|
The high position pays huge dividends in
visibility, as I could see far ahead over the roofs of sedans and even AUVs.
A good thing, too, because the driver will need to plan ahead to pull off
stunts like overtaking along the highway or changing lanes in heavy traffic.
The MB100 is long—it is after all a 14-seater van.
Yet it was not that difficult to drive in heavily-clogged city traffic.
Credit the very light (but lifeless) power steering and easy-to-modulate
clutch. Cars seemed to give the van
a wide berth also—probably intimidated by all that slab-sided sheet metal
blocking their vision. We drove in
downtown Binondo through the El Shaddai crowds on Roxas Boulevard and took the
Coastal Road to Cavite. Clear of traffic, I floored it. The engine obliged, with abundant torque all the way to its 4500-redline. The MB100 acceleration can embarrass a sub-1.5 liter car, and we overtook quite a few of those. But be prepared: with the torque comes exponentially increasing noise. Rev above 3000 rpm, necessary for climbing or full acceleration, and you’ll suddenly feel as if the rest of the world has disappeared. It’s just you and the engine roaring there next to your right knee. Even shouting won’t help. When driving on level roads, I didn’t have
to be that careful in choosing gears. One too high didn’t really matter. Add even a hint of an upward slope, though, and the engine
struggles—time to downshift! The
rubbery and indistinct gearshift led to more than a few heartstopping moments
when shifting from second to first on a very steep hill.
Just before the MB began to plummet backward, I found first gear and away
we went again. The van easily reached its top speed of 135
km/h on the Skyway. Still, I
didn’t want to maintain that for too long, as the van was prone to drifting in
crosswinds. You’ll feel like the
captain of a sailing ship as you turn the wheel to compensate for the wind.
Unlike its sedan namesakes, this Merc felt more than a little unstable
past 110 km/h. |
|
||||||
