Rolling in luxury: Top-end carmakers spin wheels of bespoke experience

From drifting and slaloming on sheets of ice to bending laws of motorsport physics, auto majors curate thrills beyond the road

Earlier in October, owners of Mercedes-Benz cars in India were soaring over the Sahyadri mountain range (Western Ghats) in a Cessna aircraft at Aamby Valley City, a township near Pune. The company had reserved the airstrip at Aamby Valley and also organised a watch assembly session with Swiss luxury watchmaker IWC Schaffhausen.

“The enthusiasts completely disassembled and then reassembled the IWC watches,” said Santosh Iyer, managing director and chief executive officer of Mercedes-Benz India. He added that they had recently completed multi-city dinners with Michelin two-star chefs from Milan for customers of top-end vehicles (TEVs) of Mercedes-Benz.

“These customers own multiple Mercedes-Benz