Reckless

whoover: Can you elaborate a little bit? Your input can sway me as I was leaning to the S55 because I wanted to keep my stock 18" wheel.

BTW, I had heard stories about the 600 years ago... how it was real easy to rear end somebody if you hit it before making a cut. They are soo true, esp cuz the brakes wont stop this beast if you are going over 100+ mph.

oxygen: Is the brake squeeling an on going problem? Was the only answer slamming the brake harder?

whoover

I have hauled the S65 down from 140 MPH to legal speeds repetitively on I-5 and the braking is faster and more controlled than it was on the S55. The feels are almost analogous to comparing the smoothness of V12 acceleration with the peakier kick of a supercharged V8.

Furthermore, a lot of hard braking, even in mountain twisties taken fast, would result in a change in braking feel with the S55 brakes. Not necessarily fade, but you can tell the brakes are pretty hot. I have never detected a change to the S65 brake feel.

I have not only driven on the I-5 autobahn between northern and southern California multiple times in both cars, but I've also driven from San Jose to Seattle several time in each. The sweeping mountain passes throught the Siskiyous in northern California and southern Oregon are a delight in these cars, and the S65 binders absolutely felt more secure by the time I reached the flats than the S55's.

They're bigger for a reason.

Reckless

Whoover: Thanks, you changed my mind. Going with the S65 brake set. My new problem is understanding wheel offset (need to buy new wheels). I am looking at one set of 20s that are 20x8.5 and have offset of 28 and another set of 20x9 and 20x10 which have offsets 37 and 45.

I read somewhere that offset is supposed to be as close to 66 as possible.

Oxygen: What is the offset on your wheels?

Oxygen

I don't know if I would call it a "problem" per say, they don't squeal like they are worn, they just make a sound because they are cold. I noticed as the weather gets warmer, this happens less and less.

The only time they really make a weep is when you are driving for a while, then you SLOWLYYYY coast to a stop, they might make a weep. Otherwise if you are stop-go-stop-go and they brakes are warm, you won't hear anything.

25 front, 28 rear. 15mm H&R spacer front, 25mm H&R spacer rear.

My rears are the "rare" 10JX19 wheels from the SL65 AMG.

Reckless

Aren't spacers supposed to be bad? How do I avoid using a spacer if I am going with 19" or 20" wheels?

Does offset change when going with a wider wheel?

Oxygen

Supposed to be bad?

Get wheels with the right offset and you'll avoid using spacers.

MRAMG1

Yeah, DON'T waste your money on spacers!

AS the man above said, BUY the RIGHT rim and be done with it. Tirerack.com lists over 100 rims that FIT our toy. Look at this way, you drive a 100,000+ car, so why buy $100 rims that don't fit

As far as sapcers being bad they can, note I said can cause the following:

1. Vibration
2. Break
3. Require, longer bolts/studs
4. VERY difficult to get EXACT fit, aka spacer plus rim offset working proper

See yeah

PS: I do not work for tirerack nor do I think they are the holly grail of knowledge, but I have been a happy customer for over 20 years