Watch an E-Class AMG Wagon Eject a Rear Wheel at the Nurburgring

Whether it is a hub failure, a wheel failure, or something even more catastrophic, every driver's worst nightmare is losing an entire wheel at speed on track. For one Mercedes E-Class AMG wagon driver, that nightmare came to fruition at the Nürburgring, with cameras filming from the beginning.

The moment happens at the 6:50 mark of a video recorded by Youtuber StatesideSupercars, just as the Mercedes wagon finds the apex of the famed second turn of the Brünnchen corner complex. The car is in control on entry, but the left-rear wheel starts spinning and suddenly flies off the hub. The car spins once, but ends up stabilizing facing the runoff area with all three remaining wheels planted and inflated.

This W211-generation E-Class can also be seen passing by the same point around the 1:20 mark of the video, trailing the same W212-generation E-Class. At that point, white smoke is pouring out of the opposite side right-rear wheel well. Given that the parts failure had seemingly been brewing for an entire lap of the very large and very fast Nordschliefe, the driver was fortunate that it happened at the slowest point of the corner with a wide, paved kerb and a small patch of runoff.

Thanks in no small part to the save, the E-Class seems relatively undamaged. Given that it is a road car that lost a wheel at one of the world's most treacherous tracks, that is a best-case scenario.

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