handbrake turns?

[benzo]

is it possible to do a handbrake turn in mercs which have the 'footbrake' and dash release?

Im not necessarily talking about bombing along and stamping on the footbrake. Im interested to know if controlled handbrake turns can be done and done smoothly.

thanks

Edited by benzo on Thursday 14th September 18:16

[sneijder]

If you're an Octopus, for sure !

[markmullen]

benzo said:

is it possible to do a handbrake turn in mercs which have the 'footbrake' and dash release?

But don't ask me how I know

It takes some practice though.

Edited by markmullen on Friday 15th September 13:38

[sneijder]

Part of the PDI ?

[markmullen]

sneijder said:

Part of the PDI ?

Trade car fun!

[sneijder]

Used to work at a Proton garage, a garage that used to be a Lada dealership. Lada swappers went to the scrappers direct, do not pass go. We used to have lots of fun making the 2 mile final journey with hand brake fully applied to see how much heat/smoke we could make.

[benzo]

sneijder said:

Part of the PDI ?

Whats pdi?

I've driven past a few diplomatic mercs before. They are distinguishable as they have fittings in the front wings for flying flags & dvla special registration numbers.

Years back & on the way to work, I had to drive down a M'way which went to an international airport. To fill the boredom, I used to tailgate the diplomatic mercs on there way to the airport.

The drivers where clearly alert and new what they where doing. I found that 'concerning' the driver of a diplomatic car, would cause him to react. If you stressed out a diplomatic driver, he would freak out. I found it massively entertaining watching a small chinese diplomat sitting in the back of merc being smashed around the rear seats, as the driver took 'defensive action'.

I believe in millitary terms defensive driving is a large part of 'close protection'

As MB has a diplomatic sales department, i was wondering how they sell cars that cant be easily thrown around in a pickle? Do the diplomatic mercs have 'normal' handbrakes?

Anyone know?.

Edited by benzo on Saturday 16th September 00:52

[slinky]

I seem to remember seeing instructions for doing a handbrake turn in a merc in a magazine a while back, you need to be able to dance like fred astair, and play the drums like buddy rich!

slinky

[markmullen]

benzo said:

As MB has a diplomatic sales department, i was wondering how they sell cars that cant be easily thrown around in a pickle? Do the diplomatic mercs have 'normal' handbrakes?

Anyone know?.

One of my customers was in that line of work, he said that to use a fully armoured S Class for extreme defensive driving was difficult as the weight of the car meant the footbrake wouldn't be enough to perform spins and handbrake turns so they would have an additional flyon handbrake like a rally car retrofitted

[pentoman]

sneijder said:

If you're an Octopus, for sure !

The rear discs will make them hard to pull off though... and all Mercs have had rear discs since the '50s, apart from the A-class...
A 190E has a normal handbrake - It's not very good at all. I think that might by a reason for why they have the foot-hand brake is because they're crap at hand-handbrakes!