My Palladium Silver C350 Coupe

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Old 02-26-2013, 12:56 AM
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Calipers

Here's a bit of an update. A few things are happening this week to keep things interesting while the exhaust is still "pending"

Over the weekend I decided that I'd had enough of the dirty metal look on my calipers, so decided to paint them. I'm not really a fan of red - only looks good on a performance package C63. I really like the grey, nice and subtle, but I figured with black already on them from the Mercedes-Benz lettering plaque, I'd stick with that. Should also look good most of the time, even when dirty and easy to maintain from a cleanliness point of view.

The Renntech Carbon Fibre Strut Brace is also going on this week so I'll post that this week too.

Last edited by Blickling; 02-26-2013 at 01:11 AM.
Old 02-26-2013, 01:02 AM
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Here are a couple of pics wheel on and off.
Attached Thumbnails My Palladium Silver C350 Coupe-img_2735.jpg   My Palladium Silver C350 Coupe-img_2742.jpg  
Old 03-03-2013, 02:51 AM
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Renntech Carbon Fibre Front Strut Brace

Well this week the strut brace went on. The tune was done too but I'll go into that a bit later.

The fact that it is on the car is extremely noticable. Turn in is a lot sharper and you get a lot more feedback through the steering wheel. Even without turning the dynamic handling suspension into sport, the car handles really well and even better when you hit the sport button.

Traction even seems to be better. It's been raining heavily lately and under reasonably (bot not massively spirited driving, there is definitely less slip and less ESP intervention.

I wanted the strut brace mostly because it looks quite good. I wasn't expecting significant changes to the handling but it does make a big difference. I'd recommend it to anyone who is interested in this mod or improved handling.
Attached Thumbnails My Palladium Silver C350 Coupe-img_2759.jpg   My Palladium Silver C350 Coupe-img_2760.jpg  
Old 03-04-2013, 04:43 AM
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The Tune

Well, like all the available tunes out there for this motor which is about 5 max - the claimed jump is from approximately 300 bhp to 330 bhp (or 225 kw to 245 kw) and 370 nm up to 400 nm. And this is before any other mods like exhaust/intake/filter etc.

The car now has more power than just about any N/A 6 on the market in this sort of bracket (Porsche 911's excluded here!) and is not far off the E46 M3, which just over 250 kw.

It has more torque than just about any too (although it already had this with 370 nm) and now has the same torque as an E92 335i or E92 M3 - as much torque as a twin turbo six or a 4 litre v8 - that's impressive!

So how does the tune feel? Well even in economy the throttle response has dramatically improved. There were times pre tune that if you pulled into a lane in economy, it lacked the response to speed up as much as you'd want. Now you can use economy to get away from the lights and comfortably overtake people - even though the car starts in second gear in this mode. It feels sort of like you're driving an E500 Coupe with the 5.5 V8 under the bonnet. Not quite as much torque obviously, but you feel more like you're driving a car with more low down grunt.

The car pulls much harder and is far more enjoyable to drive. The fuel economy has noticably improved as well. Both hard driving and economical driving seem to use less fuel than before. Probably the best part is that even though more power and torque have been extracted from the car, the Coupe Chassis and AMG pack setup mean that the car still has more traction than power, so you can use all of it without problems or fear.

I'm yet to find something I dislike about having my car tuned.
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Old 03-11-2013, 11:13 AM
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The strutbrace looks great Blickling! I am also getting one. Together with the rear strutbrace.

Great looking car!
Old 03-12-2013, 12:46 AM
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Great mods Blinking, awesome to see your enjoying your C Coupe so much, as you've previously stated it's an excellent MB model this car, I'm totally loving mine

Can't wait to get all my upcoming mods happening
Old 03-12-2013, 07:33 AM
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190 - Thanks, good to hear mate! I didn't go for the rear one as I didn't want to reduce my boot space. Let me know how it goes though - very keen to hear more. Not enough people look into handling mods. Just tunes and exhausts - not that these are bad things. My philosophy is that you should aim to have a "complete" car whereby you improve a number of aspects. After all - I want to ensure I have better all round car than the stockers I'm competing against - i.e. BMW 335i, IS 350 & Audi A5. Ultimately it would be nice to give an E46 M3 a serious run for its money.

AV1 - send me a link to your posts so I can read about your mods. Very interested to know how your diesel modding is going. I have a mate who had his ML 250 tuned at my performance shop. It's $20K less than a 350 and with a tune has about 180 KW & 590 NM of torque. Those twin turbos are unreal. I reckon with a well designed exhaust it'd practically sound like a wrx going down the street. They have a sort of similar growl.
Old 03-12-2013, 07:43 AM
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I also don't want to reduce my boot space, but the renntech rear strut brace can be removed quickly thanks to the 2 pins on the outside of the bar.

I agree with you. If you are going to tune your car, you need to adres all the main components of your car that will reduce lap times. Most people forget about handling or brakes.

I'm looking forward to your future mods! Keep up the good work.
Old 03-14-2013, 04:43 AM
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Originally Posted by 190Benz
I also don't want to reduce my boot space, but the renntech rear strut brace can be removed quickly thanks to the 2 pins on the outside of the bar.

I agree with you. If you are going to tune your car, you need to adres all the main components of your car that will reduce lap times. Most people forget about handling or brakes.

I'm looking forward to your future mods! Keep up the good work.
Thanks for the encouragement! Much appreciated.

I didn't realise it wa detachable. That sounds pretty good. Are you looking at brakes? I was thinking about it but there's almost too much choice and I thought I'd at least leave that part under warranty fo the time being... Once you've driven a C63 even AMG pack upgrade brakes feel like you need something better.
Old 03-14-2013, 11:37 AM
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Originally Posted by Blickling
Thanks for the encouragement! Much appreciated.

I didn't realise it wa detachable. That sounds pretty good. Are you looking at brakes? I was thinking about it but there's almost too much choice and I thought I'd at least leave that part under warranty fo the time being... Once you've driven a C63 even AMG pack upgrade brakes feel like you need something better.
I have a set of C63 performance package brakes for my coupe. You can see them in my topic. They will probably be mounted by next week. Had to get some adapters made for the calipers.
Old 03-16-2013, 08:04 AM
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Originally Posted by 190Benz
I have a set of C63 performance package brakes for my coupe. You can see them in my topic. They will probably be mounted by next week. Had to get some adapters made for the calipers.
Ohh sensational! I wasn't sure whether you were going to put them on as they came early inthe topic as not much has been said since. Very good. Let us all know how the fitment goes. I looked into getting just a rear disc cross drilled to match the front as a sort of first brake upgrade before thinking about other things, but not success thus far.

On the rear of a C350 - disc is still a reasonable size at least and its vented too, not solid. You can sort of see here on a pic I took when I was painting my rear calipers.

FYI all the exhaust can't be too far away now. Has seemed like forever. I'll try and take some good pics. If anyone shouts out and says they're interested in vids I'll try and do some with the Hero 3.
Attached Thumbnails My Palladium Silver C350 Coupe-img_2774.jpg  
Old 03-18-2013, 07:02 AM
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The rear disks and calipers are plug & play. The front isn't. We are still working on a set of adapters for the front calipers.

You can try a local Zimmermann dealer. Partnumber should be 400.36.57.52

Old 03-19-2013, 03:59 AM
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Originally Posted by 190Benz
The rear disks and calipers are plug & play. The front isn't. We are still working on a set of adapters for the front calipers.

You can try a local Zimmermann dealer. Partnumber should be 400.36.57.52

Thanks so much mate. Good news about the rears. I don't understand to much about the fitment of calipers. Why don't the fronts just fit on?
Old 03-19-2013, 05:42 AM
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The steering knuckle of the AMG is different from the non-AMG version. So the mounting points for the front brake calipers are different. So you can buy an AMG steering knuckle and you will be able to mount the calipers, but I don't know if the non-AMG steering rods, etc are different from an AMG. So I will be buying the DCT Motorsports adaptor or get a couple of sets fabricated myself.
Old 03-28-2013, 08:13 AM
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Another update

That all sounds pretty interesting, if a bit technical 190 - I know you're switched on to all this stuff though and I know it will turn out well. Can't wait to see.

Well I'm due for tyres. I have never been completely happy with the tyres that came on the car from the factory - the Continental Contisport Contact 3s. I thought about a lot of options. One was to simply get the Pirelli P Zeros which I really like. They work pretty well on A C63 AMG. It's a good high performance tyre. Then I thought about Bridgestones and Dunlops - but most Audis, Fords and Holdens seem to be running one or the other so they're a bit common - even the better ones coming out of these brands.

Then I drove a car with Dunlop Direzza Semi Slicks on it at a track and fell in love with the sheer grip and cornering ability. This wasn't a particularly great car truth be told, but it just would not let go with these tyres on. I decided this is the way I wanted to go - even if it meant sacrificing a bit of comfort, noise and wet weather ability. I don't really drive fast in the wet anyway - the continenals put me off spirited driving particularly.

This left really only two choices - the Toyo R888 and the Yokohama Advan Neova AD08. I decided on the Yokohama because they receive great write ups, look like they will have a bit more wet grip and have an amazingly cool tread patter IMO. They are also a bit less obiviously semi slicks and its nice to keep it quite sleeper-ish. Every import and his dog know what an R888 is - less so the Yokohama I reckon. That and the C63 AMG Performance Package runs ADVAN Sports - and these Neova AD08s are one grade up from these. On just that basis alone they must be pretty good. These tyres should also help me with my goal to have better handling than my competitor Euro cars.

Once they go on shortly I'll take some pics and talk about about them.
Old 03-29-2013, 09:14 PM
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Originally Posted by Blickling
Well this week the strut brace went on. The tune was done too but I'll go into that a bit later.

The fact that it is on the car is extremely noticable. Turn in is a lot sharper and you get a lot more feedback through the steering wheel. Even without turning the dynamic handling suspension into sport, the car handles really well and even better when you hit the sport button.

Traction even seems to be better. It's been raining heavily lately and under reasonably (bot not massively spirited driving, there is definitely less slip and less ESP intervention.

I wanted the strut brace mostly because it looks quite good. I wasn't expecting significant changes to the handling but it does make a big difference. I'd recommend it to anyone who is interested in this mod or improved handling.
This is so awesome man! I Love what youve been doing!
Old 03-29-2013, 10:04 PM
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Originally Posted by AndresToys
This is so awesome man! I Love what youve been doing!
Thanks for the encouragement. Not going to lie - big fan of your car too. Very nice.

I'm hoping to have more pics and things to show in April and perhaps a video or 2.
Old 03-30-2013, 02:31 PM
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Originally Posted by Blickling
Well, like all the available tunes out there for this motor which is about 5 max - the claimed jump is from approximately 300 bhp to 330 bhp (or 225 kw to 245 kw) and 370 nm up to 400 nm. And this is before any other mods like exhaust/intake/filter etc.

The car now has more power than just about any N/A 6 on the market in this sort of bracket (Porsche 911's excluded here!) and is not far off the E46 M3, which just over 250 kw.

It has more torque than just about any too (although it already had this with 370 nm) and now has the same torque as an E92 335i or E92 M3 - as much torque as a twin turbo six or a 4 litre v8 - that's impressive!

So how does the tune feel? Well even in economy the throttle response has dramatically improved. There were times pre tune that if you pulled into a lane in economy, it lacked the response to speed up as much as you'd want. Now you can use economy to get away from the lights and comfortably overtake people - even though the car starts in second gear in this mode. It feels sort of like you're driving an E500 Coupe with the 5.5 V8 under the bonnet. Not quite as much torque obviously, but you feel more like you're driving a car with more low down grunt.

The car pulls much harder and is far more enjoyable to drive. The fuel economy has noticably improved as well. Both hard driving and economical driving seem to use less fuel than before. Probably the best part is that even though more power and torque have been extracted from the car, the Coupe Chassis and AMG pack setup mean that the car still has more traction than power, so you can use all of it without problems or fear.

I'm yet to find something I dislike about having my car tuned.
Hey Blickling, excellent thread! Very exciting stuff! I am looking to start modding my C350 as well and wanted to start with the tune. This is all new to me but can you go into a bit more detail? What's the name of the tune and where it can be purchased/cost?

Again very new so any help is appreciated!
Old 03-30-2013, 06:17 PM
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Originally Posted by Jubair Ahmed
Hey Blickling, excellent thread! Very exciting stuff! I am looking to start modding my C350 as well and wanted to start with the tune. This is all new to me but can you go into a bit more detail? What's the name of the tune and where it can be purchased/cost?

Again very new so any help is appreciated!
Hey Jubair,

Thanks mate I'm glad you like my thread. I try to make it as interesting as I can.

I can't help you out that much on my tune unless you live in Sydney and want to go to my specific performance shop. To explain a bit more, my tuner showed me where he gets his tunes from - it's this full legit place in Germany that does serious R&D on the cars and engines etc. The website is all in German. I don't remember the name but I have the link on my computer at work. My tuner even kept my car overnight so he can speak with Germany and make sure everything goes well. Pretty awesome huh!? You could try contacting them but I'm not sure how much success you'd have - meaning I don't know if they deal with individuals directly or if it's even possible for an individual to install it without the right stuff.

I wish I could be of more help. I trust my tuner though. He's highly reputable and has done cars for friends of mine to - no issues and all happy.

If I was giving you advice on tunes that wasn't mine, I'd go for Renntech. On the website though I can't see a tune available for our engine - the M276. Only the previous gen M272 like in a CLK350. People on the forums seem to have tuned their M276 motor though. I'd ask them. The owner used to work for AMG. He must know what he's doing.

My next point of call would be Kleemann - another tuning company in Sydney offers Kleemann stuff and it seems to be good. They also claim big numbers - the 30hp & 30nm of torque.

OE tuning also seem to be popular - particularly with the C63 crowd. They have a fair bit of presence on the forums too.

If you then combine this with just an airfilter and an exhaust - I guess you can expect gains of approx 35-40hp & 35-40nm!?! - even if the exhaust and airfilter bought you only 2hp you should see extra response over and above the tune because everything will flow better.

If you start a thread send me the link so I can follow!

All adds up when you want to be faster than the BMWs & Audis out there...
Old 03-30-2013, 06:50 PM
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Thanks buddy! Excellent information to have and keep in mind. Excited to see what you do next with your 350!

I'll follow up with the companies you listed to see what's up.
Old 04-06-2013, 06:38 PM
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This month coming

Hi All,

Just wanted to say woo - over 2000 views. Thanks guys!

This month should be interesting - hopefully if everything arrives - fingers crossed.

Australia ran out of the Yokohamas I wanted so I think they have to come from Japan...disappointing but they should go on this month.

After a stream of delays on the meisterschaft it should hopefully arrive end of the month so that will go on - this one has been killing me the most.

K/N airfilter is on the way which should help the car breathe better - can't wait!

Also changing the centre caps on my rims to try and make them look a bit more interesting - see how that goes. Cheap way to sort of freshen the look of the car.

Thought about new rims but its hard and my ride quality is good at the moment and I'm getting tyres for my current rims. There is seriously too much choice on rims and the 18" or 19" is a big question mark too. If I had my way I'd probably want silver/grey black series rims on my car - black rims IMO doesn't look quite as good, but it's ok. Difficult finding something nice though as the factory ones clearly don't fit.

Ohh also I found a kinda nice pic of my car that I took so I thought I'd upload it.
Attached Thumbnails My Palladium Silver C350 Coupe-img_1990.jpg  
Old 04-06-2013, 09:49 PM
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Looking good man!

I went over to a local shop today and they recommended the Eurocharge tuning (info here: https://mbworld.org/forums/c-class-w...u-toronto.html). I don't think it has much in terms of HP/Torque though, more for the throttle. They also said adding the air intake won't make much of a difference. Just curious if you added one? Or just the airfilter.

Excited to see what the meisterschaft will add!
Old 04-06-2013, 11:05 PM
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Originally Posted by Jubair Ahmed
Looking good man!

I went over to a local shop today and they recommended the Eurocharge tuning (info here: https://mbworld.org/forums/c-class-w...u-toronto.html). I don't think it has much in terms of HP/Torque though, more for the throttle. They also said adding the air intake won't make much of a difference. Just curious if you added one? Or just the airfilter.

Excited to see what the meisterschaft will add!
If that's what your shop recommended then that's what you should get. You'll appreciate the response the most, even more than the power.

No it's just an air filter - don't think a full intake exists for our cars yet. I'm mostly getting it for more sound - you're supposed to get a bit more inducton noise. I agree, you probably won't get anymore than 0-5HP from the filter. Having said that our air filter is pretty massive I'd be surprised if it didn't make a difference. My real hope for this mod is that it allows me to use more of my power, more of the time and make things a bit more efficient with the better air flow - not so much bump up my power.

I'm also looking at it from a more holistic view - If instead of doing nothing, or just one performance mod - you do intake, tune & exhaust - these components together should have an effect. IMO the tune alone had a reasonably profound effect so I'm hoping if I do filter & exhaust at the same time its also noticable. I'll write about it after it's installed and give you my feedback.

The other thing I'd say is that for all the stuff out there on the net at the end of the day filters and intakes sell and performance shops use and/or recommend them. Obviously they want to make money but they also use them on their own cars in competitions. There's also the old dyno check I suppose. Anyway just throwing my opinions out there. I'm enjoying modding my car and reading about others modding theirs - it's all good fun.
Old 04-06-2013, 11:19 PM
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Yeah the price difference between the K&N air filter vs the BMC Filter (http://www.renntechmercedes.com/www/node/1121) is quite substantial hah.

So I'm a bit curious because you've spent quite a good amount of money on the mods, how come you didn't just go for the C63? I'm guessing there is a significantly higher price difference in Australia vs here in North America?
Old 04-07-2013, 08:33 AM
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Haha...

Originally Posted by Jubair Ahmed
Yeah the price difference between the K&N air filter vs the BMC Filter (http://www.renntechmercedes.com/www/node/1121) is quite substantial hah.

So I'm a bit curious because you've spent quite a good amount of money on the mods, how come you didn't just go for the C63? I'm guessing there is a significantly higher price difference in Australia vs here in North America?
I was thinking about my expenditure today on the car...

I had this idea in my head that initially I'd probably drop about $5K Australian into the car. That figure includes tyres and quite frankly that doesn't really count as everyone has to buy tyres. I've just chosen to buy good ones.

The spoiler, painting the calipers, the exhaust, the strut brace, the tune - those things have probably cost me $3-4K Australian 90& of that cost being the last three items.

A C350 Coupe in this country costs about $115 000

A C63 Coupe costs about $170 000 and that's without a performance package or a diff.

There's already a C63 in my immediate family anyway - can't have two! It's nice being able to drive two different cars.

With $5K I can make my car practically as fast as an E500 coupe and handle as good as a C63 coupe (not quite on these two fronts but pretty close) and best of all no body has any idea the car has such potential.

At any rate my spending is a long way off a C63. Even if I went forced induction, coilovers, big brake kit etc I'd still be way off.

On the price logic I should have bought a nice C250 Coupe for $85 000 dropped 10 or 15K into it and had an absolute A45 like weapon. Really wanted a 6 cylinder though and quite like having N/A - even though turbos do appeal to me.


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