Mercedes

05th November 2007

They’re really getting the wind up at Mercedes – and it’s got nothing to do with competitors’ cars!

The maker’s vast mus­eum houses the largest man-made tornado in the world, and it has just made it into the Guinness Book of Records.

The spectacular twister rises an enormous 113 feet (or 34 metres) into the air. It’s the centrepiece at the firm’s Stuttgart heritage site, stretching nearly the full height of the building’s 42-metre-tall atrium.

It was designed as a safety feature to suck smoke out of the mus­eum in the event of a fire. The feature is made up of 144 air nozzles, which are used to create the giant extractor fan at the top of the building. After seven minutes, the ventilator system builds up enough force to send 28 metric tonnes of swirling air in motion, creating the dramatic vortex. But it’s only when a smoke machine is placed at the bottom of the air stream that the tornado becomes visible to the naked eye.

The architectural feature is the work of German designer Rudiger Detzer, who said his team built an 18:1-scale model first, to test the kit.

And the tornado isn’t Mercedes’ only record-breaker. The Stuttgart site’s sister museum, at Brooklands, Surrey, has exceeded bosses’ expectations, with more than 300,000 visitors passing through its doors during the first year of operation.

Its driving experiences have been particularly popular, with 30,904 people taking part. And a further 11,212 under-17s have taken their first steps behind the wheel through the site’s Star Driving Club.

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