gmdebruyn

Most production cars are designed to understeer. I'd like my car to oversteer a tiny bit or be neutral at least. The E55 as it comes to us understeers like crazy from what I've heard.

Are there any packages out there designed to address this aspect of the car specifically? Has anyone made any modifications themselves to do this?

Thanks,
Gareth

to increase oversteer, do the opposite of below
====================================
increase front tire pressure
decrease rear tire pressure
smaller front tire section
larger rear tire section
more positive front wheel camber
more negative rear wheel camber
more front wheel toe in
more rear wheel toe out
more negative front wheel caster
stiffer front springs
softer rear springs
stiffer (heavier) front sway bar
softer (lighter) rear sway bar
more forward weight distribution

amgplayer

The CLS55 and future E55's are expected to have a more driver oriented feel using the existing 211 platform. Let AMG fix the problem and you can either the use the new parts developed and different airmatic programming, or the after-market will come up with a plan to duplicate the solution.

gmdebruyn

any ETA on this? are we waiting months or years? there are no aftermarket modifications we can make now to our current cars to do this?

TCM

Try bumping your front tire pressure up to be about 3-4 psi more then the rear tires. This should help increase oversteer a little. Hope this helps.

Dr Chill

For track use, I got another set of stock rims and put the wider 9" rims in front and now I have equal size wheels front and back as well as tires. I also inflate the fronts to 45 lbs. This along with R compound tires helped the understeer a lot. For the street, it's all about appearance though, and I prefer my 19" staggered HRE's. Unless you carve some major curves, understeer is a non-issue for street use.

gmdebruyn

thanks. i went to Bondurant's driving school so i know the drill on when to brake for the turn, etc. But I've also heard from the dealer that people are slamming these cars into curbs left and right, so I'm wondering how bad or good it is in handling. The reviews I read were that it was fine, but it would be nice to corner as if it were on rails. You win the race in the turns, never in the straightaway...

Vetluver

As I recall when the W211 was in development auto press writers asked about the excessive lean apparent in the adjustable air suspension. MB claimed that they could program the flatness of the handling and that they purposely made the W211 sway more so that drivers would be less prone to push it past it's limits and into a ditch.

It would seem to me that some of the aftermarket manufacturers should have picked up on this deficiency. Has anyone checked out whether the "air suspension" manfacturers have an answer to this software problem?

gmdebruyn

okay, stupid question, but who are the "air suspension" mfg's?

brabus and carlsson make lowering kits which lower by 1/2 to 1 inch which helps with center of gravity. brabus makes a tension bar, but according to Brabus its the same as the AMG bar.

besides a software solution, i do not see a good solution to this? anyone?

Thanks,
Gareth

Vetluver

The company that makes the airsleeves for MB is Phoenix...
http://www.phoenix-ag.com/phxn/do/la...umentid.717418

There are several aftermarket manufacturers such as Air Ride Technologies who make active suspensions for trucks and hotrods. They are very popular for racing apps, you don't have to change springs and shocks for each venue.

Ability to change spring rates and damping qualities IMHO is very desirable but I want complete control . I don't want bean counters or focus groups decide how the suspension should be set up. Unfortunately for us MB owners this is an area that BMW excells in. They compromise but to a lesser extent than MB.

gmdebruyn

have you swapped out the suspension for these? have you fixed the E55's roll problem and understeer problem by using these? just curious.

Vetluver

I replaced my Vette's transverse spring with coilovers and custom adjustable shocks from Callaway. I am familiar with these air springs because I was considering swapping my hypercoils to airbags. As far as replacing my MB suspension I wouldn't even consider it. Software changes or control modules are a different story. The problem with the airbags on the E55 is control parameters not the hardware itself.

gmdebruyn

does anyone make a good software upgrade to get these control parameters inline with what we'd all like, or is an upgrade coming from MB?

i read somewhere that Kleemann has a software upgrade, but i also read that MB programmed the car like it is so people don't drive the car more than their abilities and end up in ditches.

if no one makes an upgrade seems like a great bus opportunity for someone to step in and do something amazing....