Crash course

‘Don’t follow the cars in or you’ll miss everything!’ I fix my eyes to the twin red lines bisecting the armoured glass, where this high-energy collision is due to take place. High intensity lights fizz on over and under the crash site; that’s 100,000 lux, brighter than the midday sun on a white wall of a Mediterranean cafe.

A barrage of high-speed cameras is readied to take 1,000 images a second of the impact and its aftermath.

Engineers swarm, anxious not to get it wrong, the Mercedes-Benz board will be here this afternoon.

Look at the red line…

There’s a growl as the big fork-lift truck starts up, ready to carry the wreckage and dump it in an outside water tank if required. Klaxons sound and engineers leave the two vehicles.

Ear plugs fixed. Check. The vehicles are 130 metres apart each harnessed to a wire rope. In corner of my vision, I can see one of them. Is it moving? Being towed into its fate?

Don’t look at the car. Look at the red line…