For the first time in 12 years I went to the strip. Weather was in the mid 50s. My first 3 times out I ran a 13.362, 13.343, 13.357 with 2.2 sec 60 fts, I sucked with consistency.

Towards the end of the night it dropped into the high 40s, lined up against a newer F80 M3 6spd, wheels, drop, exhaust, tune, etc. He ends up blowing the launch and runs a 14.3 @ 110, we race again and he does 13.7 @ 112, I beat him both times while having my own traction problems. I get out of the car to spectate and he goes again, blows an axle on the launch with street tires. Probably one of the last cars I expected to break.

My car was a bit slow but it was still fun, going to install a set of eurocharged shorty headers and go see what it does next time, hopefully on a warmer day while running less than 38psi rear. Has anybody else been out this year?

Your times are consistent. Quite nice. You might be trying too hard to get off the line if you're pulling 2.2 in the 60.

I haven't been out this year but was able to cut reliable 1.8 short times by leaving just above idle and rolling the pedal to the floor quickly. I didn't slap the throttle because I wanted to avoid shock the tires. At the time I had one Michelin Pilot Sport A/S3+ and one Pirelli PZero. They were on it when I got it.
Temps were in the upper 60s for my 13.2 run but the wind started blowing hard later and my 1/4 times suffered despite running slightly quicker 1/8 miles. At the Texas Motorplex a north wind will slam you unexpectedly when you get past the grandstands at the 1/8 mile mark.

Haven't run my C55 yet, and I've owned it for over a year now. My only attempt at the track last year rained out, but I'm anxious to see how it does.

I was getting 2.2 60' while leaving @ 1000rpm (very slight load on the converter) and rolling into the throttle, gearbox was set to S1 (so it auto upshifts at redline). I would light up the tires @ 15-20mph every time easing into the throttle. Just can't get this car to leave hard off the line in colder weather. Considering drag radials, seems like I could gain close to 1/2 second if I can cut a 1.8 60' instead of 2.2 or just wait for warm weather, maybe this weekend?

I also raced against an Audi A7 3 liter supercharged, he was tuned with launch control and AWD, he was running 12.998's with 2.0 60' @ 107mph, it looked like he was leaving really hard off the line. Had another race against a BMW 550i, twin turbo, he ran 13.5 @ 109 with a 2.4 60'. I kept getting tree'd because I couldn't get the car to leave hard, it would either spin or leave slowly. Traction control on this car is also very annoying, even with ESP off I can't do a burnout, any gas/brake overlap kills the power. Really silly feature created for idiots who mix up gas and brake. Going to try to pull my brake light switch and see if it can bypass it that way. Really don't want to do dyno mode and 1 tire fire.

I wonder why some of us can do long rolling burnouts while others have the damn ESP kill the fun so
quickly? I've loaded up the torque converter, rolled into the throttle and killed a nearly dead set of tires numerous times now. Maybe it's because I've only ever done it on old tires that have been heat-cycled 1,000s of times and aren't grippy at all anymore?

My C55 and many others have an overly intrusive ESP. The worse the tires are the more intrusive the ESP. Any brake/gas overlap results in lack of power, throttle plate shutting because ESP computer says so. Cannot do a burnout at the drag strip or even get a proper launch because of it, huge annoyance that cannot be turned off without sacrificing the pseudo-lsd (dyno mode).

It's really a fun killer, in my C55 I can initiate a drift easily, lots of torque, 2nd gear and go pedal, 1/4 of the way through a circle drift all systems panic and kick in, I can override them with more go pedal but 1/4 of the circle later they kick in again. Basically what you would expect a Buick to do is what an AMG Mercedes does. I've owned dozens of cars and none of them with a turned off traction/stability would intervene when you are trying to have some fun. A C63 will be in my future much sooner than I thought.

That really sucks. I can do burnouts and donuts until the tires blow just by hitting the ESP button. But a c63 is in my future as well. Want one of the last N/A Mercs since I love this one so much.

those issues are resolved with the tuned TCU, many people have posted before and after night/day after that. Also anyone who drag races needs a limited slip! i wouldn't even try without that!

So what you are saying is that a near 400hp/tq v8 cant do a standing burnout unles it has a ecu tune or limited slip?


reset the trans shifting points properly, make sure your car is running 100% meaning plugs and wires, new maf, no vacuum leaks and youll light them up no problem

There are dozens of E55s with an open diff running 10s, you don't need a limited slip to go drag racing. If you think the best way to get off the line is a big smoky burnout then the LSD will definitely give you more traction. If you are launching correctly and have good tires then LSD will make zero difference.

Not sure where you got that bit of information about the TCU tune but it's NOT true. See this post:
https://mbworld.org/forums/w211-amg/531881-04-tcu-into-05-e55-amg.html#post5951140

This is not a performance issue with the engine, changing my plugs will have no effect on my traction control system taking control of the engine power in when turned off.

Ill punch my c43 off the line with brand new tires and itll break tractions and leave a nice pair of skid marks.

if your car is not doing that you have something bad somewhere. It could b a simple sensor.

hiw does you car idle? Is it perfectly smooth?

Im talking about my car which is not an E55.

A w203 c55 will do the same. Ive punched it half ways and it breaks loose no problem.

There were times when my c43 wouldnt even break loose in the wet with ESP off. Something was wrong.


SInce then I had replaced the maf and done a tune up on it.

I said nothing about an E55

I know mercedes traction is never truly all the way off

So by just adding a Quaiffe I'll be in the low 12's knocking on 11's? Uh, no, just no.

Then stop posting because this is 2 threads in only 13 posts where you're blatantly wrong. The other was you claiming at least an inch increase in tire width is needed to be noticeable. Again, very wrong.

And you do know a c55 applies the brakes to a rear slipping tire, just like the e55s, right. It's a simple e-diff.

The irony! Misinformation is coming solely from your posts. If you are losing traction then you're slowing down, limited slip makes zero difference if you never lose traction, which is the goal when drag racing. All your years of drag racing and I don't see a single timeslip or even a quality post. You are doing a disservice to people who will run across this post years from now in their google results.