BHPian vjbox recently shared this with other enthusiasts: ‘Dream Day’ you ask ? Yes indeed. How often do we see an ensemble of some of the best Mercedes vehicles at once ? The event was the very best of cars, enthusiasts, executives, drivers, engineers all coming together and share the passion. Team BHP and the MBIL team left no stones unturned. MBIL really went out of their way in arranging everything to perfection. The welcome, the line up, the food, the hospitality, the presentation, the engaging Q&A, the plant tour, activities – everything was planned and executed to a “T” As soon as I received the invite from Omkar, I immediately booked my flights for the Nov 21st. It just didn’t matter that there were no direct flights from Coimbatore to Pune that day. I happily connected via Hyderabad and arrived in a relaxed manner after having booked myself at a nearby Hotel. The interesting part ? The next day morning, I was waiting to get a cab at the Hotel Lobby and I saw a well dressed gentleman sitting beside me and he was joined by a couple of other gentlemen. I somehow had a hunch that they could be there for the event but I didnt want to poke them. My hunch or intuition was right the moment I saw the Macan and I could recognize it was Rev8’s ( Nitish) as I had read his review on how he acquired that beauty. I also saw his post on driving down from Bangalore on this thread. I waved at him as he came out of the parking lot and he naturally thought some stranger is trying to ask for a lift. He reluctantly rolled the window down and I asked him whether he was Rev8 heading to the MB event. Also when I came to know the man sitting beside me at the Lobby was Speedmeiseter ( Ajit) and the other gentleman msdivy. I hitchhiked with them and had the pleasure of experiencing his slick Macan. That thing doesn’t sound or behave like a 4 pot motor and pounces at every press of the pedal ! I am sure he and the guys had a great deal of fun driving to and fro. Rev8’s slick Macan! Most of us had a baseline expectation on the event but didnt quite imagine it would go on to be at a different level. I kind of realized it the moment we entered the BU Bhandari showroom premises. The media team began taking the shots. Upon arrival, we were warmly welcomed by Amrit, Ritu from the MBIL team accompanied by a stunning lineup of vehicles. You name your favorite Mercedes, they had it ! Machines cared for before the drive Aditya, GTO and the MB India team then briefed us on the day’s schedule. Vehicle and Team BHPians*allocations. I am right up there ! To ensure a smooth experience, the car allocations were made in advance: two BHPians per car, with different vehicles assigned for the onward and return journeys between the showroom and the Chakan plant. No confusion whatsoever. GTO, Aditya and Omkar briefing us on the event ahead. They ensured everything was in absolute order. There was not an iota of chance for any chaos! Recognize the man ? With Gaurav, Center of Gravity and Shifu!Spending Time With The Mercedes-AMG SL 55And yes, luck continued to favor me as I was assigned a SL55 AMG and to top it all it was with the man himself, our beloved GTO. I knew I was in for a ride quite literally. The journey was to take us more than an hour given the infamous roads and traffic of Pune. Despite the challenging traffic and road conditions, we enjoyed the drive, safely seizing every opportunity for an acceleration run. The SL55 continued to put smiles on our face with that lusty 4L V8 with Bi Turbo kicking in and shooting us off. How we wished we had some clean, free roads that day! The 30-km journey took us about an hour or so, and GTO and I spent the time discussing cars, cars and some more cars and of course, travel, and how fortunate we were in general. Hey – Can I buy you a Drive? Yep, The SL 55 it is! Yours truly – the grin on the face kept getting wider ! All right onto some POV shots ! Arriving at the MBIL plant in style ! The SL55 is such a beautiful machine to drive and it just doesn’t feel intimidating. Of course you need to be careful taming it as it can easily unleash all that power and scare you out. But what surprised me was how almost practical it was driving on bad roads. We of course had to the crab maneuver to ensure it doesn’t scrape any of those unscientific humps but otherwise for the most part it held really well. Its got a easier steering which is very pointy, superb seating position with that long bonnet sticking out and incredible braking force to shed that speed in a jiffy. It got all the attention from the traffic and by passers which we gladly enjoyed! Posing with the collection. The imposing G just draws you in and dwarfs you Upon reaching the plant we were again welcomed by the MBIL Executive team comprising of Mr Shekar Das, Deputy GM along with MD and CEO Mr Santosh Iyer himself to welcome us. Mr Santosh then went on to give us a great presentation as he walked us through the journey of MB India with their incredible growth and achievements. It was both a humbling and a proud experience to be able to hear from the CEO of MBIL on how he takes Team BHP seriously and the sort of respect he showed. I mean one of the best car makers out there in the world is telling how he admires our forum and its members. That speaks volume about the impact we make. We gladly took that on behalf of all BHPians out here. Being welcomed by the MD and CEO Mr Santosh Iyer We continued to munch some great food during the presentation and I loved the way the seating arrangements were done making it a very relaxed affair and not a typical audience seating. Some Fine food and fine presentation ! I am sure we all have our impressions, assumptions and judgements on a brand like Mercedes in India but only when we hear it from the leadership themselves we realize what it takes to run such a behemoth of an org that too with the prohibitive tax structures, inconsistent policies and regulations in our country. While yes they are a German company at the end of the day I could resonate with his statement in someway where he says MB India is as Swadeshi. That’s because of the kind of investments, commitment they have shown over the years in India. They have literally built the talent, man power, resources from scratch which is on par to the German standards. Its an impressive feat of what they have done in the last 30+ years in India and how far they have come. They have even electrified a small remote village in MH using the EQS batteries creating impact at a local level. Mr Santosh and GTO had fireside chat and then let the floor open for some very interesting Q&A. Mr Santosh responded to the questions with a lot of zeal and articulated the answers really well. He also ensured he met pretty much most of us, shook hands as he left. He did mention that he wanted to spend the entire day but had other last hour clashing engagements. Mr Santosh signing off Inside The Mercedes-Benz India PlantThe event was broken down into multiple segments. To start with we were taken through the body shop where we witnessed how several popular models like the GLE, GLS are being put together with precision welding both manually and robotically. All the parts including the pre stamped steel and aluminum panels are imported from their global regions. The KUKA Robots in action. Piercing and Rivetting. The Body shop goes through a meticulous process and there is even a random sampling station where a high end Zeiss machine ( I guess a ZEISS ScanBox ) which measures every dimension of the body checking for tight tolerances for quality control. I was curiously asking for the odds of any deviation and the answer was “There is never a deviation” The German engineering answer to the top quality. The best part that most of us were impressed is the fact that it just doesn’t look like a plant in a traditional sense. Its not one of those boring factory sheds that you typically come across. Its built more like a modern engineering, corporate campus with a contemporary architecture. The campus itself is about 100 acres and is split between various functions like Bodyshop, assembly, painting, warehouse, training academy etc. Every building is thoroughly maintained with very high safety and hygiene standards. No grime, no dust, no mess anywhere to be seen. It is as clean as it gets and you could eat off the floor! The parts assembly section was the most interesting area where most of us kept drooling at. Those high end engineering components being put together part by part is a sight to behold. We then witnessed the “Marriage” where the body is joined with the drive train and chassis. An emotional sight for the car makers and I was virtually throwing Akshatha We then witnessed the finished cars getting rolled out, going through various other tests on the Dyno, a shower test and an external audit where someone tests the car like a end customer. The same person also takes the vehicle for a test drive. Next up we moved to MBIL academy where Mr Amit ( Ex Army) walked us through the training program and explained how their trainers get trained in the German HQ, come back and in turn train the new trainees. Their retention rate is higher than 85% he says as most of them continue working with MB given the image and brand value it commands. He heads the warehouse too with its complex operation which is managed very efficiently and nearly 30,000 parts of various SKUs are stocked / replenished on a daily, weekly, monthly basis. While most are shipped, depending on the urgency some part arrive through air. The stocks are ordered majorly from Malaysia, China and Germany with majority of the parts coming from Malaysia. Some of the parts here are more than 10-12 years old which means they likely have a part for your 2012 Mercedes. For older cars, he says they can always back order it from the HQ which even has parts for classic cars. The warehouse was again maintained in top shape with cooler ambient temperatures. By now most us were starving and again a 5 star catered lunch was waiting for us. Thoughtfully curated by the MBIL team and all of us relished it!Getting Behind The Wheel Of The Mercedes-AMG G 63The next segment was having fun with the AMG 45S in the Auto cross. As we were getting ready to go that section, some of us were drooling over the G 63! Rahul from MB noticed and started a passionate conversation on what makes it a true G and indestructible. This is also one of those Gs which has the AMG ride control which means that you can drive it on track and even corner it. Rahul was saying how the earlier Gs would scare you out when you push it in corners and how this one doesnt. While other groups were getting chauffeured, he offered to accompany us and let me drive the G. Aboard the G63 ( you dont get into the G, you climb! ) The passionate conversation continued for the next few minutes where we were talking about why the suspension is the way it is and how people buy and hold on to this for decades. On the way we had one stretch were he asked me to slam the A pedal to experience its acceleration. I gave enough room ahead of me and put the foot down and this piece of marvelous engineering starts to defy physics and accelerates. The V8 screams, the hood lifts as it moves blisteringly quick and filled the gap ahead!Time For The Autocross Event Onboard The Mercedes-AMG A45SWe arrived at the Auto Cross event where the MBIL team had a setup a small neat track with cones consisting of tight turns, slaloms, and bends. The instructor gave us a briefing and showed how to do it as pro! It was all about control, The Mercedes stories app connects with the Track Pace on the AMG 45s recording all the telemetry data of the race including the onboard video of you driving. This is so well engineered and integrated and is super handy for those who do regular tracks days in their AMG 45s. Showed this to my wife who is an Automobile software engineer herself working in telemetry and she was equally impressed. Hot Hatch ! My goal you ask? Dont hit a single cone and not wreck the car ! Some of us BHPians were having a fun conversation around this. But man that car is a rocket! The chassis is super responsive, agile, 4matic with rear wheel bias, quick and goes exactly where you ask it to. Brakes on the dot ! This is when some of us were thinking what a hoot it would have been had we had that on a track! The video just feels like a screen grab from a racing sim like GT7. Dont even ask my lap times. If the slowest laps had a leaderboard, I would be topping it! We then moved on to the Off road section where we were shown the capabilities of the GLS. Just before we were moving to that section, we were invited to witness the G580’s wizardry. AKA the “G Turn” This tech allows the G to do a 360 deg spin on its own axis where the 4 independently driven wheels spins on opposite direction. Pivoted to the ground, it spins right there and its a sight to behold. The Driver did a spin and I was like Whoa! You spin my head right round, right round The 360 spin in action !Off-roading With The Mercedes-Benz GLSNow on to the GLS off-roading. Again we all have our judgements or assumptions on a car of this caliber. It surprised most of us with its robust off-roading ability. The axle articulation, approach and departure angles, its center of gravity everything was right up there and should allow to take on most of the offroad scenarios with ease. No its not the camera angle ! Hey I can almost touch the ground if I roll the windows down ! The 47 deg incline was the best part. I was at the front seat and when the pro driver stopped right at the edge of the incline, I almost thought the road was ending there And then he did a quick plunge – it is as vertical as it gets! On the same incline he stopped the GLS midway to show its hill holding capabilities. While this is something we witness on most main stream vehicles these days, the implementation on the GLS had a lot more finesse as it effortlessly moved up from that position without moving an mm behind. Then came the side slope maneuver where the GLS again held its balance on a 30 deg slope. I was appreciating its center of gravity with our BHPian Center of Gravity at the back seat. He was almost looking like holding on to dear life. Towards the end of the event, they had Prize giveaways for the AutoX winners and we were given some very cool swags too. Swag! With that we wrapped the event up after some casual chatter with Mr Shekar who was talking to us about his G Class experience in Graz and said he would love to host an event in Graz in the future. We all jokingly asked where to sign up ! ( GTO please tell us if this is for real ! ) We then got onto our rides back to the showroom. Sunilch and I took the GLS and hauled it back in some very tight traffic. Its a behemoth but easier to drive. The diesel power train is super silent ,refined and puts down plenty of power at the bottom end. Inching back in the Traffic that evening That particular model like Sunil had called out seemingly had some suspension issues as it kept crashing on the potholes. We reported it to the Driver and I hope the machine is given some love and care back at the Plant. During the drive, Sunil and I discussed cars, life and had a fun chat all through. And then Sunil and Omkar were heading back to Mumbai and kindly dropped at the Hotel for a final goodbye. This was out and out a dreamy event. I was telling this to some of the BHPians over a round table chat that after all the forum posts, it felt a bit unreal to have conversation about cars in person exchanging thoughts in real time. Built some great relationships that I hope would get carried over for life. Some great folks! Until the next event! Us with the MBIL Team Check outBHPian commentsfor more insights and information.
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BHPian's day out at the Mercedes-Benz India plant; Also drove the SL 55
