'04 S55 - Want More Power
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From: Southern, CA.
V12-Biturbo
Your kidding right??
From what I've read and gone on 1 04' s55 test drive, that's a ridiculous fast sedan, remember the S55's weight 4300lb? go buy a Porsche turbo...You don't desreve to drive that fine car..
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From: Southern California, USA
2003 CL55 AMG
All the different ECU/Pulley upgrades (Kleemann, Renntech, Brabus) will get you about 40 more HP / 40 lbs ft Torque gain . The problem is they all around $4,000 + . Doesn't really seem that big of a bang for the buck.
The other question is will you really notice the 40 additional horsepower ?
The other question is will you really notice the 40 additional horsepower ?
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Panamera Turbo, R63, "71 280SL
I agree most pulley and ECU upgrades don't seem to do much other than waste money for 40hp. As for not deserving it .... just write me a check for $113K and you are welcome to it, otherwise....
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From: Southern California, USA
2003 CL55 AMG
Well, 40hp is 40hp... However, for the cost I am not too sure it is a worthwile investment. I would be interested to see before and after dyno results as well as real world testing such as 0-60 and 1/4 mile differences.
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From: Southern, CA.
V12-Biturbo
DHH I didn't mean you couldn't swing it financially
Originally posted by DHH
I agree most pulley and ECU upgrades don't seem to do much other than waste money for 40hp. As for not deserving it .... just write me a check for $113K and you are welcome to it, otherwise....
I agree most pulley and ECU upgrades don't seem to do much other than waste money for 40hp. As for not deserving it .... just write me a check for $113K and you are welcome to it, otherwise....
That's none of my business, what I mean is It's a great car and for you to sit there and say you need more power?? What do you need more power for? Where could you use it??In normal traffic you'll kill just about everything out there! Come on man, 0-60 4.6 sec. is very conservative from what I hear, That thing hauls ***
either be content or belly up to the bar and buy a Mclaren F1 or the SLR supercar...
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Panamera Turbo, R63, "71 280SL
It is perfect being invisible. I love being at a stop light with guys in camaros and mustangs thinking they are going to race each other. I have stumbled into a few pretty quick cars and would just like to make their inferiority a little more decisive. I love being ignored at stop lights - it really screws with them and their girlfriends when the light changes. Fun fun fun.
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From: Nashville
300SEL
You should wink at their GFs... that's always fun.
I agree about the power, I drove my friends E55k around LA two days ago. That car is rather quick, but the thing is with all that power you get spoiled and want more. It's weird I know. Take for example my 300, if I kick it down and manage to get around someone then I am pleasantly surprised. The E55k, on the other hand, you expect to smoke everyone and you want to be impervious to challenges. Why else would you buy a fast car if not to drive it fast? While I was driving it I saw a 996TT cab tip and I wanted to smoke that too. You find yourself wanting to race every fast car you see. I think it's some sort of male attack instinct at work, to say I am king of this area dammit! Step off.
Making an S55k or E55k faster is no different than taking your 996TT to Autothority and making a 750hp car or whatever.
I agree about the power, I drove my friends E55k around LA two days ago. That car is rather quick, but the thing is with all that power you get spoiled and want more. It's weird I know. Take for example my 300, if I kick it down and manage to get around someone then I am pleasantly surprised. The E55k, on the other hand, you expect to smoke everyone and you want to be impervious to challenges. Why else would you buy a fast car if not to drive it fast? While I was driving it I saw a 996TT cab tip and I wanted to smoke that too. You find yourself wanting to race every fast car you see. I think it's some sort of male attack instinct at work, to say I am king of this area dammit! Step off.
Making an S55k or E55k faster is no different than taking your 996TT to Autothority and making a 750hp car or whatever.
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From: Southern, CA.
V12-Biturbo
Schwarzwagen You make some good
Undeniable points.....I can't argue w/your logic I'm guilty of thinking the same way. I just thought that w/such a fast / luxury car who would want more? I hate being a hypocrit I guess I was wrong DHH about the NEED FOR SPEED! :o
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Panamera Turbo, R63, "71 280SL
Yup, I am addicted to stop lights, every single one. I had one girl yell out the window if she could date me. Last time I had this much fun was in '92 with my 500E. It truly becomes obsessive. The fastest thing I have run into was a damn Ford SVT truck - I won - but felt mortal. Can never have enough power I have decided.
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Joined: Jan 2002
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From: MA, USA
W126 1991 350SDL
are you sure you're tweaking all you can out of the tranny?
the tranny is absolutely the weak link in the chain on this car. in fact, i think it's damn-near garbage
sometimes i can get it to do 0-60 runs that rival my 550 and 996TT. breathtaking runs. but not always. in fact, not most of the time.
the tranny computer is way twice too cute (and manual mode is just a toy). it took me a good 3-4 months to internalize how to **** with the tranny's mind and get the performance i knew it was capable of.
doody.
the tranny is absolutely the weak link in the chain on this car. in fact, i think it's damn-near garbage
sometimes i can get it to do 0-60 runs that rival my 550 and 996TT. breathtaking runs. but not always. in fact, not most of the time.
the tranny computer is way twice too cute (and manual mode is just a toy). it took me a good 3-4 months to internalize how to **** with the tranny's mind and get the performance i knew it was capable of.
doody.
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Mercedes Benz
Originally posted by schwarzwagen
You should wink at their GFs... that's always fun.
I agree about the power, I drove my friends E55k around LA two days ago. That car is rather quick, but the thing is with all that power you get spoiled and want more. It's weird I know. Take for example my 300, if I kick it down and manage to get around someone then I am pleasantly surprised. The E55k, on the other hand, you expect to smoke everyone and you want to be impervious to challenges. Why else would you buy a fast car if not to drive it fast? While I was driving it I saw a 996TT cab tip and I wanted to smoke that too. You find yourself wanting to race every fast car you see. I think it's some sort of male attack instinct at work, to say I am king of this area dammit! Step off.
Making an S55k or E55k faster is no different than taking your 996TT to Autothority and making a 750hp car or whatever.
You should wink at their GFs... that's always fun.
I agree about the power, I drove my friends E55k around LA two days ago. That car is rather quick, but the thing is with all that power you get spoiled and want more. It's weird I know. Take for example my 300, if I kick it down and manage to get around someone then I am pleasantly surprised. The E55k, on the other hand, you expect to smoke everyone and you want to be impervious to challenges. Why else would you buy a fast car if not to drive it fast? While I was driving it I saw a 996TT cab tip and I wanted to smoke that too. You find yourself wanting to race every fast car you see. I think it's some sort of male attack instinct at work, to say I am king of this area dammit! Step off.
Making an S55k or E55k faster is no different than taking your 996TT to Autothority and making a 750hp car or whatever.
And for the record the owner of the car gets to do the winking!
Trouble is most women would not know a E55k from an E500 from an E320 (i speak from experience -- and they were not the same color either!). But believe me the driver knows!
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From: MA, USA
W126 1991 350SDL
First, what do I need to do to the trans?
you need to learn how it behaves and responds to various throttle inputs from your foot and then you can communicate better with it.
ime, the tranny tries to upshift too fast - in all situations. and it doesn't have a launch mode to know what you're intending to do. so if you try to get moving (otherwise the traction control kills you) and then stomp on it, the little ****er is already racing to fourth on you and when you stomp it has to downshift a lot of gears to get going.
i just spent a lot of time trying to learn what pedal inputs would facilitate delaying an upshift and triggering a downsift. it's VERY juvenile imo, but that's why i say the tranny is absolutely the weak link in the AMG cars.
the only thing you could "do to" it would be to send it to renntech and have them slap in a 6 speed, but that's about twenty large (though don't think i haven't thought about it!).
doody.
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From: Nashville
300SEL
The hazards of letting friends drive my cars..... hmmmmmm
Anyway, at least I didn't say, "Hey I drove my E55K yesterday and, bla bla bla." Unlike some people, I do not stake claim to cars I do not own.:p
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From: Vail, Colorado
Well you could always go for an S600 without sportpackage then go and get an ecu upgrade from brabrus or the other guys. Then you would really see some power gain. Thats what my father is considering...now if he would only sell me his 03 s55......hm
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From: Cheshire UK
s65AMG, sl500
You could get a shorter final drive to improve acceleration, the car has pretty high gear ratios.
At the limiter an indicated 160, true 157mph, my car is doing only around 4500 rpm.
Unless your car is unrestricted or got a 187mph AMG limiter on it the gearing is a bit too high, you could change the final drive to shorten the ratios increasing your acceleration at the expense of some top speed given the unrestriced cars can do 195mph odds you can afford to lose some.
Even with a bad launch the car will leave almost anything,
Traction control left on on a greasy road it still does 100 in about 10 seconds.
Bad launch traction control on
Worse Launch Traction control on
I find the transmission alright best launchs are actually when you don't try that hard. Switching the traction control off actually just turns it down a bit.
The speedtronic has a slight delay in manual but I find it works fine at the track, the car has a resonably high rev limiter with a lovely wide power band with plenty of torque. 2nd gears good for nearly 90, with 3rd good for around 120mph which means these are virtually the only two gears I use on the track bar the odd shift into 4th on the longer straights.
In manual mode the car will auto shift up at the rev limiter, so you come out a tighter corner in 2nd keep hammering away car shifts up at 90, you just have to down shift for the next corner
At the limiter an indicated 160, true 157mph, my car is doing only around 4500 rpm.
Unless your car is unrestricted or got a 187mph AMG limiter on it the gearing is a bit too high, you could change the final drive to shorten the ratios increasing your acceleration at the expense of some top speed given the unrestriced cars can do 195mph odds you can afford to lose some.
Even with a bad launch the car will leave almost anything,
Traction control left on on a greasy road it still does 100 in about 10 seconds.
Bad launch traction control on
Worse Launch Traction control on
I find the transmission alright best launchs are actually when you don't try that hard. Switching the traction control off actually just turns it down a bit.
The speedtronic has a slight delay in manual but I find it works fine at the track, the car has a resonably high rev limiter with a lovely wide power band with plenty of torque. 2nd gears good for nearly 90, with 3rd good for around 120mph which means these are virtually the only two gears I use on the track bar the odd shift into 4th on the longer straights.
In manual mode the car will auto shift up at the rev limiter, so you come out a tighter corner in 2nd keep hammering away car shifts up at 90, you just have to down shift for the next corner
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From: Manchester, UK
Mercedes-Benz A170 CDI
Those videos need to be idolized!
The S55 Kompressor will hit 200mph derestricted at 5800rpm, given that max power delivery occurs at 6100rpm, I would say the top speed limited by drag and frontal area to be around 205-208mph...
The best thing and cheapest would be to get better tyres to improve traction and as Mmmm stated a shorter final drive. Something in the region of <3.06 should give out around 190mphish top speed. Fuel is teh only bad factor. The SL55 has the shortest V8 kompressor final ratio and is more responsive and feels faster due to the inherent torque chracteristics of this engine, making the gearing shorter allows faster acceleration on this engine because it makes the most of the torque curve...
Your best bet since you're in the US would be to go to Brabus USA, and ask them what you want....
The S55 Kompressor will hit 200mph derestricted at 5800rpm, given that max power delivery occurs at 6100rpm, I would say the top speed limited by drag and frontal area to be around 205-208mph...
The best thing and cheapest would be to get better tyres to improve traction and as Mmmm stated a shorter final drive. Something in the region of <3.06 should give out around 190mphish top speed. Fuel is teh only bad factor. The SL55 has the shortest V8 kompressor final ratio and is more responsive and feels faster due to the inherent torque chracteristics of this engine, making the gearing shorter allows faster acceleration on this engine because it makes the most of the torque curve...
Your best bet since you're in the US would be to go to Brabus USA, and ask them what you want....
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Panamera Turbo, R63, "71 280SL
Thanks for all the great replies
Pretty interesting options. My Dad is would take my S55 and I could get a 600 then go for the ecu upgrades, but I think the personality of the S600 would not be as much fun as a S55. Sometimes life's a *****.
Also, wasn't paying attention and hit a curb this morning. Off to get it refinished.
Also, wasn't paying attention and hit a curb this morning. Off to get it refinished.
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From: Melbourne, Australia
E55, F550, S600 Ducati 999
You do not need to put shorter gears in the car, the 2.65 rear axle ratio is an ideal match for the transmission and torque characteristics of the car. Anybody with an S55 that can't light up the tyres at any speed under 4000rpm in first gear while driving?
Traction is more of a limitation.
The pulley/ECU kit I am running, increases boost to 1bar and torque from 525 to 695lbft. We are talking S65 levels of performance for less than $3500USD
Traction is more of a limitation.
The pulley/ECU kit I am running, increases boost to 1bar and torque from 525 to 695lbft. We are talking S65 levels of performance for less than $3500USD
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From: Moscow, Russia
E55K
Originally Posted by DHH
Pretty interesting options. My Dad is would take my S55 and I could get a 600 then go for the ecu upgrades, but I think the personality of the S600 would not be as much fun as a S55. Sometimes life's a *****.
Also, wasn't paying attention and hit a curb this morning. Off to get it refinished.
Also, wasn't paying attention and hit a curb this morning. Off to get it refinished.
S55 and S600 has the same ABC suspension....
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From: Southern California, USA
2003 CL55 AMG
Originally Posted by M5 RUS
S55 and S600 has the same ABC suspension....
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From: Moscow, Russia
E55K
Originally Posted by awiner
Not entriely true. The AMG has a AMG tuned suspension with different ABC programming and valve rates.
I have driven S55AMG with ABC and my S500L Lorinser which has ABC as well...did not well any difference in handling...
Last edited by E55 RUSS; Jul 14, 2004 at 02:55 AM.
