bushburninc63

I leave it in S all the time, to my knowledge as long as you don't rev it high above 4k before it reaches 177F

IAA-C63

An interesting test to see the importance of gear selection and rpm is to go about 60 mph, put the car in M7, and then floor it. You may be surprised to find (as I was) that the car hardly responds.

black-clk500

M 70%
S 25%
C 5%

Question--lately I find myself hitting the redline at WOT and the car chugging just before the upshift in M.
Obviously I need to shift sooner, but does this hurt the car when it goes limp for a second? It sure feels like $h!t, literally and figuratively.

I never noticed this before, is it possible that the shifting has gotten less accurate or am I just getting old and my reflexes degrading?

DuaneC63

Nope. The whole idea of a rev limiter is to save the engine from over revs.

AMG638

Mine stays in C for long trips (it selects a higher gear for gas mileage) but S is my fav for spirited runs around town.

Mort

LOL...just shift a couple of hundred RPM earlier. It is possible now that the trans has loosened up a bit it is a little slower shifting especially in the lower gears. You are getting faster.

rnz1991

Most of the Time at S, the thing that i hate about S is that if you are going to race on a certain speed and you limit your cars rpm to 4000 once you press the pedal and knockdown the rpm starts from 5500 or 5000 it jumps by its self therefor i prefer >> , M when racing. C once i'm on the highway and no one to pick at

Jean Valjean

I DD generally in C most of the time. When I pull up next to someone at a stoplight that I want to get a head of, I put it into S and stomp on the gas. Through fun enthusiast driving with array of straights and turns, I play in manual and enjoy the throttle blip matched downshifts as it is so easy and satisfying to do this well. Coming from high speed up to a sharp turn. Holding the downshift paddle allows rapid downshifting. It is easy to get good with this technique. For those of us that are used to sporty driving with a manual transmission, we can appreciate how easy and competent the c63 transmission is to drive "spirited".

hingkit

Is it me or S is louder than C .. same gear and rpm?
I always drive underground parking lot and sometimes a jerk.

IAA-C63

Just wanted to note that, at Lime Rock, the instructors advised us to keep the cars in S or preferably C. I experienced the transmissions not responding well after a while in S or S+ in both the E63 and SLS, probably due to overheating?

BerBer63

I noticed this at the track too in S mode. 1st gear red line, 2nd gear would start at 4k +, 3rd gear same thing.

Chocofishez

I never use S. how is S different than C and how could it possibly be better than M where you have full control? C is great for heavy traffic.

Only time I've used S is from a standstill full launch... never actually tried it in C but i've hit the limiter too many times in M to fully trust myself.

The throttle blip downshifts in M are one of the best things about this car!

DuaneC63

I've also heard the driven very hard with the ESP on for several laps the system will keep kicking in and cause your brakes to over heat. Anyone had this issue?

IAA-C63

S is fully automatic, but more aggressive (and way more fun) than C because it starts in 1st gear (C starts in 2nd), downshifts more readily, and reaches/holds higher revs before upshifting. It's a nice compromise between C and M when you don't want to bother with shifting yourself.

IAA-C63

At Lime Rock, I didn't notice brake fade with any of the AMGs after doing a lot of hard braking. I didn't look at the dash to check how often ESP kicked in, but my guess is that it was pretty busy. The transmissions clearly seemed to be the weak link with these cars.