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Driving your old Merc Hard

3K views 6 replies 5 participants last post by  prwizard 
#1 ·
Tips on getting your old Merc to go fast at the track
The driving style of the car is quite similar to many of the 80’s v8’s. They have quite loose chassis dynamics and a number of peculiarities you have to develop micro adaptive driving style to compensate for. But this is the old school skills i admire, particularly when you setup the perfect power squat exit and you know that it was no computer that did that. Though for its era the SL is the most civilised compared to the American and Australian equivalents. As i developed the suspension setups through about 4 distinct iterations i was able to chase down the road holding stability irritants present in the factory setup. With the increase to larger horsepower the overall stiffness increased but there came a certain point where any stiffer would make it undrivable in the wet.

What this has done though is give me a good understanding of what state of suspension tune gives what sort of driving feel. In the early cars weight and absence of any driver aids like ABS, traction etc that make the car feel clumsy and tendency to drift about a bit. However until you are running more than 300hp you won’t push it beyond the chassis dynamics limitations. The most important thing is tyre pressure particularly the rears, they will creep up during any track day and need to be constantly checked each set of laps. Get a good tyre gauge and learn which settings give what grip levels. You will find that pressure has a huge impact on grip and it has a logarithmic relationship to temperature and from experience even 5 psi above ideal losses most of the grip. I start out at 26 and after several laps they are up to 35 psi, i can feel the car getting looser once they overheat.

The older cars like the SL or SLC will turn in but then will be a handful to wrestle through the rest of the corner. The degree of sloppiness in the steering is directly attributed to how much the springs and shocks have been uprated. The type of tyre is the most easily altered component as the more standard softer tyres break down under stress sooner. Lower profile tyres will give less sidewall flex and tend to reduce scrub from the sidewall turning under the rim, particularly on the loaded side. If you can afford it a set of track tyres, not slicks, they will give the cheapest performance increase. Unlike slicks they will last a dozen or so events and are only a couple of seconds behind them.

The next weakest point is the brakes as old Mercs are heavy and rotor sizes and pad types are small and primitive material. Rotors can be changed with after market ones with better metal quality and fluting. Superior pad materials are available for most 70’s and 80’s models, in some cases almost fade free for medium performance applications.
If you get enough experience and get tired of wallowing in the corners you will be off for some upgraded springs and shocks, but this is where the $ start with an Eibach spring set and depending on how much you lower it a custom set of shocks. This will greatly assist in keeping the wheel square to the road much better under load the main game in suspension setup.

A great technique for increasing your confidence at the track is to put in average times then as you get more familiar with braking and turn in points become slightly more aggressive until you feel you are getting close to the limit then hold at that level of attack until you feel very relaxed. This platform will then allow a more controlled psychological and mechanical exploration of the limits.

Also video of your efforts is a great feedback loop and i learn a lot from watching the events in the comfort of my lounge room.
Best of all join a car club that holds track days so you can get some adult supervision :D

As i am developing the car and my driving skills there is a sense of achievement that comes with seeing outcomes of your efforts. Race day has a special “its real” as opposed to just head speculation and i encourage everyone that thinks it may be interesting to get out and have a go.

You can see my latest exploits at the Tasmanain Cup Race meet here TargaMerc - YouTube. It was my first proper race meet and the old girl seem to rampage through the field. My girlfriend heard over the public address system that i won the sports sedans class.

Escape the Nanny State – Race a classic
Carpe Diem.
 

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#6 ·
They are a set of 18" AMG modern wheels
they are 5 double spoke with varying grades of chrome
you can get then with or without the fake 3 piece rims botls
 

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#7 ·
as i said my account was broken for over a year and this is just a backlog
though i am getting more active with the cars

got some excellent external footage to post tuesday
 
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