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Weird. Not sure where my reply went. Yes, both bars made a big difference. The rear bar even more so. Really connected the car and made it feel more rigid like a sold piece of car. I now have all the Ultra Racing bars except the long middle piece shown below. Also have ECE engine mounts and rear Eibach sway bar to go in so that will make a nice difference too, but not in time for my next track day at Sears Point coming up next Friday. Excited.
Weird. Not sure where my reply went. Yes, both bars made a big difference. The rear bar even more so. Really connected the car and made it feel more rigid like a sold piece of car. I now have all the Ultra Racing bars except the long middle piece shown below. Also have ECE engine mounts and rear Eibach sway bar to go in so that will make a nice difference too, but not in time for my next track day at Sears Point coming up next Friday. Excited.
So these improve rigidity more so than handling then, right? In other words, they act differently than sway bars that effect under/oversteer depending on the size a bar and where you put it (i.e. up front or out back).
So full disclosure, I'm a novice when it comes to fully understanding the car's balance. I can't be certain whether reducing chassis flex has an impact on under/oversteer as the sway bars do. I know I like the car more with bars than without however. Tighter, more precise feeling overall, which gives more confidence in handling ability, which results in trusting car to do it's thing, which results in going fast! I would definitely defer to the true track junkies on here who are far more articulate than I when it comes to describing handling benefits etc. Guys like Diabolis, BLKROKT, Jasonoff, Duffer etc.
Chassis stiffness definitely contributes to handling, which I these bars appear to improve, but not as dramatic/directly as larger sway bars I surmise (not sure there are any for this car)... Sounds like something to add to the "list" anyway.
Chassis stiffness definitely contributes to handling, which I these bars appear to improve, but not as dramatic/directly as larger sway bars I surmise (not sure there are any for this car)... Sounds like something to add to the "list" anyway.
2012 P31 C63 Coupe Trackrat, 2019 GLE63S Coupe Beast
The Ultra bars made the single biggest difference in handling for me, and bang-for-the-buck is through the roof. I didn’t notice the sways as much, but did them after so I wouldn’t. Sways definitely further decreased roll.
Agree with Crya. The chassis bars made the car handle very flat. Much less chassis flex and more immediate response to steering input. Able to hold much higher g’s in turns too. After the braces and sways and a million other things, I found myself lifting both inside wheels at VIR in turn 14. I didn’t really notice any difference in under/oversteer, maybe a touch more push if anything.
The Ultra bars made the single biggest difference in handling for me, and bang-for-the-buck is through the roof. I didn’t notice the sways as much, but did them after so I wouldn’t. Sways definitely further decreased roll.
Agree with Crya. The chassis bars made the car handle very flat. Much less chassis flex and more immediate response to steering input. Able to hold much higher g’s in turns too. After the braces and sways and a million other things, I found myself lifting both inside wheels at VIR in turn 14. I didn’t really notice any difference in under/oversteer, maybe a touch more push if anything.
Alright looking for a small fog light delete project this weekend and I've got pigtails and resistors on hand to hopefully eliminate bulb warning. But what I really wanted to get out there was that I feel like I just won the friggin' lottery!! I bought my car last year based on feel. I did the exact opposite of what you're supposed to do. I know. It was impulsive and I knew very little about the M156 or this forum. Most other purchases I've always done the lurking thing and knew a lot about what to watch out for. So, imagine that sinking feeling I had when, a month after purchase, I learn of the dreaded head bolt issue my '09 was subject to. Since then I've made peace with the fact that sometime I'll need to bite the $3,000 bullet and get 'em replaced. I've been obsessively checking coolant levels, getting anxiety whenever I hear a warning chime from the car etc. Saying little prayers before track days. I think somewhere along the way I just had my head in the sand.
Fast forward to today. I saw a member selling ARP head studs for a small discount. Wouldn't that be nice I thought. Might as well snag them for the eventual repair! Save a few hundred bucks. But wait, for some reason, I don't know why, it dawned on me that since owning the car I never bothered checking with the dealer network for service history of the car. Figured long shot as I knew some of the car's history was back in Illinois. I said what the hell, slow day in the office why not call over to my local dealer. They put me on hold. When she comes back on the line she says "the only note we have here is that in June 2012 a broken head bolt was repaired". WHAT???? Could it be? Was my car already fixed?? She said to call the actual repair dealership in the mid-west as they might have more details! I can't tell you how much relief I started feeling. Surely they had done the repair properly in 2012. The car would have been under warranty probably. Well....YES. Updated bolts and buckets were done on my car in 2012 with 44,000 miles on the clock at a cost of $4500. I can't believe I never bothered to check this out. Like I said, figured it was a long shot. Anyways, lottery won. Car has 72,000 miles now and I can finally stop looking at swapping to a FL to avoid the bolts. Moral: Research your VIN history people. You never know...
Just messing around with budget mods this weekend. Was curious about the potential for eventual brake cooling ducts through the fog lights. Trouble is on the left side the washer reservoir is directly behind and on passenger side the aux oil cooler is in the way. So...I have eliminated one and installed resistors to trick the computer, which is working. Now I've got a nice black hole for cool air to go in...saved a pound lol. TBD if I can get some ducting and snake it around to the rotors. Not sure how to fit it all together. Never made brake ducts before. Reading Assignment: https://nasaspeed.news/tech/brakes/p...wer-lap-times/
Oh and did the foil on the bottom of the air boxes.
Last edited by Crya; 04-22-2019 at 11:49 AM.
Reason: Added Brake Duct Link
This is how the fog lights turned out. I sprayed the chrome bezels with some leftover silver I had from when I sprayed my corner markers. Then I added some plastic mesh to keep small stuff from possibly traveling through the light hole. But honestly it’s just glued in place and anything of substance may travel through.
Next up working on a lighter battery solution for my budget. Nothing new here. But did you know there’s a random 2 pound chunk of plastic directly in front of battery? Why is it there? Why does it weigh two pounds? The p/n lists it as battery tray. Weird. Deleted! https://www.mercedesbenzstarparts.co...ray-2046190048
^nice fog delete. I ran brake ducts on my S4 the same way... Not sure if there are backing plates for this car, but if there are, looks like you can just plumb up the back of the fog light housing using some of this:
In fact, I think I still have 6ft of this still stuff BNIB if you want it... Just PM me.
Oh, and that 2lb piece of plastic just looks like a spacer to keep the OEM battery in position. Be careful to check the CA and CCA on that lightweight battery though... These motors are very high compression and it may not have enough oomph to turn it over or just wear out prematurely. Many times their Ah are much lower too, which can **** off sensitive electronics in these newer cars so don't get surprised if you start throwing misc. codes or get a CEL.
Thanks. The backing plate is the crux of this operation as I've learned. I can figure out how to route some hose around each side, but getting it attached to the dust shield is another project altogether. My bro is a pretty decent fabricator though, and may be able to help if I get that serious. Right now it's just proof of concept. Pretty easy for us PFL guys to just yank the fogs and install resistors. In fact, I may now do that with my sidemarkers, which are still on, just hidden behind many coats of paint.
Re the battery, they're tons of threads on here about people running this battery type, whether it's Deka or the Braile. While it's not as awesome as say, Mr. Rokt's trick $1,000 lithium battery, it still only weighs 15 lbs and turns over the motor. We shall see if it's viable. I only have a 5 mile commute so my concern is it getting enough charge in city driving to maintain. All in, the battery and new mount should be 20 lbs, so that'll be an entire 40 pound weigh savings from battery mod alone.
Yeah, there's a definite (read significant) weight savings, but the C63 has an advantage over many cars having the battery it in the rear to help even out the F/R weight balance (just a little, but still). I totally get the argument that weight savings is weight savings, but if you take out too much from one end/side or the other, it can have adverse effects too. In SCCA, we actually add big @$$ lead bricks to various locations on the car while corner balancing, which helps handling/stability via better weight distribution (despite the added weight).
Good to have a fabricator in the fam - that' my pops. Backing plates should be a fairly quick & easy job actually; just make sure the inlet is as close to the hub as possible... You don't want to just shoot air at the rotor face, but rather direct the flow at the hub/bearing and force it through the veins of the rotor (from the inside out). The former components get hot AF actually and will totally contribute to overall rotor/caliper temps.
Here’s how the battery turned out. All inspirational credit to BLKROKT. Thanks man. All tolled battery went from 60 lbs to 15.8 lbs. AKA a loss of 44 lbs. I’m happy with that.
Big Mod, Sold our beloved '12 Rover and put Mrs. in a GLE 350 CPO in Palladium. She's in love. Not the same aesthetic as the Rover and its two lockers and A/T tires, but far more practical. I'm full Team Benz now. To think it all started in 1987 when my father rolled home in his dream car fresh from the dealer, a 380 SE in burgundy with cream interior. That thing was a tank. Also, did the ECE mounts on the 63 and love it. She shakes at idle because of the track poly, but hammer it and it's solid. So much better. Curious if there's a way to slightly raise idle just enough so the shakes are gone. It only takes a slight press of the peddle to smooth things out. Anyway, on to the track days...
The tiny race battery was giving me “start anxiety”. Found this gadget with Ctek. Just a Bluetooth monitor with app. I think it’ll be handy. Has an app to connect with and shows the basics. Nifty.
2012 C63;1971 280SE 3.5(Sold);2023 EQS 450 SUV 4 Matic (Wife's)
That CTEK battery monitor looks pretty neat and probably a good idea with the lightweight battery you are running. I have a CTEK 7000 charger that I bought years ago and it works great at keeping my long term storage batteries conditioned. I even use it on the DD once in a while to keep the battery in tip top shape.
Yeah should be good. Now what Ctek should have done was made an all-in-one bluetooth monitor with trickle. Now I'm going to go have to go back and layer on one of their trickle chargers and run a pigtail out the car somewhere so I can just plug it in overnight etc if the battery gets low. But after a week of running my normal routine with stops and commuting, it hasn't let me down. It's a Deka 20XL or something like that. 300+ CCAs so hasn't given a hint of a slow start yet.
04-18-2019, 11:14 AM
