I will be tracking my 2004 E55 on the 25th at Willow Springs if any others want to go let me know. Fee is $150 for 2 days for track time with professional instructors to give tips.

What do I need to do to car to get ready?
What brake fuild should I use?
Where do I get the Brake Air Ducts for E55?
Should I buy thePortterfield pads or the other?
Should I do the Pulley and ECU upgrade first?
Should I run the rear rim and tire size on the front as post before?
What tire do you think I should run?

I am not concerned with money only but performance so for the tire is there a track tire? or use the street tires?

 

For the track you will want to fix 2 items: 1) Brake Fade after 20+ minutes of track use 2) Massive understeer found in the E55k.

The brakes are simple. You can take the route of using the stock system but with beefed put parts or you can go to a total brake upgrade. I know stoptech has a kit for a fairly reasonable price. It will be smaller in overall size than the OEM kit but to be honest the massive caliper on the OEM set-up is really over kill. A 14 inch 4 piston kit will work far better than an OEM version that is 14.1 and 8 pistons. In the C32 I use for the track we have 4 piston (front and rear) StopTechs and the car has never had an issue with fade. We drive the car harder than any C32 owner would ever dream and it never has even started to fade. Pad composition has a great deal to do with the brake effectiveness so a race pad is a must. On street pads you will loose the brakes after ½ a session but race pads will stay with you for the normal 30-40 minutes session. Many have changed the pads on the E55 to a race/street pad and this may be enough but the stock rotors are not up to the stress of regular track use. The caliper is very strong (yet heavy) and the race pads make it a great kit, but the rotor is not designed for track use. It is made to be used for street driving and therefore it is too soft. A race rotor with race pads will last 40k miles, which a factory rotor will likely die in 10k miles with track, use. For your first outing, get a set of race/street pads and put in steal braded lines and go from there. If that does not take care of your needs look to a total brake upgrade.

Regardless of what you do with the brakes you need to make sure you bed the pads before going out for the first session. Take the car out and do 6 stops from 60 and then 2-4 stops from 80. Each time get up to speed and then apply brake pressure until the car is about to engage ABS. Once you slow to around 5-10 mph get back up to speed and do it all over again. By then end your brakes should be fading and smoking. This is a sign that you have transferred the resin to the rotor surface and that you are ready to go. You need to let the brakes cool off after you bed them so make sure you have about an hour of time before your first session to let the car cool if you plan to bed the brakes at the track (the road in front of the track actually is perfect for this. Used it last time after changing the pads at the track).

Now for wheels and tires, I would say the easiest thing to do is buy a set of rears and run 18x9 all the way around. The track at willow is smooth and you should be safe from rubbing (but I have never tried this set-up but I hear it works). The best tire for this style driving would be the new Dunlop SP Super Sport Race (SP SSR). The C32 I use at the track is getting these shoes tomorrow and I will report on their abilities after this weekend. It has a DOT R-Comp rating (Like a Toyo RA-1 or Pilot Sport Cup). The good news here is that unlike a sport cup the tires only cost 150 each. Porsche cup racers are rating it better than a Sport Cup. Tire rack has these in stock but most operators do not know they exist. My associate has ordered 2 sets so I know they have them.

With 265/35/18’s all the way around the car should have a good chunk of grip. Now I would lower the car one way or another. I know you can do this with the StarDiagnostic system BUT this opens you to a series of issues. When you do this, the car still tries to lower itself at speed and this can quickly lead to a blown shock (no room to compress). The tuners make their chips to disable this at speed lowering feature but the StarDaig. System does not allow this. I hear that the Kleemann and or Carlsson kits let you set the front to rear ride height your self while a brabus module does not. This is important because setting the rear ride height will let you take some weight off the front end and there-by reduce understeer a bit further.

So with a minor brake upgrade and a set of rear wheels for the front, you should be ready to run. Willow is fairly easy on brakes so I bet pads and lines will be enough for the day. The Streets of Willow however will kill the brakes in 2-3 laps if you run at 100%. But that track has 2 serious braking zones and it is even worse running the track CCW (125-30 is a serious braking zone).

If you have any questions PM me or e-mail me. Hope this helps.

 

Thank you for all the input I will be ordering the tire today and buying a set of rims as well. Where can I get the SS brake lines? What brake fuild should I use? I will get the porterfield brake pads today. Should I install brake pads today for a trake day 2 weeks away? I may drive car 100-200 miles. I also just got new rotors. No miles on them yet. Is this ok? What is the best price we can get on the Kleeman Lowereing Modual? I would like to get one ordered to day but want to get a hook up and a deal? Can you help?

 

I would keep the car stock for this first event and see how much time and effort you want to put into tracking this car on a regular basis because obtaining and installing the neede parts is a royal pain in the ***. Your stock DOT 4 factory fluid should suffice along with the stock brake lines. The brake lines from the factory are lined with a kevlar tube which should resist heat and not flex when hot. If you wanted brake ducts, they would have to be fabricated and installed after you found someone who could make them. Right now stock rotors are the only ones available unless you go with a full big brake kit, and most for this car would require 19" rims. The only thing I would do would be what CynCarvin32 recommended with the tires-go with the Dunlop R compounds which are a steal right now from tirerack at about $140 a tire. Upgrading to wider front rims and tires should be reserved for future events if you plan on really driving hard. The stock setup with the Conti sport noisemakers would be fine also since it will result in you getting new better tires shortly thereafter. I recommend using the stock brake pads fro your first event because if you don't care to track the car again, you'll be cringing every time you stop the car on the street from the annoying squeel from the Porterfields R4 pads. As soon as this racing season is over, I'm putting back the factory pads.

I got my brakes and Goodrich SS lines from Jerry at www.formymercedes.com

Just remember, stay out no more than 5 minutes after the red caution appears on the dash. If you're not pushing too hard, you should be able to go 20-25 minutes on the track followed by a 1 hour cool down. Always drive for at least 5 minutes after leaving the track without touching the brakes for adequate cooling to commence.

 

I have never run my MB at Willow, but I used to run my 540 there quite a bit and I think you will have a similar experience in terms of the weight and handling of the car. The biggest issue you will face with the 4000 lb. sedan will be in the area of front end "push" or understeer. Best you can do is change out the tires to minimize a bit, but it will still be there. Regardless, you will not want to run your street tires because you will absolutely melt your expensive street rubber (if you drive the car at its limits).
Take your time at first and listen to these instructors...if you don't hit the apex just right on a few of those corners, you'll be off track and into the rocks in a hurry. Have fun, it will be the BEST time you can imagine. Willow is addictive, and a very good, fast track for heavier cars like the W211. Once you figure out how to get out of turn 9 at full speed you should hit 125+ by the end of the main 1/2 mile straight before you have to brake again for turn 1. Even though you theoretically can't "race" at these sessions, it sure is fun to go flying by Vettes, Porches, etc. in the "controlled passing areas"!!