Fikse

My 335i convertible lease is up in a few months, considering moving back to MB with the E550 Cabrio, seems a deal compared to the 650i which comes in around $100k these days....

anyone have one yet? should be a beast with RENNtech getting 450+hp at the wheels after a tune....

any word on an E63 Cabrio?

Dueclaws

I have a '12 Coupe, but Ray and others who post on this site have Cabrio: they'll probably post.

The power is a little surprising: pulls like a freight train! Just imagine after adding the RENNtech upgrade.

Raygt3

May be somewhat biased but I don't think I'd be doing you a diservice by recommending this car. It's somewhat unassuming and a pleasure to drive but given the call, has no reluctance to light up the rear tires. There are a few different cars to consider, but I'd certainly give this guy a shot. As you mention, there's pleanty of flexability built into the power train. If you want a barn burner this will certainly meet those criteria. Want to take a leisurely Sunday afternoon drive, just put the top down and enjoy. May sound like a commercial but I really enjoy what this car has to offer.

Fikse

yea, seems like a lot of power/torque for the 255 tires in the rear.... They need an performance package option... wondering what the lease is one of of these in the $75k msrp range....

other cars I'm looking at are the 650i xdrive, m3 convert, maserati granturismo cabrio, maybe a used 911 turbo cabrio....

the E550 seems like the sleeper and best bang for the buck as well....

Raygt3

Actually went to 275X19's in the rear, need all the grip you can find. I wish they had offered a limited slip rear end option. With those torque numbers you would think that would be a natural.
My last two cars were a GT3 and a s63, kind of like the 3 bears thing. The E550 seems to be the best of both worlds. May sound a little silly talking value and Mercedes in the same sentence but this is priced very agressively considering the competition.

1 MB

I don't have the Cabrio, just the E550 Coupe. I can tell you that when I nail the gas getting on the freeway on-ramps, the traction control starts flashing as the rear tires fight for traction...and that's at 25-30 mph.

f1veby5

+1

Fikse

I test drove the car, put in all the modes, manual, auto, sport, etc

can't come off the line at all, just spins a tiny bit and the car cuts power, very annoying, how do you turn off the traction control? We couldn't find the button anywhere? just a sport button....

how they can leave 255 tires on a 400++ HP car is beyond me....

Dueclaws

[QUOTE=Fikse;

how they can leave 255 tires on a 400++ HP car is beyond me....[/QUOTE]

+1 (and no limited slip!)

Dueclaws

Ray-If you don't mind: what offsets did you use front and rear?
Thanks (sorry for the hijack)
Due

Raygt3

Sorry, don't have the info in front of me but will get you the pertainant info to you tomorrow.

Ray

Dr-Nab

Go into the vehicle settings on the menu via the steering wheel controls you'll be able to disable it in there.

I am getting tempted to swap mine for a '12 550 (500 over here) waiting for my dealer to get one in for a test drive

Dueclaws

Go for it Dr-Nab!
You'll love the sound of the engine and the strong acceleration: just don't try to measure 0-60 acceleration because the rear tires won't hook-up.

Raygt3

OK, have the numbers in front of me. Didn't want to guess and give you bad info. So looks like 19X8.5 ET 41 rims 7.0/1.5-front, 19X9.5 ET 48 rims 7.5/2.0-rear

threeMBs

What is "7.0/1.5-front, 7.5/2.0-rear"?

Raygt3

Not sure, I'm not an expert on all this but pulled this information off the build sheet from HRE. Just wanted to give complete info. thought it might mean something to someone who might be better informed than I.

HRE_Wheels

Mean's that the front wheel is a 8.5" width with 1.5" outer lip size and rear is 9.5" width with a 2.0" outer lip size.

Hope that helps

Raygt3

Thanks, good to get info from the experts!

threeMBs

Well not quite. I knew what diameter and width are. And now I understand what 1.5 in 7.0/1.5 means, but what is 7.0 in 7.0/1.5? Thanks.

Raygt3

The total width of the wheel being 8.5", the outside rim is 1.5" wide and the inside rim is 7" wide, again, giving you an overall total width of 8.5". These are 3 piece wheels and info indicates how the two rim segments are divided up.

Dueclaws

Thanks for the info Ray!