Mercedes Benz world Driving day- The Kids event

Mercedes Benz world Driving day- The Kids event

A new year and a new Media Driving day. This time it is back at Mercedes Benz world and along with the media, their Children are also invited. This is very much their day.

As well as the usual array of cars to drive including the new A class and SL the children are also invited to drive on the learner track and the 4x4 course in an ML.

My son Charlie is very much up for this and within minutes of arriving we are booking him in to have a go on the 4x4 off road course. Apart from a dodgem car this is the first time he has ever got behind the wheel. But more of that Latter.

I am anxious to get behind the wheel of an A class, with all the hype I wanted to see what it was like for myself.

 A 250 BlueEFFICIENCY ENGINEERED BY AMG, is the version I have picked.  This is a very quick A class with a 0-62 of 6.6 seconds. Unfortunately I don’t have any images of this car as we had very little time in it, due to the fact we had to get back to Mercedes Benz world in time for Charlie’s first driving lessonThe car he will be driving is an ML with a price tag of nearly 50,000 GBP. Scary stuff indeed. Luckily it did have dual controls.

So we made our way down to the front of the building. Within a few minutes the instructor arrived in the  car, and we were driven to the course.

Now it was Charlie’s turn and amazingly he just fell into driving, apart from his love of speed, which probably isn’t a good idea considering we are about to go through deep water and rough muddy roads. To be fair as with most Mercedes is it automatic so he doesn’t have to worry about the gears, but for some one that has never driven before and is only 12 years old he does amazingly well.

After about 30 minutes of driving, we are on our way out again and the ML is in one piece and there is a giant smile on Charlie’s face.

This scheme was launched just over 3 years ago and I was the photographer asked to shoot the original PR pictures for this concept, so it was very nice to shoot my own son driving the course.

The SL500

This is an incredible sports car. Perfect for all conditions hard top for this time of the year yet open top car when the sun comes out. With its 4.7 Litre V8 32 valve engine this car moves, in fact when I floored the accelerator pedal my son jumped in his seat, this is a quick car mind you we started from 30 and only went up to the speed limit, but it was quite a jolt. Handling wise it's  great, and the  looks we got from other cars drivers made us both smile.

If you don’t unlike me have to carry around a lot of stuff, it's worth a look. I love this car, mind you it is a toss up between the SLK,

Time was tight as Charlie was getting hungry, but I want to drive another car and so we did.This time it was the

C 250 BlueEFFICIENCY AMG SPORT PLUS COUPÉ

7G-TRONIC PLUS SEVEN-SPEED AUTOMATIC

Personally I am a big fan of the C Class, I have driven this car many times and every time they put a smile on my face. Never before have I driven the coupe but true to form it performed perfectly. Power wise it was good. It has a turbo charged 1.8l Diesel engine with a 31 MPG urban and 49.6 extra urban, it’s 0-62 is 7.9 seconds, which may explain why I feel the fuel consumption is high for a car, but I suppose that is the price you pay.

I did enjoy driving it and look forward to doing more in depth reports.

The ML’s on the track

This was an a agility test.First up was the ML 63 AMG 4MATIC. This is a car I have driven before but then it was on the road. As I have mentioned in the past I am not a fan of 4x4’s unless you live in the countryside though with the weather we have at the moment I can see their uses. However on the track the AMG performed amazingly and with it’s speed sensitive air springs enables the 4x4 to remain upright through tight corners.

The next ML was the ML 350 BlueTEC 4MATIC SPORT. This is a more economical version than the AMG a V6 instead of a V8. It also doesn’t sport the speed sensitive air springs which means there is more roll round and corners and after driving the AMG you notice the lack of performance, though it is no slouch.

An interesting drive with a very good instructor sat in the passenger seat.

Back to Charlie’s drive. This time it was a B class on the Brooklands bends. These are the original curves from the days of the track, though their surface is seriously showing it’s age though I hear is about to be resurfaced, which for the young learners is probably a good idea, as it turns all cars into bone shakers

Anyway back to Charlie’s driving and yet again his steering is A* but then I would say that, wouldn’t I. During the drive he did manage to take a cone out, but the cone lived, so no damage, otherwise he did very well negotiating the roundabout and also the parking challenge which is no mean feat. All in all a good drive.

Back to the the desk to get a new car to drive. I wanted to drive the A class again as I really hadn’t put it through it’s paces, he had other ideas, guess who won.

The SL 350 ROADSTER

As you have already guessed my son won. He likes sports cars, as do I, this car handles much like it’s bigger brother and with a 0-62 of 5.9 secs and a top speed of 155 mph can certainly move. Economy wise it does 28,5 in town.

We had a lot of fun driving this through the country lanes and used the opportunity to test out the fun factor driving around the bends and being able to test the performance on the straights.

Next time weather permitting it will be a fleet day and I have decided to go for less cars but more in depth reports, so will be back in February.

Mercedes Benz cars driving day

I have been rather absent with this Blog for the best part of this year, but have come back to try to resurrect it. Anyway the first post goes like this........

Media driving day's organised by the Mercedes Benz Press office

Mercedes Benz World Brooklands

In the last couple of month’s I have been invited by Mercedes Benz to join them in their Media driving days. The first of which was held on Sunny day in September at Mercedes Benz world.

This day was mainly based around their AMG range, so basically muscle cars. The first I drove was the ML  63 AMG 4matic. I have to say I am not a fan of “Chelsea tractors”, they are fine for farmers and others who need their off road abilities, but for doing the school run or the shopping totally crazy.

Being use to driving much smaller cars, all be it in the past Mondeo estates and similar, I still found it massive. As I drove out of Brooklands the sheer size of the thing made me feels apprehensive. Out in the traffic, the higher view point was great, but I think I am a boy racer at heart and like to be close to the ground.

Away from my personal feelings the car is unbelievable, you have a 4x4 capable of going across a field of mud, with a racing car at its heart. Scary!. Admittedly the off road capabilities I didn’t test. However I have photographed many M class Mercs going through the 4x4 course at MBW, in the course of my work, performing this task well.

Stats wise. This model has a V8 4 valves per cylinder 5.5 litre petrol engine, linked to a AMG speedshift plus 7G-Tronic automatic gearbox. Producing 0-62 in 4.8 secs and a top speed of 155 MPG, but add the AMG driver package and it will do 174.

Considering the vastness of this car its urban MPG is 18 MPG with extra urban coming in at 29.4 mpg

For all this car, the basic model will set you back. £82,995.00 include Vat. The car I drove has a fair bit on it and this will set you back a mere £104,815.00.

Next, came my favourite car of the day. This was the SLK55 AMG. This is a 5.5 litre V8 AMG engine. A 0-62 of  4.6 secs and reaching a limited top speed of 155 mph. This was a muscle car that has been tamed, though if you wanted to you could release its inner animal.

There is a price for all this, but at 54,965.00 GBP on the road, maybe not quite as much as you might think. However the car pictures come in at 63.225 GBP .

This is due to options such as driving assistance package, which has active blind spot and assist lane keeping, as well as  a panoramic vario-roof with magic sky control. I didn’t  get to test this as I had the roof down the whole time, but it would be great in the winter when you want to see the sky but keep warm.

Unfortunately the roads around Weybridge other than the M25 and the A3 don’t lend themselves to high speed driving, and you don’t want to go crazy with speed on the M25, but this car feels happy around town, like a pussy cat. I think if I really wanted to enjoy this car the road for me living in the south would be the A24. It would truly tell me how great it really is.

It is a great open top two seater sports car all in all a great car.

The final car of the day was the biggest monster of the lot. The SLS AMG Roadster. A 6.3 V8 that growls. This is no pussy cat and it lets you know that.It can get to 62 in 3.8 sec and keeps going all the way 197 mph. Not that I could try that out or anyway near it.

One thing you do know you are in a real racer. Driving through the lanes, the car just hangs on and you glide like you are on rails around the corner. The interior on the car supplied is in Two-tone designo leather upholstery, which feels great. It is the ultimate sports car. Probably best on the track, but great on country roads, but watch out for the potholes.

What gets you when first sitting in it, is the sheer size of the bonnet, it goes on for every, and you really feel like you are sitting in a cockpit.

That said you need to be pro footballer or similar to afford it, as it has a basic price tag of £176,925.00, and with the added options on this car there is the carbon fibre package which consists of  AMG carbon-fibre trim along with trim panels on seat backrests, sides of  seats and door sill panels. Price £6,000.00. Bang & Olufsen BeoSound AMG. Eleven high-performance speakers with two illuminated tweeter lenses £5,055, plus other options, pushes this car to £195,895.00.

Get your wallets out now.

The second Mercedes Driving day was a more sober affair, and something that is very close to me Economical cars. Though no one said they had to be boring and they certainly weren’t.

The average 0-62 of the cars I drove was 7.5 secs, and this was squed up due to the B class having a 0-62 of 10.7. Whereas if you took this out . The average without the B class is 6.7 secs from 0-62 secs. Sorry if I’m hung up about this, but for diesels, that is incredible. Now the bad bit the average urban fuel consumption again for these four cars, but it’s not bad, it’s  43.65 and this includes the massive S class. That is incredible.

The Diesel Cars.

C250 CDI BlueEfficiency AMG Sport Saloon.

I am in love with car. Not just this one but the C class in general. I was given the opportunity back in 2010 to have one for a long weekend, and the car is a dream to drive.

Within 5 mins of being in this C Class I was back in the Zone. I could have driven this around all day. It was so comfortable, it’s like sitting in a sofa on wheels, with added fun.

The great thing is even in the saloon version it is a load lugger. It has a huge boot, and can cart around all the family’s needs.

For the figures 0-62 is coming in at 7.1 , Fuel consumption urban 45.6, extra urban 65.70. So you could say you can have it all great handling, great performance and good fuel consumption. Figures quoted are manufacturer figures, personal enjoyment and the emotion I write is my own.

SLK 250 CDI BlueEFFICIENCY AMG SPORT

I wrote about this same car in an earlier report. This time the car comes in the CDI guise. The car is fun to drive and apart from the growling engine, it’s is as much fun to drive as it’s brother.

Driving through the lane it is a joy to drive and again with all these CDI’s the fuel consumption is impressive as is the performance. 0-62 is 6.7 secs all the way to 151 mph.

B 180 CDI BlueEFFICIENCY SPORT 

I said at the beginning I am a Boy racer at heart, and I am sorry I am not sexist but this is a great Mum’s car, or even Dad’s car for picking the kids up from school, but that’s about it. It is boring. It might be the sports version, but there is nothing sports about it.

Having previously been driving the C class and the SLK on the roads around Milton Keynes, I drove out of the Mercedes Benz HQ car park straight on the the dual carriageway and put my foot down and nothing happened. I’m sorry but there are lots of boring looking cars, not that I’m saying the B class is, but they are not necessarily boring to drive.

Sorry but this is not a car for me. However it does do 56.5 mpg around town  and over 70 on extra urban so take your choice.

S 350 L BlueTEC

I drove this car with much reticence. The sheer size of it frightened me. It is huge . However once I got it on the open road I was in love, and couldn’t believe someone had trusted me to drive it. It was magic.

As I said it before, this car is huge and being someone use to driving an Astra estate, terrified of manoeuvring this car around.

This car feels like a living room on wheels and is so comfortable, thought to be honest, I really think and I know I’m stating the obvious this really is not an everyday family car.

However yet again cruising at 60 it still does over 40MPG, well it does according to the big dial on the dash board.

SL 350 ROADSTER

This is a cool car, it looks great, it drives great and drives with poise and greatness. It has a class of its own and I really enjoyed driving it, Somehow I feel this is not a car that appeals to the youth, but a more middle aged, discerning driver, that doesn’t need to carry loads of stuff around.

I enjoyed driving it, and with a 0-62 of  5.9 it can move, and it has a top speed of 155 mph, but it does come at a price, urban figures are 28.5 and combined 37.7 mpg and the price for this car comes in at 72,495 GBP plus the extra’s on this car pushes it to 85645 GBP.

I have had so much fun driving these cars and looking forward to next month if they will still let me drive their cars after reading these reports.

Looking forward to November's driving day, when I understand their will be the New A class.

Cattle farming in winter

I like to try to get out on farms shooting stock as much as possible, which usually is arable farming. this time of year though apart from the odd bits and pieces there is very little happening.

So I decided to take myself off to shoot some beef cattle in their winter stalls.

The Cattle are Limousin cross 

What a difference a few days make

What a difference a few days makes with the weather. For weeks now, the weather has been unbelievably mild to such an extent, that some farmers were talking about doing some spraying and last Friday Tony Leech Agri Contractor was out spraying a farmers Oil seed rape, to remove black grass, volunteer cereals and wild oats, with a Chemical called Kerb.

Today however the weather in Surrey is very different, with icy conditions and frost, which can clearly be seen here on the ground around this rape, which was taken on the southern slope of Reigate Hill, this morning

Farming in the winter

As a photographer, that when it comes to farming I shoot mainly agriculture, although you will see me this time of year venturing out occasionally to dairy farms, there is not a lot to shoot.
For Agriculture The weather, is either too wet or to cold or too windy




So when I needed to get out and get some fresh air, my contacts all told me they were out hedge cutting. As my stock library was short of hedge cutting pix off I went. These image are shot in two different locations.

They highlight some of the problems on working on public roads doing a very necessary job

Any of these images can be purchased from my stock Library To view the link to these picture click here

Meatballs

Title sounds weird, I agree.

This was inspired by The Archers, and Tom's idea of producing cooked chill food.

Anyway this is my first go and I decided to use premium sausages from a well known supermarket's meat counter.
This was my first mistake. The basic idea was great, putting grated apple, with onion and bread crumb.

The sauce was great. Roasted a pepper and a tomato, with some garlic cloves, then whizzed the whole lot together in my mini chopper.

The problem was for my taste the meat balls were too sticky as it was sausage meat over seasoned.
I will do this again but next time with minced pork. I off to buy a hand meat mincer.

Mind you I think they look ok in the pix.

Health and safety

Health and safety is something we must all take seriously, expecially when using heavy machinery, whether it be in a factory, industrial area or farm.

However whilst out taking pictures  on a farm yesterday, and possibly pushing my luck a little bit, it struck me, if something happened, it wouldn't be me that got in trouble, it would be the business owner. In this case the farmer  Is this fair?

Years ago when I first started, working you could virtually do anything in order to get the picture, now year by year it seems Health and Safety rules get tighter and tighter. I agree things needed to be tighten up so people who in the past were  expolited are not and yes there needs to be a set of guides lines, but surely there should be a diffenttiation between people that come onto a property and choose to take the risk, and someone being asked to do something that may comproisme health and safety.

The time I really started to notice a shift in attitudes was in the last decade. In the latter half I was shooting an agricultural show for the exhibition company who were organising it. It was a two day event and one of the shots I need was a view of the show from the air, with no budget to hire a helicopter, over night I hatched a plan, to ask one of the tractor manufactures if I could go up in the bucket of a Telehandler, that was on display. There was one positioned perfectly in a corner at one end of the show ground.
Next morning I approached a sales people and ask if they could oblige. Well I was surprised by his reaction, however after hearing what he said, I could fully understand.

He said if they did that and got seen by H&S, potentially they could be fined up to 50,000 GBP . Whether I got hurt doing it or not. This is my point, it was my risk, my responsibly, so why should they be sanctioned for it.

Clearly the shot I was after wasn't going to happen.

To make my point about having to take risks, to get the shot here is an image I took some years ago on the cliff's of the Seven sisters, nr Burling Gap, East suxxex. This image was shot with no harness just me a camera and the envireoment I was in.
 I took a bit of  a risk getting it, but it was a calculated risk and at least no one would have got the blame if  I fell. Not been up there for years, but it wouldn't surpise at all it was not fenced off these days.

I have choosen this image purely as an example as to what I mean about taking risks and for no other reason. I have not used a farming image with this blog as I wouldn't want any come back on anyone.


My main point to this, is surely if someone with no connection to a business and  not likely to hurt anybody else but themselves, should be allowed to take responsiblity for their own actions, without the risk of  someone else being in trouble with the health and safety executive.

These are just purely my own views from the experiences I have found, being a photographer over the last 20 years.