I spent the better half of the day at Atlanta Motorsports Park doing some hot laps in the E. Most of you run the 1/4 and figured it would be worth posting up since I have only found a handful of members that are dumb enough to throw a 4,300lb Mercedes sedan around a twisty track with electro-hydraulic brakes (which are complete animals until they fffaaadddeee).

I jumped in with a group when I arrived and spotted a S2000, Evo, STI, and a old school Vette. I figured it would be a great run and wouldn't be too embarrassing. I hit pit lane ready to go out and two Hellcat's, a 2015 Vette (I let him pull infront in pit lane), 911 Turbo and a few other stripped out cars lined up behind me. My fear became real...ha.

As I headed down pit lane with ESP off, manual mode and a face stuffed with BBQ from the road trip over I took a deep breathe and went for it. The results were incredible. I was able to keep infront of the two Hellcats, 911 Turbo and pretty much all of the caged out cars. I was 4th in line out of the pit and the E55 kept pulling and pulling. The S2000 slowed us down a little but even after the brakes began to fade and had to run a cool down lap I made some serious time up on the straights and pushed it harder and harder in the corners while still staying within my limits. It's a very predictable car, it doesn't like being pushed past it's limits...and it will let you know by sending the ESP King in and shutting you down for a second. Everybody drove in there cars, so leaving in the same car was also the goal. Nobody did anything crazy, just testing the limits of our cars and having some good fun.

Few fun facts about tracking a E55 on a road course...

-After 3 hard laps the brakes begin to squeak and will fade very shortly
-Lap 4 lost all brakes and didn't get any type of brake error
- During the brake fade it went from strong braking to a gritty pedal feel and next then pedal to the floor (110-30MPH)
-IAT's stayed well under 120* and didn't have any type of heat soak despite it being 85*F out. No supercharger cut-offs. Constant power with no reduction or pulling of timing (I was running DashCommand via OBDII and watched it closely when safe)
- The amount of torque is comical when you leave a corner and immediately have to hit the brakes due to the car infront of you
- Brakes smoke quite a bit and require several laps around the premises at low speed to cool off otherwise the SBC will shutoff and throw the giant red "BRAKE FAILURE" message.
-The handling is quite interesting and a total blast to try to master


All in all, I would do it again and again. It's not the ideal track car, but the looks and double takes that it gets when you go by the spectator stand at 100MPH+ is awesome. There were some pretty serious machines out there. All camera's on the old mans Mercedes. I should be getting some photo's up soon but in the mean time here is a video.I logged 107 miles and averaged 3.4MPG . First session was on full, 4th session I was on empty with 26 miles of range.
Pretty awesome day. Enjoy the video...

Session 1 of 4. My GoPro started to act up and didn't catch the other 3 when the speed and fun stuff happened...I slow down after the Hellcat passes for a cool down lap. I get back on it and start catching back up around 12 minutes in. A good 3 minute cooling session.

 

cant wait to see it !

 

I have to re-upload since the video is over 15 minutes long. Give me a little bit.

 

You should try the stoptech street performance pads on rockauto they seem fine to me (and cheap) they give you warning when they are getting to hot by gripping harder so you can back off a bit. That and Motul 600 fluid and mine have been good havent been on track yet though.

Also those ultra racing braces the main one underneath and the top strut one do make a nice difference!

The main one underneath actually locks the front subframe up so it really does improve the feel of the car immensely.

 

I plan on doing pads and fluid soon (I boiled the brake fluid and need to change it out). I have read good things about the Motul 600. What is interesting is the first session (the video) is the front brakes went immediately. The fade was almost instant and once they stopped smoking in the pit lane and the SBC Warning Light went off I didn't experience fade any more. I think what happened was I burned off the 11 years of tire shine and road grime trapped in the rotor fins. When I say smoking I mean I was looking for a fire extinguisher. When the rotors are shot I wouldn't mind going to a lightweight 2-pc rotor.

I don't think a frame brace would help any, tighter suspension would work but all in all the Airmatic did a pretty good job. I lowered the car 1.6" upfront and .8" in the rear for the hot laps and it controlled the body roll extremely well.

 

This is awesome

 

That looks like a a lot of fun. Road Race > Roll Race > Drag Race

 

That looks extreamly fun.

 

Still going to do the road Atlanta in June? Now that you have an idea of how quickly the brakes can leave you. The speeds are a lot higher at road Atlanta.

 

I am going to Road Atlanta. I will need to do some prep for that day. AMP was a test day to see how it handled heavy braking.

What is strange is after the initial "severe" fading and the SBC throwing the red "Brake Malfunction" like the SBC had failed I didn't have brake fade as severe, soft pedal after multiple 80-20MPH braking zones but nothing like the gritty pedal followed by a total loss. I feel like I had "burnt" off quite a bit of garbage in and on the rotor/caliper area. They were very grippy at the end of the 4th session...right before a Vette ran off the track and plowed into a barrier at 100+. He was OK but sucks to see that happen.

 

Did the vette lose traction or brakes? Better direct question to determine - Did the vette hit the barrier with the front or the back?

 

The exit is very tricky. The track narrows when your car is pushing out, as the weight transfers there is also a dip. If you carry speed around the bend you can have a exit speed of 100MPH+. The cars like to jump around coming out. He carried too much speed and the car hopped and lost traction. Did a few sideways movements and hit on the passenger side (going backwards). Corner begins at 3:50 in the video. I was going about 75MPH

 

Did you take a look at your pads before and after? How much pad life was used if you did? Really cool video too. Looks fun.

I just checked on my local track and there is a day on the 14th. I'm thinking about going.

 

I think you'd be surprised by that frame brace. If you look at the front suspension the front subframe is rubber mounted this brace effectively locks that subframe (front to back/side to side not up and down) and its very noticeable before and after. Not only does the car handle better it also rides better and there's less road noise. Its very very surprising. Then theres the strut brace which is also worth while.

 

Do you have a link for the braces? You have my curiosity.

 

Great stuff my friend!!!!

Try it in a 5000+ S600, about the same results 3-4 laps no brakes, but still a heck of a good time.

 

Yeah, I lost a bit of pad life lol...

 

glad to see someone tracking these cars.

 

What tire were you running on?? Sizes etc.. If you go to coilovers it would Really help.. Airmatic is OK but if your going to road race coilovers is the only way.. I did this in a 458 Italia and "OH BABY" was that fun...

 

I'm running Michelin Pilot Super Sports. 255F and 285R on a 19" rim. Airmatic made it fun. Lots of bobbing!

 

look into swapping the airmatic for coilovers. it will make this car handle like a champ

 

awesome post, also interested in this lower subframe brace you speak of!

 

The front sway bar and castor mods discussed in the handeling thread fixes the airmatic for the most part imho. IF you want your airmatic car to behave like it has coilovers then everybody should look into it.

I honestly believe if you convert to Arnott allround do the mods mentioned above and fit these braces coilovers are the most over hyped mod discussed on here.

And the braces were discussed in the ultra racing thread. https://mbworld.org/forums/w211-amg/...-bar-more.html

Its also proof I was like some of the people in this thread until I actually did these mods and drove the car with them!

 

A word of caution about the top strut brace. It will NOT fit with airmatic unless you own a 70mm hole saw or a plasma cutter and a hammer. Straight up. My car is RHD so I also had additional brake line clearance issues which you guys should not experience.

They have changed the design slightly and are using tube for all three bolts unlike the one pictured which has pressings and maybe one bit of tube for the mounting point.

 

Austingtir,
Which underbody brace do you have, the straight one connecting the lower control arms or that 'H' brace?