Raced the E55 at Moroso 2.25 mile track last weekend. It handled reasonably well for a heavy luxury sedan. The brakes were much cooler with the new brake ducts and I ran 5 half hour sessions without any problems. The only thing I noticed was the chunks of rubber missing from the tires and the exposed fibers from my spent tires. My brakes now shudder when coming to a stop. So at 3045 miles I replaced the factory Continentals with Nitto NT555's and am eaagerly awaiting an aftermarket race pad. I went to the dealer today and traced an outline of the pads and sent it to Porterfield who called me to tell me they don't have a matching Brembo pad and that the caliper was similar to other Brembo calipers but is clearly different.

Anyway, Blocktrader was there with his E55 and his supercharged Z06 vette that sounded phenominal and was very quick. A good day was had by all. Sorry but no actual racing pics, but I can't race and take pics at the same time. Next track day will be mid January; hopefully my OZ Superleggeras and G-Force tires will arrive by then.

 

My car with protective film

 

other cars

 

It seems that some of my pics are accepted despite having too many bytes while others are not. I'll resize the pics and post them this weekend.

 

Chill,

it is not to uncommon to have uneven brake pad deposits on the rotors after a few hard track laps. Don't worry, it is very unlikely that they are warped. Just clean the rotors with some brake cleaner and steel wool, and then go thru a routine bedding procedure.

 

Here is my .02 worth...not meant to offend...

Taking the E55 on a road course for hours seems silly to me. It is a big, heavy luxo cruiser with lots of power. I had raced my '97 Viper GTS at Moroso back in '98 and I felt kinda bad about trashing that car...To hear of messed up brakes and chunks of rubber missing from the tires doesn't suprise me. The E55 is not a track car! I would enjoy a few laps in my '02 911 Turbo, but I wouldn't consider beating on my E55. I feel bad for the person who ends up with that car when Chill sells it. To each his own....

 

Unfortunately I don't own another car to take to the track. Regardless, the E55 is a lot of fun at the track and these AMG engines can take a lot of abuse. So what if I use up the tires and brakes, I pay to replace them. Why should I care for the car for the next owner. Best of all the car is under warranty. My first exposure to this car was at the AMG Challenge, a MB sponsored event touting their cars' performance and durability. I can't imagine any car giving as much enjoyment as the E55 for the combination of family toting, everyday drivability, dragstrip acceleration, good looks, and track-worthy performance except maybe for the RS6 or the M5.THE BEAST IS TRULY AWESOME!!!! I am glad that I leased the car though.


If I owned a Porsche 911 Turbo, I'd use it for more than a few hot laps. I'd run it hard all day as do a number or owners who were at Sebring and Moroso with me.

 

Chill, it was nice to meet you. The event was fun. Your doing NASA for Sebring right? I might be at a Skip Barber event in Daytona that weekend.

jkrutch, your turbo is going to deposit pad material on the brakes just like the E55 if you leave the street pads on. The tires are a different issue. The E55 doesn't have enough tire on the front end. The front tires have over 2000 lbs to carry and are only 245s. This is as much as mid and rear engined cars carry on the rear tires. The minimum you would find on one of these cars is a 265 on something light. Getting the front tire up to a 265 or 275 would help reduce the understeer drastically. Then the fronts wouldn't be so overused and wouldn't wear as bad. Still, the Conti's are not great track tires.

I took one of the experienced guys with a 996 Turbo for a ride around the track. We both came away with the same impressions. First, how comfortable and drama free it was.(we were joking about getting a back massage while driving around the track) Second, how strong the brakes are. (a Porsche Turbo guy impressed by brakes) Third, how bad the car pushes. We were pushing out to the outside of a long corner. I eased out of the throttle until my foot was off the pedal. (Normally the front tires would have bit by 1/8 throttle) The fronts never bit. We just pushed out right to the edge of the track scrubbing of a good amount of speed. The push is limiting the car’s corner speeds more than its weight is. Aside from the small front tires, there is only one other problem with this car on the track. That is the brake temp light. You are going into uncharted territory if you ignore the light. It would be interesting to see what temp is triggering this light, and what it would take to increase the temp to a more realistic number. (I suspect that, like everything MB does, there is a huge safety margin left there)

That leaves us with this to track prep an E55: new tries, and new brake pads. Now let’s compare that to what it takes to make a Corvette(a car that is not out of place on the track and that I am familiar with) track ready. The entire front brake system needs to be replaced. Minimally the front calipers. Obviously the pads have to be changed to race pads. If you have a non Z06, the tires have to be replaced or you will have the same chunking problems. The car needs coolers added for the rear end and the tranny. Base cars need a Power steering cooler. This is not meant to cut down the vette at all. The Z06 is a great out of the box track car. It is meant to point out that all these cars need a couple of things to be track ready. I should note that I split time between my vette and E55 and didn’t stay all day. I only put 20 or so laps on the E55. With that kind of track time I saw no pad deposit problems and no real chunking. The brake temp light did come on for me though, and the corners of the front tires look a little rough. Dr. Chill was seemed to spend more time on the track than many other guys do. With the type of time he is spending on track, He would see these issues with pretty much any car. I guess its easy to put in a lot of laps when you are driving around getting a back massage.

 

Good luck with the Nitto NT555's. They were the absolute worst tires I have ever had on my Mercedes. I was running 275/35/18 NT555's. They rode like a rock and had no grip at all. My car rode around as if it was on ice. They just couldn't handle much power and handled for crap. I really can't say that there was anything I liked about those tires. I ditched them after just a few months of use.

 

Just out of curiosity, Dr. Chill, what kinds of lap times did you post compared to some of the turbos and vettes?

 

When driving unimpeded by traffic or while not trying to dodge race Porsches or Panoz's, I was able to repeatedly turn 1:50 laps which was similar to time of a supercharged NSX and turbo Audi TT with racing brakes and suspension. The AWD Posche TT's definitely were faster, but the Vipers were turning 1:50 to 2:00 depending on their driver's ability and degree of race modification.

Regarding tires, the Nitto's are adequate for street driving. I have racing wheels with BFG G-Force KD's om order and I will use them at the next event.

I plan on running next at Sebring again in mid Dec or late Jan with NASA but prefer the SAFE Motorsports format though.

Regarding the brake warning light, I ignored it because I knew my brakes could run longer since the ducts were keeping them much cooler and I wasn't afraid of cooking the fluid since I was running Castrol SRF. After running hard for 30 minutes I could still put my hands near the rotors and I didn't smell brake pad.

 

I didn't think the NT555's were even adequate for the street. I wasn't referring to aggressive track driving. The NT555's just sucked big time. You will see. The Continental's weren't much better. You should like the BF Goodrich G-Force KD's. I have always been impressed with the BF Goodrich ultra high performance tires. Smooth ride and grip like crazy.

 

grrrrrrrrrrr......i cant wait till my 04 E55 comes in. Ill join you guys at the track after I get it!!!

 

I hear that the Kumho MXs are really good!!!

 

I haven't driven the MX's but you can't beat the performance and price of the Ecsta Supra 712's.

 

Sorry, but I would not bother with low-budget tires on an $85k car. That's how accidents happen. I would not put 712's on a $30k car for that matter. Tires are the single most important factor in vehicle dynamics, second only to the driver. When I see budget tires on a nice car, I can expect that car gets only budget maintenance- not a car I would want.

Dr. Chill, for your purposes I would seriously consider going with these tires:

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires....ilot+Sport+Cup

I would run 265's on all 4 corners, using spacers if necessary up front (I don't know for sure if they would fit, but the diff between 245/40's and 265/35's is not great). Hard-core track junkies are getting 50-70 heat cycles (track sessions) out of these tires, and they are street legal (so you can use them as street tires as well). They will save you lots of $$ in the end (for comparison, Hoosiers last about 8-10 heat cycles, cost the same, and are not street legal).

 

Dr Chill, you smell with your hands? Wow!

 

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BTW, I was behind that #72 Porsche for a couple of laps before the brake warning light came on. I could easily run him down on acceleration and braking, but was losing a little ground in the corners. Once I was up to speed, the only cars that really caught me were the Panoz racers and the Viper Competition Coupe and the GT3. The latter two caught me pretty fast. There were plenty of cars that were quicker, but not so much to make up for our different track positions within 15 or so laps.

 

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