Joined: Dec 2017

Posts: 28

Likes: 3

C43

In my petrolhead paradigm, Mercedes never rhymed with AWD winter drifting madness; nor did I buy this car for that purpose. However, the last time I actually told my girlfriend “There’s so much snow outside, I’ll be back in two hours” and went off to drive like it was a WRX, was in 1999.

That was the year I left Canada for five winterless years and when I came back I got into RWD cars that were fun but required more finesse in the snow. Not this AMG marvel.

I initially chose this car because it was an all-in-one comfy Merc and wild AMG. Then, I started to test every available combination of the electronics and it really is, at least, six cars in one.

I haven’t driven it on my summer wheels yet so my tarmac experience is still tame on snow tires.

On snow, my favourite combination is:
- Comfort mode
- Sport handling
- Exhaust open
It’s the best balance of power and compliance.

I did have a bigger grin with TC off and the AWD handled like a champ but a wider road was best to have fun. Sport handling (not harder shock absorbers) allows for the perfect amount of drifting and gives a sense of total control without any feeling of interference. I’m lucky to live only a few minutes from Scandinavian-flick paradise.

If you’ve only driven C and S+ it’s time you try every combination and see the difference. It’ll turn out to be real quality time with your weapon.

The only gripes I have about the electronics are:
1. The personalized combo doesn’t let you choose from every possible option. You still have to activate some manually.

2. You can’t make the car retain the last combination after turning it off. There should be an option to save all of your favourite options as part of the seat memory.

Since it’s my day job, I tried to hack the ECU to get into the OS and see if I could reverse-engineer the apps. It’s not stored in the same place as the engine mapping and has hardware crypto that uses RIPEMD-160 so I need to get one from another car so I can work on cracking it without keeping my car off the road. That’ll be fun 😆👍

Now, stop what you’re doing and go out and play in the snow!