The Great Escape

Two drop-top stallions from the stables of stuttgart stampede across the most spectacular roads in Europe.

- Jack Baruth

ASK ANYBODY WHO REALLY KNOWS HORSES: If you want to ride a thoroughbred, be prepared for anything. The best of them are hot, with vicious tempers. The worst will draw blood—like the notorious “Beau Monde,” who, according to one witness, “killed a horse on a flight, bit someone’s thumb off, broke a  hot-walker’s arm in three places . . . and bit me in the chest so hard that I could feel the blood running down my shirt.”

Perhaps this explains why the Solarbeam yellow Mercedes AMG GT C convertible we picked up in Stuttgart decided to give photographer Richard Pardon a bit of a warning bite on the A7 autobahn from Ulm to Kempten. Pardon had dropped the top and given it the proverbial spurs, leaving the 911 Carrera GTS Cabriolet, piloted by Porsche Supercup standout Paul Rees, in the dust. But as the speedo needle crept past the 291 km/h mark—that’s 181 mph here in the States—the AMG’s cockpit wind deflector decided to go AWOL, striking Pardon in the head before coming to rest in the passenger footwell.

Call it the totally predictable consequence of leaving the deflector in place well past the speeds where it would be effective. Or, you can call it a little bit of thoroughbred temperament on the part of this long-nosed, sensually styled roadster, which traces its ancestry to the mighty Gullwing 300SL on its mother’s side and to the infamous “Red Pig” 300SEL 6.8 on its father’s. Either way, this was a wake-up call for Pardon to back off the throttle. Which he promptly did, and without complaint. After all, the best part of our trip would take place far from the autobahn, nearly 8000 feet above sea level, in the rarefied air of the Swiss Alps.