Our good friend and ALPHA 10 GT-R customer Zac and his wife Alexa decided they needed a new everyday car. After seeing the results we were getting our of our 2012 E63 AMG they knew the new Mercedes 5.5 biturbo platform was the way to go.

Zac wasted NO time in getting us the car. Just a week after he took delivery he had a list of parts ready to go on the car:

1. AMS Archetype Custom ECU retune
2. RENNtech OS Giken LSD upgrade
3. KW sleeve lowering kit
4. H&R 10mm front and 15mm Rear Trak+ wheel spacers
4. Drop in Panel K&N filters
5. Smoked front sidemarkers

The final product was as we expected... clean and amazing!

Not only did Zac and Alexa's CLS63 pick up over 100 additional wheel horsepower (150plus in some areas) and 230 plus ft lbs of torque but it looks fantastic now!

Dyno:



















And here are some interior pics that Alexa and Zac took. Quite possibly one of the nicest color combos I have ever seen:








Next on the menu is a custom AMS exhaust and maybe we can talk Zac into some bigger AMS turbos, heat exchanger and intercooler that we are in the process of developing.

Eric

 

the drop and spacers look absolutely perfect.

 

is there any vibration zac on high speed cruising with those spacers?

 

Looks amazing, and what a tune!

 

This car is so sexy! I'm sure we will see Zac back for more


Larry

 

He drove to Detroit last night and I talked to him on the way. He reported no issues with that car at all. He did say that "You would of never even know you tuned the car until you get into the gas"

Stock like driveability and 560whp / 700 ft... sign me up!

Eric

 

What do those numbers translate to at crank

 

 

Without an engine dyno its hard to say. Based on what the car dyno's stock on our dyno and compared to the stock HP output of 518whp it would equate to roughly 12.5% drivetrain loss. Again this in on OUR dyno.

If you apply that same percentage to the post tune HP numbers that would mean the car is (again roughly) putting down 645 at the crank (peak hp) or a 127hp increase over stock. In the mid-range its making more than that though. It's probably closer to a crank HP gain of 175hp at around 4500 RPM.

Without an engine dyno there is no way to know for certain though.

Eric

 

man oh man.. power aside, that interior is amazing!

 

That interior is amazing...

 

I concur 100%. When I saw it in person it made my mouth drop. It certainly requires a bit of care though with all the white.

Eric

 

Such a beautiful car!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I've had a chance to drive the car a couple of weeks now, including a few longer trips. After the tune, the car is on a whole new level. The acceleration rate now feels a lot like my stock '12 GT-R did, which is very nice. The main difference is that on the CLS63, particularly after the tune, the low end torque is huge and immediate. It's so much more fun now. It really brings the car alive. One of the nice things about the tune is that it doesn't effect day to day driving and the car doesn't drive any different until you really push the peddle down. Fuel economy is unchanged it seems. I measured a 0.2 less mpg after the tune, but that is well within the margin of error and I was likely flooring it more after the tune. Not scientific in any event. No check engine lights, codes, etc. Just like stock but better.

Something else we did which wasn't in the initial post was change the tires from the stock Continentals to Michelin PSS. I went 10mm wider tires on the stock wheels on both the front and back. We dropped the car with KW coilovers. It actually is a bit lower in the front than the default drop so there was no rake. Wow, what a difference the tires make. The first two things I noticed were how much grippy they were, which I was expecting, but driving around, I noticed how much quieter they were. Big differences and well worth it.

The drop + 10mm spacers + 10mm wider tires in the front though, while look near perfect IMO, ended up rubbing pretty bad in the front. I think about 10mm more is all you can go. AMS custom made me some 5mm spacers for the front since H+R doesn't sell them, and it still rubbed slightly. I'm back to no spacers on the front for now until I have a solution. I think if I ran 255s in the front (like OEM) instead of 265s with the spacers it would be fine though. I don't think the rears rubbed at all with 295s and +15s, but I have +10mm on at the moment.

I didn't have the PP on my car, so I'm not sure what it changes with the suspension. Does anyone know this? Does it actually change springs? I've seen speculation there is no changes. Anyways, I mention that because the KW coilovers definitely change the feeling of the car on my non-PP. I was worried that it would decrease the ride quality, but it hasn't. The car with normal suspension mode now feels somewhere in between where normal and sport 1 did on the stock car. It basically just takes some of the floatiness feeling out and the car rides great. I prefer it this way, and sport mode is even better.

I can't comment on the Renntech / OS Giken LSD that I had installed versus the stock LSD as my car didn't have the LSD option on it. The difference between having a LSD and not having one is a huge one though I can tell you. No issues at all, no noises. Good stuff.

I'm getting Laser Interceptor Quads installed this week. I'm still debating on which radar detector system to build in. I have another STI-R Plus for it, but I'm still debating on doing the 9500ci instead because I hate the Beltronics voice. 9500ci is due for a successor soon with Escort Live that is what I really want so I may wait it out and run my 9500ix/Live and V1 in the meantime.

The exhaust has me excited. I was going to do the resonator delete, but I'm going to wait to see what you guys come up with.


Thanks! I need to get them back like that without rubbing.

No, not at all

Thanks! Yeah, I'm very pleased with the tune.

Thanks guys. I didn't order it that way, the dealer had custom ordered it. I think I just got lucky

Black exterior, White interior - what the hell was I thinking??!

Thanks!

 

Very nice, love the clean build.

 

Thank you Zac for the honest report. Zac is loving the car so much he is thinking about taking a 6-8 week cross country road trip just to get away and enjoy the sites and our wonderful country. I wish you safe travels sir and many happy memories as you terrorize the 50 states with your new CLS63

Eric

 

Zac - Gumball 2013....

 

+100 hp..with just a tune and drop ins.

Seriously?

God it's such a wicked platform from here on out.

I love and hate you guys.

 

Nice

 

So ready to drop in on the 218....my 219 is fabulous.... but I really want to be able to do stuff like this....

 

thanks guys! it's truly an amazing platform to work with

 

Is that a custom order interior or a new package Mercedes offers?

 

It was a custom order through MB Designo - http://www.mercedes-amg.com/designo/designo_home/en/

 

So, I've been traveling a lot in the CLS63 this summer. I've probably racked up 5k miles in the past couple months, which is a huge amount for me. I took the car down to the NAGTROC meet in Florida which included a PBIR drag strip event. I took some videos but hadn't had time to edit them yet, but I learned about this video that was posted of the runs:


The first run I used Race Start and it spun the tires too much. Second run I just floored it. Third run I brake torqued it slightly.

Best run was 11.58@123.77

The weather that night was awful. It was over 90 degrees and super humid. I'm sure with ideal weather, drag radials, and some more runs to get the launch down (this was my first time) I could knock a few tenths off pretty easily. Right now the car just has the AMS/Archetype tune and Michelin PSS instead of the stock tires.

It will be interesting to see what a car with upgraded turbos, IC, downpipes, exhaust, etc. will do.

 

good lord gtr