AMG Driving Academy’s New Sessions Will Teach You How to Race—and Even Get Your License
The AMG badge is synonymous with the sporting side of Mercedes-Benz. The famed tuner, based in Affalterbach, Germany, started out making one-off racing machines and, in 1999, was folded into the iconic automaker’s portfolio. With its “one-man-one-engine” building ethos, AMG is, much like BMW’s M badge, a clarion call for the faithful. Enter the AMG Driving Academy, which has offered the public a chance to refine driving skills while sampling a broad range of Mercedes-AMG models since 2009. And class is now back in session for 2023.
On a recent spring day in Sonoma, Calif., I parked my 2005 E55 AMG sedan and settled in for a packed itinerary at Sonoma Raceway, a delightfully devilish track boasting off-camber, carousel turns and frequent elevation changes. My one-day Performance session ($1,995) represents the entry point to a suite of academy courses that are just kicking off and will run through Halloween, moving from Sonoma to Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Tex., and finally Road Atlanta in Braselton, Ga.
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There’s something about driving your nearly classic E55 to an AMG Driving Academy event. The sensation is akin to being a still-fit grandpa that shows up to a family reunion that’s filled with young whippersnappers. The kinship is unmistakable, but the new generation will leave gramps in the dust.
From the very start of my Performance day, it’s clear that there will be a Teutonic sense of logic and order to the program. It begins with a hearty breakfast followed by a briefing given by race-proven instructors on driving fundamentals, from braking in a straight line to apexing at the right corner location. Then, divided into groups, we head to a makeshift drag strip where we have to quickly get comfortable with high-speed blasts followed by full-stop braking.
Here’s where the first unexpected AMG revelation happens. The two cars for this exercise are the beastly AMG GT 63 S—its V-8 turbo good for 630 hp—and the automaker’s all-electric EQS, whose motors can deliver 751 hp (in Boost mode). While the AMG GT makes all the right snorts and grunts, its zero-emissions sibling offers tunnel-vision-inducing acceleration in eerie silence. Score one for non-boring EVs.
Next, we hit the raceway parking lot for some skid-pad exercises and autocross work. These building blocks of solid car control allow us to push a vehicle in ways we would never do in the real world. That’s especially true when prompting a six-figure car to lose its balance while driving in a soggy circle. At first, it’s easy to overdo things and dial in too much power, which results in oversteer and, at times, a 360-degree spin. But repeated tries in our AMG C 63 S sedans actually summon some semblance of a controlled circular drift, triggering grins from the 18 participants in the class. By contrast, trying to destabilize the cars while the traction controls are turned on seems nearly impossible.
Moving over to the autocross, we hop into what one could consider the baby AMG of the family, the CLA 45. Its 383 hp, four-cylinder power plant put it at the top of the horsepower-per-cylinder ladder, and the compact sedan proves just the right-sized scalpel to hustle through a snaking layout that ends with a full sprint into a dead-stop box of cones. Arrayed as the various exercises are, it’s easy see how AMG’s instructors are working to progressively grow our comfort level with aggressive maneuvers, while enabling us to gain tangible insights into the highly impressive electronic minders packed into each car.
All those skills—high-speed braking, maneuvering, skidding, cornering—are put to the test during the afternoon session. After a buffet lunch that found all participants wisely holding back, given the hijinks to come, we assemble in pit lane with helmets in hand. What follows is more than a dozen laps on Sonoma Raceway’s track, which routinely hosts everything from NASCAR to vintage racing.
We have four AMG chariots for the task ahead. First up, the newest incarnation of my old supercharged E55 AMG, the AMG E 63 S. The latter packs 603 hp, courtesy of a twin-turbo V-8. Word is that this will be the last year for many such massaged engines as Mercedes moves toward more hybridized and electric power-train configurations in 2024. While crazy capable, the E 63 S admittedly felt a bit tippy in the corners, no doubt the by-product of the vehicle’s more upright nature.
That sensation vanishes when we buckle into a fleet of totally redesigned 2022 AMG SLs, whose low-slung nature and more race-focused chassis dynamics seem custom made for this circuit’s sinuous tarmac. With a soft-top roof now replacing the former SL’s folding hardtop, most of the car’s weight is closer to the ground, allowing for truly impressive apexing, considering this is largely a backroads boulevardier. And body flex was imperceptible.
The only way to pry the group out of the SLs is by handing us the keys to the AMG kingdom: the AMG GT coupe and its raucous sibling, the AMG GT-R. There’s no better way to wrap an AMG Driving Academy day than by logging seat time in these machines. By applying newly acquired skills developed during the previous six hours of drills, it’s easy to wring maximum enjoyment from these overtly muscular and athletic models that suddenly seem woefully underutilized on the road. Handling is razor sharp, even into the most off-camber of turns; the carbon-ceramic brakes bolstering our confidence as we decelerate from 120 mph to 20 mph in a flash; and the noises are, well, nothing short of life-affirming.
For those looking to take the next steps, there are also two-day Advanced ($4,495) and Pro ($5,195) classes, followed by a one-day Pro+ course ($3,995) that focuses on track telematics and nets you a Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) license for racing. There are also a couple of courses devoted to perfecting the controlled slide, the one-day Drift ($1,995) and Drift+ ($2,495) offerings.
All told, whether it’s to gain a better understanding of vehicle handling and track dynamics or simply sample a broad range of Mercedes-AMG models, there’s no better way to accomplish both than by spending time at the AMG Driving Academy. Just remember, the crowning moment of the class is a blistering hot lap with an unleashed instructor in an AMG GT-R, so go easy on lunch. You’ll thank me later.
Click here for more photos of the 2023 AMG Driving Academy.
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