PieRat

Finally taking my cls to the track for a casual event. Not a race, just a hoon. My mates taking his c63 too. Once the m113k stomps him hell be buying a supercharger for sure!!

Anyway I have some go pros ready to go so ill upload some videos later in the week! Theres a holden r8 clubsports, m6s, corvettes and a Porsche 997 turbo in our group.

Any tips for a street thrashers first time on track in one of these sleds?

PieRat

Brakes overheated and let me know by failing at the end of the straight with that bs red dash message...go pro fiitage incoming later today...

eFifty5AMG

Damn! Curious as to how that ended. Awaiting footage.. Did you beat the 63?

PieRat

Skip to 12 minutes if you CBF my bad driving :P This was the first run of the day and my first time at the track. Basically it was all going great, until I hit the end of the straight at about 120mph and when I press the brake, I get a little bit then suddenly it sinks to the floor. I have ringing from dash and its red saying some crap about brake power down, stop immediately, press your foot down hard AF. But I have no brakes!

Strigoi

Holy ****! I was not expecting that.

How much damage?

PieRat

Not much just rinsed my rims so will need recondish. One sidekirt looks like itll need a good polish if they doesnt come out nice enough ill take it off and get it painted. There was stones lodged between my tyre and rim...

worst part is I took it to a shop to get the tire taken 9ff and put bsck on...went back to the track and had a great day taking it easy on the brakes until i ran out of petrol. As i was driving back from filling up i noticed my wheel acting funny like it was flat...pull over and **** its held on by one nut!!! Took one off the rest and drove it home no probs....i guess im unlucky but lucky all at once !!!

PieRat

When I got back we only had enough juice on the go pro for one more recorded run...


Since I wasn't sure about how the brakes were going to go I was being a super puss, braking early and not going as hard. At least this time I got a 'brakes hot' warning so I knew to back off. Maybe I was too excited the first time to notice this warning, or it was right on the cusp of overheating and I pushed it too hard at the end of the straight..Anyway I'm going to get Castrol SRF braking fluid for next time.

mondo

sideways into the gravel often results in a roll over, so you were pretty lucky. glad you and the car are ok.

on a different note, were you manually shifting on the steering wheel or just letting it shift itself?

oh and i have done the wheel held on by one bolt thing on another of my cars before... not fun

PieRat

Really? Well I am glad I didn't roll. I don't watch enough Motorsport, are you better to hit the gravel straight on? I tried to use the car going sideways as a mean of slowing down. Would appreciate any tips on what I could've done better in regard to the breaks failing. And for my driving for that matter. I wasn't doing all the things I know I should, and was originally feeling the track out then the brakes cut, which really put a dampener on pushing the car for the day. Nevertheless I will get the fluid changed to Castrol SRF which seems to be pretty good.


Both me and the c63 were using the shifters in those videos. During the day I did a mix of sifters and sport mode. Its a tough one, the engine feels more powerful in sport under acceleration out of corners (clutch engages, engine gulps in air then boom your off! but being in the gear you want for a corner feels better. Also, I had trouble knowing when the gearbox would listen to me. Aka I would start breaking and be like "OK downshift coz your slow and I need to give you .5ms warning, which the ECU/TCU responds with Error RPM too high for the gear down, no shift.

mondo

yeah hitting sideways the wheels tend to dig in and if you are carrying enough speed, it can cause a roll over.

the CLS is a big, heavy car. that's a lot of bulk to pull up. better fluid should make a difference. seeing as it was just a track day, you might find it better to do a cool down lap here and there. depending on session length and how hard it is on the brakes, maybe do two or three hot laps then a cool down lap. i did a private session in my old Mondeo at Symmons Plains in Tasmania with some mates. after 5 hot laps i returned to the pits and the brakes were smoking. next session out i did 6 hot laps and started to run out of brakes at the end of the 200kmh back straight. after that i did no more than 4 hot laps without doing a cool down lap.

i am tempted to track my E55, but have never done a track day in an auto. i have found when manually shifting on mountain twisties the car tends to hold gears and change when it feels like it anyway, but like you mentioned, if i selected the right gear, it feels heaps better.

hayseed

iTrader: (2)

so you boiled your brake fluid and not just over heated pad/rotor ? probably a good idea to get that out asap - get the correct DOT spec fluid - I have read on some setups incorrect DOT fluid will cause O-rings/seals to prematurely fail - not good combo 4000 lbs @ 150mph and no brakes - you look disappointed in the video -- you should be happy you could still drive your car - that is a win !

mondo

was talking to a mate who has tracked some AMG cars in the past. showed him your video and he said this:

PieRat

Yeah I figured all the traction braking is causing problems. I already have Akebono Ceramic pads so I'm going to put in Castrol SRF and braided lines for next time, fingers crossed that solves the problem. Thanks for your tips re crashing. I did some googling and found what you say is recommended. I'll def keep that in mind for next time.

Also, on another note. Later in the day when I had just navigate the tracks windiest part, and was opening it back up to accelerate I would get what felt like fuel or boost cut, at the same point in the track every time. It happened once, then the second time the car completely turned off while moving. Then it was fine for a few laps then I would have it cut a few times almost like the fuel pump was failing, but thats all new..Maybe injectors or spark? I had about half a tank left of fuel at the time according to the gauge, but it took about 50 litres and I stopped the pump manually if I remember correctly.. so maybe my gauge was off and I was running quite low on fuel??

mondo

i'm new to supercharged vehicles, but i used to get something similar in a couple of my turbo cars when going to WOT from a slower speed in higher gears. turned out to be overboost and the ECU was cutting fueling.