I went to AMG on saturday to find out about performance upgrades - I dont have a evosport or brabus or kleeman in the country.

The GM of the workshop was there and told me AMG offer an ECU and gearbox reprogram, that together with a dyno tune, would raise power from 240kw (326hp) to 320kw (435hp) and drastically reduce acceleration times.

The install is from AMG Germany as the dealer officially reports to AMG on all matters, not Merc. I say 240kw because he is of the firm opinion that euro spec C32's werent exactly optimised from a kw perspective when leaving the factory. He reckons he has never met a stock 32 putting out more than 240kw, despite advertised claims. His work doesnt touch boost, rather makes more use of the engine (he said they made it so ithe engine works to 65ish% power output in order to get more mileage out of the block)

So, i need to sort out the wheat from the chaff. Does anybody know of an AMG ECU reprogram? Does such a thing exist?

i don't have a clue if the AMG upgrade exists...but what they are saying does make sense...see if you can find out more information as to what exactly they do to the ECU to make more power...

Hmm that's new to me...

I never knew AMG offers upgrade packages for their own engines???

If such thing exists, then this AMG ECU upgrade combined with Evo Stage 2 + heads and cams = 500+ hp C32 easily...

Does anybody have any information about this alleged AMG upgrade ???

Seems like this guy has the AMG ECU upgrade for his CL600.

https://mbworld.org/forums/cl55-amg-cl65-amg-cl63-amg-c215-c216/188547-fastest-cl600-country.html

They have to do more than just an ECU and gearbox reprogram to go from 326hp to 435hp. Especially if they aren't doing anything to pullies or raising the boost. Sounds too good to be true, and we all know how that goes. I'm crossing my fingers hoping there is some truth to this though! I just can't imagine nobody knows about this (if it exists) when the car has been out for 5 years.

i want to see some before and after dyno pulls...

On that, not many (if any) 32's have been tuned here. How on earth to i find a reliable tuner? What kind of damage can be done to the ECU if things go pearshaped?

The only way to increase HP that much is to increase boost levels.

My understanding is that that pressured air from the supercharger goes into the engine without any governor or blow-off or by-pass system, meaning that the only way to increase boost would be to increase compressor speeds - and you cannot do that with an ECU only.

So, I'm highly skeptical.

The issue I have is unless you add an LSD how will you make use of the extra power anyway? It's hard enough to accelerate hard without tripping the traction control.

but u mean only from a dead stop or in extreme cornering. once you get moving in real world situations what does it matter?

If it was even somewhat wet out I would spin a rear tire and activate ESP while doing 70+ at full throttle on the freeway without LSD.

At speeds below 30 I couldn't go wide open throttle without slamming ESP on and slowing me down.

I couldn't give anything more than a feather to the throttle while making a 90 degree turn from a complete stop without one tire spinning and going nowhere.


These cars should have came with LSDs from the factory, or at least offered it as an option.

It is impossible for just an ECU tune to give those gains on the C32. I'm not even interested in investigating.

Not buying it......

Well, if the propeller heads here aint heard of it, the odds of it being true are....skimpy.

Basically, what i needed to know. I aint doing anything until either i can get a full description of what they "do" in the upgrade, or find corroboration elsewhere.

Thanks fella's.

did u really just use "ain't" twice in one post?

Successfully used the word corroborate in a sentence and managed to sneak in "ain't" twice. Nice.....

Cant even remember off the top of my head what 'aint' is an abbreviation for.

"Is not" somehow equals "aint"....as far as I know anyway.haha
Boy did we wonder off on that one!

You're right but it originally came from a contraction of "am not"

DOH! I knew that...no really, I did...honest!lol Maybe it was part of "are not" too? Either way ain't, ain't a word.

Anyway, so how bout that magical 100hp ECU tune. Pfffft...

WRT this upgrade i also spoke to carlos at AMG.

my car was in for a service and there was a demo they were testing...it had a reworked SC, ECU upgrade and G/box re-program

I was present when they removed the SC as they were doing more testing on it.

at that time carlos told me they were gaining close on 100kw and 70 Nm..but the diff was not handling it

price for the upgrade once they sorted the reliabilty would be around ZAR 22000-00 ( about USD 3000)

they are currently moving premises and i will be seeing them around month end to discuss the final gains

I'm still trying to figure out where in the world this guy is located?? Where is here?

Hells Teeth Rechard! are you absolutely serious about these performance figures.... A possible 360 screeming kw's on a C32 for R22000.00 thats awesome... Did not even know that AMG was in the country, must same for the first time i am jealous i am not in JHB. i would live in that workshop!

Cant wait to get some more feedback , at the end of the month when you get some more details.

am not