ge4838498572010790467
Mike Sinclair5 May 2014
NEWS

Degree of difficulty

It's not every day you roll a car and walk away without a scratch

It happened in a split-second but, ironically, went on for what seemed an eternity.

It’s clichéd, but after the initial slide everything seemed to slow down. Enough so for my racing driver and AMG instructor passenger, Nathan, to remark almost nonchalantly in the midst of it all: “I don’t believe it”.

In streaming wet conditions, just as we passed under the bridge on Phillip Island’s main straight, the Mercedes-Benz E 63 AMG I was driving aquaplaned on standing water. The car snapped violently sideways and, at well northwards of 140km/h, we were suddenly both passengers.

I wound on opposite lock instinctively, but there was no way the car was coming back. All the counter-steering in the world, nor the very best electronic stability control, won’t help when there’s a wedge of water between the rubber and the road and physics takes over.

When you’re that out of shape, all you can do is grab all the brakes you have at your disposal and try to get the car stopped.

It stopped.

Eventually…

Fully 200 metres further down the track.

In a paddock…

On its roof!

Before that, we clouted the Armco on the left-hand side of straight on the edge of the MotoGP pit road exit hard enough to push the fence over.

This created a ramp which the car climbed and then proceeded to complete a near-airborne half-roll along the top of the Armco. It then landed hard on the driver’s side, bouncing then skidding, still at high speed, for another 100 metres or so before the 'ground roll' proper was completed.

The now-inverted and already very bent E 63 then ploughed a gouge into the sodden infield turf for another 50 metres or so before it finally stopped.

The fact I’m writing this, and in fact I was driving another AMG on the very same track within a short time (after a medical check), is testament to safety features built into the E and, indeed, every Mercedes-Benz.

The ferocity of the incident was such that even Benz and AMG’s most experienced local execs and driver trainers who witnessed it from the track (in other cars) and the control tower feared the worst. Yet in the car, we were almost literally shaken not stirred.

By the time we emerged from the car unaided, Nathan and I were surrounded by AMG instructors and a crash crew -- and the paramedics were just metres away. Their collective response was impeccable.

The looks on their faces filled in all the blanks. A proper look at the wreck later in the day confirmed what had caused their concern. It had been a BIG one -- a VERY BIG one.

We were without so much as a scratch thanks to the E-Class’ myriad safety systems.

Four of the E-Class’ 11 airbags deployed on my (driver’s) side of the car as the car sensed the rollover. The side, curtain and pelvic bag effectively protected my head and body from the impact with the road on the driver’s side. Yet the onboard computers were smart enough to keep the rest in reserve – the discharge of an unnecessary airbag can cause significant injury.

If the worst had happened and the car started to tumble, the bags on Nathan’s side of the car would then have kicked into action. Inflation takes milliseconds and, I can vouch, is something you don’t even notice in the violence of the crash itself.

The seatbelt pretensioners also effectively pre-empted the impact and secured us in our seats. They kept us there for the duration of the gyrations – even when we were completely upside down. Had it needed to, Mercedes’ PRE-SAFE system could have closed the windows and moved the front seats in fractions of a second to better position us for airbag deployment.

Then as soon as crash sensors detected the impact, the car automatically switched off the fuel pumps and re-opened the sunroof and windows to ensure that the pyrotechnic gases from the airbags were expelled. As it happened, there was no need to open the sunroof, the roll on the Armco had shashed it.

My initial application of brakes was hard enough to fire off the E-Class’ flashing brake lamps. PRE-SAFE also automatically triggered the hazard lights.

A significant proportion of the weight of the car was applied as a point load on the area adjacent to the top of the windscreen frame and roof directly above our heads as the car rolled. Yet when things finally went quiet, I was able to unclip my belt and crawl out of the inverted E – the driver’s door opened as normal.

Indeed, for all the destructive forces at work, the passenger safety cell was totally intact. Later as we videoed the wreck we were able to open and close all four doors. The only thing that spoiled the traditional Benz ‘thunk’ was the tinkling of smashed glass in both front doors.

Always proud of my driving, after knowing my co-driver was okay, my concern was that I’d precipitated the off. What had I done wrong?

The ‘post-mortem’ (perhaps not a good term to use but I’ll stick with it) would have been longer and more complex had I run wide in Turn Eight on a hot lap, for example, or been too greedy with the throttle and spun wildly off the track at Southern Loop. To my relief, it was made very clear that the sideways snap was a result of rapidly changing track surface conditions that had generated a large sheet of standing water and was simply unrecoverable.

One lap before Phillip Island’s main straight had been slippery – in the space of a few minutes, extra heavy rain had made it diabolical.

The unpredictability of the incident will forever make me more cognisant of the risks presented by aquaplaning – even in a car with near-new, high-performance rubber and on what is one of the best road surfaces you’re ever likely to drive on.

On the track and when I've rallied, I've always been very careful about the quality of the build that went into our racercars. The golden rule is if you’re going to have a crash: it’s advisable to do it in a car that’s built to do exactly that – crash. Road car's survivability is all about the expertise of the OEM. Something to consider when you buy your next car...

A few days on I wonder about a number of aspects of our ‘adventure’. Of one thing, however, I have no doubt: the safety engineered into ‘my’ once-gleaming silver E 63 AMG saved both myself and Nathan from serious injury. Or, God forbid, perhaps even worse.

Share this article
Our team of independent expert car reviewers and journalistsMeet the team
Stay up to dateBecome a carsales member and get the latest news, reviews and advice straight to your inbox.
Disclaimer
Please see our Editorial Guidelines & Code of Ethics (including for more information about sponsored content and paid events). The information published on this website is of a general nature only and doesn’t consider your particular circumstances or needs.

If the price does not contain the notation that it is "Drive Away", the price may not include additional costs, such as stamp duty and other government charges.
Download the carsales app
    AppStoreDownloadGooglePlayDownload
    App Store and the Apple logo are trademarks of Apple Inc. Google Play and the Google Play logo are trademarks of Google LLC.
    © CAR Group Ltd 1999-2024
    In the spirit of reconciliation we acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their Elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.