Took the AMG on a roadtrip to patagonia today. At first hte car was running rough and gas mileage wasn't too good so a 1/4 way up on the drive (climb to 4500feet) I did ECU reset and after that the car was alive again. There was an STI, an elise, Z06 and a few other cars on the drive.
It was a very technical road with lots of cambered sweeping turns and lots of quick smooth straights. Today was the first day I ever really pushed the AMG handling wise and it really did suprise me. Yes it does have that intial understeer but if you brake right just before the corner and kept tiptronic in gears 3-4 it was actually amazing. There were a few points where i did reach the absolute handling limits but I really did push the car to its 100% limits and the harder i pushed it, the better the tranny shifted (adaptive) and the better the car felt. after about 3-4 mins of the technical section of the route the Z06 in my rear view kept getting smaller (i guess he didn't have the balls to keep up haah, the car is a better car but i was using the AMG to its fullest).
I did a quick run from 80-120 w/ the STI and to my suprise i easily pulled away from the STI, in lower gears I would not stand a chance but it seems once we got up to speed nobody could match the AMG 80-130 range.
The elise didn't stand a chance at high speeds b/c it barely has any torque so 80+ at WOT it was peice of cake.
Even the Z06, I did multiple high speed runs with the Z06 which had B&B exhaust and honestly we were almost dead even till about 130mph. (it was an older Z06, not the new one obviously). He also did have an extra passenger so it wasn't 100% fair but still none the less. I couldn't pull away from him and he couldn't pull away from me. It was pretty impressive to say the least. It seems the faster I went the smoother and more composed the car became. I guess alot of it has to do with momentum and the fact that the AMG has much more weight and has gobs of torque so at high speeds it can slice through the air quicker whereas at lower speeds its weight really becomes an achilles heel. I hit 130mph just 15mph shy of the 155mph limiter and honeslty it has plenty of grunt left. One thing I REALLY noticed this time around was the top end from 5000-6000. I could really feel the X-pipe come into its own today. Instead of power falling off at 5000 and extra surge would kick in (just as dyno suggested) and it would pull hard all the way to redline, this really proved itself when i did the multiple runs against the Z06, neither of us could gain ground on each other really, almost dead even (sometimes he would nudge ahead). Overall it was a great day and I have found a new appreciation for my AMG.
Great pics, sounds like a awesome drive. The first time I pushed my car it was a little concerning, but to my suprise this heavy car can carve up some road with relative ease. Man I dream of drives like that, right now I look out my window and see my car covered in snow. Arrgg!!! hopefully not two more months of this crap.
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No man with a good car needs to be justified
ya honestly, the AMG really suprised me today, Hats off to those AMG engineers they do such an amazing job of hiding the true cars potential until you chose to use it. There were multiple very steep banked turns and i could really feel the AMG come into its own, There is still a bit of understeer if you go into the corners too hot so the trick with these E55s is hard late brake, slow in, fast exit of the corner and it the suspension settles nicely with very little understeer at all. the PS2s did nice but honestly my favorite tire is still Kuhmo MX, in the dry they can't be beat. I think lower spring pads may help the performance a bit but I probably will just leave the car as is unless i need to get new shocks for maintenance purposes. Either way even in its stock form these cars are far more potent than I expected.
Total sleepers, in looks and behaviour, thats why bought the E55 over the M5. Both great cars but i liked the fact the E55 could behave like a Sunday cruiser for ice cream or be that AMG beast, I found the M5 always a M5. the E55 is truly a wolf in sheeps clothing. I'm not sure how much more you could get out of suspension without losing it's sheep side or spending too much
ya I agree, M5 is too blatent. nobody even knows what my car really is until they get into it and I drop the hammer . "HOLY SH*T!!!" is usually the responce . Truly is wolf in sheeps clothing
That's my nephew in the Lotus! (which I officially cannot fit into)
How did he do?
awesome, that car was leading the pack, it was hard keeping up in the corners lol. I spoke to him about his business venture. I was very excited to hear he does vegetable oil conversions. I may eventually go to him for my dads MB 240D deisel. I hear that is the ideal car for that vegetable oil conversion. Its a pretty facinating idea and He seemed like a great guy. I can't wait for the next one. We all had lunch afterwards and had a chance to speak to each other and etc. The next track day is march 17th. Dunno if I am attending but who knows, i just may.
Aye, he got a lot of pub for the veg oil/diesel conversion thing. Greg works for Raytheon, so I find it amazing that he can be a full-time engineer and run his own tuning shop on top of that.
some more pics of the run, this gives you an idea of the kind of roads im talking about . if you guys have not taken your E55 on a roadtrip I highly recommend it, you will really learn to appreciate just what an amazing car it is.
. "HOLY SH*T!!!" is usually the responce 
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