2010 in Review: My Best Driving Experiences

[svgallery name="2010_MB_SLS_hirez"] By John LeBlanc Out of the hundreds of cars and thousands of kilometres I drove in 2010, two cars separated by four decades provided my two best experiences. First up, in March, I drove Mercedes-Benz’s new $200,000 (or so) SLS AMG Gullwing supercar. Instead of the speed-restricted highways of Ontario, I had the rare opportunity to pilot the 530 hp Benz along a section of Mexico’s historic La Carrera Pan Americana road race. At speeds up to 230 km/h. For almost two hours. Driving at such high speeds on open public roads (the 1950 La Carrera Pan Americana winning Oldsmobile 88 averaged 142 km/h) may sound extremely reckless. But the Mercedes sports car was more than capable of faster (Mercedes says up to 317 km/h). Better yet: being escorted by a Mexican Federale Dodge Charger — lights flashing, sirens blaring — clearing slower cars, trucks, donkeys, horses, chickens, and children along mainly rural road ahead in his Dodge Charger Interceptor. Only in Mexico… Just up the Pacific Coast, months later in August, as part of the annual Monterey, California, weeklong car orgy, Porsche Canada offered me a trip back in time, handing over the keys to a pair of Porsche Museum pieces: a silver 1960 356B 2000 GS Carrera GT, and a red ’62 356B Carrera 2 Cabriolet. Just as I wouldn’t write this article on a Commodore 64, I really don’t do “old cars.” But a 100 km roundtrip to Big Sur and back along California’s Hwy. 1, though, in both a 1962 356 convertible and coupe, allowed me to form an opinion. To some degree, the 2000 GS Carrera was the Mercedes SLS AMG of its day: state-of-the-art. Okay. The GS Carrera GT’s fearsome blats from its racing exhaust would wake your neighbours and ones living in the next town over. But the direct, tactile feel from all its oily bits makes a new Cayman S feel anodyne.

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