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Well she’s done. I just got back from a drive and WOW. Car sounds great. Very deep rumble, sounds totally unique and very different from the “AMG sound”.
Well she’s done. Almost. I just got back from a drive and WOW. Car sounds great. And the work is beautiful. Took out the rear bumper support completely and fabbed up brackets for the mufflers and diffuser. Very deep rumble, sounds totally unique and very different from the “AMG sound”. Really thrilled with this work, and I’ve found an honest creative guy who’s got some real skill to tackle some of these projects.
But that’s not all. It turns out that my guy used to work on Mercedes exclusively. So when I told him what I was thinking about doing, he climbed up into his shelves and found THIS. He just happened to have a complete OEM CLK Black Series rear diff cooler and pump assembly sitting in a box in his shop for years. Impossible, right? So he’s going to fabricate brackets for everything this week, with the cooler (it’s got a Setrab sticker on it, bonus) sitting right behind the diffuser vent. Will just have to tap the diff for the lines and get the electrical sorted. I’m so psyched about this.
Should all sit something like this when done
you lucked out on the diff cooler setup. I like how the car is coming along.
Also take a some sound clips of your exhaust, I'd love to hear it. And it looks like you retained the stock catback without resonators. So you put those shorty magnaflows upfront with stock rear section? Definitely interested add a few more pics if you would.
On my RX-7 as I mentioned with the rear of the hood raised (stock) it didn't help IATs or water temps and with a string test they were pulled into the engine bay at highway speeds.
Going to a vented hood made a difference on water temps. I never got around to ducting the larger SMIC I had under the hood. With the vented hood when I did a string test the rear vents had noticeable less air lifting them than the more forward ones. But the hood definitely helped cool things off faster.
I always wanted to do a V-mount with the radiator and intercooler and proper ducting, but never got around to doing that before I started driving my Subaru more often and the RX-7 just sits and collects dust.
My FD also just sits in the garage under a car cover. Last drove it 2011, turbo's went south and too lazy to fix it. I have the M2 large stock mount IC which came with a ducting. I have a Koyo radiator and it didn't seem to do much for cooling over stock.
2012 P31 C63 Coupe Trackrat, 2019 GLE63S Coupe Beast
So I’ve been driving my car around for a day. I can confidently say that the number one mod you can do with this car to improve the driving experience is to LOSE WEIGHT. I think I got close to 300lbs out. It’s immediately noticeable and just gets better the more I drive. Throttle feels even more connected, and the car is much more responsive and tossable. I’m definitely focused on getting another 400lbs out of it now. Car will be crazy fun to drive then.
2012 P31 C63 Coupe Trackrat, 2019 GLE63S Coupe Beast
Yeah I’ll have to get creative. Front bumper support is next, then roof, then door panels and rest of the interior trim. It’s so loud in there now that I can forget about keeping it a nice place to sit.
I know there’s a rule of thumb in drag racing that every 100lbs in weight loss is equivalent to a tenth in the quarter. I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a formula that shows that it’s also roughly equivalent to 10whp. It honestly feels like I’ve gained that kind of power.
Sparco seats are terrific, great support and surprisingly comfortable. I’m in roughly the same seating position as before but maybe 2” lower. Seat belts lay down nicely with how I bolted everything up. No complaints so far.
2012 P31 C63 Coupe Trackrat, 2019 GLE63S Coupe Beast
Originally Posted by Jasonoff
Ditch the passenger seat that probably barely gets used.
It’s only like 35lbs with brackets and sliders. I will prob take it out for track duty though.
Pano roof is squarely in the crosshairs now. Might start tearing it out myself and not drive in the rain for awhile. I’m feeling a little emboldened now to just cut out things.
Does the rear valance not flap with the front support missing ? wonder if you could add in an aero section like ARP has for some track cars in CF but still have a upside down NACA duct to cool the diff ?
gutsy work and impressive.... I know when I gutted my old RS6 to just a single Sparco and no rear interior it was about 350 lbs and it really helped the car off the line and corner to corner, albeit it worsened the weight balance -but staggered tires and KW3's helped offset that.....
looking forward to seeing what's next.... I agree on the Roof as the worst of the weight likely given it's location...
2012 P31 C63 Coupe Trackrat, 2019 GLE63S Coupe Beast
Rear diffuser appears to be fine. Brackets were fabbed up to hold the OE clips. I want to maintain good airflow there as the grill in the diffuser will ensure that air follows that path through the diff cooler first which is positioned about 2” directly behind.
I’ve thought a lot about what to do there now and I’m totally with you. A flat aluminum underbody with a small scoop by the diff, and a hatch so I can get at the pump easily if I have to. Will continue out back to a new aluminum diffuser integrated with the CF one there now. See the pics of the grey CLK BS posted earlier with the blown diffuser - that’s my inspiration. I’ve got a bunch of cardboard to mock something up, some sheet aluminum and a riveter. We’ll see what I come up with...
FMU has done some nice work.... they built an intake for my RS6 that was slick.... something like that setup would be nice - bit of work to work around the diff and piping.
01-11-2020, 05:05 PM
