schwarzwagen, blackwagen, (fahr vergnuegen)

drive your car carefully, don't get in a wreck, keep checking your "fat" bank account and don't post hateful comments! you're just a hater, admit it and, again, go check how "fat" your account is. and be happy with it...
happy with your 300? well, great, let someone else be happy with their cars.

dragon, happy motoring, and disregard blackwagen's comments, he wishes he had your car.

tschuess

 

now post some kill stories or at least some videos! the ride looks great! congrats and enjoy! boost safe.

 

Thank you to everyone for the nice and pleasent comments.

schwarzwagen - you're embrassing yourself here. I think we are all in agreement, that the only poser here is you. You've said your peace, now please MOVE ON.

Fact of the matter is that everyone here agrees that upgraded brakes make complete and absolute sense on a car with 550hp, and in due time I'll probably get them. I just don't feel that there is an immediate need to spend 6-10k on them. That's my opinion and you've said yours... I appreciate your concern and your child like rebuttals have been duly noted. Now please, crawl back under the rock you came out of and stop ruining this thread.

 

A bit full of yourself, aren't you? You completely missed the point of my original post.

You say that the stock brakes on the C55 are inadequate already, without any power upgrades to the engine. That may well be the case with repeated track use, but that's not the point here. We're not debating the adequateness of the stock brakes. We're debating why one would need or not need a brake upgrade if you supercharge the C55.

I argue that if one stays below the stock electronic speed limit of 155mph, and if you don't track your car regularly, the stock brakes will do just fine (or at least as well as Mercedes AMG has designed them to be, which may or may not be good enough for you).

By adding a supercharger to the engine, you greatly increase acceleration and top speed. If you stay below 155mph, why would a supercharged C55 with stock brakes perform any differently than a normal C55 would (with respect to braking ability)?

Not tracking the car and staying below 155mph most of the time qualifies as "posing"? No, I think most people who own extremely fast cars rarely go above 155mph. They use their power to ACCELERATE to whatever MPH in the blink of an eye compared to lesser cars, and that is where most of the fun lies with huge horsepower.

Now why don't you stop "posing" yourself and tell us what other high performance vehicle you own which makes you an authority on high speed braking performance. I hope you'll tell us something we don't know yet, because your 300SEL hardly qualifies you to sound as authoritative as you think you are.

 

last I checked the S600 biTurbo runs the same 4-pot Brembo as the C32/55 up front hauling it's 2 ton weight to a stop. I'm pretty sure it has 500hp.

 

Lets get to the point here. Americans drive like German grandmothers.

I can list a ton of MB's that had tacky small brakes added for the US market because people here drive really slowly and moan when you have brakes that make ANY noise when warm and they go scream at their service writers when the brakes squeak when cold. The best example I can think of is the 1992 500E. 1992 cars and some 1993 cars had a Brembo 4 piston front caliper but US customers said it made too much noise at low speeds and groaned when warm. So MB changed to the SL600 brakes (which were much heavier and smaller) to please this non-performance oriented drivers. Customers with 1992 500E’s were given the choice of downgrading brakes if the so chose but you were not given free Brembos if you purchased a 1993-1994 500E/E500.

Not to be rude but in Germany where people drive quickly, the S600's have the same brakes (sans rear cross drilled rotors) as the S55k's. Clearly MB sees US S600/CL600 drivers as older and more conservative than those who buy the SL600 (which has the larger AMG like brakes).

I really doubt this Kleemann c55 is driven like the average S600 in the usa.

 

"So you are admitting that you don't drive fast? BLING! I drove 100+ mph (where permissible) on the way to the office this morning in my old s-class, how fast did you drive?"

Dragon, I can't stop laughing because that reminds me how many dozens these old cows I smoke them on a daily basis; and believe me , I am a below average driver. He's a sure a joker of its kind.

 

S600 standard feature through out the world have 4-pot front and rear. I've double checked many mb site that have information available. drilled rotor varies. Unlike the U.S. which cars which come pre-packaged European countries has more options on what they can and want in their car at extra cost.

 

All this brake bashing? lol Don't worry about them J. You are the man when it comes to C55's! Hey thanks again for the sweet room you got me! Gotta do that again next time.

 

LOL. My pleasure on the room, I'm glad you enjoyed it. I told you that THE Hotel is very nice!!! It's my favorite. And at $298 peak season, it's not really a bad price. Too bad we didn't get a chance to met up. Definitely next time.

 

I'm going to change my pants real quick...

Awesome ride!~!

 

proof... seen it in person frank very very sorry

 

I saw the euro spec S600L in Taiwan...they were sold by the gray market importer. It had the 4-pot brakes front and rear. the bigger brakes were listed as manufacturer option. Like how you can get the quad exhaust for the 03 CLK55 and LSD for all cars in Germany.

 

I have seen order forms for W220 cars and have read the price sheets (euro spec) and there was no option for larger brakes.

Look at the S600's on mobile.de and see that all 2003's have 8 pots.

And here is a S600 wheel photo....

And the items u listed for the CLK are installed at AMG only ( know u know this fact though) and these brakes are standard issue for ALL S600's. You really cant compare AMG options and factory spec. But there is no option for German and UK cars. Not sure where the importer got the car in question. Could have been a US he was selling. Cars are often imported from here as well.


http://mobile.de/SIDjwNqZjCpgfsKltRV...1111174876288&

 

Easy tiger.

This all from a guy who never floored his car for the first 6 months or something funny like that. No one was messing with you and i bet the person in question has driven more high powered cars into their speed limiters than you could ever imagine.

So laugh away but realize you really dont drive quickly and should stay out of the discussion.

 

Why all the negative comments about dragons brakes? If he feels the stock brakes are sufficient then so be it if he feels the need to upgrade it then he will so. Just be happy for the guy. Geeeez!

 

Very nice C55

When you're ready for brakes, don't play around....get an Alcon setup. RENNtech used to use Alcon brakes. I do not understand why they moved to Brembo

Oh well, at least Brabus still uses Alcon

 

So how fast you drive determines how much credibility you have in this argument? In that case your in trouble.

I don't see the problem here. Stock brakes are not a issue so long as the driver has the presence of mind to know what his and in this case his equipment limitations are, I belive Dragon will be just fine as he seams to have a decent haed on his shoulders were not talking about a 16yo kid here, I am sure he feels loved with all this concern for his safety.

I have tracked a few stock braked cars around various road courses. The shining light on big breaks is not the distance in which that car stops but the ability to do it repeatedly. The most recent car was a 700rwhp supra around road Atlanta, I made the entire first session with no issues got pretty good fade about half way through the second session this was turning 1.40 laps a Porsche GT3R in the right hands turns 1.38s on this course so I would say I was pushing the car hard, I pulled in a lap latter the car was done for the day.

On a street car this is not a issue you run it up to 150 and stop hard once. You may thrash it on a 2-3 mile stretch then your off it. If you feel you need to try and win the 24 at Daytona on the 30 min drive home from work at every corner and open stretch of road then you have some issues and its not brakes.

A car is setup for the driver and what he will use it for. My drag car has smaller brakes then stock and 1340rwhp I guess I am screwed yet it has stoped every time down the track from 170+mph.


BTW not to forget very nice car Dragon.

 

Apparently the specifications for the S600 on the mbusa.com website lists this:

Brakes Dual-circuit power-assisted 4-wheel disc brakes. 14.2" perforated and ventilated front discs. 13.0" perforated and ventilated rear discs. 4-piston fixed front and dual-piston fixed rear calipers.


For further confirmation:





Those images are from this ebay listing, a 2003 S600 BiTurbo.

Frank is correct that the S600 BiTurbo does not have the 8-piston brakes from AMG and seems so for U.S. models (mbusa.com). Clearly your link shows a 2003 S600 with the upgraded brakes option.
One notable difference between these brakes (standard ones on the S600) compared to the C230k/C55 brakes are that they are bigger (14.2" vs. 13.6").

 

Excellent points NONE!!! Well said and you're absolutely right!!!

 

Oh, yea. Very nice car you have there! Your car is one of a kind and I am sure you're one lucky guy to get one.

 

Stand corrected if that's the case, but I'm pretty sure that car I saw came from Germany cuz I snooped around and saw the owners manual in German. This was last year.

 

The S600 illustration proves a few things:

1). FrankW does not know what he is talking about.

2). Americans don't drive fast as determined by MB themselves!

Our original poster with high hp and small brakes is in good company in any case. Never-the-less, MB still installs the big brakes for Americans who opt of the AMG offering. So, in order to SAFELY explore this C55k's performance potential, it desperately needs a brake kit. Draw your own conclusions.

 

You have missed the point of the discussion. We are saying that German and UK spec S600's have the larger brakes. I know this for fact and yes the US version does have the smaller 4 pot brakes. MNUSA is wrong in their specs however for it is a 13.6 inch rotor not a 14.2. They are using the rotor size for the S55k or German S600 and the caliper for the us spec car. The S600 front brake is the same for 2002 and 2003-2005 except it is now painted silver -- because the rear rotor uses the silver painted small 4 pot brake caliper. The rotor is the same as in 2002 as well 13.5 inch.

Your pictures are from the S600 on e-bay and that car is in Texas so clearly it is a US spec car.

I am saying that in a market where people drive quickly (100+) the brakes on the US spec S600 are not large enough. I know my 2001 S55 (with 350 hp and the same front brakes as the S600) was not very exciting when it came to slowing down. Then again that car was not "that quick" either. That S55 had terrible brake fade.

The cars on Mobile.de are not upgraded and are factory stock.

 

First off lets not compare a drag car and a road car. Yes we all know a drag car has smaller brakes... so do nascars that are running around an oval track vs. watkins glen.

I well know how brakes fade and understand that brake upgrades are not needed for the first stop. Your times around road atlanta are impressive and that 700hp motor must love the back straight.

I think the final is that if he drives the car like a stock C55 with little bursts of power then yes the factory brakes are enough. If he chose to drive a bit harder and get up to speed several times in a row and slow back down again he would see a difference with upgraded brakes. Maybe I need to realize that people wont use the car that often. I know if I had a C55k I would likely drive it very hard and use that motor when safely possible. I just am not excited by drag racing but I know many people love it.

I see car conversions as a package and Brakes are a key part of the package. I would forgo the exhaust system and get the brakes or something of that nature. A car with a brake kit is more fun than a big motor in my opinion.