***Cool Story with Pics***

[cawimmer430]

I have a cool story to tell here. Yesterday I got to follow an MB salesman to Trostberg, to deliver an SLK350 7Gtronic for a testdrive to a customer, supposedly a local soccer player who plays for Wacker Burghausen, a second division team. This guy is a BMW-man at heart but he wanted to try something different so he booked a testdrive with an SLK350. We were to deliver it to him.



The Mercedes salesman I was to follow was quite a character too. His name was Mr. Ruhhaltinger and he?s been at the dealership for about a month. Previously, he worked for (GET THIS!), FERRARI and MASERATI in Germany. I asked him once casually what kind of cars he got to drive there and he casually answered back (in a tone that said ?Damn was I bored??) ?Oh stuff like F40?s, F50?s, 550 & 575 Maranello?s?? The guy even drove an Enzo! He apparently sold one of the last Enzo?s to a Ferraristi in Germany. I eagerly asked him what about a Testarossa or a 360 Modena and he said that the Testarossa was nice, but the 360 Modena is a like a Mercedes A-Class: very common and thus, not exciting (his words!). The rest of the conversation was about him being driven by a professional Ferrari driver at 340 km/h (213 mph) on the Autobahn in an F40 a couple of years back! He said for him, the F40 was even more brutal than the Enzo. The driver was concentrating like hell at that speed!







Anyway, Mr. Ruhhaltinger gets into the SLK350, and I have to follow in a facelifted Mercedes C220 CDI (150-hp 5-speed A/T) to bring him back to the dealership since the potential customer is borrowing the SLK for two days. Damn, this guy can drive! Since the C220 CDI was a diesel, and cold, I had a hard time keeping up with him the first few minutes. Only when the diesel engine warmed up was I able to ?keep up? with him. Trostberg is around 30 minutes away and the drive there is on roads that resemble a racetrack.



Damn, this dude really hammered the SLK350. Situation one, a big truck and three (3) cars behind it are ahead of us. What does this guy do? He floors the SLK, and overtakes: on a pretty curvy stretch! I couldn?t believe it! This guy went all the way, overtaking those three cars and the truck! Sure, the SLK350 takes off pretty nasty but those were pretty tight curves! It would be hard to spot oncoming traffic in some areas, also in part to the high cornfields and grass. Well, that SLK350 flew by those cars and the truck like nobody?s business! All the time producing a magnificent V6 growl, which I even, heard in the C220 CDI, and I had the radio on and the A/C as well. Well, now the SLK was in front the truck, and I couldn?t see him. I managed to overtake 2 of the 3 cars with the C220 CDI (it?s not underpowered at all and packs quite a punch) and then the 3rd one. Now I had to get rid of that truck. Long straightaway appeared?and empty too. So I hammered the accelerator and the C220 CDI sped up and took care of the rest. Passing the truck was a breeze. Now, I was on hilly and curvy roads that dived, rose again, took a sharp turn here and there, went downhill again, uphill again etc. I could see the metallic light blue SLK far ahead of me. I knew how to get to Trostberg, but I didn?t know where exactly to find this customer. Know what that meant? Wimmer had to be a badass and say ?Screw the speed limits!?. So I hammer the C220 CDI again and bring her up to 62 mph on roads where there?s a constant speed limit change from 70-80 km/h, sometimes even 60 km/h or lower. I caught up with him again. The R171 SLK sure looks badass from behind! [:sun:] Another thing, this salesman doesn?t give a sh*t about city speed limits (50 km/h). He drives through at 70 km/h, sometimes even more! I was fearing for my license here and trailed going already 60 km/h: 10 km/h above the limit! Scary scary?







BTW, that C220 CDI was the exact same car I drove last summer! M? SW 33 was the plate number. [:bigsmile:] Anyway, great car. The diesel engine was pretty quiet, the steering was heavy and weighted and very direct, which resulted in good handling. The suspension was hard too. The car handled safely and precise, very un-Mercedes-like (the ?precise? part).



We arrive at the place. A big upper-class style Bavarian farmhouse out in the country, a few km?s outside of Trostberg. In the drive way, a beater car, an early ?90s Volkswagen Passat Variant, a BMW 118d A/T, a 3 week old BMW 525i Touring A/T (Oh my God, a 525i?what an underpowered wannabe ultimate driving machine car! Like 190-hp!? What a joke! The Infiniti M35 will kill it so badly!!! [8)]) and one of the ugliest Benzes ever, the old S500 Coupe (W140 coupe), which belonged to the soccer players father I later found out. Mr. Ruhhaltinger knew the guy already so they talk like old pals. The guy sold his BMW 330Ci coupe and this SLK350 7Gtronic could replace it. I was more of a spectator during the whole formalities.



Anyway, time to go back. I get ready to get into the C220 CDI?s driver seat, but Mr. Ruhhaltinger wants to drive. I saw how he drove that SLK350? I was shitting my pants in fear of how he would abuse the C220 CDI. Well, he passed a 40 km/h sign going already 70 km/h!!! [:o] Once on the local country roads, he hammered the C-Class drifting into and out of curves. On nice long straight-aways, he got the car up to well over 140 km/h (87.5 mph). I was holding on to the roof hand grip and my palms were sweating. Ok, this guy worked years at Ferrari / Maserati, so he does know how to drive, no question about that. But I was scared to death the way he took extreme tight curves at high speeds. I had not the slightest doubt that the facelifted C220 CDI couldn?t handle it, but this guy was really pushing it. Despite this, the car was always stable and you didn?t feel as if it would come off the road. We made it back to M?hldorf in ?no-time? at all thanks to his Formula 1 style driving! He?s actually met Michael Schumacher, Luca di Monti? (that Ferrari boss) and tons of other big names in the business. He?s actually a really cool guy this Mr. Ruhhaltinger. While driving like a maniac, taking curves at 62 mph etc., he talked with this calmness as if he were driving with one of those golf cars on a golf course!







I commented on his nice driving skills and also on how this C220 CDI was keeping up. That?s when I found out that this C220 CDI is his current daily driver and that he finds the performance I quote ?completely adequate?: this coming from someone used to Ferrari?s and Maserati?s. Later he told me that he also drove tons of Maserati?s. 3200GT?s, Spider?s, the Coupe? You name it. He even drove the new Maserati Quattroporte as a daily driver for some time! I could learn a lot from this guy!



So today, this morning actually, him and me set out to pick up the SLK350 from the soccer player. Again, he insists on driving in the C220 CDI. Same old story as yesterday. He drove like a madman pushing the car. Really pushing it. I was holding on to dear life!



We meet up with the soccer player who told us that he loved everything about the SLK350, but the car was simply too small for him (and this dude was shorter than me by at least a foot!). Guess what car he wanted to drive next? Yep, the CLK350! God damn it, that?s my dream car!!! [:o] He?s really set in putting a Mercedes into his BMW118d and 525i Touring garage! [:P] The SLK was too small for him, so he goes to the next logical step, the CLK. I wanted to suggest the C-Class Sportscoupe since they will be offering the new 3.5-l V6 in that car as the C350 Sportcoupe, but I decided against it. I was only a low internee in a world full of celebrities! What do I know about cars? Especially Mercedes-Benz cars!?  :D



This time, I got to drive the SLK350: but only for a short while. Another customer, a lady, had booked a testdrive with the SLK350. Damn I love this car. Precise weighted steering, the 7Gtronic is friggin? amazing, stiff sporty suspension, well-shaped seats that prevent you from slipping in curves by filling up bags under the leather with air in seconds! Amazing car. Incidentally, this was the same SLK350 7Gtronic I had driven. Don?t believe me? Check the license plates.



We met the lady customer in front of an old rundown (looked abandoned) Bavarian country-style hotel. She drove a Smart ForFour 1.1 Pulse that belonged to the MB dealer in M?hldorf. The lady was in her late 30?s and pretty hot actually. You could tell from her accent when she spoke German that she was Eastern European, Czech maybe. Beauty!  



Guess who had to drive the Smart ForFour back to M?hldorf? A guy named Christian Wimmer. [:bigsmile:] Seriously, it wasn't bad at all though it looks so damn gimmicky!



But after writing all ^this^ and flooding the Pure Luxury section with testdrives, I?ll write the review up tomorrow.  

[Tom]

That guy sounds like a nut :o Sounds like fun, though  

[BMWDave]

I enjoyed reading this...its an extremely cool profession to work in high end companies and have a part in developing beautiful cars.

[TBR]

"and one of the ugliest Benzes ever, the old S500 Coupe (W140 coupe)"

The W140 S-class Coupe is one of my favorite MBs of all time...