Zeppelin

After reading your posts I will give you 2:1 odds that your an idiot.

CynCarvin32

after reading all this... i feel like a good

so you can only give 2:1 odds here Zepp? Can't we do better?

miroj

I would dearly love to take you for all you are worth but I hate the rattle of coins in my pockets.

smgC32

Since when does a stock C55/C32 weigh 3,400 lbs or have a 54/46 weight distribution?

dmatre

OK, whenever you're ready, let's meet at Road Atlanta. Just let me know.

(Skill set? Drive up to 120mph, hit the brakes as hard as you can . . . rear tires won't lift . . . go give it a try. . . sheesh)

miroj

You dont know how to do it means nobody can do it ..... is that right ?

miroj

Well according to the resident experts it understeers too .......

dmatre

It's not a matter of knowing 'how to do it'. There is not enough braking traction at the front to transfer enough weight to lift the rear tires . . . period. Give it a try . . . go on. It's not ability, it's physics.

oggle

Miroj, you should just STFU and leave this thread. You don't know what you're talking about and the only reason you're sticking around in this childish bantering is to salvage whatever's left of your ego. You got your a$$ handed to you in this debate. Heck you're not even arguing the original point. Driver ability now? WTF we're talking about understeer and how to correct it. Look over there, is that an UFO?

Just call it quits and move to some other thread man. Seriously.

miroj

Yeah you are right this is all wasted energy talking about real life to California dreamers and bling-flingers.

rguy

smgc32,

My apologies on the curb weight. I was really tired and PO'd when I wrote that bit. The curb weight is reported as 3540 lbs for both the C32 and C55. I picked up the 4 and made it 3400 rather than picking up the 5 and making it 3500 lbs.

Honestly though, I don't think that ~4% of total 54.5%/45.5% distributed weight is going to influence anything I said or make the comparison to a 2200 lbs car any less valid; not that this is what you were saying.

I stand behind the weight distribution though. I have double-checked and the distribution from at least three sources says everything from 54.5%/45.5% to 55%/45% on both the C32 and C55. I reported 54.5%/45.5%. Additionally, they all state that the curb weight is virtually identical between the C32 and C55.

Please let me know if you have found sources that say differently. I would be interested in reading those or learning about them.

DbleNckel

hahahhah let it go guys!!!! you're cracking me up by baiting into Miroj's illed-will game.....reading these posts and envisioning that the person replying is and banging the computer keys while typing so hard because they're irate w/ Miroj's idiocy is comedy, pure comedy.....

miroj

Anyone that reads ill-will into my personal accounts of great driving is a plonker. I take it AMG is just an American acronym for CANT DRIVE, CANT STEER, BOY DOES IT LOOK GOOD.

If your interpretation of my personality is as good as your driving then Magoo is your last name. PLONKER.

Yanks are the first to declare world wars in forums, first to ignore the fact that there are people out there better at something than they are.

Understeer ? Pigs bum.

DbleNckel

dmatre

Go back to driving your X-Box, Sonny. Feel free to return when you get your driver's license.

CynCarvin32

Miro,

While this thread has gone crazy I would like to say some things I have found with the W203 and these things are fact. Before I begin, I am not a yank who goes around worrying about how a car looks. If it does not drive well I don’t care to keep it long. As for my driving skill, I have attended racing school and can hang with the best of them at various local track events (with people in cars far more sorted than an AMG Mercedes). Im no Plonker … and I can vouch for that with stacks of photos.

The W203 has terrible understeer in stock form. A c32 with stock wheels, tires and suspension will not let the car be driven aggressively for it refuses to play game when you ask it to turn. The car requires deep trail braking and quick hand motions to induce a nice transition. These actions would make more neutral cars snap into oversteer but the C32 has so little front end grip, the back stays planted long after the front has called no joy.

There are many reasons why the car has such terrible understeer but I wont get into the full list. The car has NO negative camber upfront and this prevents the tire from keeping contact with the pavement when cornering load increases. I have photos of a stock C32 taking a corner on a local canyon road and I would swear the tire was about to "de-bead" due to the sever sidewall roll caused by 0.00 degrees of negative camber.

The car has a very large motor with a heavy blower strapped to the top. This causes the car to have monstrous amounts of inertia set well in front of the front axle. With this, the car will plow long before the driver has any real fun. The weight distribution is bad but the fact that there is 3 inches of gap between the tire and the fender lip (stock) means that massive (forward mounted) motor is sitting where steering inputs just throws it around. Imagine having a motor in a normal car and then picture a 100 pound person hugging the motor…. That is the general idea behind the added mass of a kompressor and intercooling system.

I speak from experience when saying the car CAN drive well with some fairly serious modifications but in stock form, it leaves much to be desired.

The car does not in any condition need more weight nor does a car like this need to be massive and heavy to perform well.

I blew through 5 sets of tires and 3 sets of front pads and rotors (they warp quickly) in 22k miles on my car and with each mile I learned a little bit more about what makes a C32 dance and what does not. In this area I think people in this forum (like my self and all other performance oriented board users) are more educated on this topic and should be left unchallenged.

I know from past experience that you have a vast back ground in the MB world but in this one specific section, I think we have reason to question the validity of your comments. In any other area I would likely plead no contest but this is one area I have spent much time and money trying to master the very ins and outs of this vehicle.

Take care and enjoy the forum. I am not trying to stir up trouble but instead trying to explain why people are getting so wrapped up in this mess.

Regards.

miroj

What about some details. I was mostly irrate because someone on here seems to think that they have the maximum possible amount of talent and that what I reported was complete fiction. I take exception to that and whatever else they state becomes invalid.

I understand your point but you havent stated your findings in any detail thus leaving me to conclude that everyone here has to go through the same exercise to verify your conclusions.

vitaman

CynCarvin:
How much correcting changes do you think they made on the C55?
It would be interesting to hear from someone who's owned both especially if they had your sensitivity to the issue.

CynCarvin32

Details? In what way to you want details? I could write a 10,000 word post and fill up 5 pages of forum space with details about tire pressures, tire brand, wheel fitments, suspension settings, suspension brands, corner balance figures, wheel weights, rubbing issues front and back, tire deflection,..... but there is no reason to attempt such a feat because you are not trying to convert a C55 or C32 to a track/canyon car.

Some say I am just plain crazy for trying to make such a heavy car corner well but I think it is fun to start from behind the 8 ball and do what takes to prove people wrong. And from where I stand the lap times a modified C32 can throw down are proving fairly interesting. In the near future we plan to take a stock C32 with us and do back-to-back evaluations and timing in an effort to quantify the improvements between the modified car and the stock car.

As I see it, your comments about a car needing to be heavy to not be a roller skate are wrong. In a like manner, adding weight to the back end does not work well either. I did this with adding a spare tire to the back of my 2002 C32 and it was just more weight to carry around. I would much rather put on a carbon fiber hood than add a block of lead to the trunk being that one take mass out of the front while one adds it to the rear. Trouble is a CF hood is far from cheap and I am not sure I want to go down that road.

What facts do you want to see? When I have time I can post more than you will ever want to read.

CynCarvin32

Vitaman I do not have a C55 and do not want to answer your question based purely off a short test drive. When I get my hands on one I can flog for a little while I will be sure to give my opinion.

I would say the C55 is a fair bit more sorted than the C32. But a C32 can be made to be far better than a C55 with wheels tires and adjustable coil-overs.

What I really what to see is how the softer bushings and stiffer springs in the C55 compare to the C32. Also, the front end of the C55 is longer and far lower so this might help solve the up in the sky issue for the C32 motor (no blower hugging the motor in a C55).

All in all im sorry but I cant give you an accurate answer quite yet. If you know of a place in Southern California that rents C55's let me know .

rbaker

While this thread has totally disintegrated, I sure hope you are joking by razzing the benefits of proper static weight distribution & the effect corner weight has on handling. If you think that is true, I guess the rest of us who mess with karts are waaay off base by adjusting weight distribution. I guess you've never seen a single race team's suspension & chassis engineer work to adjust these parameters either?

miroj

The test of relevance is one that never bothered you.

rbaker

Funny how one can get the impression that you are the one in need of taking a long hard look in the mirror. Criticize everyone else & expect them to just take it because you can throw a few insults without any validation? Please...

Normally I am not rude in any of my posts, but please... drop the know it all B.S. attitude & say something that's actually beneficial or can be validated by the laws of physics in our known universe before you prove yourself a biased, blabbering idiot.

rbaker

I don't rent mine, but would be interested in a back to back comparison of my bone stock C55 to a "well sorted" C32 or C55. I'm also in L.A. if you want to meet at a track/club event. We can take this off line to not bother anyone else...

miroj

Calling me an idiot in cyberspace is entirely your intention not your proposed outcome.