Road - Dense Van Outing

Well, that was an action packed Mercedes-Benz van driving day. Four presentations and four driving sessions. Started with the off-road course at the Prodrive test track facility, but it was rather dry. Just when you could do with a bit of glaur, the weather turns all Mediterranean on us.

M-B had 227 guests in attendance, and over 10 days with over 200 folk each day, it gives some idea of the operation - hence this 'temporary structure' on site.

Then it was the fuel economy challenge followed by lunch and a few spins afterwards on the skid pan and pave, and finally a demonstration of violent lane-changing at 45 mph on the Bosch section. Maybe the spicy beef ragout, rice and nan bread wasn't such a good idea after all.

It's amazing who you can bump into at these events. Howard Wilcox (ace navigator/co-driver) was in charge of some of the outdoor events while our 'instructor' on the skid pan was Welshman, Matt Edwards (ace rally driver) who will actually be competing in a MkII on this Saturday's DMACK Carlisle Stages Rally!

The new Sprinter was there too, but only on show. It doesn't go on sale here till August so we couldn't get our mitts on it. Having said that, it doesn't look that much different from current Sprinter, although a new radiator grille treatment and headlamp cluster will make it easily identifiable.