said goodbye to S4 and a thanks

B8 S4
#1

Good morning Everyone. So after my past few track visits i was getting a little frustrated with the S4. seems like it just would not break into the 11s no matter what i did. my best after 76 runs in my career was 12.005 @ 116. i made a spreadsheet for fun and since the timeslips start to fade
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/14rrfUKHRlkJzeprXNR9rVj7BYfm0xKqtR9EJXu30rpM/edit?usp=sharing

anyway i went to MB last weekend just to check out a C450 and to possibly test drive a C63 they had sitting in stock. well after a uninspiring test drive i sat in c63s demo car. as soon as the engine came to life i was pretty much in love. once race start later i was pretty much sold. i was able to work out a deal on a in stock white c63s with all the options i wanted. i got a good trade on the s4 and had all the extras taken off on Friday. left the pulley and the tune on and left it set for 93 octane mode. hopefully the new owner will be pleasantly surprised.

I wanted to thank everyone on here for all the help. especially prime who was emailing me as i was nervously sitting in line at the track the first time. glad i found this site and was able to learn so much. i will certainly keep an eye on these forums as the MB forums don’t seem to be as active and dont have some of the interesting characters that apprear on here(although i did see a post from West on the C63 thread a few weeks ago). i am also very curious as to what PT has up his sleeve for spring.

#2

Oh and here are a few pics

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160118/33319ec4681f94301206544819f82b82.jpg

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160118/474d2d1061a9e59e12d6a802c611f515.jpg

Oh and one last pic after the S4 was made stock and before the trade. One word of advice… Get an exhaust it makes the S4 such a different driving experience.

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160118/649033fcf06c4b5aa761bad9eeadaec2.jpg

#3

Congrats! That’s a very very nice car… What options? Did you get the performance seats? Please keep us updated on the car and I assume you’ll make some passes so I’d love to see the vids!

Glad I could help in any small way as that’s what it’s all about…

#4

Good stuff, that’s an excellent car. Looks like you live somewhere reasonably warm, so the lack of AWD shouldn’t cause too many DD problems.

Just be careful at the dragstrip the first few times out. It’s not nearly as easy (or as safe) as the S4 to hammer it and have everything work out. The car will try to kill you once in a while lol.

#5

Great choice. I’ve been looking at them closely. I may hold out for the coupe. I was also waiting for Apple CarPlay and for a dash creaking issue to get resolved at the factory. Keep us posted on how it is. My uncle had a 2005 ML320 from the same Alabama plant that was kind of a lemon, but 10 years later he’s still driving it until the wheels fall off.

I’m over on MBworld as westwest888.

#6

siiiiiiiiiick car. love the new c63!!! i don’t think you will be missing the audi lol

#7

nice move! great car!

#8

Thanks guys! So far so I am loving it. I am in NJ so it’s been cold but no snow yet. My snow tires will be arriving and installed Friday along with xpel, and tint.
Prime I did get the sport seats
http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160120/e6ab9cdc510dab75bcb5898b0b32b30b.jpg
. Here is a quick iPhone shot last night.
The interior is very high quality, I got the ash wood inlays. The interface so far is very annoying. Still haven’t figured out how just to scroll through presets. The engine info screen is what I leave it on most of the time and it gives readouts of current HP and tourque. You can kind of see it on the screen in this pic.

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160120/fe3ef362e4502e0c7c3332d1dd737a29.jpg

I have not had any odd noises yet, hoping I won’t have that issue.
I will absolutely bring it to the track in he spring. Looks like stock can run mid 11’s but as saki said I am going to be very careful and take it easy till I really know what it’s capable of. No more perfect awd launches! Seems like some tuners are starting to release some promising 600+ HP options. But I am hoping to stay stock engine stuff for a while.

#9

Great choice…

I highly doubt you’ll have any heart-stopping moments at the strip LOL. If you’re really worried start out with the launch mode, but I’d imagine you’d get pretty tired of that after a couple runs and switch the nannies off.

I had no problems doing several 11.9s@118, in my previous-gen C63, stock with the 480 hp P31 motor. I was running in dyno mode, i.e. no TC whatsoever, and got into 11s on the 5th pass.

For shits and giggles for the last run I tried “race start”, and was rewarded with a high-12 second slip.

Since it’s a lease I’m returning next year, it’s being driven all winter in the snow, no problems. My wife’s even been driving in the last week with all the snow we just had. Really, it’s a bit overstated that modern RWD with modern tires is really all that awful in bad weather.

#10

compared to what? Compared to a FWD honda accord? Compared to a car you might drive gingerly and just take it easy in? Sure, not much different.

Compared to my car? You’re dead. This is ‘audirevolution’ not ‘RWDrevolution’. The comments I made are relative to his B8 S4, which was incredibly stable and traction was off the charts good. Compared to an RWD car it’s night and day. Most of us here have had RWD cars before…we know the differences. You don’t have a monopoly on that.

As I said, you can gingerly get around in your C63 on winter tires. Sure thing. Can you go through 16 inches of snow fearlessly, or can you accelerate hard on a street with a 1" hard packed snow base? No you can’t. You have to take it easy. That’s the point. You can’t do what an Audi can do in a RWD car, traction wise.

Is it wet out? C63 won’t accelerate well. Audi will fly.
Is it really cold out on summers? C63 won’t accelerate well. Audi will fly.
Is it snowy out? C63 won’t accelerate well. Audi will do surprisingly well.
Is it icy out? C63 won’t accelerate well. Audi will get going but will have to take it easy…the way the C63 needs to behave in all 4 conditions listed.

#11

Congrats on the new car. I must admit I’m a tad jealous, and the seats are something else. I honestly like everything about the car except how they mounted the stupid nav screen, but I could get past that I’m sure. Good luck with it.

#12

The motor is a complete and total monster. It takes a while to get your head around Mercedes ownership, and a little while longer to get your head around an American assembled Mercedes with the motor crated over from Germany. It really is a sleeper. The customer order I had priced is $72k. I definitely view it as a comfort car rather than a track car, so I’d order the standard seats with the designo leather. The sport seats are very thin and have a lot of give to them. The MCT transmission is really nice, and I’m not always a fan of the ZF8 (I’m picky).

#13

those are assembled in the US???

that’s neat. Good for importing to Canada if that becomes a thing one day, as we would pay no duty

#14

I saw conflicting info when I looked into it. They definitely make the C-class in the Alabama plant (and 5 other plants worldwide), but I also read somewhere that the C63 is made in Bremen, Germany.

Edit: I looked on the MB forum, and several people mentioned their car coming from Alabama, so…

#15

I’m inferring there’s some cultural weirdness of a German multinational outsourcing to the American deep south. Every car has issues when they start making it and normally they get fixed quickly. The cycle time might be a bit higher if they have to pipe that information back to Germany, rather the autonomy to fix things as they roll through the line.

My first-year E90 BMW did this but I only paid $33k so it was forgivable. When I’m spending over $70k I want it to be damn near perfect. I realize this is a supercar motor stuffed in a C class. Overall my conclusion is that I was probably right the first time when I bought the B8, so I’m eager to get my hands on a B9 before I make a decision.

Dash creaking thread: http://mbworld.org/forums/c63-amg-c63s-amg-w205/599753-creaking-dashboard.html

#16

Sak you never fail to deliver…

I think you said

No, the C63 will never try to kill you, and yes it’s dead easy at the strip. 11.9 was done at close to freezing temps.

And yes, my wife is driving the c63 in the last week of snow because it has low-km snow tires and is surprisingly decent in the snow. I’m taking the s4, which right now has 3-season old snows, and plows a lot worse in snowy corners. Sure AWD helps to go, which isn’t necessarily safer IMO, but likely will get you into more trouble ‘accelerating well’ lol.

Now that I think about it, for the last 10 Ontario winters, I’ve mainly driven 400-500hp rwd cars (M5, s600, c63) for my 120km daily commute, and haven’t had a single problem *(edit - rust has been a problem). Our friend BGM will be fine.

#17

Good morning,

Yes final assembly of all C class in Alabama now. My original plan was to do a EUro delivery and this ruined my plans hah. I was just sending my window sticker to insurance and noticed this as well

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20160121/2b6b79e2005666005a739c7c97374225.jpg

#18

Wonder if Vance, Alabama delivery will catch on with Europeans

#19

Awesome car!! I too was also looking at a C63s as my business vehicle about a month ago, it was very similar to what you got. But when local dealer gave me the lease rates I bailed. On an $86k net, they wanted nearly $1500/month with $10k down for a 36mo 7,500mi/yr term- I thought that was insane. Wish the $ was more in line because that’s one sweet ride.
Congrats

#20

lol