Speedybenz On Board

[Z06 Killer]

Your post looks great. The parts are impressive. However, Iordered rear camber links for my 01' CLK55 rom Jeff over a month ago, paid by PAY PAL.

After several emails on various sites, I finally got one return email from Jeff last week promising delivery of thr order "in a few days."

I asked for a phone number or a return call, but no reply.

Starting to feel REALLY ripped off here.!!!!!!!

Anyone else have this experience???? WHAT A BUZZ KILL!

[Ashkan's C280]

it took a while for me to get mine so no worries, i was upset like you when i got my statement before i got my parts but it will come, i highly doubt you would be scammed, I suppose its either waiting on parts, being shipped out, or just prior to one of these steps, and if by chance jeff you read this send me an email back about price totals so I can send you money for other things....

[Ashkan's C280]

forgot to say nicely done, have you had a chance to take the car out for a spin yet? moreover, what is the next item on the plan for you? Or is this all for a while, were you considering any other suspension upgrades from jeff? sway bars? poly bushings? strut braces? how does the ride compare to stock amg ride, and I was wondering if the shocks and everything that can be tune, can it be tuned from inside the car or do you have to lift up the car to tune it?

[c55m8o]

I'll give driving impressions when I have more time tonight after work. till then, just thought I'd share the "new look".

RE: ... it's tucked ... a lot
Low rez pic taken w/a co-worker's Razor phone, then post processed heavily to increase shadow detail:

Sadly, gunna have to raise it.

[Renn 208]

Originally posted by c55m8o

Sadly, gunna have to raise it.

Not that that's going to take you (or your shop) all that much time to do

[Abuimad]

daaamn thats HOT, the height is just perfect..actualy the whole damn car is perfect

[speedybenz]

Ya he can raise the car in about 10mins if he is going slow. A 36mm wrench or cahnnel locks and a 19mm socket will do the job. The 1st to loosen the lock nut and the 19mm to raise the car.

Steve, I am sure it is a little stiff right now, the socks will soften up a little with use and so will the springs. You may want to adjust the rebound at the bottom of the shocks, say turn the know clockwise some 6 to 8 clicks to soften the car up a little.

Talk to you soon. Jeff

[c55m8o]

Hey there. glad you jumped in.

actually, no. I'm loving it. Very solid, almost "compliant" ride.

And amazingly, all the squeeks and creeks I'd been hearing the last few months that I thought were from the body and interior getting "loose" over time, and I'd just had to live with an aging car... GONE! They were all suspension related. Sure, there are some new unique and unusual sounds of the actual suspension with its steel bushings in places ; but no more squeeky harmonics developed from the road while driving @ say 30mph or other. I'll write some "driver's thoughts" tonight.

I will call you though, because the car is tending to oversteer in hi-G turns, and I know that yours doesn't. I have the alignment data and want to pass it by you. I'll be going back to TKX Performance in a few 100 miles to have all the bolts checked, and will both raise and re-align the car then too. ...and a bunch of other things regarding the setup. (car's not level now but is corner balanced ... not love'n that ... plus more).

[speedybenz]

Steve,

Take some 4 to 6 clicks of rebound out of the front and say 10 clicks out of the rear. Also lower your rear tire pressure down to 34 psi to see if you pick up some balance with that also.

Jeff

[c55m8o]

Originally posted by speedybenz
Steve,

Take some 4 to 6 clicks of rebound out of the front and say 10 clicks out of the rear. Also lower your rear tire pressure down to 34 psi to see if you pick up some balance with that also.

Jeff

Will do. BTW, currently @ 2 clicks compression, 15 clicks rebound.

Was worried about the bendage factor on the rims, so was keeping them high. Will lower tho. Isn't very 10 degrees 1psi? Hm, wonder if I'm down there @ 34 already...

[speedybenz]

If you are still getting oversteer then try increasing the rebound in the front back up to say 10 clicks from full stiff.

Is the car pretty flat in the corners and turning in well? You may need to go to a softer spring in the rear to get the rear tires a little more hooked up. Say down to 500 lb per inch.

Jeff

[c55m8o]

Originally posted by speedybenz
If you are still getting oversteer then try increasing the rebound in the front back up to say 10 clicks from full stiff.

Is the car pretty flat in the corners and turning in well? You may need to go to a softer spring in the rear to get the rear tires a little more hooked up. Say down to 500 lb per inch.

Jeff

Turn in is incredibly good. I think lean is about as flat as yours was too.

Regarding turn-in ... I actually have to pull out of a turn when turning the wheel as I'd usually do on turns I know with my eyes closed. I don't ever turn into a turn "early" so that I won't cross over the lines, as a rule. So I have a habit of turning at a point others would consider 'late" (those others being, those people who are always going over the yellow line on left turns and running me off the road when they're coming at me). So with that mode of driving, and turning the wheel the amount I usually would with the old suspension, the car reacts so quickly w/o understeer, that I'm almost crossing the yellow line because I'm "overturning" ... so have to back off the steering a little. ... so ya, it's turning-in well....

[c55m8o]

Originally posted by speedybenz
Take some 4 to 6 clicks of rebound out of the front and say 10 clicks out of the rear. Also lower your rear tire pressure down to 34 psi to see if you pick up some balance with that also.

IGNORE: ...I'm sorry I don't have this memorized yet ... is "taking out" clockwise or counter-clockwise?

EDIT: Sorry, you posted it above: "You may want to adjust the rebound at the bottom of the shocks, say turn the knob clockwise some 6 to 8 clicks to soften the car up a little."

-steve

[c55m8o]

Originally posted by speedybenz
Ya he can raise the car in about 10mins if he is going slow.

Doing the rears are going to be real hard until I or the shop either grinds in a new bolt or welds a nut to the rod. They cut off about 3 inches off the shaft so I lost the turning point ... it was hanging =real= low; well below the exhaust and other suspension components.

[c55m8o]

BTW, Jeff, do you know if the W208 suspension geometry is "the same enough" that this complete kit could be used on one of them? Chappy was asking on mbworld.org.

[Renn 208]

Originally posted by c55m8o
BTW, Jeff, do you know if the W208 suspension geometry is "the same enough" that this complete kit could be used on one of them? Chappy was asking on mbworld.org.

yes

[c55m8o]

Originally posted by c55m8o
EDIT: Sorry, you posted it above: "You may want to adjust the rebound at the bottom of the shocks, say turn the knob clockwise some 6 to 8 clicks to soften the car up a little."

I just realized something even with that though Jeff ... Clockwise depends on orientation ... looking from top down or bottom up changes the direction of "Clockwise". Is softer turning in the direction of the "-" or the "+" ? I would assume the former but thought I'd sound stupid (which I am) and ask. (perhaps I should just d/l a copy of the Pensky 8000 series Manual for the shocks to have here @ work too... )

[c55m8o]

Originally posted by Renn 208
Not that that's going to take you (or your shop) all that much time to do

Renn, thanx for the "yes". oh, forgot to say ... but if I change height now, it'll void the corner balance (I assume); loss of flexibility is the downside of corner balancing, if I don't have my own scales. So I didn't want to do that just yet. I figure I'll have it done @ the shop again as the suspension is settled now, and decide then if I want to go with a "corner balanced" setup, or "level look" setup. (right rear is the highest, and the spring had to be unloaded the most to bring more weight to it ... if I understood why that was done, correctly)

[Renn 208]

Originally posted by c55m8o
Renn, thanx for the "yes". oh, forgot to say ... but if I change height now, it'll void the corner balance (I assume); loss of flexibility is the downside of corner balancing, if I don't have my own scales.

Someone correct me if my understanding's off, but if you raise all your corners by the same amount, you car should still be balanced?

BTW, out of curiosity, how many sacks of rice were sitting in the driver's seat when they corner balanced your car? Also, did you strip out most of the ancilliaries (spare tire, jack, trunk liner, etc.) when doing it or was it done "all in"?

[c55m8o]

Originally posted by Renn 208
Someone correct me if my understanding's off, but if you raise all your corners by the same amount, you car should still be balanced?

I don't really know. My thinking is, as you raise the car, the springs get "unloaded". That loading and unloading, with the angle of the car, affects balance. As none of the springs are 100% equally loaded, unloading them or loading them, affects the corner balance in a linear, but non-proportionally equivalent way. ...but since the car settled about an inch, didn't that "blow-out" the corner balance anyway (I ask myself).

Originally posted by Renn 208

BTW, out of curiosity, how many sacks of rice were sitting in the driver's seat when they corner balanced your car? Also, did you strip out most of the ancilliaries (spare tire, jack, trunk liner, etc.) when doing it or was it done "all in"?

...212 lbs worth of sand (not rice :P) were placed in the driver's seat (and I assume, some in front of the seat for the weight of my legs and arms that streatch toward the steering wheel). No, I didn't strip anything out because i was looking to balance it for my use on the road, while driving it alone (not "allowed" to drive with the wifie in the car as I do when I'm alone). What I didn't expect was how unlevel the car would be from that.

[Renn 208]

sigh, we're both a far cry from the sub 140lb freakos they call F1 drivers these days...

[c55m8o]

Well I said I'd post driving impressions tonight after work, though as you can see, I already got well into it before this... So what haven't I covered. ...?

* I was surprised by just how solid it makes the car feel; coupled with the new motor mounts during the swap, you'd never know it's an 8 year old car with +70K on the chassis.

* It's the complete antithisis to what I've read so many times, with people complaining about how "hard" a ride they get from their lowering springs and sport shock. You would =never= know it's 800lb springs up front and 600lbs in the rear, and full racing shocks ; I think we've [most] all mistakenly come to think that racing and non-compliant go hand in hand. Well I'll tell you 1st hand, they do not. There are some times when a bump is of a category where it's more "abrupt" then stock AMG was ... but it's also enveloped [dampened] in such a controlled way that it's not harsh or annoying ; just different then you're used to. But other then that, the majority of the road conditions encountered have actually felt =softer= with this setup then the stock AMG setup.

* I've already covered the speed of turn-in, so won't spend more time on that ... just know, it feels so good. And after years of driving with understeer, I have some learned behaviour to un-learn.

* Hi speed (well, @ 70 - 80mph in these cars, maybe I should say "mid-speed" ) control is outstanding. There's this one stretch of road I've come to expect my car to be "bounced" during a long right turn when I'm in the right lane; I used to really have to hold the steering wheel tight and make quick minor adjustments so the car didn't become "unsettled". Well today, I'm driving that stretch, and the dips and peaks that make the bounces just didn't materialize. I'm like, "what the... " I could just drive ... and smile.

* I didn't realize that I'd come to think a 4-wheel drift coupled with some front wheel plow around turns that have an up then down grade elevation change over about 200 feet, was just normal; that if I didn't get set up for the right line on the turn early, the whole thing would be shot. Imagine my surprise when I realize the nose of the car is now actually urging me into the turn, instead of fighting against it. Plow and drift are a thing of the past.

Fact that the setup still needs to be sorted out is just a minor technicality. Sure, I feel like it's a Camaro if I'm near the limit of adhesion of the tires (keeping in mind, which is low in the freezing weather) and I give it gas too soon or hard, which isn't hard (don't forget the torque of the 5.4L is @ work) and the tail wags out, but the ASR (or is it ESP) quickly jumps in to shut-down the fun ... that'll get sorted out ; and it's just so kewl it =can= be sorted out with the turn of some dials and maybe height adjustments.

... this suspension is the perfect compliment to the motor upgrade, making me content in my decision to mod this car instead of giving up on it and getting a CTS-v or S4 or Magnum or etc... Content! (regardless if my wife doesn't believe me, or doesn't think it'll last... ...it will.)

[Renn 208]

Originally posted by c55m8o


* It's the complete antithisis to what I've read so many times, with people complaining about how "hard" a ride they get from their lowering springs and sport shock.

YES! Absolutely...that was my greatest shock when riding with Jeff. Just goes to show how much reality and conventional wisdom can be separated by an abyss. Or in this case, a really well thought out set of dampers.

[c55m8o]

Jeff, yesterday you asked me if the car felt 500 lbs lighter ... and I thought about that and said "no" as my thinking was limited to "off the line", and I already have that 5.4L making it feel lighter.

But I will correct that after driving a great country road today that I sometimes drive to work. It's a back-road road that goes along the LI Sound with hardly an address on it, and parks or other undeveloped land for miles and miles both left and right. Nothing like the road you took me on, but decent all the same. Not too twisty, but somewhat turny. And it's a bumpy road.

With the stock suspension, when I felt daring, I'd take it to 60mph or 70mph ... but I say "daring" because the irregularities in the road surface, grading of the road and road's crown are so extreme, you're being jostled all over. Well today, I'm on that road @ 50mph, and the car's just going straight with hardly and jostling. So I juice the big motor and am at 70mph in a moment w/o any drama ... and still hardly a lift of the car left or right, let alone uncomfortable jostling.

...woa... it just keeps getting better! :banana:

BTW, I kinda think I might bend rims less with this setup, as bump response sure seems a lot quicker and compliant then the stock AMG.

[speedybenz]

Aren't really good shocks great. I know it doesn't seem right, because if you try to push the car down on a corner it will not move. I think you are more likely to bend the sheet metal before the car moved on the springs. But yet when you drive the car it just takes up the bumps and keeps the chassis still and is much more controllable.

When we get it dailed in you will like it even more.

Jeff