SeeKlasse

look, i LOVE the black series. now what i need is some video action. im really wondering what sort of time this car can pull on the 'ring... that would be intense...

jrcart

I put a couple of pro drivers in the seat, I gave one of them a half hour to sort it out. I believe his name was Chris Lange or Lane, could not understand what he said, I think he was British or something. Anyway he improved on my times by a couple seconds, he posted a couple of very low 2:17's, he was only running 2:13's in his race Porsche race car...but 4 seconds is a lot of time at an average MPH of 110 plus. He says he could not believe they way it pulled and the fact that it was an automatic trans floored him. I could not get it out of the high 2:19 myself. I wasted a set of tires and I believe warped my brake rotors. Anyone who thinks this car is not a match for a Porsche is nuts, I never got passed by a road going car on the track. The only place the Porsche is superior is on the brakes. They could consitantly go a couple cars deeper, yet it seemed I could carry more speed through the corner and in some cases by the end of the turn they were slowing my down because of their lack of cornering speed. I'm sure a lot of this had to do with driver skill, but it was interesting seeing where each car was able to excel, mine in more place than not. On the straights none of them where a match for me. I was able to just drive around them, a few times I thought my friend was slowing to allow me to pass, but once we talked he said he was in it.

Murtaza

Your BS is heavily modded, isn't it fair to say a stock BS wouldn't do nearly as well?

otoupalik

I think a stock car would be a close match. However, the point is that MANY have said that HIS car will never be able to do the things that it is.

SeeKlasse

his CLK BS reminds me of the CLK DTM based on the w208. lots of horsepower with dtm styling and handling that cant be matched. However, the DTM cars weigh in the 2000's of lbs. but i digress, i cant believe how a road-legal car is establishing itself among racecars.

SLK55R

doesn't seem so ... he certainly have some great mods on there but the basics are all the same. Suspension is stock ... just headers (exhauststuff) ecu tune etc. Pretty basic stuff.

jrcart

The suspension is not stock, the car has a set of H & R Springs, the car is consideraly lower than a stock BS and the "stock" suspension is fully adjustable and pretty damn good for "stock". None of the settings are anywhere close to stock. The car also has steel brake lines all the way around and a few other things for dedicated track use. There was a lightly modded GT2 out there that was running times consistant to mine by the end of the day.

SLK55R

springs ... I knew the suspension was already kick ***.

But my point was changing springs, brake pads, steel brake lines etc aren't major mods. Pretty basic "stuff". Meaning the CLKBS is able to get to to this level of performance without major modifications.



Any particular reason why "stuff" is in quotes???

jrcart

Nobody ever said it was "establishing itself among racecars". The race cars were running 6 to 7 seconds a lap faster than me with me behind the wheel. 7 seconds at Road America is an eternity, you figure 7 seconds at an average lap speed of 108mph, hell it's probably over half the front straight. I am not sure what class the race cars where built to run in or what was done to the cars, all I do know is they had full roll cages, one seat and they were pretty stripped down and had no turbos or forced induction.

SeeKlasse

ok whatever, you know what i meant. your car kicks ***

jrcart

The Black Series is on a MAJOR diet. All trunk lining and finishing materials have be removed. Ordering Sparco S LIGHT CF seats, removing all sound deadoning materials in cabin and looking for some lighter weight rotors for all 4 corners. I'm also having a local shop check into swapping out misc bolts and screws with Ti bolts...this can add up to a lot of weight. I saw people posting on here about the CF door panels, how much weight do these save? I want to get at 300 pounds off this thing from the way it is sitting currently. Lambo door hinges were removed.

Any other ideas as to where I can start stripping more weight? This is still a street going car, so I want to keep radio/nav a/c and stuff like that.

CLK Masters

i'm not sure how "die-hard" you wanna get, but the 1st gen Z06 for the C5 vette, used thinner glass in the windshield to save weight i think around 20 lbs, titanium exhaust that saved 19 lbs, and different non-runflat tires trimed 23.4 lbs of the unsprung weight for the car, later in 2004 they used a CF hood to save 10 lbs. that's more than 70 lbs of dropped weight.

SeeKlasse

dry cell battery! that can save you like 15 lbs at least. also, while youre at it, remove the stereo system, im sure thats like 50-70 lbs at least with all the speakers wiring and the headunit, which i think has the amp built in... also i think you can find lighter calipers than what you have, im not sure how much yours weigh but i know there are some pretty light aftermarket ones out there that are high performance...

Havoc

Keep the weight on, you'll need it when you change to lower compression pistions and add twin turbos.
Sorry, just thinking out loud!

DFW01E55

That was T Kanaan's post on 6speed.

Addicted2Speed

I don't think this is such a great idea personally. It won't be possible to strip away 300lbs without sacrificing essentials like AC, various electronics, interior trim, etc. It will never be a very lightweight car, if you want that, you should consider something like a 997 GT2.

jrcart

I'm not really a Porsche guy, therefore would probably never buy one. I like the uniqueness of my MB, it turned more heads at the Porsche track day than any GT2 or 3 or Carrea GT that was out there...and it was faster. I just got sick of being beat on the brakes by a handful of them, that is the only reason I want to save weight, my BS has more than enough power to drive around a GT2 on a straight in it's current state of tune.

300 pounds should be a very realistic number, we weighed the crap we took out of the trunk alone and it was 41 pounds, the new seats weigh 13.5 pounds each opposed to over 50 each for the stockers, thats another 75 pounds saved, the battery I just bought is 19 pounds lighter than stock, That's a 135 pound reduction with just those 3 items alone. Sound deadoning materials can add up fast, I'll save at least another 50 pounds there I'm guessing. They tell me to expect at least 25 pound savings on misc Ti bolts, maybe more. The car is on a rack as we speak having the front brakes and suspension removed, the stock rotors are heavy, researching new rotors right now. We are also going to weigh the front suspension to see if that is worth changing.

Does anyone know if there is suspension availble with remote resevoirs that can be mounted under the hood for easier tunning rather than having to lift the car and get underneath?

SeeKlasse

hey jrcart,

what type of battery did you end up buying? im curious because i was considering doing the same upgrade...

dont forget to check the weight of the calipers and see if brembo or equivalent can offer you lighter calipers... youre doing well by changing out the rotors because they say that for each pound in rotational mass you remove its like taking 5lbs of static mass off the body of the car. we all know those dymags were already the lightest option for you. but youre still well on your way to the 300lb goal

jrcart

I went with a Braille full Carbon Fiber Dry Cell. The weight of the battery is 11 pounds 4 onces. Pretty inexpensive as well, I only paid $190.00 for it.

jrcart

One more thing the new 997 GT2 weighs 3200 pounds vs 3800 for my BS, between my wheels and the additional weight reduction diet I should able to get to within 200 pounds of the GT2.

SeeKlasse

plus your wheels are superior to the gt2 wheels. that central consolidation of the wheel mass makes your acceleration and braking alot better, not to mention handling. i also recall reading that if you use dymags you can tune your suspension a little bit more agressively because the carbon rims are a little forgiving, which means your handling could potentially be better than a car without the advantage of having technologically advanced wheels.

jrcart

I'm still not able to out brake a GT2 or GT3, even with the Dymags. That is the one and only area they are clearly outperforming me. I hope by knocking off a few hundred more pounds and adding some new rotors (2 piece front and rear) I am able to gain a little ground on them in the braking department.

sick430

Jrcrat are your calipers and rotors stock as of now? i saw the VRP carbon setup but at 15K thats a little high. however i know that the stock AMG brakes i believe that are on your ride are crazy heavy.

sick430

and also after looking at pictures of your car you maybe able to remove some of that stuff of the back area!

jrcart

Some of what stuff in the back area? Carpet and liner in rear, where the back seats would normally be? If that is what you are referring to, I don't wan to strip this thing down so it looks like a race car, I want to keep it's finshed appearence on the interior. I am removing any backing and padding on those panels but the panels will stay.