This is not to be construed as advocating that you do so on public roads however!

The best way to find out the limits of any car is to take a high performance driving course using your own car. Not inexpensive, and I can just imagine the looks on people’s faces when you register with a diesel.

Another way is to find a large empty expanse of asphalt, like a regional mall or sports stadium parking lot (preferably without light poles, parking stops, & curbing). Go in the middle of the night, and have plenty of quarters in your pocket for the payphone at the jail. Just kidding...well, kind of kidding – you never know. The best time is when it is raining; the lower traction will mimic high speed handling characteristics to a certain extent, without as much risk.

A few tips: ALL street cars are setup to understeer, some more dramatically than others. Most Mercedes are moderate to heavy with understeer. Be aware that with a semi-trailing arm rear suspension, (like on the 123) if you build up to the limits of lateral adhesion in a fairly neutral drift, at the very limit the rear end will tend to come around with trailing throttle (caused by toe-out with the shifting geometry of the trailing arm & the forward weight transfer). This is what allows experienced drivers to rotate (yaw) the chassis when desired. The key words in the preceding sentence are “when desired”. If it occurs when it is not desired, it can be BAD NEWS. The chassis can also be ‘tossed’ to a certain extent, but that’s really counterproductive. You obviously don’t have the power (or a locking differential) to throttle steer it with a diesel.

So, learn the limits & then don’t exceed them whenever there is any possibility of harming anything or anyone other than yourself.

Have Fun!

RTH