By way of background.... I bought my 2005 E55AMG about a year and a half ago. I took it straight to Willow Springs and had a trial burn without even changing the oil I'm ashamed to say. This shakedown led me to set up a 3.27 Chrysler rear end with a WaveTrac LSD. I rebuilt the front suspension, engine mounts, drive donuts, changed all fluids, plugs, coils. 9.5 Bayern Wheels all round with Nitto NT-01s. I got a TCU tune for the rear-end change, and an ECU tune for the K&N filters (the only mod so far) from Eurocharge.

All this took me from 1.49 to 1.44 at Willow. Pretty happy about that. Love that active suspension. But I know there a lot left on the table. Getting rid of the rubber bushings in the thrust arms... hopefully that will save the front wheels from shaking themselves to bit on rough turns. But my biggest problems is I still have some sever power losses during the lap.

It doesn't seem to have the punch coming out of the turns. I haven't tried running without the traction control. Even though the diff is hooking up the rear wheels, perhaps the traction control doesn't want me to have control of the rear tire break away. Lights up the rear tires in a straight line but not out of the turns.

But then I'm thinking fuel starvation because I get a massive power loss cresting the rise after the long fast right hander, turn 2. This happened only after using a quarter tank. So I'm thinking the pumps are pulling air in the saddle on the right side. I read there is a splash pot which is supposed to fill up and provide fuel in these conditions. So maybe broken splash pot. Is that a thing??? Splash pot too small for such a long turn???

But then I'm thinking supercharger clutch. I hear there all sorts of conditions which disengage the clutch. I'm thinking of going to a fixed pulley and letting the blow off valve save me from too much boost.

Also I haven't tried manual shifting yet as I have those Mickey Mouse buttons, and when I get crossed up in turn 4 I can't make the shifts I need. I do however use them to short shift because the trans keep the engine near red line if I don't and it's really not making power up there, seems much torquier around 4500rpm. Pulling up hill also seems to slow it down way more than I would expect sometimes, the car is not that heavy!!!

The cars is on the verge of being really good, it just feels like the electronics are trying to save me from myself. If anyone has some insights I'd love to hear them.


Turn six at Willow Springs