17 Jun 08
As in most concept cars, the F700's interior, lined with millimetre-thick cork, is a place for unfettered innovation. The four individually-mounted, well-sculpted chairs are wonderfully cosseting, but will be too impractical and too expensive to make it into a production-line car.
There's a predictably space-age dashboard with electronic wizardry designed to give the optimum information to the driver about the environment inside and out. However, one aspect of this fits under the 'That's clever' column: the instrumentation panel points upwards, but mirrors set at a 45 degree angle allow the driver to read the information. This may sound like unnecessary fanciness but there is a point - the dash can be set further away from the driver, and thus closer to the view out front. There's therefore less eye movement involved when the driver switches attention from the road to look at the dials.
So what's the car like on the road? We got a chance to see how it handled on a track in Seville and, without doubt, it's an impressive performer. The Pre-Scan suspension, linked to Mercedes Active Body Control, is the ace up the F700's sleeve. It works by using audacious logic. Laser scanners located on the front read the road surface ahead and the Active Body Control dampers are primed to absorb the bumps appropriately. This means that you get a billiard-table smooth ride on even the bumpiest surfaces. This system also counteracts the pitch and yaw on cornering, offering sportscar-like flatness on bends.
Under the bonnet is a 1.8-litre, four-cylinder petrol engine. This doesn't sound like much, but this is Mercedes' Diesotto mild hybrid engine which sprints from 0-60mph in 7.5 seconds, delivers 295lb-ft of torque and 235bhp of power, emits just 127gkm of carbon dioxide and returns 44.3mpg.
