I am posting this in the C63 forum as I am a former owner of that amazing car and I know many of you here since I had this car since 2008, and as you know I ended up with a SLS recently, so having tracked the C63 over the wonderful years of ownership I now had the opportunity to track the SLS and have some comparing to do. I did complete my first day of tracking on saturday and all I can say is WOW. I was a little apprehensive about really pushing the SLS as I wasnt to keen on any expensive repair bills...but this car seemed to beg me for more. I was totally impressed on how much speed this car carries into the corners. The rear axle grip was way more than I expected. Powering out of corners was impressive as well. Feathering the throttle through corners gave me a sense of one with the car. But what most impressed me was how the engine maintained cool, I remember my C63 would overheat and manual mode would soon turn into a limp mode after about three laps and I would be stuck in sport due to the tranny overheating as well.This made me crazy and I was starting to realize that the C63 wasnt really prepared for some big lapping days, hence the C63 Black Series was introduced and they tried to fix these overheating issues with the engine and the tranny. The SLS maintained the same temp as if I was street driving, and the car never booted me out of manual mode, the DCT tranny let me choose my gears all day...impressive. I did about 60 laps and I felt the car made me a better driver, I just loved the characteristics this car has on the track. Funny thing, a few of the instructors came to me as I was packing up to leave and they said "this car has some serious grunt" and that I was really moving all day, they were laughing on the velocity and ability to pull on the Porshce GT3 RS 4.0 that was there....mind you so was I. One thing that I will do is change the brake fluid and put in something that can handle more heat, so a brake flush is next.

 

Nice! Sounds like fun. Was the 4.0 pushing as hard as you were?

 

Great review and thanks for sharing. Enjoy the SLS, as it's a beast of a car.

 

Thanks for posting your first track impressions of your SLS. I drove this car at a recent AMG Driving Academy. By far it was my favorite car around the track. It felt somewhat more responsive than my BS. Undoubtedly the weight difference contributed to this. The roar of the engine under full throttle made it very clear that the 2 cars share a common lineage.

 

I can attest to Nick pushing his car hard. It is nice to see owners of great cars driving them properly and not just showing and shining. I was truly amazed at how low the engine temperature stayed in the SLS. I definitely couldn't say the same about my c63.

I have driven many laps in the SLS at AMG driving academy but was always to concerned about how much performance I can pull out of it. I never really payed attention to the fine craftmanship details that it has to offer and after seeing Nick's in person it really is an amazing car.

 

nice write up.

did you find anything about the SLS that you thought could be improved?

 

Thanks for sharing your track days Nick... I'm glad to hear the SLS is doing everything you wanted & expected. And it's awesome to hear your car didn't go into limp mode on manual mode.

60 laps during the whole day? Did you have to fill up the tank once? lol

 

Awesome, thanks for sharing. Id love to see one of these at our track events.

 

Excellent, that sounds like a blast for sure.

 

Nice write up. Makes me want an SLS even more now! It's good to always dream.

 

I can't believe no one has said this yet...pics or it didn't happen!

 

Thanks Lange, I to drove the SLS at a number of AMG driving academy events and it was there I began to realize this car was the one that was more "race car" like, but after driving my own car for that many laps I became even more enamoured, I never quite had enough laps at the ADA. The difference in sound between the SLS and the BS which I also experienced some track laps in, are that there is alot more engine sound from the front of the car in the SLS, which has to do with the upper and lower intake manifolds which are quite different in the M159 engine, as well the exhaust in the SLS has zero restrictions and no baffles, as well the piping is as straight as can be with no kinks, hence the slight more raw sound.....the BS was also loud as hell, deep and no doubt completely different form all the other C63 M156 powered cars.

 

Glad you came up on Saturday Andrei, hopefully next time you can get some laps in and get those nitto track tires heated up and working for you.

 

Thanks, by the time I finished my morning runs, I was already on empty, then filled up for the afternoon runs and barely made it home, so filled up again once at home.....so two tanks, keep in mind the SLS has a 90 litre tank I believe.

 

As I understand the SLS and BS share the same oil cooler which has 50% more capacity than the standard M156 version. Are you aware of any other differences? To this point I don't think I have heard details about how well the Black Series keeps it's cool on hot track days. Considering the issue is specific to oil temps and the coolant temps stay fine, I wonder if the bigger oil cooler can be installed in a C63? My son installed an aftermarket cooler on his Nismo and it made all the difference in the world. He can track all day in 100 degrees and oil temp stays at 220.

 

The biggest differnce is that the SLS has dry sump lubrication and the Black Series has the standard oil pan. I would imagine that the dry sump oil lubrication is constantly pumping oil into the engine when the car is cornering hard and when there is constant weight transfer under hard braking and hard acceleration. In an oil pan the oil is swishing around left, right forward and backwards making it much more of a challenge to get oil into all moving engine parts.