ZigWheels Wins Mercedes-Benz AMG Driving Academy Challenge

For the uninitiated, the Mercedes-Benz AMG Driving Academy is a beginners training program offered for those who wish to garner better driving skills as well as learn more about being behind the wheel of a high-performance machine. With trainers of global repute, the academy is open to anyone who can splurge about Rs 80,000/- for a two day session which includes both theoretical and practical training. It might sound steep, however the program is rather intensive and the improvement in driving skills across the participants is visibly noticeable by the end of the event, especially through the final competition course, where participants have to put their skills to test against the clock!

The competition involved a handling course set up in a parking lot, and the driver’s had to make their way through the twists, turns and finally come to a complete halt in a box at the end of the track. The rules of the game are relatively simple; knock a cone over and gain 3 seconds of penalty points, overshoot the parking box and gain 5 penalty points, and of course the driver with the least time wins.

The final round boiled down to five drivers and after having spent a day in training on various courses including the emergency braking test, the slalom test, cornering and handling test, and finally the full circuit lap test, it was finally time to witness just how much each driver had learnt in a day of practical driver training. Each car got only a single shot at the track, and Team ZigWheels returned with two wins! Coming in Third place was ZigWheels.com correspondent Sukhpreet Singh who managed to clock a solid 16.1 seconds on the course. Second place went to a fellow journalist from a rival publication-Vikram Chaudhary, who managed a solid 15.6 seconds to complete the course, however top honours went to ZigWheels’ Chief Content Developer and Writer Vikram Gour, who managed a stellar 14.7 seconds!

As the event came to an end, the driver’s were given a final briefing and a certificate of completion of the course. Now, the only thing to look forward to is the advance driving course that Mercedes-Benz AMG Driving Performance Academy is planning on introducing in the near future.