Click on the thread below, and whether you are a gear head of any kind, you will be in awe.

My question is, do you think Hot Rodding in the Benz world will ever get this big? I mean look at the products they have out there for this muscle car, it almost makes me depressed and sad how far behind we really are

Make sure you click on all the links in the first thread

Express your thoughts fella's.......

http://www.svtperformance.com/forums...-part-1-a.html

That was really something!

Nah, we'll always be "the rich guys tinkering around with rich guy toys"

LOL, even though you can snag one for 20-30K now.

It'll never change. Look at the TT. It's playing out all over again. Almost zero mods out right now cept for tune and Renn tweaking the exhaust.

One year from today......bet it will be headers and tune....maybe airbox.

Sad.

If the price of a new AMG will equal to the price of a new mustang then yes you will see hot rodding in the benz world get this big.

Last week I saw a 2011 turbo mustang run high nines at 135+ mph at PBIR. I want to venture to say it was twin turbo but not sure as this guy didnt open his hood. But his run left me impressed. Im sure he dropped a pretty penny. But bang for the buck you cant beat it.

Too bad im a die hard rotorhead. Stubborn I am but you wont catch me in a 5.0.

I think a more accurate way of putting it is: "if there were as many people WILLING to hot rod their benzs as there are who are willing to hot rod a vette/stang/camaro". . .the funny part is we all have the same sickness - we actually STARTED with the hot rodded benzs

Not going to lie. . .Always wanted a z06. . .I've now started to investigate the GT500's as well (think AMG depreciation is bad). . .I'm always keeping the MB but the $$'s to mod/third pedal and scope of aftermarket support has me really interested. That and the fact that visually, with the right parts (ESPECIALLY for the mustangs). . .they can look, sound and performance wise be KILLER!!!!!!!!!

Sure, hotroding American Muscle cars has been around for decades, but why is the aftermarket for AMG or M cars for example almost non-existant? Sure it is damn frustrating, but just say one company stepped up and offered built short blocks, aftermarket twin screws, cams, built tranny's, without feeling they have to rape the customer, would they not blow up overnight with a demand like the US muscle cars have?

All these vendors that are SLOWLY coming up with aftermarket parts for our cars, have an EXTREME MB tax applied. I am refering to the big vendors that have been this for a while. I mean how much would it really cost to put together a built shortblock for the M113K platform, why would it be much more than a built aluminum short block for a GT 500 or the new 5.0 mustang. It SHOULD NOT BE.

BT, you are right Brotha. Just look at the Cobra Jet in those pics, take off the decals and limo tint the windows, and you have one sick nasty looking mustang off the showroom floor. That is just one example. I just dont get what the deal is on the rape of us MB owners when new aftermarket products come out.

IMO, you should be able to pick up a 3.4 whipple for our cars for $3700 brand new, a new built short block for +/- $3000 which can handle up to 1000rwhp like the terminator blocks. What is wrong with that way of thinking.

Supply vs demand

How many 55k were built? Out of those number, what percentage are modded? R&D cost $$$, that somehow have to be recover. On the AMG crowd, the dumb one with the modded ones got the share of the R&D bill.

Another thing, I think the E55 is so well respected and does so well on the street and the track, but it in the end, it is getting left behind. Case and point what moosejaw said above. These cars came in 2002 year, and to this day there is not a company that offers a built short block which is a shame. Something so simple as that.......


BT, you should have seen this yellow Z06 at SDR when I went down there. It drove 2.5 hours from Atlanta to SDR, did not change one thing on the car, hopped onto the track, ran deep 10's at 140mph, then drove home. Now that is what I am talking about, this was the beast below and to me that is what hotrodding is all about.

MSRP $7500 for Mustang SC kit..... not bad ! compare to Mercedes Kleemann SC was like $11K

Yea sure new headers and airbox for the new 55TT soon but again header will be $6K and airbox for $3K....... sure for rich people.

I come from the LS1 world and I am finding what bothers me most is the kind of "one size fits all" approach to modding these cars created by the lack of options.

With so little options out there you're either a pioneer like some of you on here with the resources to do so having to poney up R&D costs for things that readily available in aftermarket for other platforms or you mod the same exact way with inflated pricing for off the shelf pulley/tune/exhaust. things like shortblocks, custom stalls, detailed tranny builds, street/strip suspension options, headwork or even aftermarket castings o_0... we will have to keep dreaming and hoping i guess.

But blower only is $3700 for a 3.4 whipple That is brand new too, so for alot of guys that are at a stage 3 on their e55, they should have addressed fueling already, and could get away with paying only $3700 for a nasty upgrade, custom lower intake manifold. Better yet go with Kenne Belle's new liquid cooled mammoth blower kit:

Just out of curiosity, if I spoke to KB, and retro fitted one of these beasts to my car, what would you feel is a good pricing point for the blower, lower intake, and cai as seen above? You could say goodbye to anymore heat problems with their low intercooler, and liquid cooled blower The option would be 2.8; 3.6; 4.2 litre blower.......

If you can do a 3.4 Whipples on an E55 for $4k, I'll buy two.

Model Year# of Mustangs built
2007 158,180
2006 165,762
2005 160,412+
2004 129,858
2003 153,134


E55 AMG production #s

2003 1318
2004 3218
2005 2214
2006 1187

Part of the problem is the production #s Mustang Vs E55AMG, pricing of the vehicles. Not that many people want to mod out a $90k car first few years, but will a mustang, since its significantly purchase price is lower as well as the mods dont equate to anything near the purchase price of a E55.

EXACTLY!!! there were 7,937 w211 E55 amgs from 2003-2006.... in same time period there were 597,713 mustangs , so 75 times more mustangs ... wonder why there is more tuners developing towards the mass produced markets?

Hell, even the 2007 mustang GT500 produced 10,844 .... one single year of a special mustang version out numbers all w211 e55 AMGs by over 3,000 cars

with exclusivity comes very small tuner market... check out the bugatti market of tuners

To be honest, I give a rats *** about Mustangs or Corvettes even if one does a 1sec qtr. A 10-11 second luxury sedan does it for many. I'm grateful for what does exist for this platform and the many great vendors & enthusiasts here that support it.

this plus the fact if you are a tuner, what market would you make more money in.... the 7,937 potential e55 market or the 597,713 mustang market for same given model year?

its kind like where would be a better place for louis vuitton to open a new store.... its 100th store in paris or first store in somalia ? i am betting that even if they already have 99 store in paris, that they still make more money by opening another one in paris than opening their first one in somalia... same goes for tuners bet the next tuner to come into mustang market makes more than the next AMG tuner and its just because of the sheer supply the more mass producedd cars have.

Is that the mustang in the video of my 12.2 run. He bout blew me off the track. Lol. I like my friends Shelby 500. He won't run me though. He says I'm psychotic. Lol

I have my hot rod/race car/purely toy 9 sec rocket (see avatar) the benz is my nice classy car I take out when I don't want to be in a big diesel smoke spewing dually truck that I daily drive. Honestly all my vehicles are a toy at some level.

I plan to "hot rod" the benz some, but not get tooooo crazy. Thing is though, I consider most everything available for these cars as not a big mod or anything crazy. lol Only thing that seems like a big step is going to forged pistons, porting the heads which it seems only a couple people have done or when this big new blower comes out. The rest is simple basic bolt ons.

Should be more than 8K M113K engine...... add S55, CL55, SL55, CLS55 ........ maybe 15k total ? still very little compare to American muscle car.

Gaspam and Nova, let me say this, run the production numbers on the 03/04 cobra please. Now, kenne belle and Whipple really were unknown and did nothing before those cars came out. That was their Breakout platform that helped them develop the baddest twin screw blowers on the market. From a platform that came out for only two years, then went dormant until the Shelby's came out in 07, these two companies really had no previous platforms to develop such stout blowers, why has that not happened yet with the m113k platform. You guys are also solely looking at e55s, what about Cl55s, sl55s, s55s too. Still to this day there is no major upgrades for the drivetrain on our cars. There is plenty of money to be made across those model benz's but no one has stepped up. Just find that strange.

yeah def, i was just going after the e55 model since was only comparing it to the mustang... if we add in all the other vehicles ford puts the 5.0 and 4.6L motors in then the ford numbers would be well above the 500K production units so i was trying to keep it kinda relative to a model perspective

the 03/04 cobra production #s still = 19,400 which cobra is a subset model of mustang just like e55 is a subset model of w211 55K amgs which over same 03/04 time = 4536 ... so still 4.29 times more cobras than e55s....

I agree its not enough to choose from. But another problem is, there is only a handful of us that want to make our cars extreme enough to run with a tweaked to hell 3000lb fiberglass shell. I love that we can get a 4200+lb luxury car run 11's, with just bolt on goodies! Yeah, the parts are pricey, but everyone can't say they've owned a $90k car.
Besides, WE BE STYLING, MAN!
Mercedes has swagger in stock form. The others just planly don't.

Tune the masses, drive with the classes.
Tune the classes, drive with the masses.