LZH

Just wanted to let you guys know I have posted the following letter to AMG in the private lounge.

"To Whom it May Concern:

As a new member and CLK 63 Black Series owner, I would like to say THANK YOU for providing us with this site.
The reason I am writing is to express my concern, and garner interest from other CLK 63 Black Series owners about the 7 Gtronic transmission in our vehicles. It has come to my attention that the new CLS 63 and upcoming C63 will have the 7 Gtronic PLUS transmission which, by all accounts, is mechanically identical to the transmission in the CLK Black Series. The major difference however is that when downshifting manually, the ECU will blip the throttle and rev match for the next lower gear. Taken from a recent publication regarding the CLS63:

"The AMG SPEEDSHIFT PLUS 7G-TRONIC transmission now incorporates a function which blips the throttle automatically during downshifts. This does more than just intensify the emotive driving experience - the virtually load-free downshift procedure also leads to a reduction in load-alteration effects, which is of particular benefit when braking ahead of corners on the race track."

Since the CLK Black Series was designed for track use and spirited driving, I would like to formally submit a request to have this functionality made available for our vehicles. AMG has made a real winner with the CLK Black Series, and as a true enthusiast, I, and I am sure every other Black Series owner, would agree that this would be the icing on the cake.

I welcome any thoughts or suggestions from other CLK 63 Black Series owners, and hopefully we can make a great car even better."

This is the response from the AMG private lounge team in Germany:


"We are currently reviewing this topic with our technical team and will post a response once we have an answer from them.

AMG Private Lounge Team"


Keep your fingers crossed.

alexander stemer

Count me in if it happens. AS

LZH

If you havent already, register on the AMG private lounge site.

http://www.mercedes-amg.com/privatelounge/

All you need is your VIN to become a member. Then goto community, discussion boards and then the Feedback forum to respond to my letter. The more owners we have over there requesting this the better chance we have of making it happen. If they do not do it for us, I will have an aftermarket software program written and make it available to the public. Personally, I would rather this be a factory upgrade but I don't expect much. Hopefully I will be suprised as I see no reason at all why this cannot be done.

alexander stemer

I tried, but my entry kept getting rejected. By recollection, they ask the VIN number, which I entered on each of 2 occasions without success. Is there a trick I'm missing? AS

ET550

No trick, should be relatively simple. Just need to enter the last seven digits of the VIN (letter plus six digits) on an AMG vehicle.

Jon2007E63P30

The first time I tried I typed in the entire VIN. I missed that it was only the last 7 digits.

Wish they would give me the blip on the E63

johno530

My guess is that there is a fairly extensive QA process for automotive software – especially with respect to regulatory and safety concerns. Given the low number of Black Series vehicles, I’ll be surprised if they “upgrade” the software. But it will be great if they do.

sprins

They only accept VIN# from USA cars. If you're not in the US, you're not welcome. I tried it myself and wasn't welcome (either).

jrcart

They make sofware upgrades and downgrades all the time. Everytime you bring your car in for service they plug it in and upgrade one thing or another. A couple years ago I had one of the first M5's in the US, it came with "launch control", I brought it in for my 1000 mile service and drove it home. A few days later I attempted to use my launch control and it was gone. Fearing that I had broken something I called the service department at my dealer. They told me that they removed that feature from my vehicle. When I asked them why they told me that BMW shipped 7 M5's to the US with launch control but that it was only an option they were offering on the Europeopn versions. I begged and begged my dealer for the launch control back but they said they could not do it.

This one could go either way...it should be as easy as a click of a mouse for your service department to do the upgrade once AMG or MB authorizes it to be done.

chiphomme

Are you sure? My M6 had launch control (as did my M3 w/smg). They both were the hobbled versions (maxing out at ~1800 rpm versus the ~4000rpms of the European cars)

spr

if I recieved the M5 with launch control and then it was removed I would have made them take the car back unless they put it back on PERIOD. That's complete BS!

jrcart

Yes, I had one with full blown launch control. BMW North America confirmed that the first 7 M5's sent to the US had Europeon ECU programming. There exact reasoning (excuse)for re-programming was with concenrs to our fuel in North America vs. Fuel in Europe and the fuel mapping programs required being different. I know nothing about fuel in Europe, or fuel in general, so this sounded like a lame excuse to me, but whatever. As for your M3 with launch control..I was not aware that BMW ever offered any M3 (Euorope or US) with launch control. If they did its news to me. I have an 03 M3, it has no launch control...that I'm aware of.

Anyway, my point was not about BMW launch control, my point was that it would be very easy for M-B to re-program our cars with the upgraded software just as LZH stated early on in this thread. They can give us the upgraded transmission program just as fast as BMW took away my launch control program. It can't hurt to try.

Furthermore, I'm sure there are tuners out there that can program a similar transmission code in your vehicles. I'm sure this may have some warranty inplications, but would be an option if you really feel that it would be benificial to your driving style.

chiphomme

My 2004 E46 M3 w/SMG had launch control. It was almost the same as my M6, a much tamer 1800 rpm limit than what the European cars had. Which always bothered me because magazines like C&D would always test the Euro models and get acceleration numbers US customers couldn't achieve (eg. An M6 at 4.1 to 60, 8.9 to 100, and a 12.4 @121 quarter).

LZH

And let’s hope they do as it will make the car much more fun to drive. Just as a data point and to clarify; the throttle blip in the new cars is a function of the ECU program, not the transmission.

spr

I agree, I would be pretty pissed of not having this feature when the much cheaper c63 does- Now lets also lobby for them to make a simular one for the 5 spd for my c55 also!

BTW, who has that black clk63bs down here in SD??? I end up running into it constantly like we frequent the same places downtown and at the golf course-

ET550

Actually, C&D has a habit of getting acceleration numbers nobody could achieve. They consistently seem to be a half second faster than any other published times.

BenzBoy12

I heard the real reason was because of worrys about people suing because they wore out their tranny by using it too much.

alexander stemer

Aside from sounding cool, and the THEORETICAL advantage of rev matching the downshifts, does it really matter?
Yes, I'd do it if it was readily available and didn't void warranty, but the torque converter dampens much of the downshift shock, and heavy braking mutes the rest, so I don't think it will have much practical value (like lap times).
It's a neat gizmo, but if it never happens, i won't lose any sleep. AS

JDB

For all who are interested, AMG has just posted a reply regarding the rev-matching upgrade for the CLK 63 Black Series. Their reply is that the required software development and testing have turned out to be too difficult and / or costly. So, as of right now, there is not going to be any transmission upgrade for the CLK63 Black Series.

JDB

TTAMG

My tranny is already slipping, especially when the car is a little cold. It rpm's but doesnt move. Explain that one. I'm gonna fab up a T56 on the car.

user z478747

tell us more..... do you drag race it? how many miles? warranty? don't mean to sound ignorant but what's a T56?

TTAMG

ive got about 5xxx miles on it. Ive had it since november. I mean i do drive it hard, but i totally respect it. Its happened a few times so far. Basicly if i were to leave work, or my house and i were to creep up on the throttle at low rpm (2500-4000) the tranny sometimes slips and the rpms jump above 4500rpm while the vehicle speeds stays near the same. Also if the car burns out in first gear, with no traction control on, it really hesitates, because the computer thinks the car is actually moving, yet its not so it up shifts to like 3rd and the car really boggs down, then it downshifts to the right gear. The second problem is common but just sad because the money spent should go towards more r&d with the tuning of these cars. Thats all it is, is tuning.

A T56 is the manual transmission made by tremec that is used in many cars such as the corvette, cobra, shelby, austin martin, etc, etc. I have a built one sitting in my garage that i had for one of my mustangs, and i also have a triple disc clutch for it. I was thinking of putting the bellhousing on a mill and milling it down, the drawing up the correct bolt pattern on solid works and making it fit. I think that would be the ultimate in a Black Series.

alexander stemer

While the thought is interesting, the value of your car will fall to zero, and half of the engineering features will vanish. This is probably a better project on another car. Personally, I find the shortfalls of the trans a minor issue. Sure, I'd like the dsg on the new SL class, but for 99% of my driving, it is irrelevant. AS

TTAMG

Yea I'm all talk, although my sig does say clk "project car". The only hard part about putting a manual tranny in the car would be the clutch pedal assembly. I'm just worried the slipping with my tranny wont get worse.

LZH

The way these cars work nowdays and how all the onboard systems are integrated....it would be very costly to even TRY to make a T56 work. I used to have a TKO in my Superformance. Excellent unit with amazing shifts...but putting it in a Black Series would be silly IMO. Perhaps your dif is going bad/worn out already. Have the dealer open it up and take a look....a simple visual inspection will tell if it is the diff or the tanny or just simply software issues. Good luck.