Coulthard Takes To The Driving Range In An SLS AMG

Let’s face it, golf is criminally boring. It’s so tedious that it’s not even appearing at the London Olympics this year – whilst even horse riding and synchronised swimming have made the grade.

Short of introducing Total Wipeout style obstacles to the fairways, there’s not much you can do to make the “sport” interesting; for anyone who doesn’t have a fetish for tweed and plus fours, that is. However, Mercedes may have just found a way. With the help of epically-chinned F1 legend David Coulthard, ze Germans have discovered their sense of humour by introducing an AMG V8 to golf. But not how you might think.

Rather than churning up the greens in a mud splattered G55, Coulthard took to the wheel of an SLS AMG Roadster on May 30th and shot off down Dunsfold Aerodrome’s runway at 120mph.

Meanwhile, golf pro Jake Shepherd lined up 275 metres away, tasked with driving a golf ball straight into Mr Coulthard’s sweaty palms – all without totalling the SLS or knocking The Chin unconscious and causing one almighty crash.

After an unsuccessful first attempt Shepherd launched the golf ball towards Coulthard at 178mph second time round. This attempt saw the Scot catch the ball from inside the moving SLS, setting a new Guinness World Record in the process.

Organised as part of a viral video campaign for Mercedes, footage of the feat will be released in early July, aiming to promote the power and speed of the SLS Roadster. But considering all this ad has done is demonstrate that the SLS AMG is slower than a golf ball, it is surely condemned to failure. Better luck next time Mercedes.

We sincerely hope Olympic sponsor BMW is planning some Olympics-based stunts this summer to show Mercedes how to properly pull off a PR campaign. How about an Italian Job homage where a BMW full of gold medals is teetering on the edge of Tower Bridge and it’s only the car’s 50:50 weight distribution that saves the medals from plunging into the murky waters of the Thames?

Now that would make much more sense...