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Updated Part II. Mercedes CLA45 AMG Project Car Begins – In Our Words
Mercedes CLA45 AMG Project Car Begins – In Our Words
by Dan Mermelstein
So here we are again at another beginning of a Vivid Racing Project Car. Something that we made a staple back in 2002 with our Subaru WRX. Over the years we have done a handful of Japanese cars, many European cars, and just a couple Domestics. We have been continuing on this Euro trend because they keep building incredible cars for the money that just fit the tuner world. Lets rewind a bit to the Mini Countryman S JCW… This was a great compact turbocharged car. With our VRTuned ECU Flash, Quicksilver exhaust, and 3SDM wheels on NM Engineering springs, it was the cats pajamas. With the Mini being such a huge market, we had visions of this car with a certain JDM company (fail) and really making it a rocket box. But the Countryman only shares a few engine parts and is not the hot ticket in the Mini world. On a personal level, I have to have 1 car with 4 doors for the family. Yes the 991 Turbo has rear seats, but only midget strippers are fitting back there! So here we are on what to do next.
I have had a chance to own many rad cars. Subaru WRX and STI’s, Mitsubishi EVO’s, BMW’s, Porsche’s, and even had a Noble M400 for no apparent reason than it was cool. The other half here at Vivid (Rob) has had a couple of Mercedes Benz cars. Me personally have never been to stoked on them until the C63. That thing was a 10,000lb guerilla and just wanted to rip pavement. We even made a video which has 1.5 million views on YouTube of this. Along his Mercedes path, he also had the new 2012 CLS63 Bi-Turbo V8. This was ultra fast but just did not have the grunt like the C63. But hey, if I needed a back massage, get moved back into my lane, or have the car stop on its own, it did it! So to replace the Mini, what do I do?
The new BMW M3/M4 was tempting, but not on my immediate radar. Going back to the roots with a 2015 STI would be cool, but they are 6speed manual only (sorry need a flappy paddle). One of our sales guys had a CLA250 that we did a couple mods on and I really liked the styling. But FWD was not for me after our Focus ST we did. So I kept my eye on the CLA45. These cars are rare to come across and I wanted to make sure that whatever I got atleast had the AMG seats and steering wheel. Finally I found this beautiful red one at Mercedes Benz of Tucson here in Arizona where they hooked it up. So here we are now with a stock Mercedes CLA45. What to do…
First let me give my review of the car. Being the last Mercedes I drove was the CLS63 we had, I had different expectations. The CLA45 reminded me a lot of driving my old EVO VIII. Very snappy, rode like it had coilovers on it, braked amazing with the factory Brembo’s, and that stock exhaust noise between the gears was A M A Z I N G. So as it has been called the little brother of the CLS63, its nothing like it except the body lines. But I like it! The interior has nice Mercedes queus like the black piano wood trim, silver AC bezels, seat adjustments on the door, and a very cockpit like feel. The AMG seats were key and very comfortable. They have tons of adjustment and feel sporty. The steering wheel is great with its flat bottom and top complete with alcantara hand grips and nice aluminum paddles. The dash gauges are tricky to figure out but once setup, they work nice. The digital speedo is key or you would be going 90mph all the time with the orientation of the speedometer. The red paint is nice and reminescent of our C63 and I really dont mind the silver accents for trim. Overall, I am shocked on the awesomeness of this car.
So the mod list for this is mentally all planned out. First we are going to do one of our VR Tuned Tuning Box Kits for the CLA45. These are a plug and play tuning solution that gives the car another 50+ horsepower making this 355bhp over 400bhp. Thats fast! With Agency Power we are going to make a new high flow downpipe. Depending on the exhaust design, we may leave that till last to make a truly unique product. A nice cold air intake will be done along with some other billet components to keep the chassis handling well. Agency Power actually already has a cool carbon fiber steering wheel option we might throw on. The super cool factory of exterior styling will be by Revozport and their CLA RZA Carbon Fiber Aero Kit (pictured below). Since the stock suspension is pretty good, we may just do some H&R lowering springs similar to what we did on the CLA250 we had here. This will give it a nice lowered look and still ride as it does stock. For wheels, we will stick with our partners at Niche Wheels. They manufacture the industries wheels and we love to get the quality with style that they offer. Right now we have our eyes on these directional wheels, 1 piece forged wheels called the RS10 in 19 or 20 inch. We have some more plans and will continue to R&D as we go on this amazing AMG machine.
Stay tuned for more pictures, videos, data, and fun stuff on our Project Mercedes CLA45!
Our Wish List
Last edited by VividRacing; 09-19-2014 at 03:56 PM.
Glad to hear about some of the R&D work that will be going on in parallel for this build. H&R springs are a good start but I'm hoping over time you guys will swap for a set of coilovers and provide feedback. I believe only KW is available at the moment. Those Niche wheels are very reminiscent of the Vossen CVT. Not sure who came first. I'd personally vote for 20s over 19s. Anyways looking forward to the initial new look and subsequent revisions to it. I'm assuming this will be an ongoing project used to showcase various performance and exterior upgrades as they become available.
Thanks for the feedback! I'm pretty sure the owner will get tired of the springs latter on and put on the KWV3's as we do with all of our project cars.
Jacky
Originally Posted by soolman32
Glad to hear about some of the R&D work that will be going on in parallel for this build. H&R springs are a good start but I'm hoping over time you guys will swap for a set of coilovers and provide feedback. I believe only KW is available at the moment. Those Niche wheels are very reminiscent of the Vossen CVT. Not sure who came first. I'd personally vote for 20s over 19s. Anyways looking forward to the initial new look and subsequent revisions to it. I'm assuming this will be an ongoing project used to showcase various performance and exterior upgrades as they become available.
Mercedes CLA45 Baseline Dyno Testing and Mod Discussion
With the Mercedes CLA45 AMG in our hands and the modification process underway, the first thing we needed to get was a good solid baseline dyno of the car. This allows us to test mods as we go and see what the gains are as our project develops. Besides dyno testing, we are also doing some data runs with our PerformanceBox GPS device to get realistic 0-60 numbers. So with the twin scroll turbocharged engine ready to get some bolt-ons and manufacturing, we strapped the car down to our Mustang all wheel drive dyno. To explain a couple things first about our Mustang Dyno, this is what we call the heart breaker. A Mustang Dyno gives real world driving conditions with load on the car and shows you what the true wheel horsepower is compared to the crank horsepower from the factory. The CLA45 crank horsepower is rated at 355bhp. Since these tests were done in early September, we had a ambient temperature of about 95F and we use 91 octane gasoline here in Arizona. Those 2 factors are a guarantee of low numbers anyways. With fans blazing on the front of the car to intrepret road conditions, we did several baseline runs on the vehicle. Typical drivetrain loss we see is about 20-25% from the factory BHP rated numbers. So we anticipate about 260 awhp. Next up on the Project Car Story will be the VR Tuned Tuning Box dyno testing as well as new wheels from Niche! Enjoy this video of us going over the beginnings of the Mercedes CLA45 project.
Seems low compared to what other dyno sheets I've seen posted. That said, none were on a mustang dyno. Still not a terrible baseline. Keep the updates coming
definitely very low numbers but should drastically increase once the mileage start climbing up .(AKA-STILL BREAKING IN)
also 91 octane sucks the big one.
you guys need to hook up with a well known tuning company like willall .
this will drastically improve performance options for people in the U.S.
also try to keep prices feasible and not jack it just because the car says Mercedes on it .
I hope you guy come along ways from Subaru days on nasioc .
also I'm very knowledgeable about this car had it for almost 10 months .
27 yrs in automotive field .
first post but far from being a rookie.
great post love the color of your 45.
definitely very low numbers but should drastically increase once the mileage start climbing up .(AKA-STILL BREAKING IN)
also 91 octane sucks the big one.
you guys need to hook up with a well known tuning company like willall .
this will drastically improve performance options for people in the U.S.
also try to keep prices feasible and not jack it just because the car says Mercedes on it .
I hope you guy come along ways from Subaru days on nasioc .
The torque curve looks fine but power curve is low.
these motors take a while to loosen up.
better gas and more mileage will bring it on par
Yep, the owner is trying to daily drive it as much as he can. It's hard to especially with his other car being a 991 Porsche and having that as a project car as well.
Not that I disagree with the earlier requests from others but my mod 'asks' are far more plebeian...
1. Extra canards -- like the extra ones you can find on the A45 and even the GLA45 (WTF?!) with the performance package -- the one below the intake and the small flic on the side of the front bumper. Oh, and PLEASE offer them in plastic. Everything doesn't have to be CF -- especially when most of the trim is already plastic. It keeps to the theme without forcing either a hodge podge solution of CF and plastic (no thanks) or switching everything over to CF (also, no thanks).
2. A nice roof spoiler (again...plastic is fine here).
09-09-2014, 02:08 PM
Want to configure more!
