on the highway, after all, is easily the most dangerous thing most of us will do on any given day.

After lunch, we graduate to Lime Rock’s fast-and-furious 1.53-mile road course, which includes a famous blind uphill and the ensuing gut-wringing downhill.

An instructor is always in the lead car, with four students at a time following closely behind, mimicking his racing line. In between, we rotate through the AMG models, including the excellent C63 sedan.

Soon, our procession is cooking along at high speed. The racetrack is the ultimate test of one’s driving skills, where you must blend smoothness, concentration and patience with fast reflexes and an understanding of how cars handle.

As I blast over the uphill section in the $57,000, 451- horsepower C63 sedan, I’m feeling pretty pleased with myself. Then I get a lap with one of the instructors driving, and I’m quickly reminded that I have a long, long way to go.

Well, I’m happy to take more classes.

The AMG Driving Academy is offered at three racetracks: Laguna Seca Raceway, California; Lime Rock Park, Connecticut and Palm Beach International Raceway, Florida. Information: +1-800- 217-6916; http://www.amgacademy.com.

(Jason H. Harper writes about autos for Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are his own.)

To contact the writer of this column: Jason H. Harper at Jason@JasonHharper.com.