Mercedes E550 - Sporty! - brrperformance.com

Each project we do is defined / catered to each individual customer and their objectives and desires. For this customer, he wanted to spice up his Mercedes E550. Better looks, better power, better styling, better exhaust sound and tone, better handling. That just about covers all the bases. This is not meant to be an agressive, over the top, upgrade, but the refinement of the car to make it look, sound, feel, and perform in a sportier manor. The base Mercedes does not illicit much emotional response, either to look at, drive, or listen too. We mean to change all that.

Unlike some requests we get, the good news here is that the Mercedes E550 offers a great platform to start with.

TUNE / SOFTWARE

Tunes and software upgrades are most effective when we are dealing with some form of “forced induction”. And that is just what this Mercedes has, and it has known “head room” for tuning upgrades. There are two primary tuners out there for Mercedes (Weistec and Renntech). We choose to go with the Weistec upgrades for this car, as they offered a bigger diversity of engine upgrade options.

Weistec offers a software upgrade that works with CA 91 Octane fuel, and produces some amazing results: 540 HP, 715# Torque. The upgrade is a traditional “flash” of the core ECU / DME software, and also requires the spark plugs to be upgraded (colder temperature range spark plugs). A few additional benefits are the eliminated the top speed limiter, and improved throttle response.

CHARGE PIPE / BLOW OFF VALVE

One might think about the intake, but most OEM intakes these days flow well, are CA legal, and often are a true “cold air intake”. All of the above is true for this Mercedes. So, we looked to other parts of the intake system that could be optimized. One of those is the “charge pipe” and either “blow off valve” or “recirculation / anti-surge valve”, depending on how the engine was designed. While the engine compartment is very nice looking, and very densely packaged, this was an area that could benefit from an upgrade. Weistec offers this as part of their engine performance solutions, and not only that, but it looks awesome in the engine bay. Here is the stock setup before upgrades:

Here are the parts to add slightly larger intake tubes, and to add the “blow off” valve (the Mercedes stock engine does not have a blow off valve, which inhibits the ability of the turbo to stay spinning without back pressure when the throttle is closed).

Strong, reliable, and easy to install. The blow off valve works off engine vacuum, which is activated when the throttle is closed. Here is the new system fully installed (but with some of the engine vanity covers still off):

And a closer view of the vacuum / blow off valve area.

EXHAUST

If you are going to add to the engine power, then, the exhaust needs to be dealt with as well. Not only from a performance stand point, but from a sound perspective. You want to hear the car….

The stock Mercedes is very quiet, very subdued….not befitting a twin turbo’d engine with 540HP. The main issue with the stock exhaust is the rear mufflers. Big, large, heavy, and quiet. Those must go. Since this is a turbo car, the turbos and the catalytic convertors already tone the exhaust sound way down, both making it quiet, as well as muting the tone. So, out goes the rear mufflers, replaced with a set of Renntech rear mufflers (much smaller, flow great, perfect fitment, and a much better tone).

But, even that is not enough. Much like we do to many other turbo based cars, there is a center resonator in the exhaust system, and we cut that out, and straight pipe that section. Now you can hear the engine, and it’s not loud, not obtrusive, but it sings to you.

We often do these projects in phases, or bites at a time, and that was the case w the exhaust system. Once we had the center section done, the rear section done, we were still not satisfied w the sound from the exhaust system. Hard decision at this point, as the only other part of the exhaust to play with is the down pipes themselves. Hard decision, depending on where your car is registered, as doing the downpipes in CA is not allowed, but this car is not being registered here. Downpipes offer two benefits, the elimination of the catalytic convertor (more sound), and the exhaust flows a lot better (performance).

Here are the “catless” downpipes –

The catalytic convertor downpipes removed, and a direct view of the output of the turbo (and the divertor valve)

One of the things that happens in an upgrade process, is that one upgrade often drives the next piece of the solution. If we now have an engine with more power, and better acceleration and top speed, then we need to think about the brakes. What should be do there? What should we do, or what can we do? Hmmm…I think the only proper thing to do is to go big…big brake kit that is. And since we want this to look completely integrated, well conceived, as if the factory had done the right thing from the start, then we need to go big front and rear.

BRAKES

If we want to stay with the factory look approach, then the only choice is BREMBO. They offer a complete kit for this Mercedes, and an amazing kit it is. Just like all Brembo BBK (Big Brake Kits), it upgrades the rotors to a 2-piece, floating rotor design, the fronts using their newer “Type 3” slotted rotors, while the back uses the older “Type 1” slotted rotors. Calipers are bigger, stronger, greater surface area, longer mment arm for the braking center of pressure…everything you would want in an upgraded caliper. Plus, they look killer. New stainless steel lines, sport brake pads (better bite, and 50% less brake dust). Balanced braking efficiency front and rear, so works perfect with the stock ABS and traction control systems.

Here is the new front setup installed:

Who wouldn’t want that as part of their car? Massive 6-piston front caliper. Here is the rear setup (4 piston rear caliper, 2-piece floating, slotted rear rotor).

Here is a comparison of the old, original front brake, to the new Brembo BBK front brake system.

The look, the performance, the braking feel, the confidence….just what we wanted.

As we mentioned, often one step drives another. We knew from the start that we wanted to do the Brembo brakes, and to ensure proper fitmnet inside the wheel, we had to know what wheel we were going to go with. Just like all the other decisions, the customer wanted the best product available. If you ask us what the best possible wheels are, that is easy, HRE Wheels. Then that decides it, HRE it is.

WHEELS

Everything you would want in a wheel is available from HRE. Design, style, style options, fitment (so we can also get wider tires in the stock, unmodified wheel wells….and experience with these cars from other projects we have done, has shown that there is tight fitment in the rear wheel well…but the HRE’s fit perfect), color, strong, light weight…but most of all, they just look amazing.

Front HRE wheels w the new Brembo BBK installed –

Rear HRE wheel w the new Brembo BBK installed –

Now, there are a lot of directions we could go with the suspension. But, this is not a hard core race car, this is meant to be the AMG type upgrade as if it came from the factory. The handling is fine therefore, but the ride height is not.

SUSPENSION

There are so many ways to go on the suspension, but, we don’t need “coil-overs”. That would not be staying consistent with the objectives and needs of this project. We don’t need to change or upgrade the suspension bushings, the control arm bushings, the sub-frame bushings, the sway bars….we just want to firm up the ride slightly, and lower the ride height. The easy answer then is to install sport springs. For the Euro cars, we prefer the H&R sport springs for street cars. While they don’t publish their spring rates, we have tested the springs from H&R and others, and find their choice to be a better result for street cars.

To truly make this a complete “project”…we can’t ignore the interior of the car. We have done little touches to the outside, along with the major visible exterior upgrades (wheels, brakes, trim, window tint), but we want a complete solution. Given the theme and approach, the interior was too plain, and didn’t match the theme of “sporty”…..so, the trim inside needed to be upgraded as well.

INTERIOR TRIM

Given the colors of the car, wheels, brakes, and exterior paint color, the best solution was to introduce Carbon Fiber trim to the interior.