redbrick

Anyone here know what is the weight distribution of the SL? I'm just curious.

I guess I should add....with the top up and the top down.

(I searched and came up with nothing...so far :-( )

Thanks

Patrick1990

SL means Sport Light, but the weight is... Hold on 1850 in a SL 500 and 1950 in the SL55 AMG the SL600 weights 1950 to, and the SL65 tops with 2110 Kg.
But its killogrames so whatever..only a dane is weird ebnough to use it

LovinMercedes

Patrick...read more carefully. He is talking about weight "distribution"

Redbrick, not sure exactly what it is but it is not a perfect balance.

Overclocked412

55/45 maybe? I have no clue.

Patrick1990

Yeah i can't read english. Sorry...

Patrick1990

I'aint sure but i've heard 54/46

Overclocked412

According to Yahoo! Autos specs page and theautochannel.com, it is a straight on 50/50. Hmm..

ToonArmy

Yahoo! Autos lists it as 50/50 for the SL500
and the SL55

Patrick1990

But what if the roof is on..then it would be different...Hm, anyway.

CASL55

It sure doesn't feel like 50/50 in the SL55, with the top up or down. This car feels nose-heavy.

Jim

Scruffyone

The car is nose heavy, but if you push it hard it will respond and reward you with some very suprising performance.

Patrick1990

It's the power of the star it actualy breath thru the star...or the enging does....very sweet thought ..but whatever, all frontengined cars got nose heavy skills, exept if its front-midengined

CASL55

You probably didn't mean it this way, but the last thing I want when I push a car hard is any surprise.

If you meant better than expected performance, I do know what you mean, especially at higher speeds. And there's always enough power to compensate for the understeer, if you're not going too fast already. Slow in, fast out works well in this car.

Jim

Patrick1990

Give it some sporttires, or sporttyres as you say in the USA. I'm sure that the car deserve it. or some bigger rims, not the heavy crome-sh*t, some 19" alurims from Mercedes-Benz them self

Patrick1990

Understeer..? it kills on the Nürburgring every week. Your gonna give it some tires with lesser grip in the rear and more grip in the front. Because the technology try to avoid a oversteering, but then turns it into understeering..cheat the technology with the grip..or turn it off

vraa

The car can't be 50/50. It's very nose heavy. Possibly with the top down?

I'm trying to figure out a way to put 9.5's or 10's in the front, and keep 9's in the rear. That should help with understeer.

blueSL

The car is not 50/50, more like 54/46. That's one reason why they put the larger battery in the trunk. With the roof down, the centre of gravity will shift backwards but not by much

JackStraw

In the 7/02 issue of Automobile magazine, the weight distribution of the SL55 was listed at 51/49%. In the 9/02 issue of Motor Trend, weight distribution was listed at 52/48%. I suspect these are with the top up.

CASL55

There are two points here. I want to deal with your second point first. What I understand you to be saying is that ESP trys to avoid oversteering by causing understeer. First of all, the kind of understeer that I find objectionable isn't enough to cause ESP to intervene, as evidenced by the lack of activation of the indicator light on the instrument panel. Second, on those occasions where I have seen ESP intervene to correct for oversteer, the main seat-of-the-pants effect is lack of forward acceleration, as the ESP retards the throttle and applies the brakes. The resultant forward weight transfer would tend to stop the front wheels from sliding, not start them sliding.

Your first point is that one should deal with understeer though tire sizing, rather than through driving style, as I suggested, and your reference is a race track. I was talking about driving on public roads, and I have found that tire inflation adjustments are valuable in fine-tuning the over/understeer relationship, tire sizing is not. Sway bar sizing may be, but I'd hate to try it on a car with as much suspension automation as the SL55. The reason why tire sizing is not very useful to me on public roads is the difficulty of experimenting, the limitation on tire size imposed by my requirement not to modify the body in order to gain clearance, and my requirement for stock turning radius and full suspension travel. Also, messing with tire size to control low-speed understeer can result in a lot of high-speed oversteer, which is no fun at all.

By controlling the weight transfer during the corner (trail braking to transfer weight to the front wheels, lining up on the apex, then squeexing on the power to get the rear end to step out at the same rate as the now-unloaded front wheels), I find that the SL55's understeering can be reduced to marginally tolerable levels. It's not a race car, and I don't drive it on a race course. You are welcome to take a different approach, if that's what you enjoy.

Jim