left to do...

Lorinser fenders
Exressions wing
code out chrome trim and badging and grill

Stay tuned!

 

what brand of wheels did you wind up with?

 

here

 

I opted for the Giovanna Cuomo 22" because it is the only wheel that I know of that actually is designed for big caliper cars. The spokes are designed to clear AMG, Brembo and Porsche calipers because of the unique way they curve around these large calipers. I actually have a 5" lip in the rear and a 4" lip in the front which is unheard of on a car with huge calipers.

I was originally going with HRE wheels but discovered that I would have lost 2" of lip on both front and rear due to the shape of the spokes and their need to clear both front and rear calipers. These wheels also come from the factory in flat black as opposed to gloss black which works perfectly for my car because of the flat black accenting that will be a part of my overall design. These wheels are also half the money but of course, are not a three piece.

The look is stunning on this car as they are both racy and classy and fit the sporting theme of all MB AMG cars. For a 22" wheel, there is nothing gaudy or street about these wheels. I think the flat black coloring provides an optical illusion making the wheels appear smaller which works perfectly with this body style.

 

As far my opinion on the mods: My preference would have been to do the drop and call it a day. With this MB product, the stock wheels really do fit the car. The red calipers and black dished wheels diminish the cars classy and sporting appearance. Sorry, but too ghetto for me.

I liked your ride when it was looking like this:



BTW, If your offended by my comments on your car's appearance, just remember that they came from a guy named "Rock" not Calvin Klein.

 

+1

 

but classy and stock are far from the look I desire. Im not easy to please.

 

Thanks for the badge-picture!

 

+2

 

Why'd you do that? It looked great before....

 

Barolo don't listen to any of these guys. They dont have the ***** to modify their car. The way I see it do it your way. Ive seen guys twin turbo their Murcielagos even though everybody else said its overkill and will hurt resale. who cares if you enjoy. I plan to Twin Turbo my Gallardo when I get it. The way the dollar is losing value. Spend all you can if you have it in reserves or PM me if you have too much. I have plenty of Foreign Currency(Euros and most South American currencies)available at reasonable exchange rates without any hassles no questions asked.

 

+1

Barolo, your car is insane. I thought my rear lip was insane, your killing it and I'm fuggin' jealous!

 

+3--- I like the classy original look.

 

when they buy their cars they can leave it so stock that they dont remove the fasten seatbelt stickers on the sunshades. As for myself, I bought it and I am going to make it look the way need it to in order for me to be happy. If they think only the dealership can provide classiness, so be it. It would be a lot more help for those who actually own the cars to comment though. most who commented are only looking at pictures and dont have a clue as to what looks better other that what we provide for them.

A short story...

When I brought my car back to show the sales manager who is about as conservative as you can imagine, he decided to take his white C350 Sport demo to the same place I got my car modded and get his calipers done in red and powdercoat his wheels black based on his impressions of my CL.

For those that dont have a clue, this is the hottest look at the SEMA show. monotone (white, black, silver, gray) cars/black wheels/red calipers.

Many who could buy a CL63 would just be content and grateful that they owned such a car. For me, I choose to design a car that fits my personality far better. This included transforming the car into a more agressive beast by removing the limitations that MB has to include to appeal to me as well as the little old lady that may be interested in their products.

What I am after is a car more like the black series, and less like a 600. I could have ordered Distronic/P2 nightvision and all the fancy electronics that would be classy but I didn't. I ordered 030 ($7K) and carbon ($2.5K) These are the factory mods that appealed to me as they are performance based and not "classy". A car can be too classy if you ask me. I came from a Bentley GT coupe, therefore it's not more class I'm after, it's a marriage of class and performance I need. Seriously, if it's about class, I would have bought a S550 and saved half my money. It's really quite simple.

 

It seems some people define ruining a car as modifying its exterior looks, whereas others see it as altering the engine, etc..

A car technically cannot be made more ghetto by upgrading the engine to have more power. It can however by altering the outside of the car to dilute the "German-ness" of the car. Also remember that in certain parts of certain cities in this country it is acceptable to "pimp out" a car and most people will still not look down upon you or laugh at your car.

In Atlanta for instance, once you get outside the city limits and into the suburbs it becomes heavily segregated. Most of the wealthy white people live in the northern suburbs and look down upon pimped out and heavily modded cars (I grew up there so I know). In the city people dont care so much. I am white, and my CLK that I had modded back in late 2000 with chrome Lorinser wheels, lowered, Lorinser exhaust, spoilers, interior upgrades got made fun of in a bad way by lots of people. Modding cars seemed to bring out alot of racist comments in people. In the end, people should just do to their cars what makes them happy.

 

to each his/her own. 50+ flavors of ice cream etc. you have the $, you do the car the way you want it. a perfectly sane approach for you. the fact that others have a different opinion should not be a surprise or necessarily taken as insulting.

drive it in good health. just expect some people to think it looks "pimped."

 

In Boston, the look does not go down.

I think that in particular the CL63 030 show a extremely well defined design ascetic where the close collaboration between AMG and MB is triumphant. Hence, why muck it up?

But seriously, why do you look for confirmation here?

 

Barolo:

If you really do not care what others think then why are you posting your pictures for discussion? Remember, this is a discussion board. I would not have posted in this thread if I understood that you wanted only CL63 owners to comment. Maybe I should have read the MBworld posting rules first.

We all post here to share information and to get feedback from others. If you are the exception, then I apologize.

Second, I have no problem with modifying cars. Almost all the car I own are significantly altered, including my E55. I only stated my opinion regarding your car and I thought I made it clear that I was no authority on style.

Finally, if my use of the term "ghetto" was offensive to some then I will try to be more pc in the future. haha

Nice ride........enjoy it.

 

quite the contrary...

Trust me, if it was confirmation and accolades I was after, I would have asked opinions before I moved forward with this project. If you search my history, I photoshopped a ton of different looks while my car was actually being built before I decided which direction to follow. I shared many different looks with the guys here to see what they thought but ultimately it's about what i thought looked right.

I welcome opinions, and I have not said one thing to try to sway those who prefer stock look over my mods. My only point is that unless you own one it's hard to make hard line statements like "I would never change out the wheels if I had that car..." My thought was that you would have to own/see/experience one in order to make such a definitive statement without any real data other than emotion.

I would say that anyone that goes to pulling race cards becasue chooses to chang their wheels out is really not in touch with where I am coming from therefore i dont really chose not to respond to it. But if I must...

Modifying a car has nothing to do with ghetto or race. Certain ethnic cultures have their preferences of what appeals to them and I'm fine with it. I attended the SEMA show which is the largest convention devoted to car modification and I would say less than 5% of the attendees were minorities so i don't have a clue where these demographics come from but whatever.

I live here in California and most people ho have a zest for cars do some sort of mod to their cars. It's an expensive hobby and i understand whay many would choose to leave their cars stock.

I generally do wheels, performance, music to most cars I buy, because cars are my hobby.

But i can respect what anyone else prefers to the limitation of... When one says "I would have left it stock" thats fine, whe one says your car looks too ghetto/Black/Asian, then I take that a bit less seriously as I don't know what that means exactly as it relates to my CL63. I modded the car for me, not a culture. I've seen many many overly modded cars in my life (as shown in attached pics which ironically was built out by a white/Arab partnership owned company - Platinum Motors), I don't feel mine qualifies for that dept yet but who knows, it may at some point because the major mods are yet to come. I'll assume now not all will approve here, but hey, thats what makes America great, you can go buy yourself one and leave it how you like. In fact if I so chose, I can always put my stock wheels back on...go figure!

Lastly, I in fact started a post stating how much I liked the 030 wheels. In terms of OEM wheels for this car I think AMG hit the nail on the head. The issue is size after I add fenders and truck wing...20's simply look too wimpy for a bodykit. It's just that simple....perhaps not which are better, but moreover, which fits right for the look I'm after.

 

here again is my finished project and the look I am after

 

Can someone please tell me what is so "ghetto" about the car in the original pictures? All I see are black wheels. Are black wheels "ghetto"?

Screw all the old geezers. I think your car looks fine.

 

I havnt a clue. I would think big, chrome, gaudy spinners would be more urban than black wheels but who knows what lurks on the other side of these computers. Public Enemy once had an album entitled "Fear of a Black Planet". I guess this is some kind of psychological spin-off.

 

BTW, is rice any better than "ghetto"?

Because those wheels on your E55 look very rice'ish to me. Since you're into the "traditional" look, why did you change your wheels? Your car looked more classy with the stock wheels.

 

actually if you look close, they look like a photoshop job. The front and rear wheels are perfect mirror images of each other....go figure....

 

IMO, part of enjoyment of any car is choosing own preferences...colors/options/how car used/driven, etc....to each his own....opinions of others may be interesting but ultimately one's own opinion matters far more.....

As a 20-something kid in my first post-college job would commute around Manhattan in a new CL55.....an old man's car in a city where many affluent guys commute via mass transit and drive some fairly pathetic cars even on summer wkends....so I've always admired guys who defy conventional wisdom re: appropriate car/commuting choices....

Always amusing to me how patterns of cars are fairly predictable....would argue it's not as much race but socio-economics/education and culture of industry in which one works (i.e., types of cars one's colleagues/competitors drive)...most smart, well-educated guys are "follow the herd" conformists, just as are most less intelligent, less well-educated guys......but, even w/o dealer plate frames as a hint, can often predict which cars are, for ex., from SF's PacificHts...or from Woodside/Atherton vs rest of SF region....similarly, in NYC, Manhattan and Greenwich cars often have a different look vs cars from rest of NYC region...ethos/"look" of cars from some suburbs/industries is more understated than others....interestingly, many rather low-profile, affluent Asians are in powerful positions in both the financial industry in NYC and tech industry in SiliconValley (and a few are car guys...and drive predictable cars for the towns in which they live and their industries).....and many ricers work at BestBuy; live w/Mommy; and drive cars that created the stereotype.....would argue culture of one's industry and specific firm/group drives car choices far more than one's race/age....

And, as a younger driver who has driven perf cars for yrs (w/no tickets/accids), am always aware that most law enfcmt (in any traffic stop/accid investigation) will naturally form pre-judgments re: fault based upon both physical appearances of car and driver (incl one's attire) and one's driving record....humans will be humans.....Who said life is fair??? Sesame Street lied.....