Has anyone stripped these before? or have a spreadsheet with the various weights of things? I'm really considering stripping my E55. My goal would be to drop 300 to 500 lbs. I hope this doesn't sound too silly or stupid...

 

What did you have in mind...spare, rear seats, engine? hahaha

 

Front seats, rear seats, door panels, sunroof motor, rear blind motor, air pump and the spare are so far what I know i can do without. so what else is there?

 

what is it you're looking to do with the car? track time? honestly the inherent design of the w210 is a heavy one, i don't think you'd be able to reduce a significant amount of weight from it. if you're thinking a temporary weight reduction like going to the dragstrip, then i could see removing the seats and all that. but if it's track time you're after, i would have to recommend another car, these 210's are pigs.

 

I have no plans for the car, I'm not lightening it for the the track/drag strip. I just want it to move a bit faster and handle a little bit better. I drive the car on a lot of curvy roads and it doesn't do too terrible, its a lot of fun to drive but i think if it were a bit lighter it would be perfect for me. Maybe someday i would like to turn it in to a track car but that would be when I have another car for daily driving.

 

This thread is for the C55 and C32, but most of it is applicable.
https://mbworld.org/forums/c32-amg-c...ggestions.html

The first things to look at are probably the battery, which is very heavy, and an X pipe to remove the exhaust resonator. Lighter wheels will help more than removing weight elsewhere since it is reducing rotational mass, as well as removing weight. The Monoblocks I believe are pretty heavy. Removing the spare tire is the universal option for all cars.

After that, you're looking at making the car less luxurious than when you bought it by removing items and/or spending a lot of money on replacement parts. Generally, at this point, unless you're removing items, it's almost always cheaper to add power and suspension than to try replacing with lighter weight parts. You could try aftermarket seats which will be lighter, but not as adjustable. You can remove the stereo. You could probably replace the sunroof with a custom panel. Honestly, I don't think any of this will get you very far.

 

Weight removal potential:

resonator = 25lbs
spare tire/jack/tools = 50lbs
stock battery = ~50lbs
upgraded pulley = 4lbs
high flow 2nd cats = 5lbs
wheels and tires = (depends but you could save up to 15-20 lbs combined on all 4s)
front seats = (this is where majority of the weight reduction will happen), up to 120lbs savings most likey

Honestly though, I think you are wasting your time. Its better to sell your E55 and get CLK55. Its already 300lbs lighter stock and you can do even more weight reduction from there. So by going with a CLK55 you could potentially get the same drivetrain in a car that weighs almost 500lbs less if you do the right mods.

hope that helps

 

You could probably shed 100lb of sound deadening.

 

Thanks I'll read through that link. I don't care about the luxury, I mean it's great but I'm willing to sacrifice it to get a little bit more out of the car.... I'm not trying to drop an absurb amount of weight, I think between 3 and 5 hundred lbs is reasonable and will make a difference as I'm more concerned about the car in turns then on power and in the straights. I'm working on my suspension as well, it's already lowered and I'm going to eventually get a camber kit so it can be set up perfect. My exhaust is all straight pipes so it should be pretty light with only 2 front hiflow cats


AMS - Thank you for the weights. I'm definitely replacing my front seats asap. The whole point is to do this to an e55, I don't really want a clk55.

RedG - Where can I find this 100lbs of sound deadening?

 

I don't think you will save 100lb. If you remove the carpet completely and all the sound deadening in the floor and in the trunk you MIGHT save 25-30 lb the most. I seen the material in the trunk and and the backseat area, they are not that heavy. I had to dynamat my trunk area and qt panels and there only a fews lb of those installation sound deadenning material in there.

The heaviest part of the interior and truck is the spare tire, battery and front seats.

 

Its under the carpeting throughout the entire interior.

I think you'd be surprised. I've seen much smaller cars lose a good chunk of weight simply be removing the interior sound deadening. 100lbs is certainly achievable, even if ambitious.

 

No, modern sound deadening does not weigh that much at all, maybe 20lbs at most. Don't remove stock carpeting. If you want to make it look good try to using Sparco Roadster seats and reupholster them with black leather and do custom ///AMG sticking in them to make them look nice, probably wont' cost you too much.

Each seat is at least 80lbs (if not more), they are VERY heavy but also very comfy. You should be able to take out 250lbs (putting you right at 3500lbs) but anything more than that will require many more expensive mods like CF hood, CF trunk, super lightweight wheels & tires, blah blah etc etc.

 

MAKE IT A CONVERTABLE WITH A SOFT TOP! hahaha!

Good luck with the weight reduction bro! I'm sure you'll figure it out.

 

LMAO, and get one of those classy carbon fiber hood to go with your AMG

 

where do you live? i live in Houston so cold crank amps is not important, i traded my E500 battery for a Honda accord one and its work just fine, i cut more than 20lbs for that, another 40+lbs for my full size spare.

btw, lightweight wheels and tires will help the most, its rotation's weight so feel free to X 4 by any lbs you cut, example: you save 5lbs on each corner its mean 5 X 4 X 4 = 80lbs, its even beter for your brakes, handling and mileages.

 

PC680 will save you almost 45-50lbs b/c the stock battery is absolutely massive (its almost 60lbs). The PC680 Odyssey is only 11lbs roughly so its a big difference. Also the PC680 actually starts the car up much quicker and can be run down as many times as you want and recharged back up to like new. You will need a battery box of some kind just to keep it in place but it is a great way to drop some weight, especially in these cars. Just don't use alot of electricity when the car is off.

 

Thanks for all the responses, My car should be back from the body shop tomorrow and then it begins! I've decided the seats are gone, spare, battery swap, air pump for the seats, as much sound deadening as i can and sunroof motor will all be taken out. I may buy a some carbon parts too but not sure yet, I'm waiting to see how it feels after the first wave of crap is removed. I'll keep you all posted!

 

sup man, if making the car handle better is what youre looking for you are going about it in the wrong way bro. Address your suspension set up in conjunction with wheel/tires instead of butchering the car up with making it lighter.

 

I have been working on the suspension. The alignment is finally fixed thanks to camber bolts up front and the rear trailing arms the guy with the kleemann told me about. What more could I work on? I'm looking into lightweight wheels but should I get the stock staggered set up or a set that is not staggered, ultimately doesn't a staggered set of wheels set the car up to be more understeery?

I think I'm going to go ahead and start taking pieces off, I'm not going to be changing things really, just removing them. The main problem I have with the handling is the weight of the car, it just feels heavy.

 

Change stock shocks for Bilstein Sports, lightweight wheels and better tires, definitely staggered, I would do all of that before making the car lighter.

 

+1

This is exactly correct. The W210 is a porker. If you cut 500 lbs, it's still a porker. It's still going to handle heavy.

If your goal is to go fast in a straight line and don't care about luxury (I initially thought this was your goal) you're much better off just buying a Camaro Z28, which is cheap, fast in a line, and low on luxury. Based on your later comment, I understand you want to reduce weight to handle better, not necessarily to "drag."

The E39 M5 weighs more than the W210 E55. The M5 handles better. The M5 has a better handling (stiffer) suspension. Weight is really not that big a factor in handling. Unless you're planning to drop to Lotus/RX-7 weight levels, you're not going to see a big difference. To get a car light and fast, you either have to engineer it that way from the start (i.e. Lotus or RX-7) or seriously race prep and strip it (i.e. no dash board). I hate to disparage your plan, but for the cost of a single carbon fiber body part (plus paint) you can get an entire coilover setup.

If you remove the spare tire or add a carbon fiber hood, you'll need a stopwatch to tell the difference. If you add a coilover suspension, you will, no questions asked, feel the difference.

As for tires, better tires are probably the number one handling upgrade you can do. You have a lot of torque, so you definitely want staggered so you can put that torque down exiting a corner. It's worth the extra weight and cost.

Again, I hate to dissuade you from reducing weight. Removing your spare tire is easy. That's as far as I would personally go: I don't want to remove luxury items because I like having a luxurious car and I don't want to kill the resale value or have to reassemble the car to sell it. I sold my WRX because, despite handling much better, it wasn't luxurious enough. If I want more handling from my E55, I'm going with stickier tires (this is actually next on my list), suspension (coilovers or spring/strut combo), and finally, light wheels.

Does that help?

 

My last post got me thinking about the RX-7. The RX-7 (3rd gen) was designed from the start to be very light. It's fast both in a straight line and in a corner (it bested a Porsche 911 turbo on a track with a professional driver in, I believe it was Road and Track).

The RX-7, though, had a 200 lbs ballast behind the driver. Ballast, as in what boats have. They actually added weight to make the RX-7 handle better (this was to get it closer to 50/50 handling). Despite drilling the pedals out to save weight, they actually added weight back.

And, of course, the car handles really well despite (or in some sense, because of) the extra weight.

 

Man why strip a perfectly good W210 AMG? AMG isn't about riding in a noisy cabin with no interior door panels. You want a quick 4 door car for your corners, try a WRX. You can even keep the door panels on this time.

 

I'm getting my car back tonight hopefully and then I'm going out on a long drive, probably near skyline drive and then i'm going to decide what to do.

Thanks for all the responses!

 

Skyline drive?
I live by a skyline drive, whats your location?