My father in law has been a car salesman for more than 40 years. He's never sold me a car. Never even tried. He was pretty surprised when I told him I wanted to drop by for a test drive. The car I need to drive is faster than my 911. Lot's faster.
The car I wanted to drive is the Mercedes Benz E 55 AMG. The beast. Until the new BMW M5 V12 comes out it remains the fastest sedan ever produced. It has 469 HP. Zero to 60 in 4.5 seconds. And it looks like grannys Sunday sedan.
So we settle into the comfy sport seats and cruise down the freeway. When passing, you hit 100 MPH before you know it. Smooth. Fast. Beautiful exhaust note. We pull off the freeway for some spirited back roads driving. My father in law is gripping the armrest and smiling nervously. I'm just getting started.
The on-ramp is long, straight and empty. I pull to the shoulder. There are three suspension settings. I select the stiffest. Select manual shift mode to use the paddle shifters on the wheel. Hmm...should I disengage traction control? Sure. Here we go up the onramp. At 35 MPH I downshift and punch the accelerator. Wheelspin! The motor howls and we sprint up to the redline. My god this thing is fast.
My father in law told me he's never been on a test drive like that. I told him I've never driven a car like that. Anyway, I was not really considering buying a Mercedes, but after that drive... Maybe, just maybe.
