VonEndorphin

Hi there everyone. It's been a while since I've been on an automotive forum. I have been consciously avoiding modifying cars while getting my life back together, rebuilding my business and getting over being sick.

Now I'm ready to have some fun again.

After about 6 months of being about dead set on buying my dream car (when I was 14), an F355, the engine out service and countless other issues led me in another direction. Then we looked at the DB9 for a while, but I'm mostly buying this car so that I can introduce my fiance to my love and passion for cars, so we were looking to avoid a stick, and the auto DB9 is a timebomb. In a previous life I was a Turbo Nissan tuner, then had a few BMW's.

I'd driven a couple friends Mercedes, and even rented a massive S class (2015) in england which I road tripped to Paris and back to London. I hated it. It felt disconnected and sleepy. So finally after lots of searching, and lots of test drives, both her and I fell in love with the SL55.

So we bought a beautiful SL55 last weekend.





Her smiling ear to ear.





Our garage.


So awesome, after my Fiance preaching that cars are just a 'point a to point b thing'. She is now in 'love' with a car. As am I. Think the SL55 in amazing. This is probably one of the few cars I actually have no complaints over the controls layouts, build quality, looks or especially power. The car is downright dangerous with the traction control switched off.

So, I'm Von and I'm back on the wagon.

That said here's my questions.

Wheel offsets? Over in the Nissan crowd, we were obsessed with offset. Post a picture of your new wheels, you listed the offset. If you didn't, that was the first question. I've seen absolutely no offset talk here, which seems really weird to me, since so many R230's I've been looking at have great fitment. I plan on special ordering some 1 piece forged wheels, but I'd love to get some examples of people's fitments and offset. I'll be heading in the direction of x9.5 and x11 with stretched tires. I've read about the 3.9% rotating diameter computer trip up, so I'll stay within those bounds, but I'm at a loss on reference points for offsets. Any help would be appreciated.

ECU Tuning I used to be a certified Haltech dealer, and Tuner. This is an engine management system that can be used in any car, and is programmable from a laptop. I'm looking into the pulley upgrade and obviously going to need/want a remap to keep the A/F on point. Is there a common computer tuning system people use for these cars? Some will let you modify the fuel maps from a laptop, others may just show diagnostic codes. In a thread I was reading about removing the ABC system, the author had stated it was possible to hookup to the car via laptop and disable the ECU's option for ABC present, so I figured there was an OBDII wire kit and software used. Any and all suggestions are welcomed.

If you've read this far, thanks. Its my first Mercedes after, and I'm really really impressed with everything about it.

cnterline

I used strictly Kleemann stuff till I went to BBK 90mm TB ,then I had to get bigger injectors and intake set up ,if you do pulleys,headers,throttle body,upgrade cooling for intercooler ,car is night and day power wise,rims,I went 19.8.5 and 19 x 10 , Et25 and et28 ,ABC I'd leave alone
I still run Kleemann box tune ,I also put in Kleemann cams
10.77@130 plus mph

Data logging set up is advised too so you know what's going on
Dashdaq XL and Zeitronics

carlsturm

Welcome. Keep your ABC. It makes a very nice ride and keeps car flat and composed on curves, braking and acceleration.

okbarnett

If you get crazy wheels and tires you are going to start losing performance and handling , so consider doing performance mods to the engine and your wheel, tires combo too

Ingenere

Welcome to the SL55. It is a great car and you will enjoy it. I own an ECU tuning company. We write our own software for these cars, and they are not the easiest to program. But get it right and it is brilliant.

I would suggest keeping the ABC. It really is integral to the car's performance.

I'm a little concerned about 'selling the fiancee' on the car passion. I had one of those that while she was applying for full time work (i.e. wife), she claimed to get it and loved it. However, once she was hired, the effort to crush my car passion as a waste, and told to grow up was in full force.

The 'dream crusher' was promptly fired! Be careful, enjoy the SL and let me know if you have any questions. I've had mine since 2003.