Binz goes concrete bowling

Round and round Millbrook Proving Ground’s banked concrete bowl at a steady 100 mph goes the big black Binz. The driver casually checks his mirror, then says in a matter-of-fact tone of voice, “Look out for the Porsche coming up on the outside now”. But just as the limousine’s passengers breathe a collective “Where…?” , the Porsche has already gone by in a blur of green and a banshee howl.

Not the sort of conversation you would expect to be able to hold in an ordinary vehicle on a concrete surface at 30 mph above the legal limit. But then, a Binz is no ordinary car, and this was the SMMT Test Day, an annual jamboree when the UK’s motoring journalists get a chance to see how the latest models compare with each other on the level-playing field that Millbrook’s various circuits provide.

For Binz UK, the ability to take whatever the Proving Ground had to throw at its 6-door extended chassis Mercedes-Benz E-Class based limousine came as no surprise. Even though some of the hairpin bends on the hill circuit seemed to have been laid out by a highways engineer with a particularly warped sense of humour….

As Kevin Smith, sales director for the Reading-based company explains, “When you design a new car, the focus is usually upon the driving experience behind the wheel. But with a limousine, it is the passenger experience that becomes paramount – so you need to pay greater attention to damping, pitch and roll, overall monocoque rigidity, and factors such as noise, vibration and harshness. In the case of a Binz, it means recalibrating the Mercedes-Benz AirMATIC suspension to take into account changes in vehicle wheelbase and kerbweight. And making sure that if the worst comes to the worst, the occupants can still rely upon all the passive and dynamic safety systems that come with an E-Class as standard”.