Here at Leftlane, we’ve extensively covered the story of a Mercedes S-Class Distronic demonstration gone horribly wrong. First we reported the mishap, then we reported the revelation that the reason things went wrong was it was faked, and finally we brought you a video in German from Stern TV. Well, we’ve been pointed to a new video of the incident, and for whatever reason, the Top Gear commentary makes it all the more entertaining. Video after the jump…
According to a report published weeks after the incident, Mercedes engineers realized the hall in which the test was to be performed would foil the demonstration. However, Michael Specht, an Autobild journalist anxious for a scoop, convinced the Mercedes team to fake the demonstration — manually braking the cars instead of letting the automatic system attempt the task. The team placed a thin strip of wood on the ground so Specht, who was reportedly driving one of the cars, would know when to brake. (This was necessary because dry ice was used to create smoke to obscure the view of the driver, supposedly adding to the credibility of the test.) Unfortunately, the S-Class’ supple suspension made it impossible for Specht to feel the marker on the floor. Specht subsequently crashed into the back of the test car ahead of him. Specht was reportedly fired from Autobild following the incident.
04/25, 1:22 PM
posted by:
Will
I love jezza
04/25, 1:37 PM
posted by:
Shut Up
The clip misses out the funnier bits at the end.
04/25, 2:35 PM
posted by:
SR
So did The Discovery Channel give up on Top Gear again? It was on last fall, then it came back about about two months ago for a couple weeks, but now I haven’t seen it on for a long time. Clarkson’s a douche (he was even wearing a Che shirt the last episode I saw), but it’s a cool show.
04/25, 3:18 PM
posted by:
gsh
german engineering…
04/25, 3:21 PM
posted by:
manny
if you where paying attention to this site a few months back, sr, you would know that discovery is working on their own american version of the show with a new cast…
damn thats funny… though itd prolly be worse without the system…
04/25, 7:03 PM
posted by:
Jerry Mahoney
WTF. Is this leftlaneoldnews.com all of a sudden??
04/25, 7:04 PM
posted by:
lars ulrich
another reason why i stick with BMW
04/25, 10:04 PM
posted by:
Agent 001
The only reason it crashed was because of the steel walls……it works perfectly outside…the salesperson even insisted on trying it while i was testing the vehicle
04/26, 10:24 AM
posted by:
E
Don’t rely on the Discovery Channel airings of Top Gear. They’re censored and have different episodes from different seasons mixed together.
If you want to watch the real thing, get them from Bit Torrent.
04/27, 12:04 AM
posted by:
gggggggg
i don’t know…but i found nothing funny about that video…
06/23, 10:12 PM
posted by:
Mike
It shows that all of you dont have knowledge enough of what happened in this video, so dont critizice if you dont know the Distronic Plus was turned off by mistake thats why the car crashed, the guy inside was the one that braked, because he noticed the car did not break, this was said by the guy of top gear later on in the show.By the way for the comment of #6 of BMW being better research more because not only BMW sucks but it doesnt have half of mercedes technology.