Benz-O-Rama

I know this isn't E55 specific, but this is where the drag racers hang out. And quite frankly, the SL part of the forum has a bit of body odor. It seems there's only 4 of us SL owners that actually drag race our cars, so I'm putting here since they hang out here too.

Let me preface this by stating that my car previously had a Eurocharged tune. I have nothing bad to say about Jerry, Tony and the crew there at Eurocharged. They gave me a strong, safe tune on my SL600 (good enough for an 11.40), and I didn't switch tuners because I was unhappy with them, or their product.

With that said, the next logical step in my car's evolution was a TCU tune. As you know, my car comes with the very stout Maybach 5 speed, but it also comes with pesky torque management in place. It does this in the name of self preservation due to the massive amount of torque in these V12TTs. As anyone with a tuned V12TT will attest, when the car shifts, there is a noticeable decrease in power right before all hell is unleashed as the revs climb and the snails spool up.

Eurocharged does not offer a TCU tune, so I started looking at other vendors. My options were RENNtech, Kleemann and Speedriven. I've heard very good things about Marcin and Speedriven, and there are a few people on here currently running his TCU tune, namely TheRicker (Sean). We all know Sean is a bit controversial at times, but there's no denying his dedication at getting every drop of power he can out of his SL600. Knowing that Sean has had the Speedriven TCU for quite a while now, I thought he'd be a great person to talk to about it. We chatted for about 15 minutes and he made it perfectly clear about how happy he was with the TCU tune. At that point, I was certainly leaning towards Speedriven as my TCU tuner of choice.

My next call was to Bruce at TT Motorsports, since he's a reseller for Marcin and Speedriven products. Bruce never ever tried to "sell" me on anything. But rather, he took time out of his busy day to explain to me, in a detailed fashion, what to expect from a Speedriven TCU tune, and what not to expect. We also talked about my ECU tune. Even though he's a direct competitor to Eurocharged, he never bashed them, never tried to sell me an ECU tune, but he did talk to me about the importance of having an ECU tune on the car that was developed along side of the TCU tune. I believe that most of the tuning companies that sell TCU tunes, won't do it as a stand alone tune. It must be purchased with that companies ECU as well. RENNtech, is one that comes to mind. Bruce explained to me that Speedriven has teamed up with Elite Performance and have developed an ECU/TCU combo for the 600s, if I was interested in that.

My third call was to Aleks at Elite Performance. We must have talked for over an hour, or so it seemed. He explained to me, in as much technical jargon that I was able to understand, how the ECU/TCU were developed and what I should expect with their product. Talked to me about what it would do, what it wouldn't do, and addressed some of my safety concerns. I had to sleep on it.

Since I was happy with my Eurocharged tune, I really didn't know what to do. On one hand, I have a fast, safe tune that's good enough for #2 quickest on record, but on the other hand, I was really interested in Speedriven's TCU tune.

I didn't feel comfortable running Speedriven's TCU tune with my Eurocharged shelf tune, so in the end, I decided to pull my ECU and TCU and send it them to Elite Performance to have them tuned.

They received them, stayed engaged with me during the tuning process, and next day shipped them back to me. I installed them and car fired right up, with no issues. I quickly selected my C/S button which magically put an "M" in my instrument cluster! I now have a true manual mode!

I drove the car very softly out of my neighborhood, just as I would any other day. The car felt no different than before. Once the car came up to temp, and I was in an area where I could "test" my new toys, I flexed my right calf at 40mph and was met with a strobe light dance of the orange triangle in my cluster

I did a few WOT runs, but couldn't really stretch her legs that much, due to traffic and landscape of where I live. Lots of 1 lane twisty country roads, that you can't really get up to speed on. But, I was able to get a few WOT ,from a dig, runs in. Power delivery in WOT feels much different. In first, from a dig, it felt like it pulled harder when the snails spooled up, breaking the tires loose at full boost. But the big difference is when it shifts. When I hit second gear, the hesitation right after shift was gone. It didn't chirp second gear, but shift was crisper and pulled immediately, unlike in the past.

Unfortunately, I never got to experience a WOT 2nd to 3rd shift. By the time my car is at the top of second gear, It's scootin' pretty good. I'm not one to go blasting down curvy country roads that have houses on them, so I shut it down.

I was fully prepared to wake up this morning, in 60* temps and tell my wife I needed to go to the store to get something for the football games this afternoon. I was going to detour on to a local highway and see what this baby could do. Mother nature gave me the *facepalm* and decided to literally rain on my parade.

The car is heading out to the MIR rental this Friday the 17th, so we'll see what's what. My car never trapped slower than 117, in HORRIBLE D/A, and has never trapped higher than 120 in amazing D/A. Even if I have problems launching on this new tune, with street tires, trap speed should be higher, and that's what I'll be looking at. I have data logs from the last time I was at MIR, and I'll log again with the new tune. It'll be interesting to see them side by side

After only a few hard miles on the car, with limited room to play, it's hard for me to think it won't trap higher, as long as we have decent D/A.


A big thanks to Bruce at TTM (who by the way, didn't make a dime off of me), Marcin at Speedriven, and Aleks at Elite Performance. I think we have the makings of a monster on our hands. The current quickest 1/4 mile SL600 is Joe Curry's with a 11.25@125, I think. I'm only .15 off of that with a shelf tune and street tires. With the addition of the Speedriven/Elite Performance ECU/TCU I'm hopefully gonna get close. My next step is to split the I/C circuit and run a chiller in the trunk and add a bigger H/E. Gonna be hard to keep me out of the #1 spot with that....


...That is, until Sean runs his car. I mean IF he ever runs his car.

And hopefully Soulsearcher never ever takes up drag racing as his SL600 is the fastest on the planet.

cal1

Make that 5 SLs (unless your talking V12s). I'm just not smoking fast like you guys. http://www.dragtimes.com/Mercedes-Be...lip-19719.html Of course I do hang out with the "E" guys some.

Benz-O-Rama

You were one of the 5 I was thinking about.

Ok, maybe there's a few more than 5...but certainly no more than 10.

motorkas

I can't believe I have to say this to you of all people - DRs my friend - DRs (although with you thats like cheating....).

Great right up - can't wait to see what you do next week - they didn't mention any TCU/ECU combo for E55s did they. . .

cal1

Not many that's for sure.

bassn_07

Good luck with your quest and I'm sure with good weather and MIR's track prep your PB will be a thing of the past. I don't know how those guys prep that track but I wish some of the tracks on the other coast would do the same.

cal1

Interesting point regarding the ECU/TCU combo tune. I was running an RT ECU/TCU tune and now have a EC dyno tune. I guess I still have the RT TCU tune. Maybe not a good thing.

bassn_07

Out of curiousity, how does your shift with the RT speed shift? I have 3 friends that have/had a few problems with the 2-3 shift, they said there was a hesitation.

cal1

I haven't noticed any problems.

shardul

iTrader: (1)

Nice write up!

tbone

Clay, PM me the cliff note version

Bramage

"We all know Sean (TheRicker) is a bit controversial at times..."

Say WHAT?????

Benz-O-Rama

LOL...

New ECU/TCU tune in.
Car pulls strong.
Hope to rent the #1 quickest spot on dragtimes until TheRicker or Soulsearcher runs their cars. Then it'll be back to #2 quickest.


Crap, looking at that version, this is all a total waste.

Benz-O-Rama

I think I may have caught him off guard with that too. I just meant that even though he gets into spats with members sometimes, there's no denying his dedication and passion for making his car fast. And if nobody is following his widebody project in the SL55 forum, they should. It should be sick, when it's done.

He actually helped me a lot with this decision. Seems like a cool guy on the phone.

jmf003

Good luck! It'll be interesting to see what you run.

mthis

let me quess you still running 20's to track lol. good luck if my car dont sell tomorrow ill come and witness history.

TTMotorsports

I am glad I could help explain to you the technical side of your new combination and give you the information you needed so you could make your decision Clayton.

The proof will be at MIR on the 17th if you can learn to harness your new found power before then!

You will never guess who's watermarks are on your previous tune?

Oh that's right I already told you who's they would be.

MBH motorsports

Joe Curry? As in Joe Curry from Scottsdale AZ? I'm kind of shocked his record has stood up for so long. To me its impressive, considering Speedworld (my home track) sits at about 1300ft elevation, mixed with positive DA all the time.

Without a doubt I think you should be able to beat his time. A nice Fall day at MIR and that record does down. In fact I'm going to make a prediction that alot of records change hands over the next 12 months. There are alot of people looking and willing to take there car to the next level.

A little AZ tidbit for you. There are two gas stations out here in the Northern PHX/Scottdale area, that both have 100oct at the pump. Both owners of those gas stations have or had v12TT SL's. Big thanks to the gas station owners who race!

Benz-O-Rama

Yup. I'll be on 20" boat anchors. There's more satisfaction in it for me that way.

Can't really thank you enough for the talk. Marcin and Aleks really owe you a commission.

I actually have a feeling I might have problems launching on this new tune. The torque limiters are effectively removed at 80% throttle, so it might get a little hairy launching her on 20" streets. Meh, I'll just put on the seat massager, turn up some Godsmack, and let er fly. Piece of cake.

Yup, I do believe that's the very same one. His 11.25 has stood, because nobody is stupid enough to race their SL600s, except for a handful of us.

I'm not confident I'll beat his time, this time out. He had 125mph in that D/A, and I just don't know if I'll gain 5mph. That sounds like an awful lot. Who knows though, I'm .15 from him, at my personal best, with only 120mph.

I don't know. I need to just shut up and run the damn thing and see what happens.

Proof is in the pudding, as they say. This is as close as we've had to a tuner shootout, as I can remember. Conditions will be different, without a doubt, but I believe that I've got my car so dialed in, that the driver can be taken out of the equation.

We'll soon see, I suppose.

Thericker

Whatthefuk U talkin' bout Willis

Philly Single

Good stuff...have the same setup on my S65 for 3 months or so now - awesome good times. Also trying to hit the track on Friday - but up at Atco in NJ.

Good luck!
Jay

V12Godspeed

Wish you the best in getting there...Wish I could make it to MIR but will be tied up.

MB_Forever

Wow, very nice write-up. I can't wait to see your new track results at MIR. By the way, did you happen to get a before and after dyno sheets?

Benz-O-Rama

Hey Jay, how are you liking your Speedriven ECU/TCU? Can you elaborate on how your car feels, (before and after) for comparison? For me, most of the difference is in the upper RPMs, at full boost. My Eurocharged tune felt a bit stronger off boost, but ran out of breath up top. The new tune, feels milder down low, but pulls like a freight train in full boost. But when it shifts, I get a more linear power delivery. Before the TCU tune, power would dip, right after it shifted. I can assume that was the torque management in the TCU begging for mercy.

Thanks Jody. I don't think we'll have good enough air this Friday, but I would hope to own the #1 spot when Ahmad's big Fall rental comes around. We've seen temps in the 40s there before.

Thanks, Mo. No sir, I did not do a pre/post dyno. I think 1/4 mph will show gains better than any dyno can. I know exactly what my car runs, in good and bad air. It may have gotten lost in the posts above, but my car has never trapped lower than 117 in 100* heat at a track that's 1500ft above. And has never trapped more than 120 at MIR in negative D/A.

So, I'm assuming we'll be in positive D/A on Friday, looking at the forecast. Gonna be humid, with highs in the low 80s, unfortunately. If I trap over 120, I'll be happy, regardless of E.T. Might take me a minute to figure out launching on the new TCU. With the torque limiters effectively removed at 80% throttle, I expect some wheel spin, until I figure it out.

cal1

Hey Benz-O, when I go to the track in Muncie Indiana nobody knows the slightest thing about the SL. Most have never seen one and think it will be lucky to pull a 14. I'm guessing MIR is a bit more sophisticated than Muncie dragway?