3800 miles in 6 days w/C55 (long)
05-10-2005, 12:09 PM
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3800 miles in 6 days w/C55 (long)
So I ran away form work for a week and went to visit some friends and log some miles on some awesome and not so awesome roads.
The route was from Phoenix to Vegas, I15 through SLC all the way to Butte, Montana, I90 West through Spokane, brief detour to Yakima then back to I90 and on to Seattle, south on I5 all the way to LA then back to Phoneix on I10.
I came away form my trip with a whole new level of respect and appreciation for the crew at AMG, the car was flawless, fast, tight, responsive, yet smooth, comfortable and at ease on long open stretches of road.
Just to give you an idea of the speeds I was driving, I'll go in to a bit more detail, but on the second day I logged 853 miles in 9:33hrs with four stops, once for lunch for about 30 minutes you can do the math but the speedo very rarely dropped below 100 and I consistently drove at 110, the car seemed to find its equilibrium at that speed. As I left Idaho and went into Montana I sped up and averaged about 120MPH and ran for about 35 minutes between 130-140MPH. Mind you this is not a straight freeway, lots of expansion cracks and raised bridge decks. The car remained settled and composed at all times. A lot of praise for the 19"s and PS2's I think they were good for an extra 10MPH.
Although the car is fast in a straight line I was extremely happy with how well it handled high speed bends, in particular the multiple mountain passes in Montana/Idaho, Oregon and California, it transitions well and hold its line as well as many sports car and again kept its composure over road irregularities. It easliy accelerated up mountain passes and slipped around cars and tractor trailers with a lot of fluididty, very unlike a comfortable sedan but mery much to my liking.
The engine was superb and came away as my favorite piece of the puzzle, I'm sure this isn't much of a surprise, I ran with a new C6 Vette and though he did pull me, it was very gradual and he backed out at 145mph and like everyone else evaporated in my rear view mirror. The car does run out of steam right about 145-150, well at least it loses that feel of authoritative pull that is present up to that point. Which brings me to my next thought.
The car was obvioulsy designed to run between lets say 80-140, it acclerates hard, with near impunity to anything you will run across on the streets with the exception of a few real sports cars between theses speeds. On this particular trip slowing to 75-80 to work through traffic and then back up to over a 100 was a pure joy! The car ran between 3-4.5K revs for the most part and as you probably know this is the fat part of the torque curve, many times I never even bothered to kick it down as it pulls like a freight train even in fifth above 90 and after several hundred miles it was not suprising to look down and see the needle closer to 120 than 110.
The brakes werre spectacular, vever faded, never pulled, zero drama, and they got lots of attention, I think the truckers were radioing ahead as they seemed to be timing me when I would come up behnd them and then pull out to pass another rig forcing me to drop form 105-110 down to 60 or so in a bit of a rush. Lots of and lots of clueless drivers out there, driving in the left lane, running without lights, not using turn indicators, of course at the speeds I was driving its hard to point fingers at all, but at least I get the basics right.
My only complaint was some discomfort in my lower back after the 853 mile trip, though I changed the seat position a few times on my second long stint and used the set heateres a bit more and that seemed to help. The only problem I had was a broken fog light lens, the bulb worked for another 1000 miles but that failed too during a substantial rain while I had the front and rear fogs running.
I'm sure I left some stuff out, but what an outstanding car and a lot of fun to drive it as it was intended.
The route was from Phoenix to Vegas, I15 through SLC all the way to Butte, Montana, I90 West through Spokane, brief detour to Yakima then back to I90 and on to Seattle, south on I5 all the way to LA then back to Phoneix on I10.
I came away form my trip with a whole new level of respect and appreciation for the crew at AMG, the car was flawless, fast, tight, responsive, yet smooth, comfortable and at ease on long open stretches of road.
Just to give you an idea of the speeds I was driving, I'll go in to a bit more detail, but on the second day I logged 853 miles in 9:33hrs with four stops, once for lunch for about 30 minutes you can do the math but the speedo very rarely dropped below 100 and I consistently drove at 110, the car seemed to find its equilibrium at that speed. As I left Idaho and went into Montana I sped up and averaged about 120MPH and ran for about 35 minutes between 130-140MPH. Mind you this is not a straight freeway, lots of expansion cracks and raised bridge decks. The car remained settled and composed at all times. A lot of praise for the 19"s and PS2's I think they were good for an extra 10MPH.
Although the car is fast in a straight line I was extremely happy with how well it handled high speed bends, in particular the multiple mountain passes in Montana/Idaho, Oregon and California, it transitions well and hold its line as well as many sports car and again kept its composure over road irregularities. It easliy accelerated up mountain passes and slipped around cars and tractor trailers with a lot of fluididty, very unlike a comfortable sedan but mery much to my liking.
The engine was superb and came away as my favorite piece of the puzzle, I'm sure this isn't much of a surprise, I ran with a new C6 Vette and though he did pull me, it was very gradual and he backed out at 145mph and like everyone else evaporated in my rear view mirror. The car does run out of steam right about 145-150, well at least it loses that feel of authoritative pull that is present up to that point. Which brings me to my next thought.
The car was obvioulsy designed to run between lets say 80-140, it acclerates hard, with near impunity to anything you will run across on the streets with the exception of a few real sports cars between theses speeds. On this particular trip slowing to 75-80 to work through traffic and then back up to over a 100 was a pure joy! The car ran between 3-4.5K revs for the most part and as you probably know this is the fat part of the torque curve, many times I never even bothered to kick it down as it pulls like a freight train even in fifth above 90 and after several hundred miles it was not suprising to look down and see the needle closer to 120 than 110.
The brakes werre spectacular, vever faded, never pulled, zero drama, and they got lots of attention, I think the truckers were radioing ahead as they seemed to be timing me when I would come up behnd them and then pull out to pass another rig forcing me to drop form 105-110 down to 60 or so in a bit of a rush. Lots of and lots of clueless drivers out there, driving in the left lane, running without lights, not using turn indicators, of course at the speeds I was driving its hard to point fingers at all, but at least I get the basics right.
My only complaint was some discomfort in my lower back after the 853 mile trip, though I changed the seat position a few times on my second long stint and used the set heateres a bit more and that seemed to help. The only problem I had was a broken fog light lens, the bulb worked for another 1000 miles but that failed too during a substantial rain while I had the front and rear fogs running.
I'm sure I left some stuff out, but what an outstanding car and a lot of fun to drive it as it was intended.
05-10-2005, 01:11 PM
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C55AMG W203; 330i E90
thank you for the time to write a live storyand reading it I could almost feel that I were driving mine there
Can you give details as what the fuel consumption was like; and would that small 52 litre tank bother you?
Last edited by cntlaw; 05-10-2005 at 01:13 PM.
05-10-2005, 01:49 PM
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08 E63
very sweet road trip. 
i hope to take a road trip this summer. unfortunately the wife isn't too thrill about them. guess it's time to trade her in and get a new, younger model. 
JUST KIDDING, LOLOLOL
i hope to take a road trip this summer. unfortunately the wife isn't too thrill about them. guess it's time to trade her in and get a new, younger model. JUST KIDDING, LOLOLOL
05-10-2005, 01:57 PM
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Originally Posted by cntlaw
thank you for the time to write a live storyand reading it I could almost feel that I were driving mine there
Can you give details as what the fuel consumption was like; and would that small 52 litre tank bother you?
05-10-2005, 05:25 PM
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2005 C55 AMG
Very nice story dude, unfortunately you're making my choice of getting another C55 or an E55 much more difficult. I think I need to drive my C55 more when I get it back.
I think I need to drive my C55 more when I get it back.
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05-27-2005, 07:19 PM
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C55
Wow
Wow, what a trip you had. My C55 is a just a month old and my wife and I drove it from Seattle to L.A. in one day; great trip! The trip went well, really enjoyed the drive, the distance seemed easy to do and never a dull moment. I agree that the lumbar support needs some attention by AMG.
HPC55
HPC55
Originally Posted by 05C55
So I ran away form work for a week and went to visit some friends and log some miles on some awesome and not so awesome roads.
The route was from Phoenix to Vegas, I15 through SLC all the way to Butte, Montana, I90 West through Spokane, brief detour to Yakima then back to I90 and on to Seattle, south on I5 all the way to LA then back to Phoneix on I10.
I came away form my trip with a whole new level of respect and appreciation for the crew at AMG, the car was flawless, fast, tight, responsive, yet smooth, comfortable and at ease on long open stretches of road.
Just to give you an idea of the speeds I was driving, I'll go in to a bit more detail, but on the second day I logged 853 miles in 9:33hrs with four stops, once for lunch for about 30 minutes you can do the math but the speedo very rarely dropped below 100 and I consistently drove at 110, the car seemed to find its equilibrium at that speed. As I left Idaho and went into Montana I sped up and averaged about 120MPH and ran for about 35 minutes between 130-140MPH. Mind you this is not a straight freeway, lots of expansion cracks and raised bridge decks. The car remained settled and composed at all times. A lot of praise for the 19"s and PS2's I think they were good for an extra 10MPH.
Although the car is fast in a straight line I was extremely happy with how well it handled high speed bends, in particular the multiple mountain passes in Montana/Idaho, Oregon and California, it transitions well and hold its line as well as many sports car and again kept its composure over road irregularities. It easliy accelerated up mountain passes and slipped around cars and tractor trailers with a lot of fluididty, very unlike a comfortable sedan but mery much to my liking.
The engine was superb and came away as my favorite piece of the puzzle, I'm sure this isn't much of a surprise, I ran with a new C6 Vette and though he did pull me, it was very gradual and he backed out at 145mph and like everyone else evaporated in my rear view mirror. The car does run out of steam right about 145-150, well at least it loses that feel of authoritative pull that is present up to that point. Which brings me to my next thought.
The car was obvioulsy designed to run between lets say 80-140, it acclerates hard, with near impunity to anything you will run across on the streets with the exception of a few real sports cars between theses speeds. On this particular trip slowing to 75-80 to work through traffic and then back up to over a 100 was a pure joy! The car ran between 3-4.5K revs for the most part and as you probably know this is the fat part of the torque curve, many times I never even bothered to kick it down as it pulls like a freight train even in fifth above 90 and after several hundred miles it was not suprising to look down and see the needle closer to 120 than 110.
The brakes werre spectacular, vever faded, never pulled, zero drama, and they got lots of attention, I think the truckers were radioing ahead as they seemed to be timing me when I would come up behnd them and then pull out to pass another rig forcing me to drop form 105-110 down to 60 or so in a bit of a rush. Lots of and lots of clueless drivers out there, driving in the left lane, running without lights, not using turn indicators, of course at the speeds I was driving its hard to point fingers at all, but at least I get the basics right.
My only complaint was some discomfort in my lower back after the 853 mile trip, though I changed the seat position a few times on my second long stint and used the set heateres a bit more and that seemed to help. The only problem I had was a broken fog light lens, the bulb worked for another 1000 miles but that failed too during a substantial rain while I had the front and rear fogs running.
I'm sure I left some stuff out, but what an outstanding car and a lot of fun to drive it as it was intended.
The route was from Phoenix to Vegas, I15 through SLC all the way to Butte, Montana, I90 West through Spokane, brief detour to Yakima then back to I90 and on to Seattle, south on I5 all the way to LA then back to Phoneix on I10.
I came away form my trip with a whole new level of respect and appreciation for the crew at AMG, the car was flawless, fast, tight, responsive, yet smooth, comfortable and at ease on long open stretches of road.
Just to give you an idea of the speeds I was driving, I'll go in to a bit more detail, but on the second day I logged 853 miles in 9:33hrs with four stops, once for lunch for about 30 minutes you can do the math but the speedo very rarely dropped below 100 and I consistently drove at 110, the car seemed to find its equilibrium at that speed. As I left Idaho and went into Montana I sped up and averaged about 120MPH and ran for about 35 minutes between 130-140MPH. Mind you this is not a straight freeway, lots of expansion cracks and raised bridge decks. The car remained settled and composed at all times. A lot of praise for the 19"s and PS2's I think they were good for an extra 10MPH.
Although the car is fast in a straight line I was extremely happy with how well it handled high speed bends, in particular the multiple mountain passes in Montana/Idaho, Oregon and California, it transitions well and hold its line as well as many sports car and again kept its composure over road irregularities. It easliy accelerated up mountain passes and slipped around cars and tractor trailers with a lot of fluididty, very unlike a comfortable sedan but mery much to my liking.
The engine was superb and came away as my favorite piece of the puzzle, I'm sure this isn't much of a surprise, I ran with a new C6 Vette and though he did pull me, it was very gradual and he backed out at 145mph and like everyone else evaporated in my rear view mirror. The car does run out of steam right about 145-150, well at least it loses that feel of authoritative pull that is present up to that point. Which brings me to my next thought.
The car was obvioulsy designed to run between lets say 80-140, it acclerates hard, with near impunity to anything you will run across on the streets with the exception of a few real sports cars between theses speeds. On this particular trip slowing to 75-80 to work through traffic and then back up to over a 100 was a pure joy! The car ran between 3-4.5K revs for the most part and as you probably know this is the fat part of the torque curve, many times I never even bothered to kick it down as it pulls like a freight train even in fifth above 90 and after several hundred miles it was not suprising to look down and see the needle closer to 120 than 110.
The brakes werre spectacular, vever faded, never pulled, zero drama, and they got lots of attention, I think the truckers were radioing ahead as they seemed to be timing me when I would come up behnd them and then pull out to pass another rig forcing me to drop form 105-110 down to 60 or so in a bit of a rush. Lots of and lots of clueless drivers out there, driving in the left lane, running without lights, not using turn indicators, of course at the speeds I was driving its hard to point fingers at all, but at least I get the basics right.
My only complaint was some discomfort in my lower back after the 853 mile trip, though I changed the seat position a few times on my second long stint and used the set heateres a bit more and that seemed to help. The only problem I had was a broken fog light lens, the bulb worked for another 1000 miles but that failed too during a substantial rain while I had the front and rear fogs running.
I'm sure I left some stuff out, but what an outstanding car and a lot of fun to drive it as it was intended.
