Yeeeee Haaaaahhhh........

Yesterday I had the wonderful opportunity to take my E55 to Putnam Park http://www.putnampark.com/, a 1.8 mile road course West of Indianapolis.

HOLY SH*@, er I mean COW. Guys/Girls this is absolutely incredible. I thought the MBSpeed Event driving all the 2004 AMG cars was fun---Naaaaaaaa.

8 hours on a real race track pitted against real race cars. Porsches, M3s, M5, Ferrari, Race Prep Mustangs, Race Prep RX7s, Viper, etc, etc.

Most of you know I have the Kleemann Stage 3 motor and last week I had the lowering module installed (a must for the track). Handling was HUGELY improved. S03 Bridgestones on 19" rims. Now the fun part. The lowering module allowed for even tire wear all day and when I pushed the car to it's limits the tires showed only minimal wear. This would have not been possible with the stock suspension setup.

This car kicks serious ***. I don't know how many people came down to the car and were like "What in the hell did you do to that thing?" and "We have never seen a Mercedes out here let alone seen one go that fast" and "dude, you were KILLING me down the front straight" and "I can't believe you can make a 4,000 lb car go that fast". You guys would've/should be proud. I had weekend racers with trailered tricked out cars with roll cages and race tires and race suspension with stripped out interiors coming down and scratching their heads. The big girl was slow in the big sweepers but hung in everywhere with everyone. The long front straight (see pic) was a riot. 135 mph and just reeling in everyone. Honestly I could leave anyone on this front straight, late brake with our great brakes and make up several car lengths on ANYONE. No ****. No ****. Let me say this again. No ****. There is a entirely higher level of this car that exists and it is a great place to be.

The brakes are incredibly strong and did'nt fade once however the front left caliper is now gold colored as it got so hot it burnt the paint off or just plain changed color. INCREDIBLE BRAKES that you'll never get to enjoy on the everyday commute to work. Awesome brakes. I encourge you to find out for yourself.

Enjoy the pics. I'm headed to Mid Ohio next week for professional driver training and will have more info. Last pic is of the long front straight with the right hander that added lots of heat to the front left brake.

Almost forgot, the best part of the day was the track promoter came down and said "There were two cars out here today that everyone was talking about. "The Orange Mustang" (not the one behind me in the picture), a full race, loud as hell, roll cage, hans device, blah, blah car "And the Silver Mercedes". "You have an amazing car". Thanks Cory and Brandon.

 

Sounds like an awesome day. There has been so much talk of "poor" handling, however, your display at the track with relatively minor suspension mods should be a wake up call for the many of the critics on our our board. I have always believed that for a 4 door, 4200 lbs car our E55s handle great. I have not lowered my car yet but with 19 inch HREs, wider PS2s and Kleemans LSD, I think the car handles great.

 

Did your engine show some troubles after this extended track session? If not I should reconsider the Kleemann's kit on the V8 5.5 K.

 

Great question. The engine DID start acting up towards the end of the day. Just started shutting down all over the place. Culprit: out of gas. The big girl likes to drink. No problems engine wise. I did have the "Caution" brakes overheating" light come on.

 

Can you tell me a little bit about your views of the kleeman cam shafts. If you have the stage three, I would like to understand how you feel about the difference between stock camshafts. Throttle response, exhaust tone, performance increase noticable etc. Thanks

 

Another good question. Let me answer it with a little short story.

I knew I wanted mods. I did some research and figured I wanted Kleemann for thier quality and good choices or "stages". Did some research (asked around) and figured that Stage 2 was the ticket and was uncertain about St 3. Talked to Kleemann--Cory specifically. Here is what I understand/understood: The cam grind allows your car to rev higher and the gains are relatively small (I think 15 hp) is the number. The grind allows it to rev higher. Honestly I took the car out to Colo Springs for Stage 2 and we were having so much fun that it was like "what the heck, put in the cams". I beleive DerekFSU was toying with this idea and decided not to---there is a noticable step increase in cost (cams + labor) for this hp gain. To look at it another way: For the $, the biggest gains come from Stage 2. Headers are awesome. The cars at the track that I'd pass on the straight said the coolest things about when the saw the big silver girl roar past them. They said they could SEE me coming and HEAR me pass. Awesome.
I'm thinking of taking this business model to Disney and charging for rides--it is THAT fun. Sorry for the long reply--I'm still on a high from yesterday.

 

Literally changed my desktop to the pic of you coming at us head on with helmets.

Sometime....somehow....my dream is to put stock 55 up against stock M5 and just let them shoot it out and see who takes the checkered. No more Car and Driver BS reviews. Let's get it on!

Wouldn't it be funny if you know what happened???

Someday.......

 

Info from Brandon and Kleemann (the guy I called immediatley after I freaked out when I noticed my front left Caliper was Gold) was that this is normal and when you get them hot, they burn off the paint and the golden color appears. Mind you there was ZERO brake fade. Also, no paint flaking or chipping--just a transformation of color from silver to gold. Note the AMG label is still loud and clear. The brakes were so hot after hot lapping that you could rival Ruths Chris steak ovens. I would guess that about every 90 seconds I was hitting a right hand corner about about 40-50 mph after late breaking from 130 +/-. This was continued for about 20-30 minutes segments of hot laps, followed by giving the car/driver a break for 30 minutes to an hour, repeat process. All in all I would guess that I did 5 or 6 30 minute cycles of this and the brake (only the front left) colored about 3/4 of the way into the day (when I REALLY started pushing that AMG). The right front looks like it is headed this way too but is mostly silver colored with a very slight gold tint. Any ideas for power coating or other to retain silver color are appreciated.

 

The gold caliper actually looks pretty hot... reminds me of the Brembos on my old G35 Coupe. You should take the car to the dealer and play dumb for a while - I'm sure you'd get some priceless responses!

 

I like the gold on the car...kind of sets off the wheels....Great write up Gid!~!

 

I love the gold! I bet with some stickier tires you could kick butt in the corners too!

 

LMAO!! I would love to hear what BS they'd come up with.

 

Excellent write-up. Good thing you had fun!

 

never done a road course but my friend just invited me to summit point raceway in wv. we should get a local group and do it! gid, your post was amazing, felt like i was right there with you. so i see the camcorder guy, where a vid or two?

 

My God! I can't believe your caliper just changed color like that - and the best part is, it looks great! I checked out the pics before reading your post and I thought you had that done professionally! I say keep pushin your car, cuz those brakes look sweeeet

 

I love the gold calipers! Did your rear ones turn gold too?

 

Eric,

Thanks for the great info. My car is set up just like yours with the K2 versus the K3.

 

Do you have that first picture in..umm..desktop size?

 

Gid_,

It's nice to hear that the "beast" can hold its own against the other cars at the track. Are you going to do some 1/4 mile runs soon? Very eager to compare to other tuners. (bang for the buck, reliability, proximity to me and customer servive after the mods are in).

 

A friend did some in car video and I think I tossed my cookies watching it--very twitchy. I'm looking into a fixed mount (a car with an M5 had this slick setup that mounted to the head rest post and placed the camera between the driver and passenger seats). Will have good video soon.

 

You should come out with the local Mercedes Club (Greater Washington Section of MBCA). We have about 8-9 autocrosses (the first one is in just a couple weeks) and several track events (Summit and VIR). The next time we go to Summit is July 30-31.

http://gws-mbca.org/events.html

 

I think if I fail to do a 1/4 mile run soon DerekFSU will hunt me down and kill me. Our track opens this week and I have the drag radials mounted and ready to figure out how to launch the big girl (my 2 ton mistress). Will have good info when the time comes.

 

Gid E Up:

What program are you taking at Mid Ohio? I have been there a couple of times and they have great instuctors. I am sure you will have a very good weekend.

Your car sounds wicked. I just past the 800 mile mark (still break-in) and love the obvious power of this car. I cannot imagine what a stage III Kleemann E55 will do. If interstate 71, 77 or the Ohio turnpike are part of your route to Mid Ohio, let me know. I would love to see your car.

Will your car walk or run from a stock E55? I have a video cam. in my glove box if any documentation is needed.

 

Eric,

Nice work. You the man. Now that i have had my fill of the track strip, I too am heading to the track. Here is my next car:
http://www.noblecars.com/new-noble-site/model-m400.htm

4-6 month delivery time and made for the track. With some mods, it'll make 600 hp and only weighs 1060 Kgs.

As for a camera mount, I just got the pro pack from here: http://www.stickypod.com/products.htm

I have not used it yet but I have seen it in use and the video it produced on a dragstrip was rather impressive. Here is the video this guy filmed that convinced me to buy it. I'm not in it but watched him do it.
http://stickypod.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=37

 

Eric,

Where are you going to racing school? I'm planning on attending the Panoz school at Atlanta in May. I've heard good things about Skip Barber as well. Are you "certified" and was that an instructor riding with you?