What´s up guys!!

I drove to the Nordschleife last Sunday and got some sweet footage!

I met up with another W204 owner from the US and we did a tandem lap first with him and his decatted and LTH enhanced car driving in front.

Mind you that this was his second lap ever on the ring, so this was a relatively "slow" lap but still fun to watch and listen to.

Lap two and three were much more "spirited" and I will upload them here in this thread over the next couple of days!

Anyway, here is the first lap:

Looks like fun, you are so privileged to have such a world class track like that to use. I’m super jealous.

Thank you! It is indeed a privilege and I try to enjoy it as much as I can. It´s definitely worth a visit if you have the chance!

On the bucket list for sure. Get out there one day I’m sure, bunch of things in Germany I want to see.

Hey guys!

The second lap is live, this one is quite a bit quicker, although there was still heavy traffic at times.

What roll bar are we seeing in your rear view mirror?
thx

Hey there Doc, you can see more about the cage in this video:

nice video thank you for sharing. I have a few more questions if you don't mind.
Are those recaro pole position seats? Could you detail the specific mount and slider setup you used to make those work? I am going down the same path as you regarding weight savings without gutting or hacking up my 507. I am working on rear seat delete panels for my coupe right now. And next will be lighter weight front seats. Regarding the front seats you used, were able to get the seats any lower than the factory seats? I cannot quite get my factory seats low enough as my helmet touches the headliner during track days which causes me to lean the seat back away from a good driving position to gain headroom at the track with a helmet. Also did you have any airbag warning lights when disconnecting the factory seats? If so how did you deal with that.
Also please share details of which transmission cooler you used to replace the factory cooler, as all of us who track the car worry about gearbox temperature I think.

Which model Lite Blox battery is a proper replacement, as our cars use a pretty large battery from the factory. Any issues securing the battery in stock location?
Thank you for any help and details

More details on custom gearbox cooler please

Hey there Doc!

Sorry for the late reply, but here we go. Those are Recaro Pole Position seats, the same ones that are in the W204 Black Series. The shop that installed the seats had a black series car there as I dropped mine off and took a look at that one to see how they should install the seats.

I assume that they used black series parts to do so, but if you like I can post some pictures of the rails. Let me know if you want those.

And yes, they are a tad lower than the stock seats (in their lowest position) which is a very welcome change. It´s not a huge difference, unfortunately I have no way of measuring it now, but it is noticeable. There should have been airbag warning lights as there are airbags in the stock seats, but you can get airbag emulators on ebay (which are basically just a little plastic case with a connector) that act as an airbag so the system doesn´t freak out. I assume that the shop has done that, but I could do some pics of the wiring to confirm.

This is the gearbox oil cooler I used: https://www.vaeth-tuning.com/modella...-c-klasse-w204

It´s a german company, not sure if they ship to the US. But you could basically use any small cooler. And I can tell that it worked like a charm and made a HUGE difference. During my last trip to the ring last year the gearbox got so hot that I could feel the radiating heat from the center tunnel through my trousers, and I could also smell it (that awful smell of burned oil). This time it didn´t even get warm.

The car felt much more at ease on the track and it felt like I could have done a few laps in a row without issues. The first two laps were shortly after another and the car just took it.

Liteblox offers three different sizes if I remember correctly and I am using the largest one. It just bolted down in the factory location, there was an adapter plate I think. Again, I could snap some pics.

Also, I will weigh the car soon to get some hard numbers!

Sure thing!

This is the cooler that I used: https://www.vaeth-tuning.com/modella...-c-klasse-w204

What´s up guys!!

Here is the third and last lap of the day which also had some heavy traffic in parts, but some fast driving and oversteer in others.

Enjoy!

So you ran it in line with the existing cooler flow? If so, did you place it before or after the existing cooler?

What were your before/after trans temp peaks?

Yes exactly, the small gearbox oil cooler is placed in front of the large engine oil cooler. The bracket was custom made from the shop, nothing too fancy and a simple install.

Sadly I have no idea what the temps were, afaik there is no way to get a read on that in the w204. But I can say that the gearbox got really ****ing hot before, and now it stayed cool even after two laps of the ring closely after another.

[QUOTE=The Extra Mile;8354469]Yes exactly, the small gearbox oil cooler is placed in front of the large engine oil cooler. The bracket was custom made from the shop, nothing too fancy and a simple install.

Sadly I have no idea what the temps were, afaik there is no way to get a read on that in the w204. But I can say that the gearbox got really ****ing hot before, and now it stayed cool even after two laps of the ring closely after another.[/QUOTE

I love what you are doing with your car.
thank you for all the info. So your gearbox cooler is mounted in the lower grill in the center of the front bumper in front of the main oil cooler? That's interesting as so many people report oil temp issues on track. And the return line of the factory gearbox cooler feeds your extra cooler?
And yes any extra pics or part numbers on recaro seat mounts would be very helpful. Any mods needed to the factory seats belts to work with those seats or just unbolt them, route them through the lap belt holes and reattach?
Thanks again.

to the OP, if you're looking for that additional edge in your engine performance feel free to reach out. we recently tuned a customer out in Denmark who had a previous tune and he only had positive things to say. he actually shared his Toyo R888R tires don't provide nearly as much traction as he thought they would due to the tune.

Hachiroku, how does your tune stand up to simonmotorsports tune?

the video shows 439ps tuned to the wheels. i'm not sure if the vehicle is stock other than a tune. one of my customers put down 460hp to the wheels on a mustang dyno with 91 octane with headers and tune. i believe in europe, the premium pump octane is 95 or 96? effectively, an octane jump of that much can see an engine that enjoys a good amount extra of ignition timing. as much as power is power, being fully custom, at the owners direction we can push until the motor simply can't make anymore power if requested. i don't recommend this though generally as, you leave less room for buffer for variables like fuel, temp, or load. mainly, what i focus on is response and part throttle power which will benefit anyone who does any form of performance driving. also with increased shift speed and directness.

Is there anything you can do to improve the shift time from when the paddle is pulled to when it actually changes gear, on a pre facelift this is. I know the facelift car has a faster box.

Coming from my other cars the shift speed is at time tragic!

ok,, put it this way then.
Does your tune come close to 7.1s 100-200km/h?

We got 98octane, but it is not Motoroctane, it is research.
98 octane in sweden compares to 86-87 motoroctane.
Mercedes in video is ran on 100 research, would be like your 91 premium.

Car in video has headers!

yes, faster, but i'm not sure we logged runs can be reformatted in kph? 6.89 seconds i think was logged? @thebug44 , hey Rene, was the 6.89 second 60-120mph on 93 or other fuel?

In North America the AKI (Anti Knock Index) index is used and it is the average of the RON and MON indexes. 98 octane (RON) is general equivalent to 93 octane in NA and 95 octane (RON) to 91 octane.

60mph = 96,54km/h
120mph = 193,08km/h

Not comparable with 100-200km/h
It will differ a couple of tenth´s to your favor.

Disconnecting factory seats will result in Airbag lights on dash. Can delete/code out via cell phone diagnostic app like Carly for Mercedes + their BT dongle.

For lightweight battery alternative, check out Lithiumax Race 9+ battery - 9.25 lbs, exceptional specs: https://www.lithiumax.com.au/product...tarter-battery
and can get it with their OEM mounting kit (your choice of vertical or horizontal orientation): https://www.lithiumax.com.au/product...ries-batteries

There's another user who ran the Lithiumax battery i believe - ETABT-1 - 3rd place in fastest 1/4 mile recorded for the NA W204 C63.

I will be installing the Race 9+ battery in my vehicle shortly and can also provide further feedback.