CASL55

When I first got my SL55, I was coming from a manual transmission, and I was a little disappointed. At first I tried it in manual mode. The delay in shifting, while less than in most manumatics, made shifting at a precise rpm difficult. Shifting just at the redline under full throttle was essentially impossible; either I’d shift too soon, or run into the rev limiter. Even though the lag affected downshifts as well, they were not a problem, since you make them going in to a corner under a trailing throttle and their exact time of occurrence is not important, as long as you don’t get the car out of shape with engine braking at the wrong time.

Then I started playing with “S” or sport mode. I’d go into a corner and around the time of turn-in (the exact timing varies with the radius of the corner) tap the left button enough to get the car in a gear that I wanted to be in when I started to apply power. (If you’re going to be at a fairly high rpm after the last downshift, you want to shift later, since there’s no rev matching software on the SL, and we don’t want to unbalance the car any more than you have to.) Then you point the car just inside the apex and squeeze on the throttle. As you pass the apex and begin to unwind the steering wheel, tap the right button to allow the car to change to up to the gear that you’ll want at the end on the corner. Stay on the throttle as much or as little as you want, and let the transmission upshift for you. If you’re feeling racy, burying the throttle will give you perfect red-line shifts. If you’re giving the car less gas, you get appropriate shifts.

In summary, you control the downshifts, and let the car control the upshifts. Works great for me. How do others do it?

Jim

IngenereAMG

Jim:

You sound like a man after my own heart. The SL55 to me is a brilliant driver's car, and not really a drag racer.....which is what most of the people on here tend to do.

As for me, I have very rarely used the car in auto mode. I generally drive in manual/sport/ABC in sport and traction control off. Maybe the car has 'learned' what I like, because the more aggressive I am the quicker the shifting. It would be nice if it had some rev matching software for downshifting. Hell, my little M3 SMG has it, as does the 360 Challenge Stradale that I am loking at.

AMG_55

thats also what i do, although i try to rev match on downshifts
there is no point in ****ing w/ manual mode. its just not quick enough, by the time it downshifts your running into the rev limiter because youre already exiting the corner

sprins

My autobox (comfort/sport/manual) upshifts automatically @ redline. I have yet to encounter the rev limiter. My SL55 is form 2002, so I guess the software changed over time.

Also the steering wheel shift buttons do nothing when not in manual mode. While in my S55 they shift like the +/- on the gear handle.

55User

At first, I would drive the car religiously in manual mode, but over time I just fell out of the habit and I haven't pushed the buttons in months. I'm just not a fan of the buttons and feel that it isn't natural for the car and it feels like an afterthought, I know for sure if the '07 paddles were in front of me, I'd be back to my old ways. I think the auto mode shifts excellent and is better than most high-performance auto boxes.

CASL55

I have a January 2004 build SL55. I wonder when they changed things. If I had just read about the way your car works before trying mine, I would have said that's the way things should be. Now, I like the way mine works, just as long as I don't try to use manual mode. In fact, I was looking at a BMW 650 the other day and, although the Steptronic transmission is in what on the Merc would be "S" mode when you slide the shift lever leftwards into the gate, once you push or pull the lever to shift gears, the tranny is in what we MB folks would call "M" mode. And the 650 steptronic shifts slower than the SL55 transmission.

Jim

CASL55

I pre-downshift before I get on the power in the corners because I don't want the transmisssion shifting when the g-forces are high; it unsettles the car and causes deviations from the intended course. Under some circumstances, I could imagine inopportune shifting causing a lateral arabesque into the weeds. I know AMG is supposed to have some software that prevents shifts under high lateral loads, but I don't trust it -- I've seen the car shift under high side forces in a parking lot test.

The right time to downshift is well before the apex. In auto mode, the transmission can't know that you are nearing the apex, and won't downshift until you apply enough right foot that it knows it needs to downshift to get more torque to the tires.

Jim

CASL55

I know what you mean about the afterthought. The buttons are not well damped and the loud clack when you tap then is an annoyance.

OTOH, I find them perfectly positioned so I can shift with my middle fingers. If they were further out from the wheel then they wouldn't always be under my fingers and I'd have to reach for them.

Jim

CASL55

I agree with you on both counts. I thought there would be more interest in coming up with shifting techniques that work well with the SL55 transmission.

I had some further thoughts.

1) When I was driving a stick, I always wanted to get my downshifting done before turn-in. Maybe I'm not a great heel-and-toer, but it was really hard for me to be coming out of the brakes the way you have to do when you trail-brake, and shift at the same time. In the SL, without the need to heel-and-toe, I can shift a bit later. This means that the revs are a little lower, and there's less unsettling of the car due to the lack of rev-matching software in the car.

2) I tried rev-matching myself, and I can't do it because I can't tell exactly when the car is going to shift.

3) I have an E500, and this approach doesn't work there for three reasons: a) it's not much fun to flog the car hard, b) you don't know what gear you're going to be in when you hit the shifter, because of the way the transmissio software is written, and c) you don't want to take you hands off the wheel to upshift when the g-forces are high.

Jim

Bassemaad

HI guys , what would be best for the gearbox lifespan ! an automatic driving or Manual !

alx

leave in "s". let the 5 speed do its thing. concentrate on your racing line.

the boat the r230 is and the gobs of tq at any rpms makes it largely not worth fiddling with the tranny during track days.

remember - if you are in the r230 amg at track day you are already doing it wrong. enjoy passing in the straightaways and the pucker factor understeering in the turns and be happy

ZoFitness

Does anyone know what RPM in each gear an 2003 SL55 "should" shift at from the factory?

Ingenere

It depends how hard you are accelerating. At full throttle it will shift at redline, which is around 6200 rpm.

C3Duece

precisely

you're supposed to already be in the right gear before entering the turn.